Nationals rout A's for sixth straight win

Ryan Church and Brian Schneider drove in a combined five runs and helped the Nationals pound the Athletics, 7-2, in front of 28,749 fans at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Nationals have now won six consecutive games -- nine out of their last 10 -- and are now a season high seven games over .500 at 33-26.

The Nationals were losing, 2-0, when they came back against right-hander Ryan Glynn. With two outs, Church took an 0-1 pitch and homered over the right-field wall to cut the lead to 2-1.

"All I know the pitch was down. I was able to extend my arms. I put it on the barrel of the bat. That's all you could ask for. Another line drive that went out of the yard," Church said.

Washington then took the lead for good in the fourth inning off Glynn. After Nick Johnson walked and stole second, Carlos Baerga doubled to right field to bring home Johnson and tie the score at 2.

Schneider followed and took an 0-1 pitch and homered over the right-field wall and give the Nationals a 4-2 lead. It was Schneider's third home run of the season and first since April 29 against the Mets.

"Glynn got ahead with the curveball, but most of the game, he was throwing a lot of fastballs. I was looking for the fastball and I put a good swing on it," Schneider said, who is hitting .231. "I try not to get down. I know I haven't been swinging the bat the way I should. All I can do is give what I can defensively. Offensively, I know I'm going to come around one of these days. Tonight was a big hit for the team. Hopefully, I can come out tomorrow and get a big hit for the team."

With left-hander Ricardo Rincon on the mound, the Nationals added two more runs in the sixth inning, when Church tripled past first baseman Dan Johnson to drive in Cristian Guzman and Brad Wilkerson. The runs were charged to Keiichi Yabu.

Overall, Church went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and was a double short of the cycle. In his last at-bat in the eighth inning, Church admitted that he was going for the two-bagger. In fact, he swung at a 3-0 count and fouled it off. He would later single up the middle, but was later scolded by manager Frank Robinson for swinging at the 3-0 pitch.

"I was caught up in the moment. In that situation, you take a strike. I'm a rookie," Church said.

In the seventh, Vinny Castilla drove in the final run of the game with a solo home run over the left center-field wall off Juan Cruz.

The winning pitcher was Esteban Loaiza (2-4), who pitched seven solid innings and gave up two runs. He struck out four batters and walked three. It was his first win since May 2 against the Dodgers.

The two runs were scored in the first inning on a two-run homer by Bobby Crosby, but the Athletics' lead was erased by the fourth.

Entering the game, the Nationals averaged 2.07 runs per game per game when Loaiza was in the game, but they gave him a comfortable lead by the sixth inning.

"The bottom like is winning and we won today and I pitched a good game, except allowing that two-run home run," Loaiza said. "After that, there is still a lot of innings left and I knew my team was going to get some runs and go from there."

With the win, the Nationals remain in first place in the National League East and are 1 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Phillies. It's also the first time the Nationals have won six in a row since April 19-25, 2002, when they were the Expos.

For Baerga, he is seeing the same winning spirit that the 1995 Indians had. He was the everyday second baseman when the Indians played the Braves in the World Series.

"It's not just one player getting the job done. Today it was Schneider and Church, who has been doing it the last few days for us. When Wilkerson and [Jose] Guillen get hot, it's going to be unbelievable," Baerga said. "We are feeling that attitude of the '95 Indians. We don't have the power that the Indians had, but Nick Johnson is keeping us in the game all the time. Plus the pitching staff is keeping us in the game."

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