Zimmerman’s RBI lifts Nationals

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Ryan Zimmerman grounded a go-ahead single off the shin of Pittsburgh reliever D.J. Carrasco in the seventh inning and the Washington Nationals, still buzzing after Stephen Strasburg’s dazzling debut, beat the Pirates 7-5 Wednesday night.

A night after a sellout crowd of 40,315 watched Strasburg strike out 14 Pirates in winning his big league debut, only 18,876 fans came to Nationals Park. They witnessed the first major league appearance by Pittsburgh’s Brad Lincoln, the fourth overall pick in the 2006 draft.

Lincoln, promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis after Tuesday night’s game, allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked two.

Lincoln also had two hits and drove in a run.

It was 5-all when Cristian Guzman singled in the seventh off Carrasco (1-2) and moved up on Nyjer Morgan’s sacrifice bunt. Zimmerman hit a grounder that struck Carrasco on his follow-through and caromed into short right field.

Adam Dunn homered for the second straight day as Washington handed the Pirates their seventh consecutive road loss. Pittsburgh has dropped four straight overall.

Drew Storen (2-0) worked a scoreless seventh for the victory. Tyler Clippard pitched the eighth and Matt Capps got the final three outs for his 20th save.

Dunn’s two-run homer in the first gave the Nationals a 2-0 lead. The Pirates went up 3-2 against Nationals starter John Lannan in the third.

Andrew McCutchen drew a one-out walk, Garrett Jones singled and both runners moved up on a double steal. McCutchen scored on Adam LaRoche’s groundout, and Lastings Milledge singled home Jones. Milledge went to second when center fielder Morgan threw wildly home and scored on Ronny Cedeno’s single.

Neil Walker’s single scored Jose Tabata for a 4-2 lead in the fourth.