Drese dominates Angels in debut

On Wednesday night, there wasn't a near-brawl or gamesmanship between the Nationals and Angels. It was just a good old-fashioned pitching duel between right-handers Ryan Drese and Bartolo Colon. When it was over, Drese won the battle and helped the Nationals shut out the Angels, 1-0, in front of 43,505 fans at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
The lone run was scored in the sixth inning, when Brian Schneider took Colon's first pitch and hit the ball over the right-center field wall. It was Schneider's fourth home run of the season.

"Bartolo is aggressive. He comes right after you. I put a good swing on it and got it," Schneider said. "You have to be patient and be selective."

It looked as if the Angels were going to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. They had the bases loaded with none out against closer Chad Cordero. But Cordero struck out Steve Finley, induced Bengie Molina to fly out to shallow center field and struck out Dallas McPherson to end the game. Cordero wound up picking up his 21st save of the season.

"It feels good when you are able to get out of it like that," Cordero said. "I try not to worry about what just happened. I just try to go after the next hitter. I try to act like there's nobody on."

Getting out of jams is nothing new for Cordero. For example, on May 2, 2004, Cordero had the bases loaded and no outs against the Dodgers, but didn't allow a run to score.

"He has the ability to reach back and give a little extra," manager Frank Robinson said. "The ball doesn't have any more speed, but it has a little more movement on it or he locates it a little bit better when he gets in trouble."

The Nationals, who took two out of three games from the Angels, have won 12 of their last 13 games and are in first place in the National League East, three games ahead of the Phillies. The Nationals are 17-7 in one-run games.

"The confidence continues to build with each win. If they have to be one-run games, that's the way we have to play them. This club is not going to run anybody off the field offensively," Robinson said. "One-run games are just the norm for this club. It's not the exception."

Drese, making his Nationals debut after being picked up on waivers from the Rangers last Friday, pitched eight innings and gave up just two hits. He struck out three batters and walked four.

Drese relied heavily on the sinker and had 16 ground-ball outs.

"It was a terrific outing on his part. He had them hit a lot of ground balls and the infielders made the plays behind him," Robinson said. "He just made it look easy out there. He was loose. He made the pitches when he had to. He got ahead of hitters and finished them off. He made them swing the bat."

Drese had only two runners reach second base and that came in the fourth and sixth innings. After Darin Erstad walked in the fourth, he reached second on a passed ball by Schneider. In the sixth Erstad walked again, and reached second on a wild pitch by Drese.

"Tonight, I was happy to get us back in a win. Bartolo threw really well also," Drese said. "I was getting on top of the ball a little bit more and I'm attacking the strike zone except for Erstad. I don't know why I couldn't throw a strike to him."

Colon went the distance, allowing eight hits. Robinson is familiar with Colon, who played for Robinson on the 2002 Expos. Robinson knew ahead of time that Colon was going to be tough.

"Bartolo is just one of the pitchers who just won't let you get too far away from him," Robinson said. "We knew we needed a well-pitched game against him. He gave us one and that was enough tonight."

Source: http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/