The story in this one was the dominant performance on the mound by Ron Massaroni for the Cubs. Through the first six innings, Ron scattered four singles (one was a bloop) and a booming two-out double by Rudy Fallas. Two of those singles were erased when trying to steal second by the Cubs' fourth string catcher.
The Cubs' offense got off to a strong start in the bottom of the first when Tom Maney and Randy Craft led off with walks. MVP candidate, Ron Lochner (coming into the game with a .579 regular season average), promptly delivered both runners with a solid double to right. After an error moved the runner to third, Mike Girard drove in the third run of the inning on a RBI groundout.
The Nats made it 3-1 in the top of the second on singles by Dan Ryan, Erik Miller, a Jim Bonaparte HBP, and an error. Massaroni put the fire out by getting a hot-hitting Bobby Lane to ground out to short.
The Cubs got that run back in the bottom of the 2nd on consecutive walks to Gadomski and Maney, followed by a sacrafice bunt by Craft, and a RBI ground out by Ron Lochner.
The Cubs pushed the score to 5-1 in the bottom of the 4th on a walk to Jim McQuade, two wild pitches, and a sacrafice fly by Tom Maney.
The Nats never gave up and plated two runs in the top of the seventh, and had runners on first and third and two out, when Massaroni got Fitzgerald to line one back to the mound that he knocked down and threw to first to end the game.
The two teams meet again on Wednesday night at New Scotland at 5:45pm. It should be another tight, hard fought affair.

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 10th of August 2010 07:52:09 AM

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 10th of August 2010 07:52:41 AM

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 10th of August 2010 07:54:52 AM