McDonald dominant; McCutchen, Barajas continue to kill Nats

By Dan Kolko

Nationals

May 17, 2012, 4:20pm

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Andrew McCutchen entered today hitting .439 in 23 career games against the Nationals. Rod Barajas came into tonight's game batting just .188 on the season, but was the one who smacked the walk-off two-run home run off Henry Rodriguez last week. Both guys continued terrorizing the Nats tonight. McCutchen smacked a solo homer off Jordan Zimmermann in the first inning to put the Pirates up 1-0. The blast gave him a ridiculous nine homers and 20 RBIs in 23 games against Washington. Those are just silly numbers. Barajas followed with a two-run homer in the third, giving Pittsburgh a 3-0 edge. It's Barajas' third bomb of the year, with two coming against the Nats. Meanwhile, Pirates starter James McDonald is mowing through the Nationals' order like it's an A-ball lineup. McDonald has retired all 12 Nats hitters he's faced through four innings and has struck out nine of them. His pitch count through four frames (52) is manageable, so the Nats will need to buckle down and try and scratch out something against this guy. Or, at the very least, put the ball in play.