May 20, 2013

Washington Nationals Game 42 Review: #GoonSquad

May 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The Washington Nationals got power production from the middle of their lineup Friday night against San Diego, but when it counted… finally… the bench came through, as Chad Tracy’s pinch-hit home run in the top of the tenth inning led the Nats over the Padres 6-5 to take the first two games of the four-game set at Petco Park.

This game had a little of everything: bad starting pitching, good starting pitching, good defense, not-so-good defense. Timely hitting… well, you get the point. But homers by Adam LaRoche (two on the night), Ryan Zimmerman and, ultimately, Chad Tracy, paced the Nats offense and led them to victory.

Gio Gonzalez got the start for the Nats (23-19), and it looked to start with like we were going to get “Bad Gio”, as he allowed two runs in the bottom of the first on a couple of walks, a steal, a single, and a throwing error by Bryce Harper. What made matters worse was that the Nats were doing their best to stay off the bases completely against Padres rookie starter Burch Smith, striking out whenever they had the chance.

After Gio righted the ship, the Nats finally broke through on Smith in the top of the fourth inning. Harper singled to right and too second on Ryan Zimmerman’s single to left. Adam LaRoche stepped up and continued his hot streak, homering for the third game in a row with a massive clout to center.

The Nats tacked on two more in the sixth, with Zimmerman (2) and LaRoche (7) going back-to-back, chasing Smith from the game, making it 5-2.

Jedd Gyorko homered in the bottom of the frame to cut the Nats lead to two.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth. Rafael Soriano came on to close the game out, but was victimized by some poor defense and lucky hits. With one out, Chris Denorfia grounded one toward the hole. Zimmerman ranged to his left and make a clean pickup, but threw to the inside of the bag, drawing LaRoche off first. Soriano got Everth Cabrera to fly to center for the second out, but Chase Headley singled to right to plate Denorfia to make it 5-4. Yonder Alonso pinch-hit and singled to right to make it first-and-third, then Kyle Blanks hit a soft line drive to right to score Headley to tie the game.

Huston Street entered for the Padres (18-23), but with two outs he left a changeup in the middle of the plate and Chad Tracy delivered, with the first pinch-hit RBI of the season for the Nats, driving the change into the right-center bullpen to break the tie.

Despite some nervous moments in the bottom of the frame. Drew Storen hung on for his first save of the season, despite allowing two singles in the inning.

THE GOOD: Adam LaRoche. Welcome back.

THE BAD: Danny Espinosa. 0-for-4, 3 Ks. I might have to retire “The Bad” until Danny gets his shoulder fixed.

THE UGLY: 15 strikeouts. 15! I know that these days no one has a stigma about striking out, but seriously, 15 Ks?!?

THE STATS: 7 hits, 2 BBs, 15 Ks. 1-for-3 with RISP, 3 LOB. E: Harper (3, throw), Gonzalez (1, throw), Zimmerman (9, throw). No DPs.

NEXT GAME: Saturday at 8:40 pm ET against the Padres. Jordan Zimmermann (7-1, 1.69) faces Eric Stultz (3-3. 4.57).

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Washington Nationals Game 39 Review: Clayton Kershaw tosses 132 pitches to shut down Nats

May 15, 2013 by 7 Comments

Dan Haren (L, 4-4) was sharp for the better part of seven innings, but Clayton Kershaw (W, 4-2) made it his day to shine, holding the Washington Nationals (21-18) to just five hits and one walk in 8.2 innings in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ (16-22) 2-0 win Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Kershaw reached the 1,000-inning mark, making it official that he now boasts the best ERA (2.70) among starters with 1,000 or more innings pitched in the Live Ball Era. Kershaw struck out 11 batters and reached a career-high 132 pitches against a Nats lineup that featured a very different outfield from the norm. [Read more...]

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Washington Nationals Game 36 Review: Strasburg unravels after Zimmerman error in Nats’ loss to Cubs

May 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The Washington Nationals (20-16) were reminded once more what a difference an error can make as they fell 8-2 to the Chicago Cubs (14-22) Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park.

Stephen Strasburg (L, 1-5) looked the best he’s been all season to start the game, retiring the first 11 batters he faced in a row before giving up a single to Anthony Rizzo in the fourth. [Read more...]

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Washington Nationals Game 34 Review: Nats get to Fister early, hold on to sweep Tigers

May 9, 2013 by 7 Comments

The Detroit Tigers are one of the top teams in the American League, and some folks tried to bill this early May matchup with the Washington Nationals as a World Series preview. It’s a little early in the season to try to sell that, but with the Nats starting to play well it was a big series nonetheless. The Nats scored their runs in the first few innings, then got great bullpen work from a trio of relievers to beat the Tigers Thursday 5-4, sweeping the two-game set from the A.L. Central powerhouse.

The win is the Nats fourth in a row and sixth in their last seven games and it leaves them 1 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the N.L. East entering play in the evening games.

The Nats (19-15) jumped on Tigers starter Doug Fister early. Denard Span led off the bottom of the first with a double over the first base bag. He went to third on Roger Bernadina’s bunt base hit and scored on Bryce Harper’s fielder’s choice that erased Bernadina at second. Ryan Zimmerman followed with a single, and Adam LaRoche did the same, plating Harper. Ian Desmond then single to center to bring home Zimmerman and give the Nats a 3-0 lead after one inning.

The Tigers got one back in the top of the second off Haren (W, 4-3, 5.17), when Fister muscled an 0-1 pitch to center for his third Major League hit of his career, scoring Jhonny Peralta from third.

The hit parade for the Nationals continued in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Span reached when Fister clipped Span’s pant leg with an errant fastball. Bernadina fell behind 0-2 but worked the at bat for a walk. Harper struck out looking, but consecutive singles by Zimmerman and LaRoche again plated two more runs to stretch the Nats lead to 5-1 after two full.

Detroit used some small ball, then a blast to cut into the Nats lead in the sixth. With one out, Peralta drew a four-pitch walk. Haren got Alex Avila to line out to center, but on the next pitch, Omar infant reached on a perfectly placed bunt single. Matt Tuiasosopo pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot and drilled a three-run shot over the Tigers bullpen in left center to make it 5-4.

Haren’s final line (6.0 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR) ended up kinda messy after the homer, but he threw a good game up until that point.

The rest was up to the bullpen, and they got the job done, with Ryan Mattheus, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano all pitching scoreless innings to keep the one-run lead intact. Soriano earned his 12th save of the season in 13 tries, getting Prince Fielder to fly to the track in center for the final out of the game.

THE GOOD: Ryan Zimmerman. 3-for-4, RBI, run scored. He’s starting to heat up. Adam LaRoche went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

THE BAD: Danny Espinosa. 0-for-4, K.

THE UGLY: Tyler Moore. Pinch-hit for Bernadina against a lefty reliever and struck out on three pitches, all breaking balls.

THE STATS: 9 hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks. 5-for-12 with RISP, 7 LOB. No errors, no DPs.

NEXT GAME: Friday starts a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs, 7:05 pm from Nats Park. Ross Detwiler (1-3, 2.50) hosts Jeff Samardzija (1-4, 3.09).

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OPINION: Nats make surprising call to Rendon while Zimmerman heals

April 20, 2013 by
Anthony Rendon heads to dugout before game during spring training (Cheryl Nichols/District Sports Page)

Anthony Rendon heads to dugout before game during spring training (Cheryl Nichols/District Sports Page)

In a surprising move in late April, the Washington Nationals asked for the services of their top prospect while the Face of the Franchise recovers from his annual trip to the disabled list. If this sounds familiar, well, it is. Last April the Nats called up Bryce Harper when Ryan Zimmerman originally hurt his throwing shoulder. This year, it’s Anthony Rendon getting the call to directly replace Zimmerman, both on the roster and in the field.

From a talent standpoint, this isn’t that surprising. Rendon had an awesome spring training, looking every bit a big leaguer. In his first 14 games with AA-Harrisburg, the 22-year-old was off to a great start as well, hitting .292/.462/.500 in 65 plate appearances with four doubles, two homers and seven RBIs. He’s walked 14 times opposed to nine strikeouts and his defensive skills have been lauded since he was a collegiate.

What is somewhat surprising is that the Nats have decided to eschew preseason contingency plans and that it’s better to get Rendon’s feet wet in the big leagues for two weeks while Zim’s left hammy heals instead of going with a player that has MLB experience (Will Rhymes), a deeper minor league pedigree (Carlos Rivero) or staying in-house, allowing Chad Tracy or Steve Lombardozzi to take the reps until Zim is back on the field.

Nats GM Mike Rizzo has long-held the philosophy that he doesn’t want to promote a player to the bigs until he’s mastered the previous level, there’s a place for him on the Major League roster and that player will play everyday. He’s not a big fan of bringing a prospect up and sending him back down.

Now, maybe in this instance he’s comfortable with the pre-described limited window of opportunity to bring up Rendon solely until Zimmerman can be reactivated in 12 days, assuming Zim’s D.L. stint was retroactive to the last time he played. After the win over the Mets Saturday, Davey Johnson said specifically Rendon would go back to the minors when Zim is healthy.

Rizzo corroborated. “I would think that when Zim comes back, we’ll probably send him down for more seasoning,” Rizzo told the beat reporters. “But we’ll take that as it comes. We see him as a long-term component of the team.”

No kidding.

When Zimmerman gets healthy, unfortunately there’s no place on this team for Rendon, with Adam LaRoche, Danny Espinosa and Ian Desmond all fixtures at their positions. Despite anxious fans calling for Rendon to start in place of any of the Nats stalwarts when they slump, the team is committed to each of their infield players at this point. It would take a trade — or another injury — for Rendon to stay on the roster once Zimmerman returns.

And the team won’t let Rendon stay in the bigs as a bench player, getting just a handful of at bats a week. They’d rather he play everyday in the minors.

It’s interesting that the Nats feel the need to go to Rendon at this point. A safer play would have been to go with Rivero or Rhymes, especially considering the team has two open spots on the 40-man roster right now. But it’ll be exciting to watch Rendon’s MLB debut and first stint with the big league team, regardless how long it lasts. It might just be two weeks, but the next time it might be for good.

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Washington Nationals put Ryan Zimmerman on D.L., recall top prospect Anthony Rendon

April 20, 2013 by

After the Washington Nationals defeated the New York Mets 7-6 earlier Saturday, the team placed 3B Ryan Zimmerman on the 15-day D.L. with a left hamstring strain and will call up top prospect Anthony Rendon from AA Harrisburg.

Nats manager Davey Johnson announced the move in his postgame press conference from Citifield.

Zimmerman’s leg has been bothering him for several days, and is affecting his swing more than his defensive play, as he’s experiencing discomfort rotating on his front leg as he follows through with his swing.

Rendon will make his Major League debut Sunday. The 22-year old third baseman was a late scratch from the Senators’ game against Altoona Saturday and will instead travel to New York to join his Nats teammates. In 14 games, Rendon is hitting .292/.462/.500 in 65 plate appearances with four doubles, two homers and seven RBIs. He’s walked 14 times opposed to nine strikeouts.

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Washington Nationals Game 14 Review: Zim’s throwing error proves costly in Nats’ 8-2 loss

April 17, 2013 by

Dan Haren retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced Tuesday night, but a fourth-inning throwing error by Ryan Zimmerman seemingly reignited the Miami Marlins’ (3-11) sub-par batting order in time to shut down the Washington Nationals (8-6), 8-2.

The Nats were shorthanded as both Bryce Harper and Denard Span sat out with stomach flu symptoms, while Danny Espinosa remained out of the lineup with a bruised right hand.

Considering that the Marlins entered the game with the worst record in the majors, the Nats seemed off to a solid start with Haren on the mound. However, as evidenced in each of his three starts this year, control has been an issue for Haren and – unfortunately for the Nats – a simple E-5 was all it took to throw Haren off his game. [Read more...]

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Washington Nationals Game 11 Review: Hudson shuts down Nats; Ramos pulls hamstring

April 13, 2013 by

It’s a high bar indeed, when a starting pitcher allows no earned runs in six innings and we accuse him of “struggling”. But Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg has set that standard for himself in his young career. He had trouble locating his fastball through the early innings against the Atlanta Braves, but eventually settled down to get through six innings.

Unfortunately, his teammates were thoroughly shut down by Braves hurler Tim Hudson, and the Nats (7-4) fell to the Braves 3-1, before a sellout crowd of 41,992. Adding injury to insult, catcher Wilson Ramos sustained a pulled hamstring trying to leg out a ground ball in the eighth inning. Manager Davey Johnson indicted the pull was “pretty deep”, and suggested Ramos would need a few weeks to recover. If that is the case. Jhonatan Solano would be first in line to replace Ramos on the roster.

Strasburg didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled through six innings. His final line — two unearned runs on five hits and one walk with a hit batter, wild pitch and seven strikeouts — masks the lack of pinpoint control and his trouble locating his fastball through most of his appearance. Indicative of his struggles on the day, Strasburg failed to retire the Braves Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, shortstop Ramiro Pena and pitcher Tim Hudson, who went a combined 3-for-3 with a walk.

After laboring in the first and second innings, Strasburg looked like he had righted the ship and was going to have a 1-2-3 inning in the third. Justin Upton rolled over on a fastball and hit a soft grounder to third base. Ryan Zimmerman fielded cleanly, but his sidearmed throw drew Adam LaRoche off the bag and Upton reached on the error. Given another opportunity, the Braves capitalized, as rookie Evan Gattis hit his fifth home run of the season, into the visitor’s bullpen in left center.

But Strasburg (L, 1-2, 2.95) seemed to settle down a little bit after the third inning and he got into a groove as his day went on, retiring his final seven batters consecutively.

The Nats cut the lead to one in the bottom of the fifth on Danny Espinosa’s first home run of the season. That was, unfortunately, the only run the Nats would get off Braves starter Tim Hudson (W, 2-0, 2.50). The veteran right-hander dominated the Nats lineup over seven innings, limiting the Nats to four hits with no walks.

THE GOOD: Danny Espinosa. He’s been really struggling out of the box, but showed signs of life with the homer.

THE BAD: Ryan Mattheus. One run on three hits in one inning in a one-run game. Nats needed Mattheus to lock it down with the one run deficit and he couldn’t.

THE UGLY: Zimmerman’s throw. You can’t give good teams like the Braves an extra out, and that’s what that error did. The bats let the Nats down Saturday, but Zimmerman’s error set Strasburg up for failure.

THE STATS: 4 hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks. 0-for-1 with RISP, 1 LOB. E: Zimmerman (throw, 2), 0 DPs.

NEXT GAME: The Nats send Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 0.82) to the mound on Sunday to face Paul Maholm (2-0, 0.00) at 1:35 pm.

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Washington Nationals Game 9 Review: Nats complete sweep of Sox with 7-4 win

April 12, 2013 by

The Washington Nationals haven’t lost at home yet this season. Led by five innings of competency by starter Dan Haren, a timely big hit by Ryan Zimmerman, and a few shut-down innings by the bullpen, the Nats ran their overall record to a stellar 7-2 win a 7-4 win over the Chicago White Sox, before a crowd of 24,785 at Nationals Park.

After two home series sweeps, the Nats clean slate will be challenged by division rival Atlanta over the weekend. But for now, that pristine 6-0 record at home is pretty to look at.

The Nats took a bit of a different tack to win Thursday night’s game — at least on offense. Where the home run has been integral so far in the young season, the Nats pieced together an attack against the Sox rookie hurler Dylan Axelrod. The Nats made Axelrod work and forced him from the game early. Of course, Nats starter Dan Haren threw a lot of pitches too, but did a better job than his counterpart limiting the damage.

Haren (W, 1-1, 9.00), to his credit, did not walk a batter, though he did give up 10 hits in his five innings of work. He struck out five in the effort and held the Sox to three earned runs despite pitching in and out of trouble all night.

The Nats scored first in this one. With one out in the first, Jayson Werth singled after on the tenth pitch of his at bat. After Bryce Harper popped up, Werth stole second ahead of Ryan Zimmerman drawing a base on balls. The next batter, Adam LaRoche, singled to the opposite field to plate Werth and give Haren something to work with.

That didn’t last long, unfortunately, as Paul Konerko led off the second with a single, took third on Conor Gillaspie’s double to right field, and scored on Tyler Flowers’ ground out to short.

Washington’s attack went back to it in the third off Axelrod (L, 0-1, 5.79). Denard Span led off with a single, stole second and took third on Werth’s fly out to right field. Harper singled to center to score Span and give the lead back to the Nats. Zimmerman drew another walk and LaRoche did as well to load the bases. Ian Desmond delivered Harper with a sacrifice fly to center to put the Nats up 3-1.

Chicago came right back in the fourth off Haren. Gillaspie singled to lead off and went to second on Axelrod’s botched sacrifice that ended up a bunt single. Alejandro De Aza singled to right to plate Gillaspie and Axelrod moved up to third when the throw missed the cut off man. Jeff Keppinger followed with a single to left, scoring Axelrod to tie it back up.

But the Nats were undaunted and continued to peck away in the bottom of the inning. Haren helped himself out with a one-out double and took third on Werth’s single with two outs. Axelrod started Harper off 1-0 then uncorked a wild pitch, which scored Haren. Axelrod then gave Harper an intentional walk — the first of his career — to bring up Zimmerman again.

The veteran third baseman got into a 3-2 count before making Axlerod pay and delivering big time — a double to right field that scored both Werth and Harper. The hit turned what was a back-and-forth affair into a good lead for the home team.

The Sox picked up their fourth run of the night in the sixth inning off reliever Ryan Mattheus, with Adam Dunn doubling in De Aza, who had singled earlier in the inning. Mattheus pitched two innings and struck out three. He allowed the one run on two hits and a walk.

The Nats got that run back later, with Harper driving in Span on a two-out single to provide the 7-4 final score.

All that was left was for Tyler Clippard to pitch a scoreless eighth and Rafael Soriano to toss a clean ninth inning to record his fifth save of the season.

THE GOOD: Ryan Zimmerman. 1-for-2 with two walks, but the hit was a big one, breaking the game open. Can’t imagine too many folks are going to be willing to put Harper on ahead of Zimmerman this season.

THE BAD: Wilson Ramos went 0-for-4 with a K.

THE UGLY: Danny Espinosa went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, lowering his April average to .182, before being lifted in a double switch late in the game.

THE STATS: 10 hits, 6 BBs, 6 Ks. 5-for-11 with RISP, 8 LOB. No errors, no DPs.

NEXT GAME: Friday night, April 12 against the Atlanta Braves (8-1) at 7:05 pm. Ross Detwiler (0-0, 0.00) hosts Julio Teheran (0-0, 9.00).

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Washington Nationals Game 8 Review: Zimmermann grounds Sox into submission

April 10, 2013 by

Jordan Zimmermann normally pitches in the shadows of more heralded teammates, but if he continues his early pace, he’ll make plenty of headlines for himself as the season progresses. Wednesday night, before a crowd of 24,586 at Nationals Park, Zimmermann held the powerful Chicago White Sox lineup in check, leading the Nats to a 5-2 victory and a 6-2 record after eight games.

The Nats were powered by Bryce Harper, who hit his fourth home run of the season, and Ian Desmond, who went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a triple.

As with Game One of this series, the White Sox got out in front in the top of the first. Jeff Keppinger singled with one out and went to third on Alex Rois’ double into the left field corner. Former Nats Adam Dunn pushed the run home with a ground out to second base to put the Sox up 1-0.

The Nats took the lead in the fourth inning. Bryce Harper crushed the first pitch of the inning from White Sox starter Gavin Floyd into the second deck in right field to loudly tie the game at one. After Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche went down on strikes, Ian Desmond hit his second double of the game, then scored on Danny Espinosa’s RBI single to give the Nats a 2-1 lead.

The Nats were back at it in the fifth. Jayson Werth lined a single to left and took third on Harper’s clean single to right. Zimmerman then took one of Floyd’s cutter’s to right — going with the pitch — and brought home Werth to stretch the Nats lead to 3-1.

Chicago got one back in the sixth off Zimmermann. Alejandro De Aza doubled to the right field corner, took third on Keppinger’s ground out to second and scored on Rios’ ground out to deep short.

But the Nats were undaunted and got that run right back — and more – in the bottom of the inning. Desmond led off with a triple off the wall in left center and scored on Espinosa’s double into the right field corner to make it 4-2. Kurt Suzuki drew his third walk of the game (one intentional) and Zimmermann move dup both runners with a successful sacrifice. White Sox manager Robin Ventura went for his lefty specialist, Donnie Veal, to face Span.

Span hit a sharp grounder to short with a drawn-in infield, but Alexei Ramirez couldn’t handle the scorcher and all hands were safe. Espinosa brought in the Nats fifth run of the night and Veal then got the hook as well. he rally ended when new reliever Nate Jones coaxed a double play grounder to third from Werth to end the frame with the Nats up 5-2.

Zimmermann departed after seven strong innings. The right-hander allowed two earned runs and spaced seven hits in his efficient 90-pitch effort. He walked none and struck out four, generating 10 ground outs.

 Drew Storen pitched an uneventful eighth inning and Rafael Soriano nailed down his fourth save of the young season.

THE GOOD: Jordan Zimmermann. With the win, he’s 7-0 with a 2.91 ERA in his last 13 starts at Nats Park. His last home loss was May 17, 2012 against Pittsburgh.

THE BAD: The Nats struck out 11 times and the only walks were drawn by Suzuki, including an intentional pass.

THE UGLY: Nothing particularly ugly in this one.

THE STATS: 11 hits, 3 BBs, 11 Ks. 4-for-10 with RISP, 7 LOB. No errors, 1 DP (Desmond-Espinosa-LaRoche).

NEXT GAME: Thursday at 7:05 pm against the White Sox. Dan Haren (0-1, 13.50) hosts Dylan Axelrod (0-0, 0.00).

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