[jaykno14]

Sledge and Vidro both homered in the Nationals' debut as a Major League Baseball team

Nationals Win in Cincinnati; Get first win out of the way

Although Livan Hernandez didn't have his best outing, the National's new offense carried the team yesterday winning an extra inning game 7-5.

Hernandez didn't start off too well giving up a two run homerun in the bottom of the first inning to Sean Casery after he had given up an infield single to D'Angelo Jiminez the second baseman. Eric Milton was pitching shoutout ball until the top of the fifth inning when Jose Vidro and Termmell Sledge hit back to back home runs and then Schneider hit a sigle and scored three batters later on a two out single from Jose Guillen the new National. In the top of the sixth the Nationals added one more off of a Livan Hernandez one out RBI single that drove in Sledge. The lead would be short lived though, as Hernandez gave up a three run home run to Adam Dunn, his second of the day, after giving up a hit to Sean Casey and walking Ken Griffey Jr. In the top of the seventh the Nationals were able to score a run for the third straight inning when Nick Johnson drove in Cristian Guzman, who had doubled to lead off the inning. The game went eventless and into extras until the top of the tenth. Jose Vidro led off the inning with a solo home run that was followed up by Termmell Sledge's second home run of the day. That put the lead at 7-5 which was held up by Chad Cordero who got save number one on the season.

The winning pitcher of the game was Joe Horgan who came in on relief in the bottom of the eighth and allowed only two base runners and no runs to score. Kent Mercker got the loss for Cincinatti. Adam Dunn led the Reds offensively going 2-5 with a home run and three runs batted in. Meanwhile Jose Vidro and Termell Sledge combined to go 6-9 with four home runs, five runs, and four runs batted in.

Tomorrow's matchup will be Esteban Loaiza versus Paul Wilson and on Wednesday it will be Tomo Ohka versus Aaron Harang.