Monday, May 27, 2013

Instant analysis: Orioles 6, Nats 2

USA Today Sports Photos
Gio Gonzalez labored over 5 2/3 innings, suffering the loss.
Game in a nutshell: In the opener of this four-game Battle of the Beltways, the Nationals needed a quality start out of Gio Gonzalez, both to set a positive tone today and to save the bullpen heading into tomorrow's game (with Ross Detwiler now on the DL). Gonzalez, though, labored over 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs and putting 11 men on base. Thus, the Nationals were forced to play from behind, something they've struggled with all season. They have yet to come back to win any game this year in which they trailed by more than two runs, and today was no different. Jason Hammel scattered two runs and eight hits over eight innings, and the Nats went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. With the loss, they dropped back to one game over the .500 mark, still unable to get themselves on any kind of extended hot streak.

Hitting lowlight: Plenty of lowlights to choose from, but let's focus on the bottom of the seventh inning, which began in fine fashion: a Roger Bernadina double. Just one problem: The Nationals never advanced Bernadina beyond second base. Kurt Suzuki grounded out to third. Chad Tracy fouled out to third. Denard Span popped out to second. That pretty must embodied this game from the home team's perspective. Or, really, must of this season. The Nationals aren't just having troubling hitting; they're having trouble hitting in particular situations.

Pitching lowlight: Though he kept the Orioles off the scoreboard for three innings, Gonzalez was anything but sharp early on. He walked two, uncorked a wild pitch and found himself behind the count way too often. And it finally caught up to him in the fourth, with the Orioles stringing together three singles, a double and a walk to plate three runs. Gonzalez never did find his groove, pitching out of trouble all afternoon. He finally departed with two outs in the sixth after issuing his fourth walk of the day. Just when it looked like the left-hander had rediscovered his Cy Young-finalist form from last season — he had posted a 1.29 ERA over his previous three starts — he reverted back to inconsistent form.

Key stat: Only once in his career had Yamaico Navarro recorded two hits and two RBI in the same game. Until today.

Up next: The D.C. portion of this interleague showdown concludes at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, with rookie sensation Kevin Gausman on the mound for the Orioles and ... well, the Nationals still haven't announced who will start for them. The choice appears to be either Zach Duke out of the bullpen or Chris Young out of the Syracuse rotation. Stay tuned.

51 comments:

mick said...

so what is going to change and WHEN??????

Unknown said...

Disgusting. This team is no heart, no fight, all marketing.

mick said...

Unknown... I think it may be a case of not that good and over rated

mick said...

The O's rebuilding is amazing, they will be playing post season...my worst nightmare was Angelos having the last laugh and it looks like he will. i never would have thought it. I think the Lerners should have a sit down with Rizzo and Davey.

DJB said...

The Nats are so bad, I just don't know where to begin. But I guess you must point to Rizzo. Just take a comparison between these two franchises for a start. The Orioles are a team on the rise, with a new GM who manages to pull young players while not having the worst record in baseball. The Nats are going downhill with a team that includes two so-called once-in-a-generation players and a bunch of scrubs. The farm is bare. Their stars have been mismanaged. And we shutdown our strongest asset when we had a chance to win. This game encapsulates everything Rizzo has screwed up.

nats guy said...

Only thing I have to say is that those uniforms are really ugly. Preferred the Red, white and blue from prior years.

David Proctor said...

The O's don't stand a chance in the postseason with their pitching. Granted, they have some good young prospects so that could help. But this year? No way. They won't be able to outslug teams with their pitching staff.

JaneB said...

Turns out Maalox makes it more fun to drink bourbon through the game. But we aren't getting Maalox play. Now the bourbon just feels sad.
Oh well. Get em tomorrow. Or not.

nats guy said...

DJB,

Get off the ledge. Its only a baseball game. Life goes on.

David Proctor said...

"The Nats are going downhill with a team that includes two so-called once-in-a-generation players and a bunch of scrubs."

Absolutely silly. Zimmermann is a scrub? Werth is a scrub? Detwiler is a scrub? Gio is a scrub? Zimmerman is a scrub? Desmond is a scrub? Clippard is a scrub? Soriano is a scrub? Span is a scrub?

The hyperbole here is just amazing. You would think we were 10 games under .500.

jeffwx said...

O's built in a typical AL direction...lots of O.
Nats built on Pitching and defense primarily.

However, O's had a good pitcher out there today. so good pitching beats mediocare hitting and viceversa

David Proctor said...

It is Karns tomorrow.

mick said...

all right, time to start the grill... I hope they can pull off a win tomorrow with Karns Dave and Nats 128, we are good

Joe Seamhead said...

Karns is pitching here tomorrow.

jeffwx said...

And Espi back on Wednesday...Can't imagine that 5 games will help heal the kind of injuries he has.

nats guy said...

DJB,

All teams are never as bad as they seem and never as good as hoped. The nats are an average team going through a tough luck time. Last year they were an average team who had some incredible breaks. We overrated this team a little because of last year. You just need to bring the expectations down and stop fretting about a game that was meant for entertainment not suffering. I have been watching this a long time and I will always have 1969 and 2012 for which I remain thankful,

jeffwx said...

Boy, Davey looks real bummed....Injuries might be worse than we know esp with Harper, Det, etc
And he doesn't have a lot of bench and backup pitching for the Det to be sure.

Gonat said...

Gonat said...
As I said earlier, if Karns is pulled from his start.....Karns was pulled.

May 27, 2013 2:32 PM
_______________________________________

I take little credit for this. SteveM told me last night this would be the move.

Karns was scheduled to start today and when he was pulled..........

I also tweeted to Amanda and Mark early this morning and then again when Karns was pulled but they just ignored the tweet. Whatever.

jeffwx said...

The Amazin Mets...How'd they do it with Ron Swaboda, Cleon Jones, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Tommie Agee...
Oh yeah, great pitching

jeffwx said...

Good call, Gonat....saw your posts

David Proctor said...

Karns has a career 2.70 ERA. He has struggled a bit at Harrisburg with a 4.60 ERA, but he allowed 7 ER in his first start and that's inflated his numbers. After his first start he's allowed: 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 3 and 4.

Jane Elizabeth said...

I think Lombardozzi, Moore and Bernadina could be characterized as scrubs, to be fair, and all of them were starting today, with only one of them providing stellar defense to partially offset his pathetically bad hitting. Unfortunately, we seem to have one non-scrub guy off the bench, which is Suzuki.

And I know Bernadina and Moore got doubles today, but it will take a bunch more of those before any of us will feel good about seeing them out there playing.

Manassas Nats' Fan said...

Nats about to go on a 15 of 20 run.

Joe Seamhead said...

Well,gee, I guess we should call in the dogs and sell the farm listening to some of you.Season's over. Book your Orioles playoff tickets.May 27th, and the O's have sealed the deal, but the Nats season is over.On May 27th! No need to play the games in June, July, August, or September.

Gonat said...

jeffwx said...
Good call, Gonat....saw your posts
________________________________________

I gave it to Mark early this morning. He didn't even bother responding to any of my Tweets to him. I Tweeted him back when Karns was pulled.

‏@NatsHR2Win:
@ZuckermanCSN Let's see if Karns is pulled from his start today. He's already on the 40 man.

8:36 AM - 27 May 13

Jane Elizabeth said...

Great point about the 1969 Mets. The Mets did it in 1969 because all of those guys you mentioned who were barely above the scrub level had career years. The Mets exceeded their Pythagorean expectations by 8 games, winning 100, and then upset a far superior Orioles team, with equally good pitching due to a slew of monumental great plays that you would virtually never see in a span of only 5 games.

The next year the Orioles easily beat a far superior Reds line-up (with weaker pitching though), when it was the O's making all the great plays in a short series.

I am afraid that Desmond and Espinosa may have both already maxed out. Ramos can't stay healthy. Moore shows no ability at all to match his offense from last year, and Lombo, Shark and Chad are all far from what they did last year. Span is decent but has little power and is actually having his worst season so far.

EmDash said...

The Os are two games better than the Nats. Not exactly an unstoppable dynamo. Gio and our pitching just had a bad day against a strong offense, and our hitters haven't been good enough to make up that gap so far.

A team with our pitchers and the Os offense would be unstoppable, to be sure. But they both have problems.

David Proctor said...

Karns is already on the 40 man.

Jane Elizabeth said...

The Nats still have a good chance to win their division, but perhaps not the wild card. The Braves are far from stellar hitters either and finally last night blew a close game after winning several games in a row that could have gone either way.

It was only last weekend that we had a chance to take back first in the NL East. The O's do not seem to have any better chance of winning their division than the Nats do, and I would actually say their chances are worse given the strength of their division, with the last place team in the AL East being preseason favorites. The AL West is likely to take two or three post-season slots this year and unless the O's greatly improve their pitching, they are unlikely to match last year, when the AL East was much weaker.

Gonat said...

Thanks NatsJack although like I said was just sharing the info given to me by SteveM. I don't think he was looking to get bashed for the info by those who hate the "know it all" stuff. Me, I thought it made perfect sense.

Young made little sense after he threw 36 pitches yesterday and struggled in 1 inning of work as I posted earlier to Caps Fan.

It was funny that Harrisburg's answer to Karns being pulled today was to push his start to tomorrow.

Teams like this CIA type of mis-information to give the Orioles less time to put together scouting info on him.

I remember how nervous Karns was in his first Spring Training start and expect he will start nervous. Go Karns!!!

Gonat said...

David Proctor said...
Karns is already on the 40 man.
_____________________________________

I think NatsJack knows that. He means bringing in 40 man guys like him and Corey Brown.

Gonat said...

We barely knew Xavier Cedeno.

Joe Seamhead said...

He was reassigned to Harrisburg, I believe, Jack.

Joe Seamhead said...

Beer!

Rabbit34 said...

"Only once in his career had Yamaico Navarro recorded two hits and two RBI in the same game. Until today"....
Unfortunately, when teams play the Nationals they hit many milestones, go to places they have never gone before.

David Proctor said...

You know, the Nats farm system isn't nearly as bad as some here act. Karns has put up good numbers, Jordan is looking good, Krol is looking good. Obviously Rendon. Goodwin has a lot of potential. Sky is the limit for Giolito. Our system is only bare in that there are a lot of guys who aren't major league ready yet.

Steve Walker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Another_Sam said...

JaneB -- don't despair. LOL. There's a game tomorrow.

phil dunton said...

Davey has lost this team. Retire him now and hire Mark DeRosa as the new manager.

phil dunton said...

The Beast hit a three run homer in the first inning against the Padres today. That's # 11.

baseballswami said...

I just got home from the game and am completely confused. Why is Jordan not pitching tomorrow?

baseballswami said...

So then Stras and Gio were on a normal routine because of the off day, stick new guy in the middle, resume with Jordan and Haren. Then on the next rotation put Det back in the five spot? I heard the radio guy talking about Karns tomorrow and I thought I had lost my mind. This feels out of left field. Too much orange has demoralized me. Today Moore with an RBI, Bernie with a big knock and then everyone else went to sleep. Gio was off from the beginning and the O's were hitterish. HRod made me want to weep. After that giant O during a beautiful national anthem I was boiling anyway. Better luck tomorrow. Lineup , rotation and bullpen now out of sync. Hoping for a better result tomorrow.

baseballswami said...

New post

Manassas Nats' Fan said...

Swami I was at the game too.

Tyler was fine in the second then pathetic after that.

Nats 2 for 11 O's 5 for 15 RISP.

We simply as a team do not hit well, and with RISP. seems much worse.

Secret wasian man said...

Got home just now. No more os games. Although going to Camden Wednesday. Bad team. It's .500 ball hurry back Bryce and Jason. Ughhhhhhhhhh

Secret wasian man said...

GIO only chance is Wednesday in Crackmore. Man we suck

Secret wasian man said...

I hate auto....... Our only chance is wed

Anonymous said...

this is why u go for it when u had the chance rizzo .. now your team can't hit, can't field and your manager is too old .. we sure could use morse right now

Nats 128 said...

SWM is a positive thinker.

Unknown said...

Learn how to make $500 a day. http://goo.gl/V4ahR Hurry offer ends soon!!!

Holden Baroque said...

***SPAM ALERT***

YO, MARK!

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