NEW YORK — With two outs in the 11th inning Wednesday, Denard Span hit a bouncer toward the middle of the infield and raced toward first base, beating the throw and allowing Tyler Moore to score from third. The infield single gave the Washington Nationals a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees.
The win gave the Nationals a two-game split at Yankee Stadium. They had lost nine of their past 11 games entering Wednesday.
THE RUNDOWN: Given the continued struggles of their lineup, the Nationals have needed dominant pitching performances to have any shot at winning in recent weeks. They got one from Gio Gonzalez on Wednesday afternoon. The left-hander didn’t allow a hit until midway through the third inning and worked through a few jams over six scoreless innings. The seventh was a different story. Gonzalez gave up a leadoff single to Chris Young, then a triple to Brendan Ryan that fell just beyond Denard Span’s reach in center field. Young scored. And that was just the beginning. The Yankees proceeded to tack on three more runs against Felipe Rivero and Aaron Barrett, one of them the result of a ball hitting second base and ricocheting over Ian Desmond’s head.
THE HIGHLIGHT: Michael A. Taylor entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning, taking Clint Robinson’s place in left field. Then he changed the game with his offense. With two outs in the eighth inning and Ian Desmond on first base, Taylor took a 1-2 pitch from left-hander Jacob Lindgren to right field, tying the game. It was his fifth homer of the season. All five have either tied a game or given the Nationals a lead.
STAR OF THE GAME: As the Nationals have remained mired in a two-week long slump, Danny Espinosa has been one of the few players providing consistent offense. He did so again Wednesday. In the third inning, he hit the first of back-to-back doubles, scoring the first run of the game. Then, in the fifth, he sent a low curveball from Nathan Eovaldi to the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center field to double Washington’s lead. It was his eighth home run of the season, which ranked third among major-league second baseman at the time — despite Espinosa’s relative shortage of at-bats. He finished 3 for 5, and a triple shy of the cycle.
THE TAKEAWAY: Wednesday’s takeaway actually came before the game, when manager Matt Williams spoke at length about the plantar fasciitis that has been bothering Ryan Zimmerman for more than a month. Zimmerman downplayed the issue Sunday, noting that everyone plays through nicks and bruises at some point in the season. This injury, however, may now be affecting his performance. Zimmerman entered Wednesday in a 4-for-46 skid, one of the worst of his career. “He hasn’t made mention to me or to us that it’s bothering him when he swings,” Williams said. But whether he’s discussing it or not, the effect might still be there. He was given another day off Wednesday, and the Nationals are monitoring it daily. “It’s not like it’s a pulled muscle so it’s something that bothers him differently every day,” Williams said. “Some days it’s better than others. Some days it doesn’t go well. We’ll see.”
SEE ALSO: In Nationals’ loss to Yankees, Ian Desmond’s error turns the tide
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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