FISTER REMAINS PERFECT AS NATS WIN 5TH STRAIGHT

Rendon, Desmond Homer

WASHINGTON, May 31 (AP) - Doug Fister won his fifth game in as many starts thus far this season and the Washington Nationals cruised past the Texas Rangers 6-2 at Nationals Park.  It was Washington's fifth consecutive victory, extending the club's lead over the second place New York Mets to 7 1/2 games in the National League East.  The Nationals complete the month of May with a 37-17 record, best in the major leagues.

Washington took the lead in the bottom of the first inning with a pair of runs off Rangers starter Nick Tepesch.  Denard Span led off with a single to left and advanced to third one out later on Jayson Werth's double.  Adam LaRoche then lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Span with the game's first run and advancing Werth to third.  Ian Desmond's base hit to right-center plated Werth with the second run of the inning.

The Nationals doubled their lead in the third.  Anthony Rendon led off with his 11th home run of the season, an opposite field shot, to make the score 3-0.  After Werth popped out, LaRoche drew a base on balls and moved to second on Desmond's second single of the game.  Nate McLouth reached on an infield hit, filling the bases and Danny Espinosa's ground out to short scored LaRoche to up the lead to 4-0.

In the fourth, Rendon tripled off the left-center field fence and scored on Werth's base hit and the Nationals capped their scoring in the fifth on Desmond's third hit of the contest, a lead-off home run to left.

Fister held Texas scoreless through the fifth inning with his usual method of changing speeds and spotting his pitches.  In the top of the sixth the Rangers finally broke through when Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre opened the inning with consecutive singles, putting runners on the corners.  Fister then induced a double play ball from Alex Rios, which allowed Moreland to score the club's first run, but left the bases clear.  That proved to be a key event as Fister hit Robinson Chirinos with a pitch and then yielded a base hit to Leonys Martin, leaving runners on first and third.  Rougned Odor then grounded out to first to end the inning with Washington still on top 6-1.

Fister was removed after seven innings, having yielded only one tally.  Blake Treinen mopped up for the Nationals, tossing the final two innings and yielding a single run to the Rangers in the eighth when Moreland led off with a triple and scored on Beltre's ground out.

Fister's five-game active winning streak matches the longest of the season in the major leagues, held jointly by Andrew Cashner of the Padres, Madison Bumgarner of the Giants and Edinson Volquez of the Pirates.  Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Dodgers have active seven-win streaks when decisions, rather than appearances, are the denominator.

Since making his season's debut on May 9, Fister has allowed a total of only three runs in five starts, covering 33 1/3 innings.

5/31/2014, Tex14-Was14, Nationals Park

                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP

2014 Rangers           0  0  0  0  0  1  0  1  0     2 10  0    10  1

2014 Nationals         2  0  2  1  1  0  0  0  x     6  9  0     6  2

Rangers              AB  R  H BI   AVG    Nationals            AB  R  H BI   AVG

Choo              lf  5  0  2  0  .225    Span              cf  4  1  1  0  .309

Andrus            ss  5  0  1  0  .267    Rendon            3b  3  2  2  1  .291

Moreland          1b  5  2  2  0  .291    Werth             rf  4  1  2  1  .320

Beltre            3b  4  0  1  1  .320    LaRoche           1b  2  1  0  1  .245

Rios              rf  3  0  0  0  .269    Desmond           ss  4  1  3  2  .271

Chirinos          c   3  0  3  0  .269    McLouth           lf  4  0  1  0  .109

Martin,L          cf  2  0  1  0  .253     Treinen          p   0  0  0  0  .250

Odor              2b  3  0  0  0  .300    Espinosa          2b  4  0  0  1  .233

 Ross,R           p   0  0  0  0  .000    Lobaton           c   3  0  0  0  .250

 Robertson,Dan    ph  1  0  0  0  .217    Fister            p   2  0  0  0  .000

 Soria            p   0  0  0  0  .000     Frandsen         lf  1  0  0  0  .277

Tepesch           p   2  0  0  0  .000                         31  6  9  6

 Murphy,Do        2b  2  0  0  0  .231

                     35  2 10  1

Rangers                          INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Tepesch          L 0-3           5.0  9  6  6  3  2  95  59  6.41

Ross,R                           2.0  0  0  0  1  3  22  14  5.74

Soria                            1.0  0  0  0  0  3  16  14  3.97

                                 8.0  9  6  6  4  8 133  87

Nationals                        INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Fister           W 5-0           7.0  7  1  1  2  0  90  57  0.81

Treinen                          2.0  3  1  1  1  1  43  24  4.86

                                 9.0 10  2  2  3  1 133  81

Tex: Murphy,Do inserted at 2b in the 6th

     Robertson,Dan batted for Ross,R in the 8th

Was: Frandsen inserted at lf in the 8th

2B-Chirinos(5), Werth(11). 3B-Moreland(3), Rendon(1). HR-Rendon(11),

Desmond(8). RBI-Beltre(32), Rendon(31), Werth(42), LaRoche(18),

Desmond 2(33), Espinosa(20). SB-Desmond(7). K-Robertson,Dan, LaRoche,

Desmond, Espinosa 3, Lobaton, Fister, Frandsen. BB-Rios, Martin,L 2, Rendon,

LaRoche, Lobaton, Fister. SF-LaRoche. HBP-Chirinos. HB-Fister.

GWRBI: LaRoche

Temperature: 76, Sky: clear, Wind: out to center at 11 MPH.

Attendance: 41,774

Game Time: 2:23