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Zimmerman, Schneider homer to power Nationals past Orioles

Jun 13, 2007 - 3:42 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- The Washington Nationals decided to do most of their damage after two men were already gone.

Ryan Zimmerman and Brian Schneider each hit two-run homers and Felipe Lopez had a key two-run double as the Nationals posted a 7-4 interleague victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.

Ryan Church hit a solo homer and Micah Bowie pitched six solid innings for Washington, which scored six of its seven runs with two outs.

"Two-out runs are tough to handle if you're in the field, especially if you're the pitcher," Zimmerman said. "It kinda makes the pitcher mad. All the sudden he has two outs and then you put two or three runs on the board. It is a big part of the game."

Trailing, 3-1, through two innings the Nationals scored two runs each over the next three to help salt the game away.

In the third inning, Lopez drew a two-out walk from Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera before Zimmerman blasted his 10th homer over the left field wall to knot the score at 3-3.

"He (Cabrera) was getting behind," Zimmerman said. "When he gets behind, you can sit on the fastball a little bit more. He wasn't really able to throw some of the other pitches for strikes, but when he has two or three other pitches for strikes, he is one of the toughest to hit."

With two outs in the fourth, Ryan Langerhans singled and stole second before Cristian Guzman walked. Lopez then lined a double into left-center field, plating both runners to give Washington a 5-3 lead.

"We made a point to let Felipe know that it was great of him," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "He got the base hit and we ended up getting a couple of runs out of that. We've been doing it as of late. We're always pushing these guys on the bench to get a two-out rally together because we weren't able to do that earlier in the year."

Cabrera again recorded two outs in the fifth before walking Church on four pitches. Schneider then hit the first pitch he saw over the right field wall to make it 7-3.

"Cabrera is an aggressive guy and obviously he throws hard," Schneider said. "In that situation, he was getting little into the game and I was looking fastball."

That was enough for Bowie (3-2), who allowed three runs, three hits and two walks. It was the first time the lefthander, who struck out two, has pitched past 5 1/3 innings in his career.

"They had three hits in the second inning," Bowie said. "If I could give up three hits in one inning and that's it for the night, I will take that every game of the year. This is a small ballpark and the ball gets out, so to come out with just the three-run home run feels good."

The 22-year old is 3-0 since being inserted into the starting rotation and Washington has won all five of his starts.

After reliever Jesus Colome entered the ninth and gave up a solo homer to Miguel Tejada and a single to Aubrey Huff, he induced Jay Payton to ground out before walking Melvin Mora.

Acta replaced him with closer Chad Cordero, who got Paul Bako to hit into a double play for his ninth save this season and 100th of his career.

Cabrera (5-7) surrendered a season-high seven runs along with seven hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings. The righthander, who struck out four, is 1-8 all-time in 11 interleague starts.

"I thought early on there, Cabrera was powering the ball from the start of the game, but he couldn't lock down an inning with two outs," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "He had three innings where he had two outs and nobody on and he gave up six runs. He couldn't finish an inning off."

The Nationals took an early lead in the second when, with one out, Church belted a 2-1 offering from Cabrera into the left field seats to give Washington a 1-0 lead.

However, the Orioles powered back in the third inning. After consecutive singles by Huff and Payton, Mora hit a 3-2 pitch off Bowie into the right-center field seats to put Baltimore ahead, 3-1.

The Orioles have lost three straight and eight of their last 10.