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Senators Pitch a Shutout |
July 3, 2008. Fairfax, Va. -- In the past two games, the Senators have played marathon, close games long into the night. Their pitching has allowed thirteen runs in those games, ballooning the staff's ERA from 1.77 to 2.03. Thursday night, the Senators reversed both of those trends with a quick, suffocating pitching performance. Senators' pitchers allowed only four hits, en route to a 4-0 shutout in just less than two hours of play.
Senators starter Michael Graham, who has been an escape artist all season in pitching out of jams, had his best outing of the season. Graham, who has been unable to pitch deep into games this season, breezed through five innings, while throwing only 64 pitches. Graham didn't allow a hit through three innings, and allowed only two hits in his five innings of work.
Even when Graham appeared to have pitched himself into a jam in the fourth inning, he managed to come up with the pitches to escape the inning unscathed. Graham allowed singles to the first two batters. Then a wild pitch skipped past catcher Mario Williams, and put runners at second and third with no outs.
However, Graham focused in and struck out Brad Buchman. Williams, who made a rare appearance behind the plate, then gunned behind AJ Kirby-Jones at second base to pick him off for the second out. Graham induced Rob Lamas to ground out harmlessly to second base and wiggle out of the jam.
“That was one of my best starts of the season,” said Graham. “I was just trying to throw strikes and give our defense a chance to make plays.”
Graham probably could have pitched deeper into the game, but was yanked after five. With the all-star break looming this weekend, the Senators had a deep stable of pitchers to choose from. Richard Cary, the staff ace, was available and Senators manager Chris Burr didn't hesitate to go to him. Cary, who entered the game with a 0.69 ERA, pitched three scoreless innings.
Nationals starter Brett Moore was no slouch himself. Moore retired the first ten Senators hitters he faced. Unfortunately for him, batter #11 was a solo home run. Matt Goulas took a pitch that deep to left field that deflected off of Nationals left fielder Kurt Fulginiti and into the stands for his sixth home run of the season. That would prove to be all of the offense that the Senators would need.
“He was painting the outer half of the plate with fastballs,” said center fielder Nick Boullosa. “He was pretty effective, but our hitters were able to make some adjustments and come up with some clutch hits.”
The Senators added another run in the fifth inning. Left fielder Kevin Hall laced a single just over the glove of leaping third baseman Alex Guerra, bringing home Nick Kuroczko.
The Senators added two more runs in the eighth inning, on RBIs from the heart of their order. David Harris, who had two hits on the night, added a sacrifice fly that brought home Boullosa. Then Martin Parra, who had been held hitless on the night, hit an RBI single that scored Goulas.
Jimmy Duggan came on to pitch the ninth inning, and continued Graham and Cary's success. He forced two groundouts and then struck out Brad Buchman to end the game.
Andrew Struckmeyer
Vienna Senators