June 10, 2013
Ceci Ferrara
Sports Writer
Sports Insider
Sunday was a good day for the Nationals (31-31), who swept the Minnesota Twins in a day-night doubleheader. The back-to-back wins place the Nationals back at .500, still seven and a half games behind the Braves. “It’s good to get back to .500 — and get on with it,” Washington manager Davey Johnson said.
Jordan Zimmerman (9-3) took the mound for the Nats in the afternoon, and was dominant, despite donning a heating pad to relieve tightness in his neck during a pre-game meeting. He struck out eight and allowed just two hits over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.0. His teammates scored a combined seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings to shut out the Twins 7-0. With the win, Zimmerman is now tied with Clay Buchholz (Boston), Patrick Corbin (Arizona), and Adam Wainwright (St. Louis) for most wins in the league. While Stephen Strasburg (3-5) has struggled during the first part of the season, Zimmerman has emerged as the star pitcher on the team and is already considered a Cy Young contender.
The night game, which was a makeup of Friday’s rainout, was not such an easy win. Both Minnesota and Washington opted to start pitchers recently called up from the minor leagues, with Nathan Karns (0-1) getting his third start for Washington. Karns lasted just three innings, and was removed after giving up a two-run homer in the top of the inning. The two runs added to the base-clearing double Karns allowed in the second, and left the Nats in a 4-1 hole.
A single by newly healthy Jayson Werth in the bottom of the inning cut the deficit to three, while a sac fly by Adam LaRoche in the fifth put the Nats within one. A triple by Denard Span in the bottom of the sixth combined with a double by Ian Desmond in the seventh gave Washington a 5-4 lead they never relinquished. For the Nationals, the wins showed the team could be productive offensively, even without their best hitter, Bryce Harper. Harper remained on the disabled list with a sore knee as he awaited his appointment with Dr. James Andrews, the same sports injury specialist who performed surgery on Robert Griffin III.
NBA Finals
The San Antonio Spurs do not intend to roll over for LeBron James and the Miami Heat–they made that quite clear in their 92-88 Game 1 win. But what looked to be another close game on Sunday quickly turned into a blowout, when Miami went on a 14-3 run at the end of the third quarter and took a ten-point lead into the fourth.
San Antonio, who had kept the game close and at one point even led in the third, unraveled in the final quarter. Tony Parker, the main offensive force for the Spurs, missed jumper after jumper, while his teammates Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter committed turnovers. “Missing shots and not shooting well and turning it over is a bad combination,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters afterwards. At one point trailing by twenty-seven points, San Antonio redeemed themselves–but by then, both teams had accepted the inevitable and removed their starters.
Mario Chalmers led Miami with nineteen points, while James finished with seventeen after a slow first half. Though LeBron did not put up big numbers, his eight rebounds and seven assists, along with an almost unbelievable shot block in the fourth, were crucial to Miami’s 103-84 win. With the series tied 1-1, the teams travel to San Antonio for the next three games, with Game 3 scheduled for Tuesday night.
