Ryan Zimmerman sets franchise record with big day in Nationals’ rally win

The Orioles jumped all over Nationals lefty Jon Lester in the first inning. Ryan Mountcastle’s grand slam capped off a five-run first for the Beltway rivals.

Then Washington turned the corner in the third inning. Trailing 6-1, the Nationals loaded the bases for Josh Harrison. Juan Soto, Zimmerman and Kyle Schwarber were on the bags when Harrison delivered a grand slam of his own to cut the deficit to 6-5.

One inning later in the fourth, Zimmerman had the opportunity to cash in. With the game tied at 6-6 and two runners on base, Zimmerman delivered a 436-foot moon shot to left for a three-run homer. The Nationals took a 9-6 lead off Zimmerman’s blast and never looked back.

When he came back up to the plate in the sixth, Zimmerman was knocking on the doorstep of history. He beat out an infield single to third. The next batter Starlin Castro hit a sacrifice fly to right that allowed Juan Soto tag and score from third, and Zimmerman to tag and advance to second.

One batter later, Schwarber roped a single to right center. Zimmerman hustled from second and rounded the corner to score. The run pushed Washington’s lead to 11-7. It also gave him the record-breaking 948th run scored.

Zimmerman is in his 16th season in MLB. All of them have been with the Nationals. The first ever draft pick after the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, Zimmerman has earned the moniker of “Mr. National” due to all the milestone and accomplishments in an Washington uniform.