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Lannan leads Nationals past Orioles

May 18, 2008 - 11:58 PM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Rookie John Lannan pitched 7 1/3 outstanding innings and Cristian Guzman belted a home run to help the Washington Nationals avoid a three-game sweep with a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

Lannan (4-4) gave up one run and just four hits while walking one with five strikeouts. The lefthander threw 71 of his 105 pitches for strikes.

"I like coming into situations when the team really needs it (a win)," Lannan said. "I just go out there and try to keep the team in the ball game. If you trust your stuff, you are going to get outs."

It was also the longest outing of Lannan's brief career, which pleased Washington's manager.

"He was tremendous," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "He kept it down and in the glove the whole day. He was getting quick outs, the kid deserves all the credit."

After rain delayed the start of the game for just over two hours, Guzman gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead in the top of the third by blasting his fourth home run of the season.

"I'm not trying to do too much," Guzman said. "I'm not really a home run hitter, but it was one of those days."

"Guzman worked the count, got ahead, got a fastball and hit it out of the ballpark," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said.

The score remained the same until the eighth when the Nationals added a much-needed insurance run on Ryan Zimmerman's RBI double. The hit scored Felipe Lopez, who led off with a double.

"Games like this are good for our confidence," Zimmerman said.

The Orioles never had more than one baserunner through the first seven innings but finally threatened in the eighth.

Adam Jones led off with a single and moved to third on a one-out double by Luke Scott before the rain came again and delayed the contest for approximately 30 more minutes.

When play resumed, Brian Roberts hit a sacrifice fly to center, but Luis Ayala got Melvin Mora to line out to right to end the inning.

Jon Rauch pitched a scoreless ninth for Washington to secure his 10th save.

Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie (2-4) went seven solid innings but suffered the loss. The righthander allowed just one run and five hits, walking three.

"Well-pitched game on both sides." Trembley said. "Guthrie competes, throws strikes. Obviously, we didn't have much offense going until late. We came up a hit short. That's the game."