Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats score seven on Michael Lorenzen after no-hitter last time; beat Phillies, 8-7

Revenge Game:

Michael Lorenzen, in his first start at home for the Phillies after Philadelphia acquired him in a trade deadline deal with the Detroit Tigers, no-hit Washington’s Nationals, walking four in a 124-pitch effort in a 7-0 win in Citizens Bank Park. Of the 319 pitchers to throw an official no-hitter, according to MLB, only 41 faced the same team in their next outing, as the Phillies mentioned in their game notes for the series opener between the NL East rivals last night in the nation’s capital.

Going into the outing, Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez said he and his team were prepared for another round with the 31-year-old, nine-year veteran.

“You know, when you go back and you look at what he did,” Martinez told reporters, “... first and foremost, it’s pretty awesome. You don’t see — well, I’ve seen a lot, but you don’t hardly see pitchers ever doing that, but we hit some balls hard, you know, so hopefully today we’ll have good at-bats, we’ll find some holes today, but we battle and score some runs. But the thing is, is really try to go out there and score early so we can just relax a little bit.

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

“I know it’s his first day back since his no-hitter, so I hope our team just goes out there and says, ‘Hey, we know what he did last time, but we had some good at-bats, and let’s focus on just hitting a strike and hitting it hard somewhere.”

Lane Thomas singled off Lorenzen in the bottom of the first, to relieve pressure (if there was any) on the team, though he was stranded, then a double by Stone Garrett and an RBI hit by Jake Alu in the third put a run on the board against the Phillies’ starter.

The visiting club put six runs up on the Nationals’ starter Joan Adon in the top of the fourth, however, giving Lorenzen a five-run lead to work with, but the home team rallied with a six-run bottom of the fourth inning, striking right back and taking a 7-6 lead, in what ended up an 8-7 win.

“The at-bats got better,” Martinez said of what precipitated the breakout inning.

“At that point, I know Adon had a long stretch [in the top of the fourth]. We were trying to see pitches. I tried to tell them to get the ball in the zone, try to see some pitches.”

“We were just trying to swing at strikes, have them get the ball up a little bit,” the manager said of the results this time out. “And they did that. Stay on the ball. We’re trying to stay in the middle of the field, and they did it. He’s got a good changeup — he’s got really good stuff — good sinker — but we did a lot better job of just trying to stay in the middle of the field.”

According to MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato, citing info from Elias Sports, the Nationals were the first team since 2001 to score 7+ runs on a pitcher who no-hit them in the previous start:

“It felt good,” Martinez said of responding like they did after Lorenzen’s historic outing. “Like I said, I was proud of the guys, I really was. They were ready.

“We had a game plan, for a while there we were like, ‘Wow,’ he’s got good stuff, but we got the ball up, we got him in the zone, and we hit some balls hard.”

PICKLE JUICE?:

Joan Adon struggled with cramps in his legs in each of his first two starts back in the majors this season, so the Nationals worked closely with the 25-year-old going into last night’s start against the Phillies.

“They’ve been really working with him all week long,” manager Davey Martinez said of all the time his coaches spent with the pitcher to make sure it didn’t happen again.

“Hopefully there’s no issues today,” Martinez added, “... and the biggest thing for him is to go out there and get through that first inning with no issues, and then we’ll go from there.”

One possible solution which was floated to the manager was pickle juice. Pickle juice? Yes, pickle juice.

“We’re going to give it to him here in a minute,” Martinez said before last night’s win.

“We are going to give it to him. I told him yesterday, I told him, ‘You’re drinking that pickle juice.’”

Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Adon was ... not thrilled with the prospect of drinking some down.

Martinez said they told him he should drink about two fingers’ worth.

“He looked at it like, ‘Ayyyyy,’ Martinez said. “He’s going to get it though.”

The manager said it’s something he did during his own 16-year career in the majors.

“That’s how I first heard of it,” he said. “I thought, ‘C’mon,’ but I tried it, and it was — when it was real hot and muggy — and today’s not that bad today, he should be alright today, but I tried it and it did help.”

Was the manager willing to drink it with Adon ... in solidarity?

“If he wants me to, I will. I’ll take one for the team,” Martinez said.

Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

There was no follow-up after the game asking if Martinez (or Adon, who gave up six hits, two walks, and six earned runs in a four-inning, 74-pitch outing, in what ended up an 8-7 win for Washington) did actually drink the pickle juice.

Pickle juice.