Nationals and Marlins call it a draw, 5-5: Erick Fedde struggles in second Grapefruit League start...

Erick Fedde tossed three scoreless against the New York Mets in his first Grapefruit League start last Saturday. Fedde walked one and allowed one hit in the outing and impressed his manager, Dusty Baker, with his demeanor on the mound.

“He showed good poise, good demeanor,” Baker said, as quoted by Washington Post writer Jorge Castillo. “He’s aggressive. He got behind two batters and came back to even the count. He threw the ball well.”

Through seven innings before today, the 24-year-old, 2014 1st Round pick had held opposing hitters to a combined .120 AVG, with three hits, a walk and one unearned allowed in four Grapefruit League appearances.

This afternoon, in Jupiter, Florida’s Roger Dean Stadium, Fedde made his second start of the Spring, laboring through a long, 34-pitch first in which he gave up three hits, two walks and two runs and giving up a two-out, three-run home run in the second before he was done for the day after a 51-pitch outing in what ended up a 5-5 tie.

Here’s how it happened:

• Michael A. Taylor singled in his first at bat this afternoon, improving to 15 for 34 (.441 AVG) early in Grapefruit League action, with two doubles and two home runs one AB into his 16th game of the Spring. Taylor and Brian Goodwin, who walked with one down in the first, were both stranded by Marlins’ starter Scott Copeland, however.

• Dee Gordon dropped a bunt in for a hit on the first pitch from Erick Fedde in the bottom of the first and promptly stole second.

Gordon took third on a single by J.T. Realmuto and scored on a sac fly by Derek Dietrich, 1-0.

• Ichiro Suzuki stepped to the mound with the bases loaded and one out in the Marlins’ first — after a walk by Marcell Ozuna and a single by Justin Bour — and hit the second sac fly of the inning to make it 2-0 Marlins.

• Fedde came back out for the second after a long-ish, 34-pitch first inning and gave up a one-out walk, two-out HBP and three-run home run by Ozuna, 5-0.

Fedde was done at that point, after a 51-pitch outing in which 26 of 51 pitches were balls.

• Matt Grace took over for Fedde in the second and came back out for a scoreless third.

• MAT singled again to start the bottom of the third, (16 for 35).

• Joe Blanton struck out two Marlins’ batters in a quick, 1-2-3 fourth.

• The Nats got on the board in the fifth, with Spencer Kieboom drawing a leadoff walk from reliever Brian Ellington before scoring one out later when Wilmer Difo tripled to center to make it 5-1 Marlins.

• Neal Cotts put the first two runners on in the bottom of the fifth, but a lineout to left and a strike-em out, throw-em out double play ended the threat with Nationals’ catcher Pedro Severino throwing Marcell Ozuna out at third.

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• Matt Albers worked his way out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth, giving up back-to-back singles and a walk before striking out Destin Hood and retiring Marcell Ozuna.

• Pedro Severino started a game-tying rally in the seventh, walking with one down and scoring one out later on an RBI double by Adrian Sanchez. Sanchez scored on an RBI hit by Caleb Ramsey, and Ramsey scored after back-to-back walks by Rafael Bautista and Grant Green on an RBI double by Isaac Ballou that scored Bautista as well, 5-5.

• Braulio Lara worked a scoreless seventh. Austin Adams walked the first two batters he faced in the eighth before Jeremy Guthrie came on to work out of the jam, with an out at home on a grounder to first and a swinging K ending the threat.

• Guthrie came back out in the ninth and worked around a one-out single and two-out walk for a scoreless frame that ended the game.

Final Score: 5-5 tie.