Strasburg, Nationals too strong for Indians
CLEVELAND -- Stephen Strasburg pitched seven scoreless innings, Trea Turner had three hits and three RBIs and Daniel Murphy homered as the Washington Nationals posted a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.
Strasburg (14-1) bounced back from his only loss of the season to hold the American League Central-leading Indians to three hits. The right-hander also had seven strikeouts and two walks in the victory.
Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco (7-4) surrendered three runs on as many hits in six innings to take the loss.
Blake Treinen picked up his first major-league save. It was only Washington's third win in its last nine games.
The Nationals took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, which began with Carrasco walking the first two batters he faced, Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon.
Ryan Zimmerman hit what looked like a double-play grounder to shortstop Francisco Lindor, who fielded it and threw to second baseman Jason Kipnis for the force out of Rendon. On his attempt to throw to first to complete the double play, Kipnis dropped the ball. Werth advanced to second and Zimmerman was safe at first.
Carrasco then struck out Danny Espinosa for the second out, but Ben Revere battled his way through a 12-pitch at-bat to draw a walk to load the bases. Turner followed with a single to left, scoring Werth and Zimmerman to give Washington a 2-0 lead.
The Nationals scored again in the sixth inning when Murphy led off the inning with his 20th home run into the right-field seats. Carrasco retired the next three batters to finish the inning and his day.
The Indians could do nothing with Strasburg. Jose Ramirez doubled with one out in the second inning, but Strasburg retired Lonnie Chisenhall on a popout and struck out Rajai Davis to end the threat.
Tyler Naquin led off the third with a walk, and he went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Gimenez. Cleveland failed to score with a runner again at second and one out, as Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis both flied out to end that inning.
Ramirez again singled in the fourth and went to third on a throwing error by Nationals third baseman Rendon. With runners at second and third and two outs, Strasburg retired Davis on a groundout to end that threat.
Naquin reached on a leadoff single in the sixth, but Strasburg retired the next three batters in order.
Washington scored its final run in the seventh inning off reliever Dan Otero. Zimmerman led off with an infield single, and he went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Espinosa. Turner followed with a double down the left-field line, scoring Zimmerman to make it 4-0.
Cleveland finally scored in the ninth inning off the Washington bullpen. With one out, pinch-hitter Erik Gonzalez walked and went to second on a single by Davis off Felipe Rivero. Naquin singled up the middle, scoring Gonzalez and moving Davis to second.
But Treinen relieved Rivero and got Roberto Perez to ground into a game-ending double play.
NOTES: Nationals INF Stephen Drew has been placed on the disabled list with vertigo-like symptoms. Drew has left the team to return to Washington for further tests. ... To replace Drew on the roster, the Nationals recalled INF Wilmer Difo from Double-A Harrisburg. ... A scoring change from Tuesday's game extended Nationals 2B Daniel Murphy's hitting streak to 12 games. A grounder hit by Murphy in the first inning was originally ruled an error on 3B Juan Uribe, but the official scorer changed it to a hit on Wednesday. Instead of going 0-for-5 in Tuesday's game, Murphy was 1-for-5, extending his hitting streak to 12 games. ... The Indians entered Wednesday's game with an eight-game winning streak in interleague play, their longest interleague win streak since a nine-game streak in 2005. ... According to Elias, prior to their 7-6 win Tuesday, the Indians had lost 95 consecutive games when trailing by three or more runs in the seventh inning or later.