May 29: This Day In Nationals’ History

Ryan Zimmerman, who retired after last season, made his broadcasting debut on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) to mostly favorable reviews on Tuesday with the Los Angeles Dodgers in town.

And it was nine years ago this week that the former University of Virginia star had one of the best games of his career.

Playing in Baltimore against the Orioles, Zimmerman had three homers on this day in 2013, but the Nationals lost 9-6 to the Orioles.

There were eight homers hit on the day at Camden Yards.

“Things start off well for the Nats, with Zimmerman homering in his first three at-bats for a 6 - 3 lead, but in the 7th, Jordan Zimmermann serves up a two-run homer to Steve Pearce and reliever Tyler Clippard allows a two-run homer to Chris Davis, his second of the game, as the O’s score six times by the end of the inning. Zimmermann falls to 8-3 as Steve Johnson wins for the first time this year,” according to baseballreference.com

Clippard is back in the Nationals’ system and has been with Triple-A Rochester this year.

On May 29, 2017, there was another memorable game in Washington history with another kind of slugfest.

In the eighth inning, Giants’ pitcher Hunter Strickland hit Bryce Harper with a fastball with Washington leading 3-0.

Harper charged the mound and Strickland had to be removed by some of his teammates.

“The Nats claim the pitch is in retaliation for an incident during the 2014 Division Series when Harper homered twice off Strickland and the two exchanged words; they had not faced one another since then. Harper will receive a four-game suspension and Strickland one of six games for their part in the fracas. Nats player Mike Morse suffers a concussion during the melee, ending his career,” according to baseballreference.com.

Morse later did some fill-in work on MASN as a color analyst on Nationals’ games.

Strickland pitched in 24 games out of the bullpen for the Nationals in 2019. He has been with the Reds to begin this campaign.

Another big day on May 29 took place in 2016.

Stephen Strasburg improved to 9-0 on the year with a win over the Cardinals as Jayson Werth hit a grand slam for Washington and Wilson Ramos also went deep.

Strasburg set a Montreal/Washington franchise record for most wins to start a season – besting the 8-0 start by Pedro Martinez with the Expos in 1997.

On Tuesday, while Zimmerman was in the broadcast booth, Strasburg made a rehab start down I-95 for the Fredericksburg Nationals.

On May 29, 1976, Jerry Hairston was born in Iowa; the veteran position player was with the Nationals in 2011.

Another May 29 birthday – pitcher Trevor Rosenthal was born on that day in 1990 in Missouri.

The veteran reliever pitched in 12 games, with poor success, with the Nationals in 2019. He did much better the next year with Kansas City and San Diego, not allowing a run in nine outings with the Padres.