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Belliard's walk-off blast lifts Nationals past Orioles

Jun 29, 2008 - 11:05 PM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Ronnie Belliard's two-run blast in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted the Washington Nationals to a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday in the finale of the "Battle of the Beltway."

Aaron Boone drove in a run in the second on a fielder's choice for the Nationals, who earned a split of the six-game season series against their regional rivals.

After the Orioles took a 2-1 lead on Adam Jones' RBI single in the top of the 12th, closer George Sherrill (2-3) struck out Pete Orr and induced a groundout by Paul Lo Duca before pinch hitter Dmitri Young worked a walk.

"I went up there with a game plan and was fortunate enough to walk," Young said. "Then Belliard took care of business against a guy who has really been slamming the door."

Belliard followed Young and drove a 1-2 pitch into the left field seats for the walk-off blast.

"I got lucky," Belliard said. "I've been struggling the whole homestand and I was just looking for something to hit with two strikes. I hit it good, I was looking for that pitch and I just pulled it."

The homer made a winner of Joel Hanrahan (5-2), who came on in relief in the top of the 12th and yielded a single to Jones that put the Orioles on top, 2-1.

"There's not much to say about it," Oriole manager Dave Trembley said. "It's a heck of a game. It's too bad it ended up the way it did. I thought our guys gave it everything they had. We were one pitch away from getting it done. It didn't happen. That's baseball."

Prior to the final inning, the Nationals relief corps had combined for four perfect frames.

"Our bullpen did a tremendous job," Nationals manager Manny Acta said.

"We battled and our bullpen came through for us," Washington starter Jason Bergmann said. "The bullpen in these tight games have been really good. Really good."

Luke Scott's solo homer in the seventh for Baltimore tied the game at 1-1 and ruined a stellar outing by Bergmann. The righthander was charged with just one run and six hits in seven frames while walking one and striking out three.

"His (Scott) swings in his previous at-bats weren't as good as we thought they would be on a fastball, so we kept throwing it and I missed a little bit over the plate," Bergmann said. "If the ball would have been up a little bit it would have been a different story."

Jeremy Guthrie matched Bergmann frame for frame, allowing one run and four hits while walking three and striking out four. The righthander induced 14 groundouts against three flyouts while lowering ERA to 3.50.

"He pitched out of trouble and I think as he got loose in the game, he stepped it up. His velocity was up, he pitched down and when he got out of the first inning, you kind of had the feeling he was going to have a good game," Trembley said.

Baltimore's ace, Guthrie has been victimized by poor offensive support this season. Including Sunday, the Orioles have scored three or fewer runs in 10 of Guthrie's 18 starts.

The announced crowd of 39,824 was the largest in the short history of Nationals Park.

"That's the first thing I thought of after the home run," Acta said. "I was happy for the fans."