Saturday, August 13, 2011

Game 119: Nats at Phillies

Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
John Lannan faces Roy Oswalt tonight if the weather cooperates.
PHILADELPHIA -- Hello from Citizens Bank Park, where it's been raining on and off. The forecast shows a potential window of clearing around the time of tonight's game, but tomorrow doesn't look good at all. We'll just have to wait and see how this goes.

If and when tonight's game is played, John Lannan will be on the mound for the Nationals. And Hunter Wendelstedt will be calling balls and strikes behind the plate. Why is that significant? Because, you may recall, Wendelstedt was the plate umpire right here on July 26, 2007, when Lannan made his big-league debut ... and was ejected after plunking Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in succession. (Lannan was in no way intentionally throwing at either guy. He was a 22-year-old rookie scared out of his mind. Wendelstedt didn't see it that way.)

The best news of the day for the Nationals is that Michael Morse is back in the lineup after missing last night's game, still feeling the effects of getting hit in the left elbow by a pitch Thursday in Chicago.

Plenty of updates (both game-related and weather-related) to come live from the ballpark, so be sure to check back often...

NATIONALS at PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM), XM 185
Weather: Chance of storms, 82 degrees, Wind 8 mph out to RF
STARTING LINEUPS
NATIONALS (57-61)
CF Rick Ankiel
2B Danny Espinosa
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Michael Morse
RF Jayson Werth
LF Laynce Nix
C Wilson Ramos
SS Ian Desmond
P John Lannan

PHILLIES (77-41)
SS Jimmy Rollins
CF Shane Victorino
2B Chase Utley
1B Ryan Howard
RF Hunter Pence
LF Raul Ibanez
C Carlos Ruiz
3B Wilson Valdez
P Roy Oswalt
5:55 p.m. -- First, your weather update: It's raining. There's a pretty large system sweeping through the area, and most of it has yet to reach Philly. That said, the hourly forecast still shows a likely window during most of the evening, so perhaps we'll be OK.

6:00 p.m. -- Second, your Stephen Strasburg update: Davey Johnson said he's slated to throw a side session tomorrow at Potomac, weather permitting. (If it's raining, he may go to Nationals Park and pitch in the underground batting tunnel.) No official word on his next rehab start, but Wednesday at Hagerstown is the likeliest option.

6:15 p.m. -- I asked Davey about Tyler Clippard's availability for tonight's game, after he was used to notch four outs last night. "I'll have to check with him, but I probably won't go there," the manager said. It's an interesting dilemma Johnson faces on many nights. On the one hand, Clippard is the guy he wants on the mound to pitch out of a jam. On the other hand, that often means he needs to go more than one inning and isn't available the next night. "The tendency is, anytime you have a lead late, you want to use him," Johnson said. "He's been that good. But I also have a lot of other guys I have confidence in, and we need to develop them, also. He did a little more than one inning last night. We'll see how it goes tonight."

7:07 p.m. -- And we're underway, on-time, with a strike from Roy Oswalt to Rick Ankiel.

7:11 p.m. -- That didn't take long. Oswalt retires the side on 12 pitches, striking out Ankiel on a 3-2 fastball, then getting weak flyballs out of both Danny Espinosa and Ryan Zimmerman. John Lannan taking the mound now for the bottom of the first.

7:20 p.m. -- And that right there, folks, was a classic Citizens Bank Park home run. With two out and one on (via Espinosa's error), Ryan Howard lofted a 2-1 fastball from Lannan to left field. It traveled about 350 feet, but that's just enough to clear the fence here. Just like that, it's 2-0 Phillies, and Lannan has to be feeling snakebit in Philly yet again.

7:33 p.m. -- Wow, Michael Morse couldn't hit a ball any farther than he did to lead of the second and not get a home run out of it. Tagged it 415 feet just to the left of center field, the only spot in this park that it's near-impossible to clear the fence. Settled for a double. No worries, though, because Laynce Nix doubled himself to drive in a run. Then, with two outs and a 1-2 count, Ian Desmond showed off some nice hitting technique to line a single to left. And credit to Bo Porter, who knew that Raul Ibanez has a bad arm and Lannan was on-deck, and thus waved Nix around third to score. It's 2-2 now as we go to the bottom of the second.

8:09 p.m. -- I don't even know where to begin with the bottom of the third. I mean, this was among the strangest innings I've ever seen. Suppose we should start with Lannan's play of the year: With the bases loaded, Wilson Valdez tapped a dribbler down the third-base line. Lannan came charging over, and as he was falling to the ground, managed to flip the ball out of his glove, maneuver it around Ryan Howard and hit Wilson Ramos in the mitt to record an incredible 1-2 forceout. Really, just a remarkable play. If only Lannan didn't follow it by walking Oswalt for the second time tonight, this time with the bases loaded. Adding insult to injury, Jimmy Rollins then grounded a ball to the left-side hole, with Desmond trying to record a forceout at second base but throwing just a bit late. And as Espinosa fell over, Valdez came charging around third and scored himself after Ramos was unable to handle Espinosa's low throw. The end result of all this is that the Philies scored five runs in the inning and now lead 7-2 ... even though Lannan has only been charged with one earned run.

8:18 p.m. -- And now here comes Collin Balester for the fourth inning. Lannan has been pulled, either for ineffectiveness or because he got hurt on that play. Appeared to tweak his knee or his ankle. Another disappointing start for the lefty in Philadelphia.

8:22 p.m. -- Misleading stat of the night: John Lannan lowered his ERA, from 3.56 to 3.55.

8:31 p.m. -- Meanwhile, the Nats' bats have gone silent since the second inning. Oswalt has retired 10 of 11. It's still 7-2 as we go to the bottom of the fifth.

8:45 p.m. -- If the Nats need an offensive strategy for the rest of the night, it should be this: Keep hitting singles at Raul Ibanez, then tell Bo Porter to keep waving his guys around third base. The odds of Ibanez actually reaching the plate with a throw is roughly .000002 percent. Back-to-back singles from Zimmerman and Morse accomplished it in the sixth, so it's now 7-3.

8:59 p.m. -- You know it's been a bad night when even Morse is booting grounders. That led to yet another unearned run for the Phillies, giving them an astounding seven tonight. The only Nats infielder without an error -- so far -- is Zimmerman. It's 8-3 after six and getting uglier by the minute.

9:14 p.m. -- The good news: Oswalt is out of the game. The bad news: The Nats are down to their last six outs and still trail by five runs.

9:27 p.m. -- It's a good thing Davey Johnson let Henry Rodriguez re-take the mound for a second inning of work. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten a chance to see a pitch hit the backstop, a four-pitch walk and have to summon Ryan Mattheus to try to get out of a jam.

9:37 p.m. -- And Mattheus can't pitch out of it. Three more runs score, all of them earned. It's 11-3 as we go to the ninth.

9:48 p.m. -- And that, mercifully, is your ballgame. Final score: 11-3. The less said about this one, the better. Except I still have to write a full postgame recap/analysis. So make sure you read that.

77 comments:

natsfan1a said...

Oh, geez. Not Wendelstedt again. If memory serves, Acta also got ejected and spent the rest of the game with the kid in the clubhouse.

Good news about Morse. Go, LannEn! Go, NATS!! Go (away), Wendelstedt! (Just kidding on the last part. Golly, Mr. W., you're my very most favorite ump of all. Really. I like you even more than Joe West. Or Angel Hernandez even. ;-))

NatsLady said...

So Chien Ming Wang could get rained out two times in a row? Hope the boys don't lose another off-day.

gonatsgo said...

If CMW does get rained out tomorrow that might be good - look what happened the last time! At least they are very close to home now. The Phils do have an off day on Monday, though. They also just had one on Thursday - like they need any help.

JaneB said...

I agree with gonatsgo, that the extra rest seemed to help Wang. But a true day off would probably be better for everyone involved.
GYFNG!

Nats Outsider said...

While we are waiting to see if there is a game today, here's a reminder that the Nats still have $2 tickets available for Tuesday's game against the Reds. They usually sell those tickets out, but the Web site still lists them.

http://www.nationals.com/specials

I hope to see some Insiders there!

m20832 said...

If the game is played, will Jags be with FP again? I really like that combination!
Great news about Morse! Glad he's a quick healer. And a tough Beast to boot!
Why, oh why do the Nats get saddled with crappy umpires most of the time?
GYFNG!!!

waddy eye no said...

last night's stats -

108 comments, less 15 made before the game is 93, and 20 of them about dave vs carp. and i think the only people who don't want dave on tv are the ones who would miss him on the radio with charlie.

wonder if carp reads this blog

gyfng - if it stops raining.

Anonymous said...

i think dave and fp are cute. they look like bert and ernie

Bryan Scrafford said...

Seems like it might make sense for Strasburg to do the side session at Nats Park either way. With his next start likely to be at Hagerstown, it's not like they're really looking to get him adjusted to the atmosphere at Pfitzner Stadium. Plus, the facilities in Woodbridge aren't that very good.

So while it might not bring any extra benefits, it couldn't hurt to have him do a little work in surroundings at Nats Park. At the very least, Nats Park has better training facilities to use while he's there.

NatsJack in Florida said...

That ball by Howard doesn't reach the warning track in DC. That place is almost as much a disgrace to baseball as the Philly fans.

UnkyD said...

hack..........?

baseballswami said...

Nice to see the guys hitting the ball hard. Line-up turned over, game tied. Of course, we hit the ball about a mile and didn't get hr's, Howard hits a pop-up and it goes out.

Stranded_in_Philly said...

Wonder if this is gonna be one of those reverse nights, where the bottom of the order out performs the top

NatinBeantown said...

Collins is an interesting listen on JFK. Nice even p-b-p, great description. But man, makes me realize how comfy Dave and Charlie are. Like old slippers, those two. Dave's one of the best in the game.

FS said...

man a triple play would be nice.

NatsLady said...

wow, Howard's face!! What a play.

Anonymous said...

That was not a pretty inning.

baseballswami said...

You know that comeback that the nats usually mount late in the game? Might be nice if they started now instead.

NatsJack in Florida said...

Strike 1 is what makes or breaks LannEn. He's been robbed 4 times on strike 1 this inning alone. Add that to the shoddy defense and we're screwed.

The bats have to get going right now. Oswalt is totally hitable.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know who's in the booth with Charlie tonight? I can't recognize the voice! I know Dave is on MASN. Thanks!

Mark Zuckerman said...

Anon: It's Todd Kalas, currently a Rays broadcaster and also the son of late Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. He's in town for the statue dedication for his father, and since he used to work with Charlie Slowes in Tampa, he's helping out tonight and tomorrow.

NatsLady said...

Pitch count high. 43 in the 3rd inning alone.

NatsLady said...

Some guy Charlie used to work with in Tampa (when they were the Devil Rays), now announces for the Rays. Will be there with Charlie tomorrow also.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mark!

NatsLady said...

Thanks, Mark. Much better id than "some guy". :)

Mick said...

one of this games, very frustrating. I could deal with it a lot better if they were over 500. What is up with Lannan walking Oswalt twice?? Unacceptable!

Mick said...

BTW: Great site Mark, smart fans and I enjoy this very much

NatinBeantown said...

Wow, how did autocorrect go from 'Kalas' to 'Collins'? Agressive autocorrect + hot dog fingers = big mistakes. Kalas is a good listen, and can describe a trainwreck pretty effectively.

Mick said...

aside from tonight, Lannan has a spot next season with Strass and Zimm. I agree with Phil wood that we have 8 good pitchers competing for the last 2 spots. Can anyone tell me anything about Maya?

NatsJack in Florida said...

When you have 3 guys in your line up that should be hitting 8th and only one of them is, while the other 2 are hitting 2nd and 5th, you are also screwed.

JaneB said...

Like the guy with Charlie. It's nice he's following in his father's footsteps. I loved Ryan Howard's face on that play. Almost worth what came next. But not quite. I hope LannEn is okay and not hurt from the fall.

NatsJack in Florida said...

In Tampa he does mostly side line reporting. The fact that he asks intelligent questions yet is marginally less better looking than Debbie kind of balances out. (Did I say that out loud?)

Anonymous said...

Carpy is doing play-by-play for the Cleveland Indians? What's going on? Anyone know?

Mick said...

Oh, well at least Clippard and Storen can rest, man I hate losing!

NatsLady said...

Henry warming. This is not the game Davey is winning. He's going for the win tomorrow. Yeesh, another error. Guess the boys aren't winning it either.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm maybe it was Pittsburgh ... I could have sworn I heard him when I brought up MLB and got the free game? Carpy on a tryout somewhere else?

NatsLady said...

Bally did good. And Henry will be either good or fun. It's only one game. Get all the errors out of the way.

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_Is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

Apparently the word is out: Sunshine Bobby's days are numbered. I'm hardly a fan of SB. But this open mike tryout is kinda demeaning, even to this shill. The guy is a pro, after all. Too bad AK got Pattersoned this week in Cleveland. Or else we would have gotten to hear this eternal optimistic message one more time:

"GOOD TAKE BY AUSTIN!!!!!!"

NatsLady said...

As usual, no idea where Henry's pitches are going. Glad I'm not in the batter's box.

Anonymous said...

Bob Carpenter isn't doing the Cleveland game.

Anonymous said...

@Sunshine,

Yes, I do believe Carpy got an inning or two in Cleveland.

baseballswami said...

Neighbor stopped by and I obviously missed some stuff. But - did I hear the announcers say that only 1 of those eight runs was earned? Can that be right? I saw Danny make an error - didn't realize there had been 3. Looks like Colin did ok and HRod is the good HRod tonight. Even though it's really a shame that Lannan had a tough outing, it's probably good for the future to see Balester get some innings. So, tomorrow - Doc or Rain?

Anonymous said...

You do realize that Bob Carpenter is still a MASN employee?

Mark Zuckerman said...

Folks: Bob Carpenter isn't broadcasting any games for any team or any network this weekend. He went home for a family event that had been planned for months. Seriously, don't read anything into this.

NatsLady said...

Yes, 5 walks and 3 errors adds up to a lot of unearned runs.

FS said...

I don't know about seven unearned runs. I know first two were unearned and victorino's run too, but after that it was pretty much Lannan to blame, or not?

Nothing is sharp in this game. I don't know how we beat Hamels last night and how we going to beat Roy tomorrow. But I will be here anyway.

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_Is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

Mark wrote: "Bob Carpenter isn't broadcasting any games for any team or any network this weekend."

Oh, there is a god.

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_Is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

And now playing the part of Ryne Duren tonight....Henry "20-20" Rodriguez!

baseballswami said...

Just noticing that each team has 6 hits ---checked the pitching stats - 1 earned run for Lannan, 0 for everyone else. This is one strange ballgame. Oh, well - it's Philly - always strange.

Anonymous said...

HRod for a second inning - things could get interesting ...

Dave said...

All the TV guys get days off, and I'm sure we shouldn't read anything at all into the Dave-for-Bob swap. To my knowledge Bob hasn't been let go, just not yet renewed.

That said, Dave Jags and FP are a treat to listen to tonight. Much more relaxed and fun that last night.

Dave said...

"Than last night."

Don't think I can lay that on the damn iPhone, though.

phil dunn said...

Bottom line--- this is Dave Jagler's first shot at doing TV play by play and he's way better than Carpenter. If he's not doing the TV play by play next year for the Nats, I think all of us will be very disappointed.

waddu eye no said...

just thought of what carp said when hairston left:

"there are 3 airports"

but of course, i believe everything mark z says

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_Is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

Like much of this team, Carp is AAAA, at best. He should be doing play-by-play in Omaha. They'd love him.

gonatsgo said...

Aww - go easy on Carp - he's a good guy and he really paid his dues working with crazy-man dibble. FP is good and they have worked well together. I am kind of getting tired of Ray Knight, though, but at least it's only pre and post game so it's avoidable. One thing I have liked about fp is that he is younger and has been in the game more recently. All the other 3 ( Carp, Knight, Holliday) are old. When I look in the stands, I definitely see a lot of younger fans - I think masn should try to appeal more to them with someone a little less gray.

Anonymous said...

Davey Johnson is now 7 games below .500 since taking over as mgr.

NatsLady said...

Can't the O's EVER win a game? Cleveland won, so now could the O's just beat Detroit?

NatsLady said...

Nope, they can't. Blew a 5 run lead.

Drew8 said...

We'd be better off if they'd given Josh away for free.

CBinDC said...

Well the error train goes rolling merrily along ......why can this team not have ALL the players focused at the same time on both hitting and catching the ball ...the death of the contact pitcher is walks and errors and in that tonight LannEn excelled..... well here is hoping they can look like a pro team tomorrow .......or the whole series is just going to be A BIT OUTSIDE

LoveDaNats said...

Shoot...I didn't actually think we'd get two in a row but I could hope.

baseballswami said...

Wish I could say that we took a good old fashioned Philly drubbing tonight - but I can't. We just beat ourselves. Now- tomorrow - Halladay. I'm trying to be philosophical, though. I seriously think that everything that happens to these guys, especially the young ones, is going to season them for the future and teach them the hard lessons. Last night was a good night for the franchise in general, tonight, not so much - but I think patience is the key. I see lots of good things with this team - just not today.

JaneB said...

Ooof.

In other news, we just watched Major League, having been reminded of it's 25th anniversary. It was still funny. Unlike this game.

There's always Monday (since it sure doesn't sound like they will get the game in tomorrow).

And sheesh. The capcha? Warwhomp.

NatsLady said...

@baseballswami: they got Halladay, we got Wang. If our guy is like he was in Chicago, and the boys back him up with good D and some O, we got a fair chance.

Drew8 said...

Twenty-four of the top 34 picks are still unsigned with less than 50 hours to go.

Boras has five of the unsigned 24, including the Nats' top three picks -- Rendon, Meyer and Goodwin.

It's going to be a long two days.

Dawn said...

On vacation so just checking in, not sure I want to watch a complete replay on this one. Carp isn't bad and I really like F.P. Have to get em tomorrow.

JaneB said...

I'm feeling a little bad about Mark having to recap this game, while I watch The Franchise. Natsfan1a, you are following it, aren't you? I didn't even know him but i think about your Giants- loving brother during the show.

UnkyD said...

Phil dunne said:
Bottom line--- this is Dave Jagler's first shot at doing TV play by play and he's way better than Carpenter. If he's not doing the TV play by play next year for the Nats, I think all of us will be very disappointed.
.................

I will be enormously disappointed, if Dave isn't on my radio, with Charlie, next year. Sheesh, you can listen to music, if you have the game on TV. A great radio team, is Magic...

Mick said...

Let's bring back Ron Menchine and Shelby Whitfiled on radio, LOL


remember, the great Ray Scott did some Senator games with Warner Wolf on TV back in 70/71

SonnyG10 said...

OK, we got all the screw-ups out of the way tonight. Tomorrow (or whenever) we beat Halladay and the Phillies!

Re the announcers, I would rather Dave remained on the radio with Charlie. Don't want to see a good thing go bad there. I think Bob
Carpenter is perfectly ok and I really enjoy FP now.

Big Cat said...

@Mick

And Fred Valentine with a Tasty Break!

Shelby wrote a book. Believe it was called "Kiss it Goodbye" It chronicled the Nats season with Denny McLain and Ted Williams. 69-70?

NatsNut said...

"...and i think the only people who don't want dave on tv are the ones who would miss him on the radio with charlie."

...aaaand that would be me. It will kill me to see (hear?) Dave and Charlie broken up. =(

Anonymous said...

Charlie and Dave are indeed great together. But they're great individually too. Which means it's only a matter of time until one of them moves on to bigger and better things - most likely Dave, since he's the younger one/second fiddle. Might as well have him move up to the Nationals TV booth rather than off to some other team. Also, of the current four radio/TV guys, he's the only one who lives here year-round. It would be a good thing to have the lead TV broadcaster maintaining an offseason local presence.

Anonymous said...

remember, the great Ray Scott did some Senator games with Warner Wolf on TV back in 70/71

Lead in song was Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4". Wolf used to live in apartment near my house when he was first getting started. Yep, I remember.

natsfan1a said...

I like Dave, but I also like Bob. Just thought I'd throw that out there. :-)

Anonymous said...

Isn't Warner about 4'10"? A little over 5 feet with that puff hair job

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