Another Zimmerman error, another homer off Haren (Nats lose 8-2)

Dan Haren was cruising through his first three innings of work. The veteran right-hander had allowed just one batter to reach, he'd struck out two and was working quickly, clearly feeling like he was in a zone. A Ryan Zimmerman throwing error with one out in the fourth brought an end to that momentum and eventually led to four Marlins runs, all of which were unearned. With one out in the fourth, Zimmerman moved to his left to glove a Placido Polanco grounder, but his three-quarters throw to first pulled Adam LaRoche off the bag, allowing Polanco to reach. It's Zimmerman's fourth throwing error of the young season, tied for the second-most errors of any player in the majors. Three of the four batters after Polanco then reached base. Adeiny Hechavarria delivered the big blow, crushing a two-out, three-run homer to left, for a 4-0 Marlins lead. Haren has now allowed five homers on the season. The righty's momentum on the mound is gone. Haren needed 34 pitches to get through the fourth and is suddenly at 74 pitches thrown thus far, this after a very impressive start to tonight's outing. Update: Even in a 2012 season that was the worst of his career, Haren failed to go at least five innings just four times in 30 starts. In three starts thus far with the Nationals, Haren has already worked fewer than five innings twice. Haren was pulled after just 4 1/3 innings tonight, and his final line isn't pretty. He allowed seven runs (three earned) on seven hits with one walk, two strikeouts and one home run allowed. He clearly wasn't the same guy after the Zimmerman error, losing gas quickly and struggling to make quality pitches down in the zone. Seven of the 10 hitters Haren faced after the error reached base. A night after putting a beatdown on the Marlins, the Nats are on the receiving end of a whipping in Miami. And for the third straight start, Haren was less than impressive. Update II: The Nats finally got on the board in the sixth, stringing together three doubles from LaRoche, Tyler Moore and Steve Lombardozzi to push across two runs, but Henry Rodriguez gave back one in the seventh. Rodriguez allowed Juan Pierre to reach leading off the inning and then let Pierre steal second and third, with relative ease. Pierre then came in on a Greg Dobbs single. It's 8-2 Marlins going to the eighth. This one hasn't been pretty. Update III: This one's in the books. It's an 8-2 Miami win. The Marlins have taken their first game of the season against the Nationals after dropping the first four. And they scored twice as many runs tonight as they did in those first four games combined. Ross Detwiler will take the mound tomorrow night looking to give the Nats the series win.



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