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Espinosa's 2-run HR lifts Nats over ChiSox

Jun 27, 2011 - 1:23 AM Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Danny Espinosa cracked a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to lift the Washington Nationals to a 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox in the finale of a three-game interleague series.

Jerry Hairston Jr. picked up the only other two hits for the Nationals, who have won 13 of their past 15 games and five consecutive series.

Livan Hernandez (5-8) tossed 6 2/3 innings to earn the victory, yielding only one run on eight hits while striking out nine and walking two. It was his highest strikeout total in nearly seven years.

The Nationals go out on a winning note under interim manager John McLaren, who will be succeeded by the newly appointed Davey Johnson beginning with Monday's contest against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Johnson served as a senior advisor to general manager Mike Rizzo since 2009, but will come out of the front office and take over for McLaren, who was given the reins for the weekend series, and went 2-1 against the White Sox.

"I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the moment," McLaren said. "The John McLaren era is over in Washington. I am glad we won the series, I am happy for everybody and I'm going home."

Philip Humber (7-4) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before it was broken up by Hairston's leadoff single. Humber worked 6 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits to take the loss.

"Obviously, when you get beat on one swing, you're going to wish you'd done something different," Humber said. "Either a different pitch or a different location, but that's going to happen."

Carlos Quentin and Juan Pierre smacked doubles and Paul Konerko collected an RBI single for the White Sox, who have lost six of their past 11 games.

Drew Storen worked a perfect ninth to earn his 19th save of the season.

Washington's bats were completely silenced by Humber until the seventh inning. Michael Morse drew a two-out walk and Espinosa followed by blasting a fastball from Humber over the wall in right to give the Nats a 2-1 lead.

The White Sox opened the scoring in the third inning. Omar Vizquel slapped a one-out single to left and Quentin followed with a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third for the Sox. Konerko came through with an RBI single to right to put the White Sox up 1-0.

Game Notes

Washington is 16-6 in June, and has clinched the first winning June since the club went 20-6 in 2005...Chicago leads the all-time series with Washington by a 4-2 margin...Quentin hit his 22nd double of the year in the third.