Washington 6, Houston 3
Update: I almost forgot about the best play from this game, which was Rick Ankiel’s throw to home plate on a bases loaded fly ball by Carlos Lee. Even though Jordan Schafer had plenty of speed on third base, he didn’t dare try to make it home on the fly ball to Ankiel. Turned out to be a good decision, as Ankiel threw a strike and Chris Johnson was able to later hit a single to plate Schafer anyway.
Original post: Washington manager Davey Johhnson started reserve infielder Steve Lombardozzi at second base last night just to give his regular keystoner Danny Espinosa a breather. It seems like this happens way too often, but Lombardozzi turned out to be the hero for the Nationals in their 6-3 win over the Houston Astros.
Lombardozzi went 4 for 5 at the plate, including a bloop two-out double down the left field line that drove in two Nationals runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. That made the score 4-2, giving Washington the lead for good.
Stephen Strasburg was very effective in this one, especially before he allowed Houston to load the bases in the top of the sixth and eventually score two runs. Apparently, something is going wrong for him when his opponents get on base.
“When guys would get in scoring position I felt like they definitely were kind of seeing pitches a little differently,” Strasburg said. “I don’t think I was throwing any pitches worse or with different kind of movement, but they definitely seemed a little bit more comfortable with guys on second base. . . . I know what it is and I know how to fix it, so that’s the bottom line.”
He make it sound like he was lousy, but Strasburg was pretty good with five strikeouts, one walk and two earned runs in six innings. 61 of his 93 pitches went for strikes.
