Now THAT’s more like it! A quality start from Kuma, shut down ‘pen performance and (though it took awhile) an explosive offense . . .
ON the MOUND
Kuma rebounded nicely from the nightmare that was his last start in Boston . . .
Yes – he allowed THREE homers (these Nats bats are crazy good!) but, thankfully, they were all solo shots and the other TWO hits he allowed were doubles that did no further damage and in fact, he retired the last EIGHT batters he faced (all-in-all, the M’s held the Nats to only SIX hits and 0-7 w/RISP)
SIX innings ~ FIVE hits ~ THREE earned runs ~ ZERO walks ~ SIX strikeouts
Once again, the ‘pen was back to being FLAWLESS . . .
} Charlie struck out the only batter he faced
} Danny and Yourvis combined for NO hits, TWO walks and THREE K’s for their 1.2 innings worth
} Nando, having to make it at least a little interesting, allowed a lead-off single before retiring THREE straight to earn his THIRTY-NINTH save
AT the PLATE
The Nats scored early (all of their runs coming via solo shots in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th) but, ‘t was the M’s game today . . .
~ Dustin STILL on fire – FOUR RBI, including a THREE-run shot giving the M’s a ONE-run lead in the 5th
~ Austin and Brad each had THREE hits (scoring ONE and TWO runs respectively)
~ Nice to see the strikeout numbers down a bit (M’s batters only FIVE compared to the Nats TEN)
~ James with TWO more steals (22 on the season!)
~ oh, and FOUR fer NINE w/RISP aint too shabby either!
IN the FIELD
No DP’s (and TWO turned against them) but a couple of nice catches by Austin in CF (including a back-handed, shoestring catch for the first out of the 9th w/ a runner on)
tweets of the game . . .
Compass Rosy 