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Mational League: Nationals celebrate their new ball park with a 3-2 victory

Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo walk-off home run on Sunday as the Washington Nationals celebrated the opening of their new Nationals Park with a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Zimmerman lined a 1-2 pitch from Braves righthander Peter Moylan into the first row of the Red Porch section in left-center field.

The ball was caught by a fan wearing a glove and a Nationals jacket -- the first homer ever for the home team at the new state-of-the-art park that drew rave reviews on its debut.

The game marked the first Major League Baseball game of this year on US soil, after the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics officially launched the season with a two-game series in Japan earlier in the week.

US President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch to Nationals manager Manny Acta and US troops carried two huge US flags in the pre-game ceremonies, which also included a flyover by four F-16s from the Washington National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron.

Opera singer Denyce Graves sang the national anthem and God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch.

Zimmerman provided the Nationals' only walk-off homer last season -- a grand slam off Jorge Julio that lifted Washington over the Florida Marlins on May 12.

The Braves had tied it at 2-2 in the ninth after Mark Teixeira doubled off the wall in right center. Pinch runner Martin Prado later scored on a passed ball by Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca.

Jon Rauch, who got Jeff Francoeur to bounce to second to end the inning, was awarded the win.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was among the luminaries in attendance.

"When I use the word cathedral, I only do that when a park deserves it," Selig said. "This is a fabulous cathedral. There's no detail that they have forgotten."
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