Lannan goes 8 to earn sixth win
Left-hander John Lannan won his second straight start, fourth of his last six and improved to 6-5, the second time he's been over .500 in his career. The last time was 2007 when he won his second career start to improve to 1-0.
Lannan didn't have his best stuff today, leaving the ball up in the zone, but battled through a tough Braves lineup to stick around for eight innings and earn the win.
"He went out there and pitched a tremendous game for us," manager Manny Acta said. "At first I just wanted to get Johnny [Lannan] off the hook, but we got him a win too and that was tremendous."
Lannan scattered nine hits, walked one and struck out three while throwing 98 pitches, 65 for strikes.
In the first four innings, Lannan only threw first-pitch strikes to six of the 14 batters he faced. From the fifth thru the eighth, he managed to find the strike zone on his first offering to 11 of the 16 Atlanat batters.
"Lucky for us [John] Lannan keeps pitching well, keeps battling, stays in there and he's our guy." Ryan Zimmerman said. "That's what he does even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he battles and gives you six, seven, eight innings and that's what you need out of the top of your rotation guy."
After Dunn hit his 300th career homer, cutting the Braves lead to 3-1 in the seventh, Lannan told Dunn they would win the game.
"He said it in the seventh inning and maybe he sees dead people too, I don't know man." Dunn said. "After the game I told him we must not like him because he's pitched so well and we can't score runs for him,"
Today, they scored enough to win a game, not just for Lannan, but for the team, who snapped a four-game losing skid.
 |
Categories (click for archive)Nationals News |
Leave a comment