The reservation should be under Dunn, party of four. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)>> Nationals 13, Padres 1: Well, the Nationals started about as well as they could have: a triple from Nyjer Morgan and a home run by Ryan Zimmerman staking them to an early two-run lead.
And then it started raining. And then it kept raining.
Three hours and ten minutes later, the top of the order picked up right where they left off with a five-run outburst in the bottom half of a nearly four-hour second inning. In front of Dan Steinberg, WWE wrestler Batista and a couple hundred of their closest friends who stuck around, Adam Dunn blasted a grand slam, his 25th homer of the season. Dunn and Zimmerman combined to knock in eight runs on the evening and the Nats had five players with at least two hits, including Nyjer Morgan’s four. All told, the 1-6 spots in the lineup went 16-27 at the plate. (A .593 average? Not bad.) Five Nats pitchers were on fire too, combining for a six-hitter — Tyler Clippard (1-0) got his first win of the season, ringing up seven Padres in four innings.
>> United 2, Earthquakes 2: United — Christian Gomez, specifically — bossed the first twenty minutes of the match, as San Jose offered far too much space on the narrow pitch at Buck Shaw Stadium. Gomez handed United a two-goal lead on a pair of fortuitous tallies — the first, a penalty kick after Luciano Emilio was fouled in the area three minutes in; the second, a fluky goal after a shot was deflected directly to him and he managed to stay onside. Ryan Johnson then pulled one back for the ‘Quakes, who applied plenty of pressure and were unfortunate to not be level or winning at the interval.
D.C. looked plain flat in the second half, while San Jose came out blazing. Rodney Wallace must have thought he was playing volleyball in the 62nd; his blatant handball led to striker Cornell Glen burying the spot kick, leveling matters. United, despite their penchant for late goals, were just out of gas and settled for the point, their tenth draw this year. The club still has only one road win this season, amazing for a team which sits but two points off the Conference lead.
>> Tribe 21, Divas 18: The D.C. Divas, Washington’s Independent Women’s Football League franchise, lost in the IWFL Championship Match against the Kansas City Tribe last night. (And yes, the only word of the final score we could find was through the IWFL Twitter. Feel free to peruse their feed for the scant play-by-play.) The Divas had run through the season without a loss. Bummer.
