WASHINGTON -- Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale wasnt sure what to expect from Matt Koch in his first major league start. He just knew it wouldnt be a long outing.Koch knew it, too, and he made the most of his limited time on the mound, allowing one hit and two runs in five-plus innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks lost 4-2 to the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.The 25-year-old no-hit the NL East champions through five innings before Jose Lobaton singled to lead off the sixth. Walking pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo spelled the end of Kochs night at 69 pitches with a blister issue cropping up along the way.Hale said the pitch count and not the blister was the reason he took Koch out of the game after an impressive showing.We wanted to see him pitch up here and get a chance to start, Hale said. He showed us he can do it. ... We were real close on the 70-75 pitches we wanted to get him, so we were really happy with what he did. Its too bad. He had a win in his pocket there and it went away quick.Anthony Rendon hit a three-run homer off Randall Delgado (4-2) to provide the winning margin for the Nationals, trying to secure home-field advantage in their NL Division Series against the Dodgers.Washington leads Los Angeles by two games with five to play, after the Dodgers lost 7-1 at San Diego.Diamondbacks second baseman Jean Segura hit a leadoff homer against Max Scherzer (19-7), and Welington Castillo had an RBI double in the third. But the Cy Young Award candidate settled in to strike out 10 in six innings.Hale acknowledged being surprised by Kochs performance, even if the right-hander didnt impress himself.Just trying to get quick outs, Koch said. I knew I was at my pitch limit, so I was just trying to make the most of the pitches I had and trying to get quick groundball outs.It worked for most of the game, and the Louisville product started thinking about a potential no-hitter after getting through four.My mindset was just stay focused and keep the ball down, he said.Koch succeeded in doing that even if Delgado made a mistake that cost the Diamondbacks a victory. With the organization looking ahead to next season and beyond, Koch did well in a spot start in place of Zack Greinke after five career relief appearances.This was a guy who has already shown in the relief appearance that we gave him that hes not afraid and he goes right at guys, Hale said. He was very, very, very good.SCHERZER DOMINATESScherzer mixed his slider, curveball and changeup in with his overpowering fastball to wrest control of the game back. At one point he struck out six consecutive hitters.What allowed him to settle in is that he changed his game plan because you could tell their game plan on him was to sit hard and early in the count, Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. That was just a veteran making the adjustment at the right time.TRAINERS ROOMDiamondbacks: Hale said RHP Rubby De La Rosa successfully had stem cell injections in his elbow. De La Rosa is trying the stem cell procedure in an attempt to avoid a second Tommy John surgery.Nationals: C Wilson Ramos is out for the rest of the season and playoffs after an MRI revealed a torn ACL in his right knee. ... LHP Sammy Solis threw a perfect seventh inning in his first appearance since Aug. 15 after a stint on the DL with shoulder inflammation. ... OF Bryce Harper missed another game with a left thumb injury. ... 2B Daniel Murphy remained out with a strained glute.UP NEXTLHP Gio Gonzalez (11-10, 4.51 ERA) starts the third of the four-game series for the Nationals against Diamondbacks RHP Shelby Miller (2-12, 6.47). Balenciaga Wholesale Supplier Uk . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Balenciaga Shoes Outlet Uk . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. http://www.wholesalebalenciagauk.com/ .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Balenciaga Shoes Online Uk . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Balenciaga Shoes Clearance . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. ROME -- Now that Frank de Boer has been fired, Inter Milan fans are debating who was more responsible for the squads poor start to the season: the Dutch manager or the new Chinese owners.While De Boer never really showed a complete understanding of Italian football tactics in his 84 days in charge, more blame is being heaped on the retail giant Suning, which took control of 70 percent of Inter in June.Even an extraordinary coach cant do great things without the club. You cant control a football squad from Jakarta, Beijing or Nanjing, said Marco Tronchetti Provera, the CEO of Inters chief sponsor Pirelli and a big supporter of the team. Theres been a long line of mistakes. ... This is a problem that should have been resolved a while ago.De Boer was fired on Tuesday after producing only five wins, seven losses and two draws in 14 matches in all competitions -- leaving the club in 12th place in Serie A and also struggling in the Europa League. Many Inter fans had lost patience with the Dutchman and were calling for a change.De Boer was hired less than two weeks before the season began following the unexpected resignation of Roberto Mancini, who reportedly wanted more control over the transfer market and clashed with Suning.Players who thrived under Mancini struggled under De Boer.Felipe Melo has appeared in just two of 11 Serie A matches. Fellow midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia lost his place in the starting lineup after getting substituted 28 minutes into a 1-1 draw with Bologna because he wasnt listening to De Boers instructions.Gabriel Barbosa, the promising Brazilian forward known as Gabigol who Inter signed in late August amid great fanfare -- even though it was unclear if De Boer wanted him -- appeared for just 21 minutes against Bologna and hasnt played since.Mauro Icardi, the high-scoring Inter captain, was widely ridiculed by the clubs hardcore ultra fans after recounting a clash with the supporters in his recently published autobiography.The lone highlight of De Boers campaign was a 2-1 win over Juventus in September -- sandwiched in between embarrassing Europa League losses to Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Sparta Prague, matches in which Inter was outscored 5-1.Its too bad it ended like this, De Boer said on Twitter. This task required more time to move forward.Inters youth squad coach, Stefano Vecchi, was given temporary control of the senior team for Thursdays Europa League match at Southampton.Former Chievo Verona, Bologna and Lazio coach Stefano Pioli is the leading candidate to take over permanently for De Boer.Im sorry for De Boer. Im sorry for Pioli. Its the management that should be fired, Tweeted entertainner, comedian and Inter supporter Rosario Fiorello.dddddddddddd.Inters next coach will become the teams ninth since Jose Mourinho led the club to a treble in 2010. The others were: Rafa Benitez, Leonardo, Gian Piero Gasperini, Claudio Ranieri, Andrea Stramaccioni, Walter Mazzarri, Mancini and De Boer.Of the bunch, De Boers term was the shortest, beating the 90 days that Gasperini -- who is now finding success at Atalanta -- was in charge in 2011. Ranieri, who led Leicester to the English Premier League title last season, also didnt last a full term as Gasperinis replacement.On social media, Inter supporters declared that the coaching changes highlight the incapability of the management and said De Boers sacking was a shame.An 18-time Serie A champion, Inter is 13 points behind Italian league leader Juventus and has 10 fewer points than at this stage last season, when it stood second and appeared to be a genuine challenger to Juventus.As a player, De Boer won the Champions League with Ajax. He also coached the Dutch club to four Eredivisie titles before resigning at the end of last season.De Boer had never played or coached in Italy before taking the Inter job.Former Serie A coach turned commentator Emiliano Mondonico suggested that De Boer deserved at least six months.He has a revolutionary idea of football that deserved time to be applied and assimilated by the players, Mondonico said. Unfortunately, the Italian mentality doesnt include patience.Mondonico added that Inter should have provided De Boer with an expert Italian guide, like when he assisted Sven-Goran Eriksson for the Swedes first season in Italy with Roma in 1984-85.(Then Roma president) Dino Viola made me his assistant to help him get settled in his new environment, Mondonico recounted. The president understood that Roma was a difficult place to control for anybody, so I tried to put the Swede in the best condition to coach in absolute tranquility.Suning decided to fire De Boer after Inter appeared thoroughly confused in a 1-0 loss at Sampdoria on Sunday.Generally, the only winning formula in football is a passionate owner who is close to the squad, exactly like (Silvio) Berlusconi with AC Milan or (Andrea) Agnelli at Juventus, Tronchetti Provera said.The Chinese owners moved well in the transfer market, but theyve got to rely on someone who knows Italian football well and give them full powers to control the squad, Tronchetti Provera said. Somebody you can really trust.---Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf ' ' '
