2011, Week 5

discussion

Game 26 - WAS 6, PHI 4 (17-9)
The Nationals grabbed an early lead and were able to withstand a late Phillies charge to hang on for the win. Marcos Vechionacci was the hitting star in this game, slamming his first career home run and going 3 for 5 on the day, scoring 3 runs. Jonathan Broxton got the win, going 7 innings and giving up 4 runs and Richie Wilhite earned his 6th save.

Game 27 - WAS 6, PHI 3 (18-9)
Five National hitters recorded two hits and Miguel Cabrera hit his 7th home run of the season as the Nationals went on to take the 2nd game from the Phillies. Rich Harden improved to 5-0 pitching 8 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out 8. Richie Wilhite pitched a perfect 9th for his 7th save.

Game 28 - WAS 9, PHI 0 (19-9)
Joe Nathan, coming off a perfect game and working on a stellar season, made Major League history today. Only one pitcher had thrown back-to-back no-hitters in Major League history! Joe Nathan would join Johnny Vandermeer who accomplished this feat in 1938, as only the 2nd pitcher to do this. Nathan will second guess forever his decision to throw pitcher Trace Tibault a 3-2 slider in the 3rd inning. This was his only blemish on the day, keeping him from recording two perfect games consecutively. Nathan's walk was his only 3 ball count of the day and his stuff was just absolutely filthy as he recorded 13 strikeouts. Nathan's record is now 6-0 and his ERA is a mind-blowing 0.36. Many had thought that consecutive no-hitters would be a feat that would never occur again, so this was a momentous day in Major League history. Offensively for the Nats, PJ Phillips and Miguel Cabrera each hit home runs and Brian McCann and Jimmy Rollins each had three hits in the game.

Game 29 - WAS 13, PHI 2 (20-9)
The Nationals used two innings to score all their runs as 7 came across in the 4th and 6 more were tacked on in the 9th. Miguel Cabrera and Grady Sizemore each led the attack with 3 hits. Shawn Hill was lifted in the 4th with no outs and his at bat coming with the bases loaded in favor of pinch hitter PJ Phillips. This prevented him from earning the win as he had only allowed 1 run through 4 innings of work. Ricardo Rodriguez earned the win pitching 4 innings for Washington and also allowing just one run.

Game 30 - CIN 6, WAS 3 (20-10)
Colton Willems was roughed up for 6 runs on 13 hits in 7 2/3 innings of work for his first loss of the year. Not too much exciting on the Washington end as PJ Phillips was 2 for 4 with 2 stolen bases and Marcos Vechionacci was 2 for 4 to account for 4 of the 7 National hits.

Game 31 - CIN 5, WAS 4 10 inn. (20-11)
Washington and Cincinnati took a 4-4 tie into the 10th inning before Jonathan Broxton took his 3rd loss of the season, surrendring a game-winning double to Mike Lowell. Gaby Hernandez started and pitched decent, allowing four runs, two of them earned in 8 innings. Brian McCann was 3 for 5 with a homer and 3 RBI's to lead the Nationals' attack.

Game 32 - CIN 5, WAS 3 (20-12)
Rich Harden pitched well and handed a 3-2 lead to Richie Wilhite going into the bottom half of the 9th inning. Wilhite gave up a single to leadoff hitter Eric Hinske who was pinch ran for by Marland Williams. Williams was sacrificed over to 2nd before Torii Hunter was struck out on an 87 mph knuckleball that was devastingly filthy. Eric Duncan pinch hit for Adam Rosales and a 3-2 fastball clocked at 107 miles per hour appeared to have caught the corner of the plate but was called ball four to bring up the pitcher's slot with two on. Tripper Johnson, who had 54 major league at bats, was called on to face Wilhite. Johnson turned around a 106 mph fastball and sent it into the left field seats to give the Reds a walk off win. This was Wilhite's first blown save in eight chances. Grady Sizemore added his 9th homer of the season, Brian McCann went 3 for 5 and Marcos Vechionacci went 2 for 3 to lead the Nationals' offense.

Week five saw the M's travel to division rival Oakland for a 4 game series split, then coming home to sweep the Orioles.

The offense was a spread out well over the course of the week the standouts were rookie David Winfree(.346,.392/.384, 7 RBI), Larry Broadway(.315/.409/.789, 1 2B,1 3B,2HR,6R,9RBI in 5 games), and catcher Dioner Navarro(.416/.461/.541, 1HR,7RBI)

Dan Haren was the Pitcher of the week with 2 very similar games 7IP 2R 5H 0BB in both only striking out 1 in a loss to Oakland but striking out 7 in a victory over Baltimore. Rookie Closer Felipe Delbusto collected 3 saves and Logan Kensing pitched 5 shutout innings in an emergency start against Oakland to earn a victory