The Washington Nationals called up Chien-Ming Wang earlier this week with intentions of using him out of the bullpen and keeping him on a starter’s schedule.
Although he is not starting games right now for the Nats, he was able to record his first win of the year in his first game that he has pitched in this season.
After taking over for Ross Detwiler in the fifth inning, Wang pitched three innings of one-run ball and was on the winning end of the decision.
The Nationals scored four runs in the first and held off the Atlanta Braves as they chipped away the rest of the game.
Leading 4-3 in the seventh, the Nats broke out for three more runs to give them some breathing room.
They held on to win the game 7-4 to keep their division foes at bay in the NL East and give Wang his first win of the season.
Wang can certainly be valuable to this team down the road.
If Stephen Strasburg truly does get shut down around 160 innings, then Wang can fill in for him or if the man he took over for on Friday, Detwiler, struggles, then it will be Wang who gets the call to replace him in the rotation.
The Nats are lucky to have a quality arm coming out of the pen right now to eat up innings and pick up their starters.
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