Washington Nationals right-hander Jordan Zimmermann struck out four, walked one, completed his first career shutout and limited the Reds to just one hit for the second straight game to beat Cincinnati 1-0. Washington won Thursday night when Gio Gonzalez pitched eight strong innings in an 8-1 victory.
After watching Gonzalez the night before Zimmermann had a game plan for the Reds. They were swinging early just like tonight,” Zimmermann said. “I just saw that, and I figured if I did the same, I’d get the same results.”
Reds manager Dusty Baker had a different take. “We had quite a few pitches to hit,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “We just didn’t find any holes. We’ve just got to keep swinging. We didn’t do a bunch of striking out, we put the ball in play. He was good tonight, but we didn’t find any holes.”
The two teams will meet again on Saturday with Mike Leake taking the mound for Cincinnati and Dan Haren for Washington.
