Nats' DJ Herz whiffs 13 Marlins, earns first career win

Rookie left-hander DJ Herz allowed one hit over six shutout innings while striking out 13 for the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon, earning his first major league victory in a 4-0 win against the visiting Miami Marlins.

Herz (1-1) did not allow a walk in his third career start.

Dylan Floro pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, Hunter Harvey struck out Tim Anderson with the bases loaded to end the eighth, and Kyle Finnegan pitched the ninth to complete the shutout for Washington.

Lane Thomas and Joey Meneses each homered for the Nationals, who have won seven of eight.

Marlins starter Trevor Rogers (1-8) allowed two runs and six hits over seven innings. He struck out three and didn't walk a batter.

Jake Burger had two of the four hits for Miami, which has lost four in a row. Washington won the series opener 8-1 on Friday night.

Thomas smoked a line drive to the left-center gap with one out in the second and barely beat the throw to second for a double, extending his hitting streak to nine games. Jesse Winker hit a grounder through the open left side of the infield to put runners on the corners before Meneses lined out to center to score Thomas with the sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.

Ildemaro Vargas followed with another single, but Winker got picked off trying to get back to second to end the inning. Winker apparently injured himself on the play because Luis Garcia Jr. replaced him in his next at-bat and doubled.

Thomas went deep over the right-field fence with two outs in the third inning to extend the lead to 2-0. Thomas hit a three-run homer on Friday.

Herz retired the first 12 batters in order before Burger singled to lead off the fifth. But Herz bounced back to strike out his ninth and 10th batters before getting Emmanuel Rivera to ground out to third to end the inning.

Meneses gave the Nationals some insurance with a two-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole in the eighth to make it 4-0.

--Field Level Media