Nats drop second game to the O's, 5-6

The Nationals couldn’t overcome great hitting from the Orioles at the Yard last night. Five of O’s completed multi-hit games including Alex Cintron who, out of nowhere, went 4 for 4. Nick Stone Face Markakis took a cue from The Nats Blog and contributed 2 hits including a two run bomb in the 3rd to give the O’s an early lead. The Orioles combined for 13 hits including 4 extra base hits as they went on to defeat the Nats 6-5.


This game showed that Odalis Perez is starting to slip a bit. After a great start of the season he had earned no wins, but Perez recorded his first win of the season in one of his worst starts in his last outing. Tonight was his first start since recording that win, and sadly for Perez and the Nats he pitched even worse en route to recording his fourth loss. In 5 innings Perez let up 10 hits and allowed 6 earned runs, including 2 homers.


Perez’s poor pitching was too much for the Nats to overcome despite solid hitting. Ryan Zimmerman hit another homer, and Dimitri Young was a terror on the base paths recording 2 runs on a hit and a walk. Aaron Boone continued his hot streak filling in for an injured Nick Johnson (as Young plays DH), going 2-3 with 2 RBI’s and a walk. He’s now batting .344 with 3 homers and 9 RBI’s. He’s currently in a 6 game hitting streak where he’s batting .526.

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Today The Nats will try to bounce back and avoid a sweep in the Turf War battle as John Lannan (3-4, 3.74) goes up against Jeremy Guthrie (2-3, 4.18 ERA).

Box Score
AP Photos/Luis M. Alvarez