Redding earns ninth victory; Nats beat Dodgers 5-4
Joel Hanrahan already has a two-inning save and two saves in one day, and tonight he got a four-out save to nail down the Nationals 5-4 win over the Dodgers.
Hanrahan, who got the last out in the eighth, retired the first two Dodgers in the ninth before allowing Manny Ramirez to single on a 2-2 pitch. It didn't matter because James Loney hit a weak fly ball to left to end the game.
Tim Redding picked up his ninth win of the year by tossing six innings of three-run ball. All three runs came on solo home runs.
Washington has taken the first two games of this series and looks for the sweep Thursday night.
Washington's offense scored four runs, two earned, on Greg Maddux, who suffered his third straight loss, second with the Dodgers, and Ryan Zimmerman snapped a 37-game homerless streak with his ninth of the year in the seventh.
Los Angeles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second on Redding. James Loney hit his 11th homer of the season to lead-off the frame. After Redding got Nomar Garciaparra to ground into the 4-6-3 double play, his third of the series, Casey Blake hit his 17th dinger.
The Nationals got a run back in the home half of the second. Lastings Milledge led-off with a single, stole second, moved to third on Ronnie Belliard's groundout and scored on Jesus Flores's groundout.
Washington took the lead for good in the third inning. Willie Harris got the inning started with a single and moved to second on Cristian Guzman's base knock. After Ryan Zimmerman's fielder's choice forced Guzman out at second, Harris scored on Milledge's fielder's choice and the Nationals tied the game 2-2. All runners where safe on Maddux's throwing error. Belliard put the Nats up 3-2 with an RBI single to left.
The Dodgers' defense failed Maddux in the fourth as the Nationals built a 4-2 lead. With one-out, Emilio Bonifacio singled and moved to second on Redding's sac bunt. Harris came up and hit a slow grounder to second as Bonifacio was running on the 2-2 pitch. Jeff Kent dropped the ball and Bonifacio raced home for the unearned run.
Los Angeles got within a run on Andre Either's solo homer in the fifth. It was his 17th of the season.
The Dodgers had a chance in the eighth against Saul Rivera, but he came out of the inning only allowing one run. Rivera gave up singles to Manny Ramirez and Loney to put runners on the corners with nobody out.
Russell Martin struck out and Garciaparra popped out before Blake hit a broken-bat single to left, scoring Ramirez, to make it a 5-4 game. Rivera walked pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney to load the bases. Joel Hanrahan, who relieved Rivera, got Matt Kemp to fly out to end the inning.
Audio: Joel Hanrahan discusses his save with the media in the Nats 5-4 win
Postgame Notes
The Nationals have won two straight games and four of their last six. Washington improved to 34-12 when scoring five or more runs. They have also won three consecutive one-run games.
Emilio Bonifacio collected two hits, his eighth multi-hit effort since joining the Nationals. Washington improved to 7-1 when Bonifacio has two or more hits. He is hitting .350 (7-20) over his last five games.
Ronnie Belliard continues his hot hitting in August. In 22 games this month, he is batting .441.
Cristian Guzman notched his 42nd multi-hit game.
Final Linescore
Dodgers 4-12-2
Nationals 5-9-1
WP-Redding (9-8)
LP-Maddux (6-10)
SV-Hanrahan (6)
HR-Loney (11), Blake (16), Either (17), Zimmerman (9)
Pete McElroy's Live Gameblog
Dodgers scoring, 8th inning
The Dodgers got a run in the eighth, off Saul Rivera, to make the game a little more interesting.
Rivera put runners on the corners with no one out before getting a strike out and a pop out. On a 0-1 pitch, Casey Blake blooped a broken bat single to left to score Manny Ramirez. After Rivera walked pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney to load the bases, Joel Hanrahan got Matt Kemp to fly out to end the inning.
Nationals scoring, 7th inning
Ryan Zimmerman hit his first home run since May 17th to give the Nationals a two-run cushion.
Zimmerman hit a 3-2 pitch from Chan Ho Park to dead center field and Washington has a 5-3 lead as the game enters the eighth inning.
Redding thru 6 innings
Redding has given up three runs, on solo homers, thru six innings. As of now, it is a quality start. He's allowed a hit in every inning, has walked one, intentionally, and hasn't struck out a batter. The seventh may be his last inning because he's thrown 96 pitches.
6 IP, 8 H, 3 R, IBB, 0 K, 3 HR. 96 pitches, 63 strikes.
Audio: Tim Redding discusses his start with the media
Maddux's smart play
Greg Maddux showed why he is 17-time Gold Glove award winner. With Lastings Milledge on third, Jesus Flores hit a slow roller up the line at third. Maddux picked the ball up; pump faked a throw to first and got Milledge leaning towards home. Milledge was caught in a rundown and was tagged out. The play goes down as a 1-5-2-6-5. If Maddux doesn't fake the throw to first, Milledge scores. The only good thing that came out of the play was that Milledge stayed in the rundown long enough for Floes to make it to second.
Dodgers scoring, 5th inning
The gopher ball has surfaced again and Tim Redding has allowed the Dodgers to cut the Nationals lead to 4-3 in the top of the fifth.
With one-out, Andre Either hit his 17th homer of the season to bring Los Angeles within one. All three Dodger runs have come off solo home runs.
This is the second time this season Redding has given up three long balls in a game. The first was at Milwaukee on August 9th.
Nationals scoring, 4th inning
The speed at the top and bottom of the Nationals line-up put Washington up 4-2 in the fourth.
With two outs, Emilio Bonifacio on second and Willie Harris at the dish, Bonifacio broke for third, on a 2-2 pitch. Willie Harris hit a sharp grounder to Jeff Kent at second base. Kent dropped the ball and Bonifacio never stopped as he rounded the bag. Kent knew he didn't have a play on Harris at first, threw home, but his throw sailed and Bonifacio scored easily.
Two of the Nationals four runs are unearned.
Nationals scoring, 3rd inning
Washington scored two runs, one earned, in the bottom of the third to take a 3-2 lead.
Willie Harris and Cristian Guzman led-off with back-to-back singles. Ryan Zimmerman hit into a fielder's choice to put runners on the corners. Lastings Milledge hit a one-hopper back to Greg Maddux, who threw to second base. Maddux's throw was high of his shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. Jeff Kent was backing up on the play and caught the ball, but everyone was safe and Harris scored the tying run.
Ronnie Belliard hit a clean single to score Zimmerman with the go-ahead run. Jesus Flores then grounded into an inning ending double play.
Redding thru 3 innings
Tim Redding has allowed five hits, two of which are solo home runs, in the first three frames. Four of the five hits are for extra bases. He hasn't walked or struck out a batter, while throwing 46 pitches. An error by Cristian Guzman and a miss-judged fly ball by Lastings Milledge, almost cost Redding, but he battled thru it.
3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 HR. 46 pitches, 34 strikes.
Elijah Dukes
Elijah is making his first start since coming off the DL after Tuesday night's game. In his first at bat, he singled off the glove of third baseman Casey Blake. Dukes busted it out of the batters box and showed no ill effects of the calf injury that caused him to miss 19 games.
Nationals scoring, 2nd inning
Lastings Milledge got Tim Redding one of the two runs he gave up in the bottom of the second. Milledge led-off with a single, stoles second, his 18th of the season, advanced to third on a ground ball out and scored on Jesus Flores' ground out. It was the 55th RBI on the year for the Nationals catcher.
Dodgers scoring, 2nd inning
Tim Redding surrendered his 20th and 21st home runs of the season, in the second innings, and the Nationals find themselves in an early 2-0 hole.
James Loney led-off with a homer to right. After Nomar Garciaparra grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, Casey Blake hit a solo blast to left. The homers were the sixth and seventh Redding has allowed in his last four starts.
Starting Line-Ups
Dodgers:
CF Matt Kemp
RF Andre Ethier
2B Jeff Kent
LF Manny Ramirez
1B James Loney
C Russell Martin
SS Nomar Garciaparra
3B Casey Blake
P Greg Maddux
Nationals:
LF Willie Harris
SS Cristian Guzman
3B Ryan Zimmerman
CF Lastings Milledge
1B Ronnie Belliard
C Jesus Flores
RF Elijah Dukes
2B Emilio Bonifacio
P Tim Redding
Game Preview
Los Angeles (65-67) at Nationals (47-85)
The Nationals put together one of their best all around games of the season in last night's 2-1 win over the Dodgers in the first game of their three-game series.
Collin Balester tossed five-plus innings of one run ball to pick up his third win of the season. The bullpen tossed four scoreless innings to help nail down the one-run victory. Joel Hanrahan closed the door in the ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season.
Lastings Milledge hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season and Cristian Guzman's RBI single in the third turned out to be the game winner.
Washington's defense, more like Ryan Zimmerman, turned four double plays. Zimmerman started inning-ending twin killings in the second, third and eighth and pulled off the unassisted double play in the sixth.
The loss snapped the Nationals six-game home losing streak as well as their six-game slide against Los Angeles.
The Dodgers lost their fifth straight game and their seventh in a row on the road.
Tonight, Tim Redding faces future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.
Pitching Match-Up
RHP Tim Redding (8-8, 4.54) was outstanding in his previous outing last Thursday at Philadelphia. He held the Phillies to one run on three hits in six innings, but settled for a no-decision in the Nationals' 4-3 win.
Redding, who hasn't faced the Dodgers since he was a member of the San Diego Padres in 2005, is 0-3 with a 6.06 ERA in five games, three starts. The last time he started a game against Los Angeles was April 17, 2005 where he gave up five runs on six hits in five innings. Half of the hits were home runs.
The 30-year old is making his 15th start at Nationals Park. Redding is 4-5 with a 4.89 ERA and he's lost his last two starts.
Since the All-Star break, Redding is 1-5 with a 6.63 ERA in seven starts and opponents are hitting .305 off him
RHP Greg Maddux (6-10, 4.25) is making his second start for the Dodgers since being acquired in a trade with the Padres on August 19th. This is his second tour of duty with Los Angeles in his 23-year career.
Maddux went 6-3 with a 3.30 ERA in 12 starts down the stretch during the 2006 season. He also started Game 3 of the NLDS against the Mets at Dodger Stadium. He got a no-decision in the Mets 10-7 win.
In his first with LA this season, Maddux allowed seven runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four, but gave up two homers in the Phillies 8-1 win.
Maddux is 24-17 with a 2.55 ERA in 58 career starts vs. the Nationals/Expos. He hasn't faced the franchise since May 15, 2005. In that game he got a no-decision, giving up four runs in 5 2/3.
In 13 road starts, Maddux is 3-6 with a 6.16 ERA and opponents are hitting .328 off the 42-year old.
Leave a comment