The positives for the Washington Nationals from last night's devastating walk-off loss to the Miami Marlins...?
Wait, was it a "devastating" loss? Not according to Nats' skipper Matt Williams.
Will the NL East's first-place Nationals be able to recover from the 7-6 series opening loss to the surging Fish?
"They're fine," Williams said. "A loss is a loss is a loss. It stings a little more when you've got the lead late and it doesn't happen for you. But they're resilient. If they've shown anything this year, they are that. And they are professionals. They'll be ready to play tomorrow."
Tonight in Marlins Park, it's Stephen Strasburg on the mound against Miami.
Last night it was Jordan Zimmermann, who bounced back from a rough-ish outing against the Colorado Rockies on the road in Coors Field with a strong seven-inning start against the Marlins in which he gave up four hits, a walk and two runs while striking out six and inducing six ground ball outs from the 25 batters he faced.
"He was really good tonight," Williams told reporters. "He was down in the zone. Great slider tonight. So, he pitched really well. Much better than his last one. The last one was just rust. So tonight he proved that he's back on it."
The two runs Zimmermann allowed came in his final inning of work on the mound. The Nationals' 28-year-old right-hander issued the only free pass he gave up to Giancarlo Stanton, then one out later gave up a line drive to right by Garrett Jones on which right fielder Nate McLouth, who was in the game after Jayson Werth injured his ankle, made an ill-advised attempt at a diving catch and came up empty. Jones was credited with an RBI triple, driving in the Marlins' first run and he scored from third on an RBI single by Marcell Ozuna in the next at bat.
Williams was asked after the loss if McLouth's missed catch was a big turning point?
"It turns out to be a big play because that was their first run, it's really not," Williams explained. "The game was set up for us to win it with a three-run lead in the ninth. There's a lot of things... the ball that Bryce [Harper] hit up the middle that he ran hard on and we ended up getting a few runs out of that one, so we can look back at things in the game that you could say that that set it up, it didn't really set it up. We had it set up for us in the ninth, it didn't happen."
The Harper hit the first-year skipper was referring to was a bases-loaded grounder up the middle in the sixth that took a bad hop on Marlins' shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, who bobbled the ball and made a weak underhand toss toward second that bounced and rolled by the base leaving everyone safe as the Nats' third run of the game scored.
The Nationals were up 3-0 at that point and they took a 6-0 lead when Wilson Ramos walked to force in a run and Danny Espinosa drove in two more with a line drive single to center later in that inning.
Things fell apart after that and went horribly wrong in the ninth, with the Marlins scoring seven runs over the final three innings to claim the first game of three in Miami.
Getting back to those positives: Harper ended the night 2 for 4 with his third multi-hit game in the last 10, over which he's 10 for 31 (,323/.447/.484) with two doubles, a home run, seven walks and 10 Ks.
"Better timing today," Williams said when asked about Harper's work at the plate. "Seeing the ball good. Drove the ball to left-center field. Hit a couple balls back through the middle. Even the potential double play ball he hit hard. So, he swung the bat really well. He saw it good tonight."