Taylor, Suzuki lift Nats past Jays 6-4 before 4-day break

WASHINGTON (AP) — Starlin Castro is coming off a four-hit game. His Washington Nationals finally have their first consecutive wins of the season. So much for momentum, though.

That's because now the Nationals — and their opponents Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays — need to take four days off, a coronavirus-caused “mini All-Star break,” as Washington manager Dave Martinez called it.

Castro scored twice, rookie Carter Kieboom reached base four times and Michael A. Taylor homered as the “visiting” Nationals knocked around struggling Toronto starter Hyun-Jin Ryu to beat the home-away-from-home Blue Jays 6-4 Thursday.

“I've been feeling good. I've been hitting the ball hard,” said Castro, batting .360 through seven games in his first year with the Nationals. “The bad thing is, tomorrow we're not going to play. And the next day, we're not going to play. It's tough.”

Kurt Suzuki delivered a two-run double and Asdrúbal Cabrera added an RBI double off Ryu (0-1), who gave up Taylor’s two-run shot to straightaway center that he celebrated with a socially distanced dugout dance in the fourth. Taylor is 2 for 14 this season, a .143 average, but both hits cleared the fences.

Ryu’s ERA is 8.00 after he allowed five runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, his second start under an $80 million, four-year deal Toronto gave him after he was second in NL Cy Young Award voting for the Dodgers in 2019.

“I tried to replicate what I’d done in the past against the team,” Ryu, who had a 1.37 ERA against Washington last season, said through an interpreter, “but it just didn’t work out like I wanted.”

Erick Fedde, making his second start in place of a sidelined Stephen Strasburg, gave up two runs in 3 1/3 innings. Ryne Harper (1-0) followed and got five outs...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Taylor-Suzuki-lift-Nats-past-Jays-6-4-before-15447578.php