Mark Reynolds hit a pinch-hit, walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Washington Nationals a 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Friday night in the second game of their weekend series at Nationals Park.
Washington has won the first two games of this series. The Nationals snapped a five-game losing streak with their come-from-behind 14-12 victory on Thursday after a much-publicized team meeting following being swept in a series at Boston earlier this week.
Reynolds led off the ninth, batting for winning pitcher Sean Doolittle (3-2), and worked the count to 3-1 against Kyle Barraclough (0-3). Then, Reynolds crushed a pitch to left-center that gave the Nationals the victory.
Doolittle got the win after working a scoreless top of the ninth.
Both starters got no-decisions but did plenty of work. For the Nationals, Gio Gonzalez allowed two runs in five innings but needed to throw 114 pitches as he gave up eight hits and walked four against four strikeouts.
Miami's Dan Straily threw 111 pitches in six innings as he gave up two runs, but three walks hurt him. He gave up five hits and struck out one.
Starlin Castro gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the top of the third inning, but Washington answered back with two in the bottom of the fourth.
Adam Eaton and Wilmer Difo came up with back-to-back RBI singles in that inning after a pair of walks to start the frame, which gave the Nationals a 2-1 lead. Miami then tied it in the top of the fifth inning when Martin Prado walked with the bases loaded.
The Marlins started the inning with three straight singles that loaded the bases but got just one run out of it as Gonzalez battled back.
Washington nearly took the lead in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with no outs, but Miami right-hander Drew Steckenrider retried the next three batters and kept the game tied.
Miami also got some offensive help from Garrett Cooper, who had been out since April 1 due to a wrist injury. He singled in his first two at-bats and went 2-for-3 and also made a nice running catch in left field late in the game.
--Field Level Media
Miami | Washington | |
Dan Straily | Player | Gio Gonzalez |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 5.0 |
1 | Strikeouts | 4 |
5 | Hits | 8 |
3.00 | ERA | 3.60 |
Miami | Washington | |
Garrett Cooper | Player | Wilmer Difo |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 2 |
.667 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Miami | 9 | 0 | 10 | .290 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
Washington | 8 | 1 | 11 | .258 | 21 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 |