Heres Jonny! Not Just Once, Not Twice, But Three Times
Can we get these guys on the schedule more often? I think just about any team in the majors would love to have the lowly Nationals (40-75) on their schedule about every week. Jonny Gomes took the Nats pitching deep three times in his first three at-bats, and the Reds cruised to an easy 7-0 victory last night. He started the season in Triple-A Louisville, before getting the call up in late May. “I was in Triple-A to start this thing off, and now, not too many at-bats later, I have three home runs.”
The scoring for the Reds started off in the second, when Gomes took Collin Balester deep, scoring Nix, who doubled to start the inning off. Hanigan, after a Rosales groundout, took the Nationals hurler deep again, adding to the lead, making it 3-0. Gomes did it again in the 4th, with a major shot up to the upper deck in left, and then again in the 6th, making him the 6th player to hit 3 homers in a game this season, and the first since Votto did it in Wrigley early May last year. “That was one the best performances I’ve seen in a long time,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “We needed those runs and the victory, and that was an outstanding performance by Bronson, too. It was like he didn’t break a sweat.”
Bronson’s performance was the one side of his bi-polar pitching performances he had given all year. Bronson went out, and threw a complete game 2 hitter, giving up the only hits to Ryan Zimmerman, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games, the only thing the lowly Nats have left to look forward to, and the other hit was to ex-Red Adam Dunn. “Early on, they hit a couple of balls hard, and Laynce made some great plays,” Bronson said. “I got a lot of groundballs right at people on my changeup and sinker. The ball rolled my way today, and those three runs we got early on were huge. Lately, it seems like I’ve had fight and scratch to keep the score close early.”
