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Every week, across several sports, players around the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) shine in individual performance. Every Monday, I’d like to take a minute to highlight some of those performances, including what I view as the best performance and name that athlete the “DMV Star of the Week.”
This week’s DMV Star of the Week is Washington Nationals Pitcher DJ Herz.
The 23-year old left hander made his MLB debut just a few weeks ago after being called up to the Nationals on June 4.
On Saturday, in his third ever career start, Herz secured his first career win in a 4-0 victory over Miami, putting up some stellar numbers along the way.
Herz threw 6 innings of shutout ball, allowing just 1 hit and 0 walks along the way while striking out 13 of the 19 batters he faced.
The addition of Herz to the pitching staff has the Nationals surging once again, coming off a 5-1 week and moving within one game of a .500 record.
The DMV saw four teams in action this past week, including the Washington Nationals, D.C. United, Washington Spirit, and Washington Mystics.
Here are some honorable mention performances for DMV Star of the Week:
Nationals OF Lane Thomas had 2 RBI’s in Tuesday’s 5-4 win over Detroit in extra innings, including the eventual game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to help lift Washington to a 5-1 week to move within one game of .500
Washington Spirit Rookie Midfielder Croix Bethune scored the game-tying goal in the 96th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw against San Diego in-front of a record-breaking crowd of nearly 20,000 at Audi Field
The Washington Mystics won its first game of the season on Tuesday, a 87-68 win over Atlanta, behind 18-point performances from both Ariel Atkins and Brittany Sykes, who poured in her 18 points in just 14 minutes of action
Ariel Atkins scored 29 points in Friday’s Mystics win over Chicago, capping off a 2-0 week for Washington with an 83-81 victory
Here’s what’s coming up this week in DMV Sports:
Washington Nationals (35-36, 3rd in NL East)
6/18 vs. Arizona
6/19 vs. Arizona
6/20 vs. Arizona
6/21 @ Colorado
6/22 @ Colorado
6/23 @ Colorado
D.C. United (4-7-7, 19 points 10th in Eastern Conference)
6/19 vs. Atlanta
6/22 vs. Houston
Washington Spirit (9-1-3 overall, 28 points, 3rd in NWSL)
6/15 vs. San Diego
Washington Mystics (2-12 overall, 6th in Eastern Conference)
6/19 @ Indiana
6/22 vs. Dallas
6/23 vs. Dallas
*Denotes games I will be covering in-person