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US Presswire photo Edwin Jackson allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings. |
Hitting lowlight: Rarely in his first month in the big leagues has Harper showed a poor approach at the plate and expanded his strike zone. But the 19-year-old picked a bad time to look like a 19-year-old at last. With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, Harper struck out on three pitches from reliever Steve Cishek. The last pitch was a high fastball, well out of the strike zone, but Harper chased it. That rare, undisciplined display from the rookie wound up costing the Nationals big-time.
Pitching lowlight: Though he dominated for five innings, Jackson's night fell apart quickly in the sixth and seventh. It began with a one-out double by Omar Infante, then continued with an RBI double by Stanton (in a curious move, the Nats decided to pitch to Stanton with first base open and two outs). Jackson's biggest mistake, though, wasn't a pitch but an errant pickoff throw in the seventh that allowed Chris Coghlan to take two extra bases. That set the stage for Greg Dobbs' sacrifice fly, giving the Marlins the lead for good. In the end, Jackson's final line looks strong (one earned run in 6 2/3 innings) but the stats tell only part of the story.
Key stat: Harper now has four triples in his first 29 big-league games. Over the last 25 years, the only rookies to produce more three-baggers in that brief span are Andrew McCutchen and Carl Crawford (five apiece).
Up next: The series wraps up at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday when Chien-Ming Wang makes his first start of the season for the Nationals, taking over Ross Detwiler's rotation spot. Struggling ace Josh Johnson will start for the Marlins.
17 comments:
You are too fast, Mark -- reposting -- so four runs in two days after 22 runs in three days. Of those four - one home run by a pitcher and one suicide squeeze. How unlikely is that? I hate the fish..... The position players need to get going again. It seems to me that each time a key player goes down, the guys get in a funk for a few days. Flo and Tracy this time. Snap out of it!!
Freaking Fish. They are our kryptonite.
When Harper and Zimmerman each could do nothing with the bases loaded, I knew the game was over. Oh, well, let's salvage the game tomorrow and get 2 and a half up on the Marlins again.
SCNatsFan, Nats are 2-2 with the Fish in 2012
Lost in all this is the fact that Laroche is kind of scuffling the last week. Watching a lot of strikes. Hope he can get hot again.
And Ankiel has done nothing in forever. Ready for an outfield of Morse/Harper/Lombo.
Curious moves by Davey Johnson. He IBB the struggling John Buck to pitch to struggling Coghlan. OK, maybe he's playing matchups, but it puts a runner at 1B who can now score. Otherwise, he would have had to hit his way aboard honestly, and that aint likely at this juncture for Buck.
I really don't get the double switch of Bernadina for Ankiel to bring in Stammen if he was just going to pinch-hit for Bernadina when his turn came up anyway. Just bring in Stammen and PH for him when his turn comes up.
And who does he tap? Danny Espinosa. He's lucky that Cishek was uncharacteristically wild and patient enough to take a walk, but that was a curious sequence there. Plus, it needlessly burns another bench player if the game had gone to extra innings.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow - it's only a daaaaay awaaaaaay. Go Nats. Time for a fish fry!
Of course I am still on the RISP batting average band wagon. Probably the number 1 troble on the team for sure. Most batter have more strike outs than hits in that siutation. The best ration is Lomardozzi with 7 hits and only 2 K. Surprisingly Bernadina is .333 going 7 for 21. Not surprising is Epsi batting .071 2 foor 28.
Kast 2 games team is 1 for 12.
Believe it or not the only 2 in the line up better than Ankiel's 8 for 30 is LaROche 14 for 51 and Lamno's 7 for 23,
Zim and Bryce are both low. Bryce 6 for 27 and Zim 7 for 31, So we should not have been surprised they didn't score in the 7th, The numbers say they shouldn't.
Not sure if these numbers counted tonight's game. I know ZIm went 0 for 2 tonight.
I believe the biggest problem is the guys swing to hard and try to pull everything. Eck needs to preach go with the pitch. Harper looked like he had taken lessons from Ankiel winging at a real high one.
Saalino (or however the new catcher's name is spelled), hit the way I like, outside pitch drive to right. Whish all would do that.
The Nats stand at 6-5 one-third of the way through the brutal 33-game stretch.
After the finale in Miami they've got three at home against Atlanta, three at home against the Mets, three at Boston, three at Toronto, three at home against the Yankees, three at home against Tampa and three at Baltimore.
There's a 22-game gantlet still to run. Looking forward to Beast Mode.
You have to frustrate Stanton and get him to chase instead of going after him and making another mistake pitch. Davey should know, Discretion is the better part of Valor.
Zimmerman you freakin SUCK you waste of 100 million dollar$
Clip&, your on the wrong message board for that kind of stuff.
CMW, go! gYFNG!
You're on .... Sorry. I figured if I skipped the apostrophe, it would auto correct this way. But my point remains.
Solano, for the record.
Tomorrow, uh, today is another day. Go, NATS!! Hap-py flight! Hap-py flight!
Saalino (or however the new catcher's name is spelled), hit the way I like, outside pitch drive to right.
thanks. Solano it is is. His approach worked for him on that at bat.
nope on a nats messagw board talking about a nat..sounds appropriate
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