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US Presswire photo Yunesky Maya earned his first career win but strained an oblique muscle. |
Maya, who tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Mets in an emergency start after Jason Marquis was traded to the Diamondbacks, injured himself trying to avoid a tag running toward second base in the bottom of the fifth inning. He convinced manager Davey Johnson to let him take the mound for the top of the sixth but was pulled after allowing a pair of one-out singles.
"We checked him again and he said: 'No, I'm OK,'" Johnson said. "And then [catcher Wilson] Ramos kept saying he was OK. But obviously he wasn't OK."
Johnson said Maya, whose future was already unclear in the wake of this spot start, will probably need to be place on the DL. The 30-year-old right-hander, however, insisted he can avoid a DL stint and will only need to miss a couple of days.
Regardless of the severity of the injury, Maya's pitching performance under these unusual circumstances was commendable.
Knowing Marquis might be traded before his scheduled start, the Nationals had Maya fly in from Class AAA Syracuse and be on-call just in case. He spent the afternoon sitting in the family waiting room at Nationals Park, not permitted to enter the clubhouse until the Marquis trade was made official.
That didn't happen until 6 p.m., at which point Maya finally strolled into the clubhouse in street clothes and was handed his uniform by clubhouse manager Mike Wallace. One hour later, he was on the mound in 95-degree heat, retiring the first seven batters he faced and carrying a shutout into the sixth inning.
"It was a little hard, but in a way I was ready for it," Maya said through translator Javier Castro. "That's why they told me I was coming up here; I might be able to start, but nothing was for sure yet. I was ready. It was my day to throw anyway in Syracuse, but I was ready to go."
Owner of an 0-4 record and 6.31 ERA in nine previous big-league starts over the last two seasons, Maya was proud to have the ball from his first victory on display in his locker afterward.
"I feel good," Maya said. "That's what I work for, to go out there and give it all my best. Thank god I got my first win. I'm happy."
27 comments:
You have got to be kidding me
But it gives us the opportunity to bring bernadina back up right way,does it not?
Atta boy and congrats, Yunesky. Feel better soon.
probably can bring Bernadina back since there is a legitimate injury but with Bixler up wouldn't you rather see Peacock?
Maya was very lucky tonight -- he hung a number of breaking balls, including the one that Reyes almost hit for a game-tying home run. The big mistake was letting him bat in the fifth inning, as he's never shown an ability to go more than 5. Don't be fooled, this guy is no more than a AAA pitcher and, based on his numbers, maybe not even that.
1) WT* is it with oblique muscles this year???
B) Bernadina can't pitch. They wanted extra pitchers.
This guy was born to be a Nat.
If any more pitchers get traded or break down, Jason Bergmann's cell phone will start ringing.
Yeh, i'd rather see peacock, but i doubt that's happening quite yet. Remember that the addition of wang gave us a 13 man pitching staff. Either detweiled or gorzy can move back up into the rotation. Until bernie is back, ankiel is your starting (really, your only) cf.
And we have a winner!
Davey Johnson on Clippard: "Tyler ain't goin nowhere or I'm goin with him." Doesn't believe Storen will be traded but can't say for sure.
J.D. Martin pitched seven shutout innings for Syracuse yesterday. Remember him?
http://syracuse.chiefs.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110729&content_id=22481648&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&sid=t552
Is Butch Henry available?
I think what people seem to forget is that Maya's injury forced DJ to warm up Ross at the top of 6th so that after he inevitably started to fall apart 3rd time through, Detweiler was already fresh to come in.
If Detweiler only started to warm up after that the game could have been lost.
Maya is not a good pitcher, he just got lucky. With Milone and Peacock waiting in wings, we likely don't need him anymore anyway.
I actually have several Butch Henry baseball cards!!
Anon, you are probably right. I didn't realize we had a 13 man staff.
Disagree that Maya was lucky, he really did a nice job of hitting the strike zone and no nibbling tonight. Still don't understand why he can't get through more than 5 innings with all the experience he has.
So we have at least one move to make before tomorrow. who will it be??
It was fun tonight. I feel sorry for the poster who said he sold his tickets for tonight's game because "it's too hot and the Nats play crappy". Well, it wasn't too hot, in fact, it was perfect, and the Nats played great.
Probably got the best result possible: Maya pitched surprisingly well and then goes on the DL so there's not a real chance of him being in the rotation.
I think Zimmnn goes tomorrow - will we see Livan and Lannan and Wang in the 3 games vs the Braves? or will there be more changes?
Was just comparing career MiLB stats of Erik Komatsu who we got back for Hairston and Zack Walters who we got back for Marquis and it looks like we got a marginally better prospect for Hairston than we did for Marquis. The prospects' stats are comparable but Walters strikes out a lot, 96 K's in 97 games, and Komatsu has done well at AA while Walters has only advanced to A ball so far. Not saying that's his fault, but AA is a big jump.
Shouldn't we have gotten more for Marquis than we did for Hairston? I know different trades are apples and oranges but I feel like Rizzo let Marquis go for a bucket of warm spit.
Well, I missed all the excitement in real time, and just catching up. Interesting to read the trade reactions. It strikes me that most of us don't know most of these guys, so reactions tend to follow media reports, not reality. People seemed disappointed by the Marquis trade, and pleased by the Hairston one. I don't kniw what to make of either one, although John Sickels, a pretty respected guy, likes Walters better than Komatsu (although both guys rate ok). In general, Rizzo probably did ok. My only disappointment was Rizzo's insistence that the other team pick up the full salaries. Since, no matter how you rationalize it, if they threw in some money, they get a better prospect. With salaries so low, I see no reason not to do that (even after accounting for signing draft picks, although I escpecially want to see them take a flier on Purke now).
As for tonight's game, glad to see Werth contribute. Maybe he is turning things around. I assume Maya got lucky, since I have mostly given up on him, but after hearing he also got hurt, I had the same reaction as SC Nats Fan.
Count me a yes on the Span trade, even with all three guys, although I really would like to see it happen in the offseason
Third oblique strain this season.Don't recall that being such a common injury last year, but maybe I wasn't paying attention as closely. If Maya isn't the Marquis replacement, and Wang and Gorzo end up tage teaming each other as starters, that still leaves a space dor someone else to come up. Maybe we will see a 40 man move for Peacock.
LOVED THE DAVEY QUOTE ON CLIP! Thanks for that, Natslady,
Well, we dumped more salary for Marquis, and those $$ can go for signing prospects. Also, you have to figure how many times will Marquis start and win for Arizona vs. how many games Hairston will be used in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee probably needed Hairston more than Arizona needed Marquis, let's face it. Milwaukee is contending, Arizona is trying to contend.
And I have to believe Rizzo took the best offer on Marquis because he certainly had several and he had plenty of time to compare them.
hey baloney are you a former expos fan, good old butch henry
NatsLady said...
And I have to believe Rizzo took the best offer on Marquis because he certainly had several and he had plenty of time to compare them.
Bingo. With, what 150-200 starting pitchers in MLB, odds dictate that at least some will be very lucky or unlucky -- with run support, etc. It's my contention that Marquis was one of the lucky ones this year. The stat I look at the most, with pitchers, is WHIP. Marquis' WHIP is 1.42 this year, and that is sub-par.
I just have to think that other GM's knew that his W/L record of 8-5 didn't mean a whole lot, and that "renting" a player of his caliber for just two months -- well, it just wasn't worth a whole lot.
(And, note: his WHIP was 1.58 in July, with an ERA of 5.48).
Some people have said they don't understand the logic behind the Gomes trade (prospects for a major leaguer) and the other two trades for prospects. Here is my two cents: we are seeing Davey's influence now. This fits Davey's MO from his Mets days (I didn't follow him as much with the O's and Dodgers). I was not a Mets fan then, but living in NY at the time. He was all about pitching and hitting, especially power pitching, and he cleared the decks to bring up young pitching. He liked pop anywhere he could get it. Defense seemed secondary. This is the guy that went with Kevin Mitchell at SS. When you read his comments, it looks like that is what he wants, and I think Rizzo is trying to mold a team that Davey wants. I woldn't be surprised to see not only Milone and Peacock later this year, but Meyers if he is healthy, and maybe Stammen. I think Livo's days are numbered too.
I think Davey will be the primary influence on this team for the next few years. And I think that is a good thing.
That's an interesting comment, Wally, and I don't disagree. But it flies in the face of the Rizzo oft-stated philosophy that pitching and defense wins, especially in the post-steroid era.
I think you may be right. But if you are, that means Uncle Davey has prevailed in a power struggle with Rizzo. Could Rizzo's days be numbered? I don't believe Uncle Teddy Lerner is that plugged into day-to-day stuff any more, son Markie Mark only cares that the checks keep coming, so Rizzo may have them both smoked at this point.
I look at Davey as the ultimate wild card for 2012. Will he be back? How will he handle the post-TJ operation Jesus, does he care at all about pitchers' arms, or is it just play for the three-run homer?
There's clearly a power struggle going on with this team in complete transition.
People.... Davey has been Rizzo's right hand man for over two seasons. To think that they are in some sort of power struggle is absurd.
Davey fully understands that he is the holder of the managerial position for a limited time, certainly no more than through 2012. And he does prefer youth with talent, not youth for youth's sake.
I've said all along that the team that finishes the season will be better than the one that started it. Just hang in there for a couple more weeks.
I don’t have a problem with that and I think Maya is a 4/5 starter. But I haven’t seen enough to suggest that he’s going to get us to the promised land. I am pleased that the organization brought him up. I see that he has enough stuff to pitch in the big leagues. For him to be great, command, pitch sequence, and break on his pitches all have to work out. He’s going to have some good starts and some clunkers as he adjusts.
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