Suicide Squeeze Wins it for Washington

Photo courtesy of
‘the ump dance’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Would you believe me if I said the Nats secured their tenth consecutive win by one run or in extra innings on Wednesday night? It’s true. Washington is now 13-3 in one-run games since June 1. They’ve won three out of four games against the Chicago Cubs and are going for the sweep tonight.

Manager Davey Johnson found success and victory with a well-executed suicide squeeze bunt in the seventh inning off the bat of Wilson Ramos to score the game winning run in a 5-4 victory. The game went back and forth between the two clubs for most of the game, but Johnson’s decision to go for the squeeze was a direct result of Cubs reliever Kerry Wood being a bit wild in the first game of the series.

Michael Morse was up to face Wood in the seventh and lead-off the inning with a double. Jayson Werth, who went 0-for-4, moved Morse over to third with his hardest hit ball for quite awhile, which landed right in the glove of Cubs right fielder Reed Johnson near the wall. That set it up for Ramos who laid down the bunt for the win.

Johnson told reporters to not expect the squeeze often but was pleased that it worked out for the team.

Chicago and Washington rocked the seesaw of a score all night and were tied for most of the game. Danny Espinosa got the Nats started early with a two run homerun, his sixteenth blast of the season, in the first while batting in the two hole. But Chicago answered right back in the top of second with a Carlos Pena two-run homer from first baseman Carlos Pena.

The race toward victory continued for the Washington in the fifth when Ryan Zimmerman, who hit two doubles and walked once, crushed a monstrous two-run homerun to keep the scored tied once more.

Nats starter left-hander Tom Gorzelanny also had quite the night. Despite giving up four earned runs on two homers and seven hits, he kept things alive at the plate with a hit a good fight before striking out in the fifth.

Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.

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