WASHINGTON _ Through almost his entire outing Friday night, Francisco Liriano managed to suppress the base-on-balls issue he has struggled with all season. Of 22 batters faced, he walked one, and erased him in a force-out. Then he walked three of the final five batters he faced. The final free pass opened the gates on a four-run inning that turned a 1-1 pitchers' duel into a 5-1 Washington Nationals victory at Nationals Park.
Though Liriano's line _ three runs and five hits in six-plus innings _ looks fine, the four walks, and their timing, tell the story. Liriano walked at least three batters for the ninth time in 10 starts and continues to lead Major League Baseball in the category. Moreover, when Liriano walked two in a row in the sixth before stranding them, manager Clint Hurdle sent him back out for the seventh, even with a fresh bullpen coming out of the All-Star break.
Danny Espinosa walked to start the bottom of the seventh. Clint Robinson followed with a single, at which point Hurdle replaced Liriano with Neftali Feliz. With runners on the corners and nobody out, Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg bunted back to Feliz, who looked at Espinosa creeping down the third-base line to freeze him. Feliz turned and threw to David Freese at first, but Freese had initially broken toward the ball and misstepped around the bag. Strasburg was safe, and when Espinosa broke for the plate, Freese's throw was late.
A wild pitch, a throwing error and Michael Taylor's three-run homer put the Nationals ahead, 5-1.
After losing seven games in a row in late June, the Nationals won 11 of their final 15 before the break. Their 54-36 record was the third-best in baseball, tied with the Texas Rangers and behind only the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs.
Strasburg (13-0) had not taken a loss in 16 starts entering Friday, and the Nationals had lost only one game he started. That game, June 4 against the Cincinnati Reds, was the only start during which Strasburg pitched fewer than six innings. He went seven innings or more eight times. Friday he did so again, allowing one run and three hits in eight innings.
The only batter either starter allowed on base through three innings was Freese, whom Strasburg walked with one out in the first. He erased the mistake by inducing a double-play ball from Andrew McCutchen. He kept rolling after that, and thanks to two great plays from shortstop Espinosa in the fourth, Strasburg did not allow a hit through four innings.
The Pirates finally hit safely in the fifth, when Starling Marte led off with a single. He stole his 31st base of the season and help set up the game's first run. After Jung Ho Kang's groundout moved Marte to third, Jordy Mercer poked a single to right field and the Pirates had a 1-0 lead.
Liriano gave it away. With Wilson Ramos aboard in the fifth, Espinosa pounded a high bouncer to third, high enough that by the time it fell into Jung Ho Kang's glove he had no play. Clint Robinson, a late replacement in Washington's lineup after Daniel Murphy was scratched due to leg soreness, singled and tied the game at 1-1.
