Not many fans saw it in person, but Jordan Zimmermann pitched eight scoreless innings and scored the game-winning run himself in the Washington Nationals' (28-22) 2-0 shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays (23-29) in Game 1 of Tuesday's double-header. The game took only 2:17 to complete.
Zimmermann led off the bottom of the fifth in a scoreless tie with a single. He advanced to second on Yunel Escobar's walk and third on Ian Desmond's sacrifice bunt. He then scored the game's first run on Bryce Harper's single. Ryan Zimmerman then brought home Escobar with a sacrifice fly to complete the game's scoring. No one on either team crossed the plate for the rest of the game.
Toronto threatened in the seventh with two singles, a sacrifice bunt, and a walk. However, Zimmermann got Russell Martin to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning and the threat. This was the only legitimate threat the Blue Jays posed all afternoon.
Zimmermann (W: 5-2, 2.88 ERA) pitched eight scoreless innings. He scattered six hits, two of them in the seventh, while walking one and striking out four. He got the Blue Jays to put the ball in play, and his defense gave him the support needed to make two runs stand up. Drew Storen (S: 17) pitched a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout to close it out.
Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (L: 2-6, 5.53) had his specialty pitch working well until the fifth. He allowed both runs on eight total hits while walking one and fanning six in six innings.
Game 2 begins at 7:05 p.m. EDT with Marco Estrada (1-3, 3.89) pitching for the visiting Blue Jays and Max Scherzer (6-3, 1.51) on the mound for Washington. The series concludes Wednesday with Mark Buehrle facing a yet undetermined Nationals starter.