The Washington Nationals continue their road swing with a trip to the Milwaukee Brewers.
I thought Washington could set the tone for the remainder of the season with a strong performance in the first two weeks after the All Star break. After a 5-2 victory over the Mets on Wednesday, the Nats are trying to do just that with five consecutive victories, having outscored opponents 32-10. The offense and pitching continued to roll Wednesday with starter Stephen Strasburg allowing a run over seven innings while striking out eleven. The bats did the rest with seven hits and five walks with home runs off the bats of Danny Espinosa, Michael Morse and Adam LaRoche leading the way. Washington gives the starting nod to Edwin Jackson who is looking to build on his last outing despite not receiving a decision in a 4-0 loss to Atlanta in which he allowed one run on five hits over seven frames.
Similar to Washington, I thought Milwaukee needed a big opening two weeks to begin the second half to position themselves to make a run at the National League Central. That hasn't happened thus far as Milwaukee dropped their third consecutive 7-6 decision to Philadelphia. Overall the Brewers have lost six in a row behind up and down pitching and hitting. The bull pen blew their third straight lead Wednesday to spoil a five run rally. Marco Estrada struggled with five runs allowed on eight hits and three walks in four innings but the bats came to life with 15 hits and three walks with Ryan Braun hitting a two run bomb while Rickie Weeks went solo. The Brewers lost when Francisco Rodriguez gave up the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the tenth. The Brewers send out Yovani Gallardo to the bump who has thrown the ball better than his record for the most part. Gallardo has eight quality starts in ten outings and has gone 5-3 over this stretch.
Washington is once again racking up the wins while Milwaukee is going in the wrong direction. I like Gallardo and I'm a bit leery of Jackson but Washington is playing great and tough to ignore as a dog...
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