Despite loss, Taylor Hill "pretty jacked up" to earn first major league start

Right-hander Taylor Hill got his first major league start for the Nationals and almost got through five innings. But that last out in the fifth proved to be too much, and the Marlins scored five runs to take the lead for good, 7-4, on their way to a 15-7 victory over the Nationals. Hill went 4 2/3 innings, allowing 10 hits and seven runs, with two walks and four strikeouts. "I definitely wasn't sharp like I obviously wanted to be," Hill said. "But that's part of it. It's part of pitching, you have to be able to battle and throw strikes and I found myself behind a lot of hitters and it ended up hurting me at the end of the outing. You got to build off that and learn how to pitch and learn a little something about yourself." Hill said he was pumped up before the game as he walked to the mound. "I was pretty jacked up," Hill said. "It was fun, it was really cool to get this opportunity. I was just fired up overall, a lot of adrenalin." Hill was able to connect on his first base hit ever in a professional game. He said he had never even bat while at Vanderbilt either. He said his first at-bat last year was his first at-bat in six years. "That was really cool," he said. Hill said after Triple-A Syracuse was eliminated from the playoffs, he had been pitching in the instructional league at the Nationals' training facility in Florida. "I was in Florida, staying ready," Hill said. "You never know what could happen. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to come up, it was really cool. "I would go throw every day pretty much depending on how they wanted to use me. I did throw in a game. I threw some bullpens. I was in a pretty good routine. I was able to stay in shape and be able to compete." Manager Matt Williams left Hill in the game in the fifth after he hit Casey McGehee with an off-speed pitch. Unfortunately, the Marlins were able to start a rally. "I don't think I was tiring. I was happy that they gave me the opportunity to stay in there and get out of my own jam," Hill said. "That's part of the game. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. That was really cool. I like that they had that kind of confidence that they let me do that. I still got to execute pitches and I didn't do that in that instance."