CINCINNATI 8 Washington 7 (ESPN Boxscore)
The Nats started off well, scoring four runs in the first and two in the second, but in a bandbox like Great American Ballpark no lead is safe. That is especially true when relief pitchers like Levale Speigner are starting. He gave up five runs in the second and third innings to let the Reds back into the game. Scott Hatteberg drove in three of those runs with a homer and a double.
3B Ryan Zimmerman added a home run in the 4th to add some cushion to the Nats lead, but it wasn’t enough. The Reds took advantage of poor fielding by Nook Logan and Austin Kearns (another near collision) to pull within one in the eighth. The next batter, Javier Valentin hit a pinch hit homer to put another two on the board. That would end the scoring as the Reds won 8-7. Jon Rauch took the loss and noted that he isn’t “doing my job.” In the span of just a few days, Rauch has gone from a lights out closer to a lit-up setup man.
Nats’ Six-Run Lead All Goes to Waste – The Post
Nats can’t hold big lead on road – The Wash. Times
Kerns enjoyed the first 7½ innings of his homecoming (The Wash. Times). His second inning home run put the Nats up 6-0. He noted that while he was slow to adjust to his trade to Washington he has embraced it. Above market value contracts tend to to that to players. Felipe Lopez and Dimitri Young also returned to the city that they established their MLB careers in (The Post).
Phil Wood writes in The Wash. Examiner that Brooks Robinson is impressed with Zimmerman. The Orioles great enjoyed meeting Zimmerman during a banquet at UVa. a few years ago.
The voice of the Terps, Johnny Holiday “never realized how much I missed baseball all these years.” He is hosting the MASN pre- and post-game shows with Ray Knight (The Wash. Times). The two have become fast friends. Knight, a former Red, is good friends with Jim Bowden and Bob Boone, even though Bowden fired him in 1997.
The Reds just seem to have the Nationals’ number. I’m going to hear about this from my colleagues in Ohio I work with as soon as I get to work.