After reeling off 21 wins in 27 games in May, the Nats have gone cold losing 14 of their past 20 games. Sure, over that 47 game span the Nats are 27-20, which is still pretty darn good. They obviously came back to life though after that 21-6 stretch in May. Even worse, the lineup is banged up and the bats are extremely inconsistent. They scored 1 run Monday, followed by a 16 run outburst on Tuesday, got shut out Wednesday, then scored 3 last night (2 were in the first inning and there were a lot of missed opportunities).
On a positive note, last night Doug Fister made his first start for the club since May 14th and Stephen Strasburg may not be too far behind him. Fister was charged with 5 runs, but he really deserved better. He pitched great through 5 innings, but just ran out of gas in the 6th. Some may say how is going 5 1/3 innings giving up 5 runs a good outing? He was sharp through 5 full innings and just got knocked around in the 6th. Once he builds up some stamina, we'll have the Doug Fister that we're used to where he goes 7 innings giving up 1 or 2 runs. Strasburg had a nice rehab outing for Harrisburg on Wednesday going 5 innings, striking out 6, walking none, and allowing 2 runs (only 1 earned). Although Tanner Roark has pitched fantastic since rejoining the rotation, the Nats miss him badly in the bullpen. Before his move to the rotation, Roark was pitching in the 7th and 8th inning and even had a save. The 7th and 8th innings for the Nationals has been a complete disaster this year. Being able to bring in Roark in the 8th inning of a 3-2 game will be a lot easier for Nationals fans to watch than seeing Aaron Barrett or Blake Treinen struggle through the inning. Nothing against Barrett or Treinen, I think both have great stuff, but Roark is flat out the better pitcher right now.
As far as the hitting and scoring runs, the Nationals are going to be streaky. That's how it is and how it always has been. This team can get hot for 2 weeks or so and score 5-6 runs per game. In those 2 weeks, they're probably going to go 8-3 or 9-2. On the flip side, they can also get ice cold and score 1-2 runs per game for 2 weeks or so. In that stretch they'll struggle to play .500 baseball. You just hope for one main thing when you're a streaky hitting ball club. You hope that when you aren't hitting, you can weather the storm (and if you're the Nats, that you get hot at the beginning of October). Not only does that put more pressure on the pitching staff to give you quality start after quality start, but it also puts pressure on the hitters to be able to play small ball. The Nationals aren't built like the Cardinals, or the Royals, or the Giants, which to be honest is a shame. It's all in the approach of some of the players though. Matt Williams has stressed since day one on the job the significance of being able to "get em on, get em over, get em in" as the saying goes. It's not because of lack of effort, it's just the type of hitters this team has. When the Nationals are fully healthy, 6 of the 8 position players have potential to hit 20+ home runs a year (the exceptions being Denard Span and Yunel Escobar). The two guys who won't hit 20 homers, are guys who can manufacture runs. The Giants, Cardinals, and Royals are all in the bottom 10 in the Majors in home runs hit, but two of the three are in first place in their division right now. The third team won the World Series last year and eliminated the Nats in the first round. These three teams can manufacture a run, they don't wait until the 7th inning when they're losing 3-1 and then come up and say well here goes nothing, I better swing for the fences. We don't know what the Nats lineup can do when they're fully healthy, but it's my hope that they can find a nice mixture between swinging for the fences and manufacturing runs. A single, followed by a bunt, followed by a single isn't flashy, but it puts a run on the board and counts the exact same as a solo home run.
It's been a rough two weeks, but the bottom line is the Nats are 34-33 and they're just 1 1/2 games out of first place. The Nats are just 1 game behind their pace last year which they won 96 games. It's hard to tell you not to panic right now, especially after seeing Bryce go down last night. They're struggling and thoughts of 2013 are running through all of our minds, but this team is too talented to not win the NL East. We saw what kind of team the Nats could be in May when they were hot. It would be nice to see some consistency though. The hot Pirates who have won 21 of their last 26 come in to town for the weekend. Without Bryce this is going to be a tough series to win, but now is as good a time as ever to see what kind of guts this team has. You have a rookie on the mound tonight, your ace tomorrow, and then Gio, who has struggled with his command all year, but when he's on, he can pitch with anyone on the Pirates, pitching on Sunday. Maybe you even switch the lineup up a bit. Call me crazy, but maybe you move Ian Desmond up to the 2nd spot and move everyone else down a spot. Ian has hit .290 this year when he's hitting second in the lineup, any other spot in the lineup he's hitting no higher than .167. He's struggling right now, but protection in the lineup can go a long way and hitting in between Denard Span and Anthony Rendon will allow him to see way better pitches than if he's hitting in between Danny Espinosa and Michael Taylor. I'm no manager, but if I had the lineup card tonight it would be 1) Span, 2) Desmond, 3) Rendon, 4) Escobar, 5) Robinson, 6) Ramos, 7) Espinosa, 8) Taylor, 9) Ross. Obviously that's assuming Bryce is out, if he's not I'd slide him in at the cleanup spot and move Escobar down to 5. We'll see what happens, just please, please don't get swept this weekend. I speak on behalf of all Nats fans when I say we won't be able to handle looking at the standings and seeing 34-36 on Monday. If that's the case there will be thoughts of 2013 haunting us every night.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
They're Ice Cold
Just like that, the Nats go from being on fire, to being ice cold, going 1-6 in their last 7 games. They've scored just 15 runs in those 7 games, an average of 2.14 runs per game. It doesn't matter how good your pitching staff is, you aren't going to win games when you're scoring such a small amount of runs. They have a tough schedule ahead as 12 of their next 16 games are against teams with a winning record, so they're going to have to start scoring soon. Especially since 40% of your starting rotation is currently on the DL. Sure Tanner Roark is filling in fantastically for Doug Fister, but Stephen Strasburg's spot in the rotation remains a black hole.
Anthony Rendon is back which is going to help a ton (he's already contributing as he went 2/4 in his season debut last night). The lineup may need some tweaking to spark some offense though. Ryan Zimmerman is just 3 for his last 33 which has dropped his batting average down to .217. This is a tough lineup to switch around though. You could switch Escobar and Rendon in the lineup, which would provide you with more power in the 3 spot and Rendon would still see good pitches with Bryce hitting behind him. The 5-6-7 spots are completely unproductive right now though as all 3 hitters are cold at the same time. You could move Ramos up to 5, drop Zimmerman to 6, and drop Desmond to 7. I don't know if that would do much for you though because like I said, none of those hitters are seeing the ball well right now. In two weeks, all 3 will probably be hot and this will be a non issue, but until then, this team has to figure out creative ways of scoring runs.
Now to the bigger issue. I have no clue how Matt Williams didn't get tossed last night, he kept his cool way better than I would have been able to do. I'm one of those people who usually laughs and makes fun of the fans who blame the umpire or referee for losing a game, but in this case, I'm going to be one of those fans. Marvin Hudson and Rob Drake have no business umpiring Nats games. Marvin Hudson is the umpire who tossed Bryce and Matt Williams a few weeks ago because Bryce wouldn't get back in the box (although he was in the box until Hudson started chirping at Matt Williams). He then lied and said tossing Bryce had nothing to do with not getting back in the box. Marvin Hudson is from Georgia. The Atlanta Braves play in Georgia. Marvin Hudson the Braves fan should not be allowed to umpire Nationals games. Rob Drake also tossed Bryce Harper a few weeks ago in Arizona after he rung Harper up on a check swing and refused to ask for help from the 3rd base umpire. Rob Drake also blew a big call last night and called Harper out at first on a play that Harper actually beat by about a half of a step. The bases should have been loaded with 1 out with the Nats trailing 2-1. Instead, its 2-1 with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Rob Drake is from Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Phillies play in Pennsylvania. Rob Drake the Phillies fan should also be banned from umpiring Nationals games. As I said, Matt Williams kept his cool better than I would have. Between his challenge not being overturned and then the call against Bryce at first, I would have been hot. Dirt would be on home plate and all 3 bases would have been coming with me back to the clubhouse.
Clint Robinson then would have been able to go replace first base and get a good feel for where the base is actually located because that would come in handy in the bottom of the 9th. Clint, why are you sleeping at first in the bottom of the 9th with the game on the line? Your run matters, but it isn't the main run that matters. That run belonged to Michael Taylor who was on second base and would have scored easily on a Rendon single. Thank you for walking and moving Taylor up to second, but dude, stand on first base if you have to. Don't even take a lead, I don't care. There's no reason you get picked off first by the catcher to end the game. Overall, a frustrating game. Gio turned his night around after the first inning and pitched great, the offense sputtered just like it has in the previous 10 to 15 games, there were a few bad calls, and a bonehead play to end the game.
Oh and by the way, baseball challenges are becoming a joke. Denard Span singled in the bottom of the first inning on Wednesday against Toronto. Toronto challenged and won the challenge. It was a close call, could have gone either way, but there was no disputable evidence to overturn the call. Last night, Danny Espinosa steals second, the ball beats him there by 2 steps, but Addison Russell misses the tag. Espinosa is called out and the Nationals challenge. The call stands, although there was pretty clear evidence that Danny's foot touched second base before a tag was applied. The point here - be consistent. As Scott Allen of The Washington Post pointed out today, the Nats are 3 for 9 on challenges this year, while opponents are 12 for 12. There's something going on there, those numbers should not be that skewed, especially when the rest of the league is around 40% on challenges. If you want to do it like the NFL does where there has to be indisputable evidence to overturn a call, that's fine with me. In that case, Espinosa would have remained out and on Wednesday, Span's single would have stood. However, when I see Span's single overturned and the call against Espinosa at second stand, it kind of makes me lose faith in this whole replay thing.
Anthony Rendon is back which is going to help a ton (he's already contributing as he went 2/4 in his season debut last night). The lineup may need some tweaking to spark some offense though. Ryan Zimmerman is just 3 for his last 33 which has dropped his batting average down to .217. This is a tough lineup to switch around though. You could switch Escobar and Rendon in the lineup, which would provide you with more power in the 3 spot and Rendon would still see good pitches with Bryce hitting behind him. The 5-6-7 spots are completely unproductive right now though as all 3 hitters are cold at the same time. You could move Ramos up to 5, drop Zimmerman to 6, and drop Desmond to 7. I don't know if that would do much for you though because like I said, none of those hitters are seeing the ball well right now. In two weeks, all 3 will probably be hot and this will be a non issue, but until then, this team has to figure out creative ways of scoring runs.
Now to the bigger issue. I have no clue how Matt Williams didn't get tossed last night, he kept his cool way better than I would have been able to do. I'm one of those people who usually laughs and makes fun of the fans who blame the umpire or referee for losing a game, but in this case, I'm going to be one of those fans. Marvin Hudson and Rob Drake have no business umpiring Nats games. Marvin Hudson is the umpire who tossed Bryce and Matt Williams a few weeks ago because Bryce wouldn't get back in the box (although he was in the box until Hudson started chirping at Matt Williams). He then lied and said tossing Bryce had nothing to do with not getting back in the box. Marvin Hudson is from Georgia. The Atlanta Braves play in Georgia. Marvin Hudson the Braves fan should not be allowed to umpire Nationals games. Rob Drake also tossed Bryce Harper a few weeks ago in Arizona after he rung Harper up on a check swing and refused to ask for help from the 3rd base umpire. Rob Drake also blew a big call last night and called Harper out at first on a play that Harper actually beat by about a half of a step. The bases should have been loaded with 1 out with the Nats trailing 2-1. Instead, its 2-1 with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Rob Drake is from Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Phillies play in Pennsylvania. Rob Drake the Phillies fan should also be banned from umpiring Nationals games. As I said, Matt Williams kept his cool better than I would have. Between his challenge not being overturned and then the call against Bryce at first, I would have been hot. Dirt would be on home plate and all 3 bases would have been coming with me back to the clubhouse.
Clint Robinson then would have been able to go replace first base and get a good feel for where the base is actually located because that would come in handy in the bottom of the 9th. Clint, why are you sleeping at first in the bottom of the 9th with the game on the line? Your run matters, but it isn't the main run that matters. That run belonged to Michael Taylor who was on second base and would have scored easily on a Rendon single. Thank you for walking and moving Taylor up to second, but dude, stand on first base if you have to. Don't even take a lead, I don't care. There's no reason you get picked off first by the catcher to end the game. Overall, a frustrating game. Gio turned his night around after the first inning and pitched great, the offense sputtered just like it has in the previous 10 to 15 games, there were a few bad calls, and a bonehead play to end the game.
Oh and by the way, baseball challenges are becoming a joke. Denard Span singled in the bottom of the first inning on Wednesday against Toronto. Toronto challenged and won the challenge. It was a close call, could have gone either way, but there was no disputable evidence to overturn the call. Last night, Danny Espinosa steals second, the ball beats him there by 2 steps, but Addison Russell misses the tag. Espinosa is called out and the Nationals challenge. The call stands, although there was pretty clear evidence that Danny's foot touched second base before a tag was applied. The point here - be consistent. As Scott Allen of The Washington Post pointed out today, the Nats are 3 for 9 on challenges this year, while opponents are 12 for 12. There's something going on there, those numbers should not be that skewed, especially when the rest of the league is around 40% on challenges. If you want to do it like the NFL does where there has to be indisputable evidence to overturn a call, that's fine with me. In that case, Espinosa would have remained out and on Wednesday, Span's single would have stood. However, when I see Span's single overturned and the call against Espinosa at second stand, it kind of makes me lose faith in this whole replay thing.
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