A day after seeing the Pirates phenom Gerrit Cole take the mound, baseball fans were in for a treat as Stephen Strasburg was scheduled to take the mound for the Washington Nationals. Opposing Strasburg on Wednesday night, was left-handeder Francisco Liriano. The game had all of the hype of a pitchers duel in the making, which admittedly made me nervous. Usually, these games end up being a blowout one way or the other. Not on this night. Liriano continued to show why he has been the best free agent pitcher as the Pirates defeated the Nationals 4-2.
Liriano was nearly Liriano-no (h/t Travis Berardi) as he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Anthony Rendon broke it up with an infield single. Despite the hit, Liriano looked unhittable over his 7.2 innings of work. After his shortest outing of the season agains the Reds, Liriano surrendered just two hits, no runs, three walks, while striking out eight.
On the other side, Strasburg was nearly as dominate. Strasburg struck out 12 Pirates on the night, allowing just two hits and one run over eight innings. The lone mistake by Strasburg was a pitch down the middle to Pedro Alvarez. For the second consecutive night, Alvarez made the Nationals pitching staff pay by putting a ball over the fence. Alvarez’s home run put him into a tie with Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies for National League lead (26).
Neil Walker added an insurance run in the ninth inning with an RBI double and Michael McKenry plated two with a two-run single.
After Justin Wilson gave up a two-run home run in the ninth inning, Mark Melancon came on for the Pirates first save opportunity since losing Jason Grilli to injury. As he’s done before, Melancon shut down the Nationals and sealed the Pirates victory.
The Pirates will look for the four-game sweep tomorrow as A.J. Burnett (4-7, 3.07 ERA) will face Gio Gonzalez (7-3, 2.89 ERA) in the finale. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35 p.m.
