12-09-2019, 01:13 AM
WASHINGTON -- By the time Danny Espinosa hit his two-run homer in the eighth inning, there were only a couple of hundred fans left in the ballpark, almost all of them congregated behind the two dugouts. Whitey Herzog Jersey . A couple of times there was an ad hoc chant-off between the ones in red down the first base line and those in blue on the other side. "You can hear every word at that point," Espinosa said. "Its like a back-field spring training game." Anthony Rendon hit a two-run homer in the first inning Monday night, and -- thanks to an odd-moving storm that produced an interminable rain delay -- Espinosa and the Washington Nationals didnt finish off the Los Angeles Dodgers until some six hours later on Tuesday morning, holding on for a 4-0 victory and gaining sole possession of first place in the NL East. Jordan Zimmerman pitched four shutout innings before the game was halted, and five relievers threw an inning apiece after play resumed. In between, there was an interruption of 3 hours, 17 minutes while a narrow, cigar-shaped storm took its time soaking D.C. and not much else. "You certainly wait around that long, you want to win the game," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. Aaron Barrett (2-0) got the win mainly because he happened to be Washingtons first reliever when play resumed. Zack Greinke (5-1) got a hard-luck first loss of the season, and plate umpire John Tumpane became the MVP for calling strikes and getting the game done in a reasonable hurry once the tarp was removed. There were four strikeouts before the delay, 16 after it. "We dont get off to a good start, they get a couple quick runs, and then obviously a three-hour delay in there and lose Zack," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "Really, we had chances, we just didnt do anything." The rain limited Greinke to three innings, ending a streak that had been unmatched for a century. He had 18 consecutive regular-season starts of at least five innings while allowing two runs or fewer -- the longest such run in the majors since 1914. "Its not really like its an important streak; no one really cares about it anyway," Greinke said. "If it was like a consecutive win streak or something more important than that, it would mean a little more." Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig sat out the marathon, still sore after crashing into an outfield wall in the ninth inning of Sundays 5-4 road loss to the Miami Marlins. Manager Don Mattingly said Puig remained day to day and declined to say directly whether a concussion has been ruled out. Nationals left fielder Nate McLouth had his own crash-into-wall injury in the eighth inning, when he made a sliding backhand catch of a foul ball. Both hands and both knees hit the wall hard, and his right hand was bleeding as he walked off the field. Williams said McLouth wasnt seriously hurt. The cut didnt require stitches, although a banged-up knee will almost certainly be sore for a while. Zimmermann held the fort until the middle of the fourth, when the dozens of bags of sands poured on the infield by the grounds crew were no longer a match for the weather. The fans who stayed behind were treated to a scoreboard broadcast of their city-sports-brethren Washington Wizards winning an NBA playoff game. Also shown during the delay was the Atlanta Braves loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, which helped the Nationals vault into first in the division. The fans who remained when play resumed had unusually good odds when it came to chasing a foul ball, or catching a T-shirt tossed into the stands as part of a standard promotion. "Fans are going crazy," Zimmermann said. "Its a game, you have to play no matter how many fans are out there. The place wasnt exactly rocking, but it was a game we had to play." NOTES: Greinke had been unbeaten in his previous 13 starts (9-0) vs. NL East teams. ... The Nationals plan to promote RHP Blake Treinen from Triple-A Syracuse to start Tuesdays game. RHP Ryan Mattheus will be optioned to Syracuse. ... Clayton Kershaw (strained back) is scheduled to come off the disabled list Tuesday and start for the Dodgers. ... Kershaw is expected to take the roster spot held for a day by RHP Pedro Baez, who was recalled Monday from Double-A Chattanooga and made his major league debut in the eighth inning. RHP Stephen Fife, who started Sundays game, was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. ... Mattingly said LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu, who missed Sundays start with a sore shoulder, did not need an MRI and would resume throwing Tuesday. ... Washington reinstated OF Scott Hairston (strained side muscle) from the 15-day DL and optioned OF Steven Souza Jr. to Triple-A Syracuse. ... Washington C Wilson Ramos (hand) caught nine innings for Double-A Harrisburg on Monday and could rejoin the team later this week. Baltimore Orioles Store . However, after review it became clear Kadri kicked the puck in. Brian Roberts Jersey . -- Shanshan Feng was alone in her opinion about the pin positions in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. https://www.cheaporioles.com/978i-rio-ru...ioles.html . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning.SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants have raced to the best record in the majors with few contributions from two of their biggest stars. Buster Posey and Matt Cain started to change that Friday night. Posey hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning for his first long ball in more than a month, Cain made a successful return from the disabled list and the Giants won for the eighth time in 10 games by beating the New York Mets 4-2. "Hes a talented hitter," manager Bruce Bochy said of Posey. "We all have our ups and downs. We talk about that all the time. He saw the ball well tonight." The big blast off Carlos Torres (2-3) capped a three-hit day for Posey, who entered the game with only four hits in his past 42 at-bats at home and no homers since May 3. Angel Pagan started the rally with a leadoff walk against Torres and advanced to second on a groundout. Posey followed with a long drive to left-centre to snap a 93 at-bat homer drought as the Giants (40-21) became the first team in the majors to reach 40 wins. "In that situation youre just trying to get something you can stay in the middle of the field with and try to get that run in from second," Posey said. "Fortunately I got a good pitch I could handle and it went out." Jeremy Affeldt (1-1) pitched a scoreless eighth on his 35th birthday to get the win. Sergio Romo got three outs for his 19th save in 21 chances. Daniel Murphy hit a two-run homer for the Mets, who lost their fourth straight game. The bullpen has taken all four of the losses and has a major league-worst 15 losses on the season. "He was the perfect guy," manager Terry Collins said of Torres. "Hes had great numbers against the Giants. He doesnt hardly walk anybody. Busters made a career of getting big hits." Cain allowed two runs and three hits in seven innings in his first start back from a stint on the disabled list for a strained right hamstring. But he got a no-decision and still has only one win in nine starts in a rough seeason that has included two trips to the disabled list. Wally Bunker Jersey. "We had the fastball working pretty well today," Cain said. "We were on both sides of the plate and tried to mix some off-speed stuff after that. The big key today was getting the fastball over for strikes." Cain was in complete control with a 1-0 lead having faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings before the Mets quickly turned the tide in the seventh. Matt den Dekker led off the inning with a double for New Yorks second hit of the game and Murphy followed with his fourth home run of the season to put the Mets ahead 2-1. The Giants tied it in the bottom half when Brandon Hicks and Brandon Crawford teamed up again to produce a run. Hicks drew a two-out walk from Jonathon Niese, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Crawfords single to centre. The duo produced San Franciscos first run in the fifth when Hicks tripled and scored on Crawfords sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. Niese allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings, extending his streak of consecutive starts allowing three earned runs or fewer to 16 but still ended up with a no-decision. "Its tough," he said. "You go out there and battle and you want to see the win beside your name. But it is what it is, its part of the game. Itll come eventually. I have all the confidence in the offence we have here. Theyre going to put up runs." Cain retired the first 12 batters of the game before walking Curtis Granderson to lead off the fifth. Granderson was quickly erased when Andrew Brown hit into a double play. The Mets got the leadoff runner on again in the sixth when Ruben Tejada reached on an infield single. Cain once again followed that by inducing a double-play grounder by Travis dArnaud. NOTES: There was a pregame moment of silence for Don Zimmer, who coached for San Francisco and played for the Mets. Zimmer died Wednesday at age 83. ... Bartolo Colon (5-5) starts Saturday for the Mets against Tim Hudson (6-2). ' ' '