With the win this evening the Nationals are now riding a four-game winning streak heading in to tomorrow’s rubber match against the Braves. The Nationals took the lead early, and came back, thanks to the long ball, to beat the Braves. Rick Ankiel hit a grand slam in the 4th inning to put the Nats in the lead for good. Ian Desmond added a two-run shot in the 5th inning and Mike Morse added a solo shot in the 6th to give the Nats the 9-3 lead.
John Lannan put in a fantastic pitching performance to out-duel Derek Lowe. Lannan 6 and 2/3 innings giving up the three runs on hits, but struck out eight Braves. Lannan threw 110 pitches tonight, and 80 went for strikes – a season high.
Henry Rodriguez came in and gave the Nats 2 and 1/3 innings of strong relief, striking out four and only allowing one hit.
The Nationals got the scoring started in the second inning with an Ian Desmond sac fly that scored Jayson Werth. The Braves responded in the third scoring two. The Braves added another run in the fourth, before the Nats bats caught fire.
The Braves had two players extend hitting streaks tonight. Dan Uggla went 1-for-4 on the night to extend his hitting streak to 24 games. Rookie Freedie Freeman also went 1-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to 17 games.
The Braves and Nationals finish their 3-game series tomorrow with the first pitch at 1:05 pm. Chien-Ming Wang (0-1, 9.00 ERA) will make his second start of the year and face rookie Brandon Beachy (4-2, 3.27 ERA).
Davey Johnson Post-Game Interview
John Lannan Post-Game Interview
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