Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Game 27: Nats at Braves

Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
Gio Gonzalez faces Tim Hudson tonight at Turner Field.
ATLANTA — No matter the status of Stephen Strasburg's right arm, the Nationals could really use a win tonight against the Braves, who have now beaten their NL East rivals eight consecutive times dating back to last season. So a quality start by Gio Gonzalez, not to mention some clutch hitting against Tim Hudson, would help the cause.

Gonzalez is coming off a stellar outing against the Reds, one in which he allowed only one hit over eight innings (Joey Votto's homer). The lefty's record against Atlanta isn't anything to get excited about: 2-3, 6.08 ERA in five starts over the last two seasons. Hudson, on the other hand, has owned the Nationals franchise over the years (15-5, 2.60 ERA in 27 starts) though they did beat the veteran right-hander twice last season. He's in search of his 200th career win.

Jayson Werth is not in the Nats' lineup after dealing with both a hamstring and ankle issue last night. Bryce Harper will slide over to his spot in right field, with Tyler Moore in left field. Wilson Ramos, meanwhile, is catching for the first time since going on the DL with a hamstring strain.

Updates to come, so please check back...

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: Turner Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM), XM 185
Weather: Partly cloudy, 76 degrees, Wind 6 mph RF to LF
NATIONALS (13-13)
CF Denard Span
2B Danny Espinosa
RF Bryce Harper
1B Adam LaRoche
SS Ian Desmond
LF Tyler Moore
3B Chad Tracy
C Wilson Ramos
LHP Gio Gonzalez

BRAVES (16-9)
SS Andrelton Simmons
3B Chris Johnson
LF Justin Upton
1B Freddie Freeman
C Evan Gattis
2B Dan Uggla
CF B.J. Upton
RF Reed Johnson
RHP Tim Hudson

UMPIRES
HP Tim Timmons
1B Mike Winters (cc)
2B Mark Wegner
3B Laz Diaz

7:10 p.m. — And we're underway with a ball from Tim Hudson to Denard Span. It's a gorgeous 75 degrees at gametime.

7:16 p.m. — A 1-2-3 top of the first for Hudson, though Span really battled him before striking out on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Gio Gonzalez takes the mound for the bottom of the first.

7:32 p.m. — Well that was, uh, not good. Andrelton Simmons tagged Gio's second pitch of the night off the top of the left-field fence for a homer. And things only devolved from there. Justin Upton walked. Evan Gattis roped a double off the same left-field wall, with Tyler Moore (making only his second start of the year in the outfield) having trouble with the carom and allowing Upton to score. Gio issued another walk, this time to Dan Uggla. Even when it looked like he got out of the inning, inducing a grounder to third out of Reed Johnson, Wilson Ramos was called for catcher's interference. So after all that, the Nats are down 2-0 and Gio has already thrown 29 pitches. Yikes.

7:52 p.m. — And it keeps getting worse. The Braves are crushing everything Gio throws up there. Well, everything except for the balls. (He's already issued three walks in two innings.) He's retired only six of 15 batters in this game, amazingly all six by his own doing (five strikeouts and a sweet diving catch of Simmons' popped-up bunt). He's thrown 55 pitches, and he's put the Nats in a 4-0 hole after two ugly innings.

7:59 p.m. — Tim Hudson, meanwhile, hasn't allowed a hit in three innings so far. The only Nats baserunner: Gio, who somehow drew a two-out walk in the top of the third. So, things are going pretty well here tonight, right? Sheesh.

8:15 p.m. — Make it four hitless innings for Hudson, though he has issued a couple of walks. Otherwise, the Nats aren't doing anything against the veteran right-hander so far. Still 4-0 as we go to the bottom of the fourth.

8:30 p.m. — Make it 5-0 Braves as Gio continues his wild ride in the bottom of the fourth. Get this: He's faced 24 batters so far tonight, and only one has produced an out on a full swing. Every other out has come via a strikeout, pickoff or diving catch of a bunt. I wouldn't be surprised if that's it for Gio, and if it is, that's a heck of a pitching line: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 9 K, 95 pitches.

8:36 p.m. — Hey, the Nats scored! Tyler Moore leads off the fifth with a double into the right-field corner, the first hit tonight off Hudson. He then advanced on a pair of groundballs, scoring on Ramos' little nubber to third. It's 5-1 now as Zach Duke enters to replace Gio Gonzalez in the bottom of the fifth.

8:47 p.m. — Sweet Fancy Moses, this is ugly. It's now 8-1 Braves as Duke gives up three in the bottom of the fifth. The play that epitomized this game (and, really, the last several weeks): Tim Hudson drove a ball deep to right, Bryce Harper leaped to try to make the catch, had the ball land in the pocket of his glove ... and then ricochet over the wall for a homer. That about sums it up. Meanwhile, ESPN is showing that Bryce Harper documentary in 13 minutes. Somethings tells me that'll get better ratings than the actual game being played simultaneously.

9:05 p.m. — Hey, it's a 1-2-3 inning from the Nats pitching staff! Still 8-1 after six. Anybody watching the Bryce documentary?

9:15 p.m. — Leadoff triple from Desmond in the seventh ... and the Nats can't bring him home. Yeah, that sounds about right.

9:29 p.m. — Is it over yet? No? OK, resume whatever it was you were doing.

9:41 p.m. — Now it's over. The Nats fall, 8-1, as Tim Hudson notches his 200th career win, 16 of them against the Nationals franchise. Losers of three straight, the Nats are back under .500 (13-14) and have lost nine straight to Atlanta, dating back to last season.

234 comments:

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Exposremains said...

The Crapitude will eventually affect Harper. He's gonna try to do too much.

Jane Elizabeth said...

Why can't Mr. Zuckerman fix the blog so it doesn't start over at 200. It is very annoying to have to scroll through 200 entries since the page doesn't update automatically.

Turn off MASN and go to ESPN and watch Bryce Begins.

Exposremains said...

I better not hear: We like our team the way it is crap, we're better than this, they're hot and were not and all that other loser talk

jeffwx said...

Go to the wash post blog...comments are automagically posted and you can read the latest from Poopy McPoop.

Gonat said...

ALR got a meatball on a 3-1 pitch and he gave it a ride but just not far enough. I'm hoping that's a good sign but LaRoche has a .216 OBP That is hard to believe and he is hurting the team badly.



Steamer said...

Get tired of watching the game Bryce Begins is on ESPN now

Gonat said...

Highlight! Ian Desmond!

Gonat said...

Really FP, Davey will play the hot hand? Really?

jeffwx said...

So at the end of the day, has Rizzo's trades and free agent signings positioned Nats better or worse for 2013 and 2014...the harper/stras era.
I think his draft signings have been outstanding.
1. Signing Werth....Negative...could have used the money better
2. Trading for Ramos...big plus
3. Picking up Clippard...plus
4. Trading willingham for HROD/and that OFer...negative...could have gotton more
5. The Gio trade....positive in my humble opinion but will listen to reasonable argument
6. Getting Suzuki...good move.
6. Letting go of the Beast...Wish we could have taken him on..negative
7. D. Span...I liked it

8. signing ALR...why not...doesn't hurt...good d.

So overall, I am happy with Rizzo esp his eye for young talent.

Jane Elizabeth said...

Chad Tracy hitting .167....

Gonat said...

Maybe the ump can just hand the rest of the game to Hudson. Call it clean. He doesn't need extra inches.

Secret wasian man said...

I am bored with this team and just completely disinterested. The season is over. Yes its over. This team cant even compete with the Braves. Nats 4th in AL east this year. And I am truly disgusted with our announcers. They sugarcoat everything.

jeffwx said...

jeez...that's better than 1/2 the starting lineup,
Mr. former Supreme Court Justice

Unknown said...

Nice... lead off triple and three straight outs... Really? You can't make a productive out at least? That sums up everything wrong with this team.

Gonat said...

Secret wasian man said...
I am bored with this team and just completely disinterested. The season is over. Yes its over. This team cant even compete with the Braves. Nats 4th in AL east this year. And I am truly disgusted with our announcers. They sugarcoat everything.
_________________________________

Why are you telling everyone, just leave gracefully and don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out.

Daylos said...

So the entire season is over after 27 games? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?

Jane Elizabeth said...

Why was Sean Burnett not re-signed? Maybe he had an incipient injury? Otherwise, he should have been signed. The Werth and Ryan Zimmerman deals are not looking real good at the moment, but we may all feel different in August.

jeffwx said...

Secret Asian Man, well you're giving up on the Nats, and I just don't understand.
(too the tune of secret agent man)

jeffwx said...

Yep...one can argue the Zimmerman signing too.
I think Burnett is hurt again.

Gonat said...

jeffwx said...
Yep...one can argue the Zimmerman signing too.
___________________________

Zimmerman and his camp worked Rizzo and the ownership at the right time. They had very little choice. They paid a lot of money for a player who just can't play full seasons and a lot of that money is masked as future earnings for his personal services contract that doesn't show in the deal.

Jane Elizabeth said...

I don't think Rizzo or anyone could expect La Roche, Werth and Zimmerman to all essentially take the entire month of April off. You might have gotten away with that with Morse in the line-up as well, but with Span taking his place, you basically end up with one power hitter in the entire line-up. We are lucky to be 13-14 based on run differential.

That being said, the Nats have had a month of terrible luck, as well as poor play. The Babip cannot continue this bad for us, on both sides of the plate.

Rabbit34 said...

Looks like everyone is coming around to my conclusion, back to early last year. We need bats. I had said it bewildered me how a team with these bats could win 98 games. Yes, most of last year was luck. This year they are losing on the talent they have. Feel bad for Harper, the best player in baseball. Wow, is this team BORING! BORING! There, I've said it again. BORING!

Secret wasian man said...

I'm not giving up guys. Just frustrated. Where is our beloved Nats though? Just frustrated.

Secret wasian man said...

Hopefully Zimm can return and lite a spark.

Gonat said...

Secret, let's see how RZ does when he comes back and let's hope they put Lombo in as the every day 2nd baseman and work TyMo in a platoon at 1st.

Jane Elizabeth said...

What does that mean about Ryan and personal services?

If he can't play, does he become an indentured servant of the ballclub?

I like Ryan personally, but at some point, you have to play the game and play it well. There have been tons of "great" players who have faded away without accomplishing much due to injuries.

In my mind, Zimmerman has not accomplished much based upon his supposed talent levels. He failed to win the ROY. He has one Gold Glove and one appearance in the play-offs. He has no seasons of 40 homers or more, and not many of 35 homers or more. Whatever it is that allows some guys like Mickey Mantle, say, who seemed to perform at incredible levels with injuries all over his entire body, seems not to be present in Ryan Zimmerman.

Secret wasian man said...

Careful being negative Rabbit. These folks don't like that.

DJB said...

The Zimmerman contract is the biggest problem this team faces, and is an example why this is a losing franchise. Always base contracts on projectible performance, and never sign long-term deals with injured players. Zimmerman will probably never play a whole season. The Cards let Pujols walk and will be able to sign their young arms, which of course are better than our young arms. We can't trade Zimmerman, as we should, and he is going to drag this team down with him.

Manassas Nats' Fan said...

Went on an erand and left the car as Desi tripled and told my wife the way people are hitting he wont score.

ehay2k said...

That's the way Secret! We're not giving up, though we all know things must improve. But it's not the big things - Odalis Perez as our ace, Paul Lo Duca at the dish, etc - it's the little things that are killing us. And those are by far the easier to fix.

However, I am done with Eckstein - he was supposed to turn Ankiel, his star student, into a hitter. Not so much. Desi and Espi have a lot more ability and Eck has not made them any better. Any improvement they have seen is due solely to Davey. Bottom line, this is too talented a club to be so lost at the plate.

And Mark Z, please leave the snark to us, ok? ;-)

Jane Elizabeth said...

The Zimmerman contract could have been all right if there had been open communications about what was going on.

Apparently, the Nats had no idea that Zimmerman would be hurt going into this season. If we had known that Ryan was unable to throw anymore, we could have kept Morse, let ALR go and move Zimmerman to 1st with Rendon at 3rd.

Now, because of lack of communication, we are stuck and there may not be anyway to fix this without benching either Werth, Zimmerman or ALR. We need hitting but we simply cannot let Zimmerman go out there and sling the ball to and fro.

jeffwx said...

I agree with Gonat on this one...you are building a fan base and needed to pay Zimm. He's still a great hitter, esp in the clutch.

Jane Elizabeth said...

Really, Ryan Zimmerman is a great clutch hitter?

Hmm. Most sabermetrics guys claim that there is no such thing as clutch hitting. Good to know. I guess I forgot about all of his clutch homers in the NLDS last year.

Seriously, Ryan Zimmerman has never been in a clutch situation--which I don't believe in anyway--until last year.

There weren't a lot of clutch opportunities in those back to back 59 win years that he led us to with his clutch play....

Joe Seamhead said...

Too much football fan mentality in here.

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