Starting pitchers this afternoon were righthander Tanner Roark (Washington) and lefthander Rich Hill (Los Angeles).
Roark was 16-10 this season with a 2.83 ERA.
He faced the Dodgers once this year and that was back in June when he was the losing pitcher.
In his career, he threw three games against the Dodgers.
Roark last played in the postseason in 2014 when he pitched twice in relief for the Nationals in the NLDS.
Today was his first postseason-start.
Hill was 12-5 with a 2.12 ERA this year.
He joined the Dodgers on August 1 after a trade with the Oakland A's and was 3-2 for Los Angeles.
Hill made his second postseason appearance today and his first since pitching for the Chicago Cubs in the 2007 NLDS.
This season, Hill didn't pitch against Washington, but he is 1-1 in his career against the Nationals, whom he faced last in 2012 as a reliever when he played for Boston Red Sox.
Los Angeles again opened the score quickly, as Corey Seager homered with one out in the top of the first inning.
Seager homered on a 3-0 count.
On Friday, Seager also homered in the first inning of the opener.
He then became the youngest player in Dodger-history to hit a homerun in the posteason with his 22 years and 163 days.
Seager became only the second Dodger-rookie to homer in the postseason and the first since Jim Gilliam in 1953.
This season, Seager belted 26 homeruns and was one of four players in the team to hit 25 or more homeruns.
The others are Yasmani Grandal (27), Justin Turner (27) and Joc Pederson (25).
That marked only the fourth time in the long Dodger-history that it had four players in its team with 25 or more homeruns in one season.
The first time that this happened was in 1955 when Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges and Duke Snider accomplished the feat.
In 1977, there was another 25+ homerun-quartet, being Dusty Baker (the current Washington-Manager), Ron Cey, Steve Garney and Reggie Smith.
The last time it happened was in 1997 and done then by Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi, Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile.
Seager's 26 homeruns this season are the most ever by a Dodger short stop.
He broke the record of 22, which was set by Glenn Wright in 1930.
In the bottom of the first inning, Rich Hill struckout the side.
Both teams then left the bases loaded in the second at bat.
...Trea Turner, who had two hits for...
...Washington and scored once,...
...partcipated with Team USA in the 2012...
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(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
With one out in the top of the second, Joc Pederson singled, Yasmani Grandal walked and Andrew Toles was hit by a pitch.
Hereafter, Tanner Roark struckout Rich Hill, then Chase Utley grounded out.
In the bottom of the second, Hill ran into some problems.
He gave up a lead-off single to Daniel Murphy, followed with a strikeout, but then walked Ryan Zimmerman and hit Danny Espinosa with a pitch.
The inning then ended when José Lobaton grounded into an 1-2-3 double play.
Los Angeles scored its second run in the top of the third inning, then got the bases loaded again.
With one out, Justin Turner walked and Adrian Gonzalez singled.
Hereafter, Josh Reddick also singled to bring in Turner and make it a 2-0 score.
With runners on second and third base, next batter Joc Pederson was walked intentionally, then a double play on a grounder by Yasmani Grandal ended the at bat.
Rich Hill had another strong outing in the bottom of the third inning.
He began with a strikeout, then gave up a single to Trea Turner, but closed with two more strikeouts to bring his total to seven.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Hill was credited with a bunt-single on a ball that was misplayed by second baseman Daniel Murphy, who might have had a chance to elimimate him at first base.
Hill advanced on a grounder to second base, but then was left behind.
In the bottom of the fourth, Washington struck with three runs.
Rich Hill walked lead-off hitter Daniel Murphy, who last year played in the World Series with New York Mets and hit six homeruns in six consecutive in the postseason.
After two flyouts, Hill hit Danny Espinosa for the second time with a pitch, then gave up a 3-run homerun to José Lobaton that made it 3-2 in favor of the Nationals.
In the top of the fifth, Los Angeles left three runners behind for the second time in this game.
Justin Turner led off with a single, then Josh Reddick singled with one out.
This led to a pitching change and Marc Rzepczynski (pronunciation zep-CHIN-skee) took over from Tanner Roark.
He got the bases loaded when he walked pinch-hitter Yasiel Puig, but then struckout Yasmani Grandal.
The inning ended when leftfielder Jayson Werth made a sliding catch on a line drive by pinch-hitter Howie Kendrick.
In the bottom of the fifth, Washington struck again.
Trea Turner led off with his second basehit in the game, then stole second base and moved to third base on a single by Bryce Harper.
With one out, Daniel Murphy delivered a runscoring single which made it 4-2 and brought in a new pitcher.
Pedro Baez took over and saw Anthony Rendon flyout.
Harper tried to score, but was eliminated at the plate to complete a double play.
Washington added another run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
First, reliever Josh Fields struckout lead-off hitter Trea Turner.
Fields had come on with a runner on second base in the previous inning and then closed with a strikeout.
After striking out Turner, Fields was replaced by Grant Dayton, who struckout Bryce Harper (his third strikeout).
But with two outs, Jayson Werth doubled and scored the fifth Washington-run on a single by Daniel Murphy.
In the top of the eighth inning, Dodger-Manager Dave Roberts used two pinch-hitters, but only one of them actually stepped up to the batter's box.
After lead-off hitter Howie Kendrick struckout, lefthanded hitting Andre Ethier was announced as pinch-hitter for next batter (and pitcher) Grant Dayton.
Hereafter, Washington-Manager Dusty Baker inserted new pitcher Oliver Pérez, who is a lefthander.
Roberts reacted by replacing his pinch-hitter with another pinch-hitter Carlos Ruiz, who bats righthanded.
That also meant that Ethier was not eligible anymore, as he officially had entered the game and was replaced.
With that, Roberts had only one position player left on the bench, which was his back-up (third) catcher Austin Barnes.
Ruiz grounded out, then the inning ended when Chase Utley also grounded out.
Closer Mark Melancon took the mound for Washington in the top of the ninth inning.
He gave up an one-out single to Justin Turner, but then struckout Adrian Gonzalez.
Moments later, Turner took second base on defensive indifference, but he stranded there, as a grounder ended the game, which took almost four hours to complete.
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Washington wins to even NLDS against Dodgers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) -
Washington Nationals won 5-2 against Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Two of the best-of-five National League Division Series on Sunday (October 9).
With the win, the Nationals evened the Series at 1-1.
The game was initially scheduled for Saturday, was then postponed one day due to heavy rain.
On Friday, Los Angeles opened with a 4-3 win.