Ryan Zimmerman clubbed a pair of home runs to lead the Washington Nationals to a 7-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The loss snapped the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak, though they finished with a pair of series wins on their road trip.
Hyun-Jin Ryu faced trouble in the second and fifth innings, but it was the latter he was unable to work out of. He walked Strasburg with two outs, then put Trea Turner on base, and was lifted after expending 30 pitches in the inning and 98 in the game.
Ross Stripling got the Dodgers out of that inning, though didn’t fare as well in the sixth. Anthony Rendon led off with a walk, Daniel Murphy lined a single into center field, and Zimmerman crushed an elevated slider for a go-ahead, three-run home run.
The Nationals got to Walker Buehler in the seventh despite the rookie right-hander opening the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Buehler grazed Werth with a pitch, and Rendon followed with an RBI double to left field.
Zimmerman’s second home run, a solo shot in the eighth, came at the expense of Josh Ravin. He allowed another, a two-run homer to Josh Lind, before getting through the inning.
Whereas the Dodgers ended Strasburg’s unbeaten stretch last season, they snapped his scoreless innings streak on Sunday night. Strasburg began the night without allowing a run in 34 consecutive innings.
His streak was snapped with two outs in the second inning on a Logan Forsythe drive to deep center field. Michael A. Taylor had a read on the ball but had it go off his glove at the warning track, resulting in an RBI double.
The hit was one of only three Strasburg allowed over six innings of work. Yasiel Puig had the first, on a broken-bat infield single to lead off the second inning.
Puig then stole second base, the Dodgers’ second swiped bag of the game, and it loomed large as he scored on Forsythe’s hit. Los Angeles stole three bases off Strasburg, with Justin Turner and Curtis Granderson also getting involved.
The Dodgers got their first look at the Nationals’ overhauled bullpen, with Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle each pitching an inning of relief.
