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Ward, Stevenson Combine for Walkoff Win, 5-4

Drew Ward tied the game with a solo shot in the 8th while Andrew Stevenson plated the gamewinner with an opposite-field single in the 9th to give the Nats a 5-4 win over the Astros on Sunday afternoon.

Joe Ross got the start and looked sharp in four scoreless innings, with two hits and a walk allowed and four strikeouts. Bryce Harper homered for the fifth time while Adam Esaton went deep for the first time to lead the ten-hit attack.

Stevenson, who subbed for Eaton in CF in the 7th, finished the day at 1-for-2 as did Ward, who pinch-hit for Anthony Rendon and finished the game at 3B.

Here’s how the rest of the watchlisters fared:
• Rafael Bautista took over for Harper in the 7th but popped out to 1B in his only at-bat.
• Matt Skole replaced Ryan Zimmerman at 1B and flew out to CF in the 8th for an 0-for-1 game.
• Pedro Severino , singled in his second trip to the plate as the second catcher behind the plate (after Matt Wieters, who was 0-for-2 in his Nats debut) and was pinch-run for by Wilmer Difo, who scored on Stevenson’s single.

With the win, Washington returns to .500 at 7-7-2. The Nats remain at “home” with a matchup against the Tigers. Stephen Strasburg is expected to start, with the Nats radio team calling the game on MLB audio and 1580AM.

7 Commments

  1. On the one hand, Skole is batting only .167 with a .690 OPS this spring. On the other hand, those marks are .167 and .533 higher than the incumbent starter. I know ST stats are supposedly meaningless, but Zimmerman’s OPS has been above .786 in every spring training of his career but for 2015, and was above 1.000 five times, including last year. He’s always been great in March, which is a foreboding sign heading into what we all hope will finally be his comeback season.

      1. At the least, I’m concerned! Zimm came into ST talking about this season being ‘do or die’. Well, he’s not showing much concern for his baseball life with his hitless streak reaching 15 straight ABs.

        But with the signing of Adam Lind, as much as it pains me, given each of their inability to hit opposing handed pitchers, I’d like to see Lind get the start against righties and Zimm the start vs lefties.

        vs RHP (avg/obp/slg/ops, 2014-2016)
        Zimm: .233/.289/.391/.680
        Lind: .289/.356/.489/.845
        vs LHP
        Zimm: .272/.336/.518/.853
        Lind: .198/.256/.273/.529

        The problem is that only 25% of SPs are LHP, so Lind would start 3 out of every 4 games.

      2. Also, it’s an extremely inopportune time for Marmolejos to go down with an injury. He could have had a real shot to make the team with a strong performance and a place on the 40 man.

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