Ross Outshines Stroman As Bros Duel On The Mound in Queens

Five MLB bros were on blast Saturday afternoon when the Washington Nationals and New York Mets went toe-to-toe again at CitiBank Field in Queens.

In the second game of a massive early season, three-game series, Joe Ross met Marcus Stroman on the hill while the Nats put the entire right side of the infield in the hands of Black Knights, Josh Bell and Josh Harrison.

Ross Was Boss

Ross followed his worst start of the season against the Phillies with arguably his best.

Manager Dave Martinez pulled him after 91 pitches and an easy 6 innings of work as DC smashed New York 7-1.  The understated righty found the location that was missing in St. Louis earlier last week and put the Mets bats on ice.

It was the perfect rebound performance for Washington after Ross gave up 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings last Monday versus the Cardinals.

This was a solid all-around performance by Ross who also did his thing at the plate with an RBI single in the second inning.

 

That was an early blow, giving them a 2-0 lead and forcing New York into a standing eight count. His only mistake was a solo HR to Michael Conforto in the fourth. Otherwise Ross was in shutdown mode all afternoon.

Harrison and Bell ignited the Washington offense and they went for the kill early and delivered.

Harrison walked in the first and scored as Starlin Castro drove him in for a first inning lead on a day where he finished 1-for-5 at the plate.

Bell later scored when Castro lined a shot to centerfield and the floodgates were officially open, officially sinking the Mets.

 

Stro Had No Flow

There wasn’t too much for Stroman to smile about after losing the fight with his location and the Nationals took advantage.  They clipped him for a run in the first inning and it was downhill from there for the Mets starter, who was due for a rocky start after being lights out this season for the Mets. Entering Saturday’s start Stro Bro was 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA.

Nationals manager had Stroman’s number and stacked the lineup with lefties.

 

 

It was the most unfortunate time for Stroman considering this was the Saturday afternoon game of the week and the national TV audience caught his worst start of the year.  The durag was tight but his game wasn’t as he lasted just 4 innings trailing 5-0 after yielding 8 hits and 5 runs.