MLB Game Summary - NY Yankees at Washington
Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Denard Span's single in the bottom of the seventh inning knocked in the deciding run in the Washington Nationals' 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees.
Span's bases-loaded hit off Justin Wilson snapped a 2-2 deadlock and helped the scorching Nationals sweep this two-game interleague series between teams currently going in opposite directions.
Washington posted its fifth straight win and 17th in 21 games despite Jordan Zimmermann allowing two early runs and slugger Bryce Harper's ejection by home plate umpire Marvin Hudson in the third inning for arguing a called strike while at bat.
Zimmermann (4-2) bounced back to hold the slumping Yankees scoreless over the remainder of his seven-inning stint, and the Nationals overcame the 2-0 deficit on solo homers by Ian Desmond and Tyler Moore.
New York managed just four hits after the first inning as it completed a brutal nine-game road trip with losses in seven of its final eight contests.
Adam Warren (2-3) worked 6 1/3 innings for the Yankees and was charged with all three runs, one of which was unearned due to a critical error by Chase Headley in the seventh.
"I thought I pitched pretty well," said Warren. "Just frustrating, the way I finished."
Headley misplayed Wilson Ramos' grounder that began the bottom of the seventh and Warren issued two of his four walks shortly afterward to load the bases and force his departure with one out. Span then greeted Wilson with a hard grounder through a drawn-in infield to send the Nationals in front.
Matt Grace got Headley to hit into a fielder's choice with two on to end the top of the eighth and the Yankees generated nothing off Drew Storen, who struck out two to work around a Didi Gregorius single to notch his 12th save.
Zimmermann yielded just five hits and fanned six, though his outing got off to a rough beginning when Brett Gardner opened the game with a bloop single in front of Carlos Beltran's run-scoring double into the gap in right-center. Beltran took third on Mark Teixeira's grounder and scored on a fly ball off Brian McCann's bat for a quick 2-0 Yankees lead.
Desmond cut Washington's deficit in half with a mammoth home run to center in the bottom of the first, and Moore knotted the score by lining a Warren curveball into the left-field seats three innings later.
Harper's night came to an early end when he jawed with Hudson over a low pitch that the umpire ruled a strike in the current National League home run leader's second plate appearance. The exchange prompted Nationals manager Matt Williams out of the dugout for a heated verbal spar with Hudson that triggered his ejection as well.
"I don't think 40,000 people came to watch him ump tonight, plain and simple," said Harper of Hudson. "There's no reason for me to get tossed in that situation. I don't think I really did anything bad to get tossed, but maybe he had a really bad morning."
Ramos finished 0-for-4 to have his 19-game hitting streak, the longest in the majors this season, halted.