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Missed most of this game as I was out to dinner with the family, but went by super fast with Fister working his magic. I think the game time was around 2:15 or so. Didn't get as my ground ball outs as he usually does however, but still worked quickly. Taylor hit his 2nd home run which turned out to be the game winning run.
Friday is Max Scherzer vs. Sean O'Sullivan in the matchup from last Sunday at 7:05.
Harper got the scoring started in the first with a 3 run homer in the first, Espinosa got a home run in the 4th, and Zimmerman got a 2 run double in the 6th. Scherzer pitched 8 innings, allowing 0 walks with 9 strikeouts. Filipe Rivero pitched the 9th allowing a run in his major league debut. Nats look to hit .500 for the first time since April 8 with a 1:05 start Saturday.
Pitching matchup is Aaron Harang for the Phillies vs. Jordan Zimmermann for the Nats. First pitch 1:05.
Zimmermann had a second straight bad outing as he walked 4 and gave up 4 runs, however only 2 were earned via a you guessed it, Desmond error! Desmond did go 3-5 at the plate, and has brought his average up from .115 at the conclusion of Tuesday's game to .298 currently, but he's cost us at a minimum 7 runs (and 1 loss!), and probably closer to 10 or 12 runs with his shoddy defense that it would be nice for him to start hitting home runs and driving some people in to make up for the runs he's blowing in the field. Currently, he only has 1 HR and 4 RBI. Harper hit an absolute moon shot to dead center that I think actually landed on the moon it was hit that far, nobody else did much of anything, except as mentioned Desmond with the 3-5. Look to start a new winning streak and win the series vs. the Phillies with the final game tomorrow.
Pitching matchup is David Buchanon for the Phillies against Stephen Strasburg for the Nats. First pitch scheduled for 1:35. Nats are off Monday, before welcoming in the St. Louis Cardinals for 3 games beginning on Tuesday.
It's much too early to worry about the Nats. Every team has a cold streak at one or more points during the season. The time to worry about a cold streak is when it occurs during the playoffs.
Scored was tied until the 5th inning when the Nats broke through against Buchanan with 3 runs all with 2 outs as well. Denard Span returned to the lineup at his customary top of the order spot. Desmond went 2-4 and now leads the team in batting with a .314 average, mainly because Harper already has 11 walks. Strasburg had a perfect game for 4 2/3 while Storen put a couple guys on in the 9th, but was able to lock down his 4th save of the year. With Span back off the DL Michael A. Taylor has been optioned back down to AAA Syracuse. I hope he's going to be a fixture in the organization for a long time (though I thought the same thing about Souza Jr. so who knows), and I know by having him play every day in Syracuse is much more beneficial to his growth then sitting on the bench in Washington and only playing once or twice a year. However, he'll be on the next flight out od town if one of the OF's get hurt, and likely Harper or Werth again will go down before September, so we'll probably see him again before September call ups.
Nats are off Monday, and start a 3 game series with the Cardinals Tuesday night. Pitching matchup is Lance Lynn for the Cardinals vs. Gio Gonzalez for the Nats. First pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM
Drew Storen blew his first save of the year to force extra innings, before Yunel Escobar hit a walk off home run to put the Curly W in the books, and everybody in DC home on the metro happy as DC capped off a perfect 3-0 sports night, this game, the Caps winning in OT over the Isles, and the Wizards embarrassing the Raptors (despite what the scoreboard might say). Back at .500 for the first time since April 8 when they beat the Mets 2-1 to get to 1-1. Look to go over .500 for the first time all year tonight.
Pitching matchup is John Lackey for the Cards vs. Doug Fister for the Nats. Game time slated for a 7:05 first pitch.
Doug Fister gave up a couple HR's, 1 to Matt Carpenter which lead off the game, and went down 5-0 by the 3rd inning. Nats tied it at 5 with a 5 run 3rd. Score stayed tied until the 8th when Kolten Wong hit a double off of Blake Treinen, and Matt Adams added a geico insurance run for the Cards with a home run in the 9th. Nats were held hitless for the last 3 innings, and even though they had a couple long at bats vs. Trevor Rosenthal in the 9th, they went down in order to drop back below .500. Series concludes with a 4 PM tilt rubber game tilt.
Pitching matchup is Michael Wacha for St. Louis vs. Max Scherzer for the Nats, with first pitch slated for 4:05 PM. After this game, the Nats embark on a 10 game, 3 city road trip which begins tomorrow in Miami against the struggling Marlins, and will also take them to Atlanta to face the surprising Braves (Monday-Wednesday) and then finish up in Queens against now the MLB best Mets (next Thursday-Sunday).
Matt Carpenter took the first pitch of the game for a double, went to 3rd on a Hayward single, then scored on a wild pitch when Adams was at the plate (though he would've scored anyways as Adams flied out to center that AB). Nats got their lone run in the 5th on a double, error & single but blew sooooooo many opportunities to score runs. In the 4th they had first & second with 0 outs (down 0-1) before Escobar grounded into a DP and Clint Robinson struck out. In that 5th inning they got Scherzer to 3rd base (with 0 outs tied at 1), before Desi popped out, Harper struck out, & Zim ended the inning on a fielders choice. In the 8th with the score now 4-1, they got first & second with 0 outs again before another DP, this one by Zimmerman thrwarted the rally and for all intents & purposes the game. The Cards added on to a 2-1 lead in the 8th via a little league home run from Mark Reynolds that even the Bad News Bears would have laughed at: A Reynolds doubled was sending Matt Holiday home from first. It would've been a bang-bang play.....if the throw was on target. It wasn't as it sailed high over Lobaton. Aaron Barrett backing the play off threw down to 3rd attempting to throw out Reynolds at 3rd advancing on the overthrow airmailed the throw into LF, which let Reynolds take a leisurely 90 foot stroll to finish rounding the bases and finish the scoring on the afternoon. Trevor Rosenthal shut them down in order again 1-2-3 for his 6th save and save Michael Wacha's 3rd win of the year. Scherzer falls to 1-2 on the year despite the fact he's allowed only 4 earned runs all season.
On the injury front: Scherzer exited the game after his AB in the 6th with a jammed finger, but he should be fine to make his next scheduled start Tuesday night at Turner Field as he jumps into the Braves/Nats rivalry. Ryan Zimmerman has a minor case of plantar fasciitis, but shouldn't require any more than a day off, but he might be sitting one of these games in Miami. Anthony Rendon is scheduled to begin his rehab assignment tomorrow, where Matt Williams wants him to take about 25 or 30 at bats, so if you figure he gets 4 AB's a game which is about average, he could return to the team next weekend when they go to Queens to play the Mets. I'm leaving for Florida early Saturday morning, so if I can't update the thread down there, I'll update it Tuesday night or Wednesday. Nats start a 3 game series in Miami tomorrow.
Pitching matchup is Jordan Zimmermann for the Nats vs. Mat Latos for the Marlins who is just having a God-awful homecoming to Miami. First pitch is schedule for 7:10 at Marlins Park.
I saw or listened to exactly 0 minutes of this game, as I had to help my dad deliver stuff to a job site in NYC, then went out to dinner with the family, so read the recap on ESPN.com, but from the looks of it, I'm glad I missed it.
Tomorrow's matchup is Stephen Strasburg for the Nats vs. Tom Koehler I believe for the Marlins. Game time slated for 4:10 @ Marlins Park.
Few of their games have been worth watching. Talking-head poppycock notwithstanding, the Nats are simply not a very good team at the moment, and they don't look to become one soon. LaRoche is gone, effectively replaced by Yunel Escobar. That (or something like it) had to be done of course, but it's not an improvement. Zimmerman is now dinged up to the extent that neither his offense nor his defense can be considered reliable anymore. Werth is dinged up and about to turn 36. Span is coming off two surgeries and a career year. A repeat is unlikely. Rendon has been out for almost two months with a minor injury. What will we be getting back? Espinosa still can't hit, Desmond is a crapshoot on both sides of the ball, Ramos is as much a butter-fingered lummox as a buffalo, while Harper and Strasburg are to be understood as not the wunderkinds of yore. Scherzer is of course a very big plus -- there's no denying that -- but Roark is now part of a vulnerable and uninspiring bullpen, and it so far looks like Fister, Gio, and J-Zim have each taken steps backward from where they were last Fall. Maybe the club can pull itself together. Maybe Rizzo can find some magical piece to plug in. But I doubt it. From where the team is right now, I don't see a path to the playoffs. Their play is dull, flat, and boring, and entirely too 2013-ish.
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