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US Presswire photo Stephen Strasburg came undone in the bottom of the sixth inning. |
1. Stephen Strasburg came undone during what proved to be the decisive bottom of the sixth inning.
How often does Strasburg take the mound with a lead in hand, give it back and wind up taking the loss? Well, in 31 career starts prior to last night, he had never done it.
But in that fateful bottom of the sixth at Coors Field, Strasburg (who one inning earlier had staked himself to a 2-1 lead thanks to an RBI double) imploded in a manner we had never seen before.
It began with a Dexter Fowler leadoff triple down the right-field line, then turned scary when Strasburg drilled Marco Scutaro in the head with a 95 mph fastball. Clearly upset by what he had just done, Strasburg pulled his cap off, winced and looked right at Scutaro, wanting to make sure the veteran infielder was OK.
It's never easy for any pitcher to rebound from a moment like that, and Strasburg was no exception, though he didn't get any help from plate umpire Angel Hernandez. Strasburg's subsequent 2-2 pitch to the fearsome Carlos Gonzalez (a 96 mph fastball on the lower, inside corner of the strike zone) was called a ball. Strasburg appeared to have a few words for Hernandez, and MLB's Pitch F/X system confirmed it should have been strike three.
But bad call or not, Strasburg needed to shake that one off and make a good 3-2 pitch to retire Gonzalez. Instead, he left a curveball over enough of the plate for Gonzalez to lace the game-tying single to right. A Michael Cuddyer base hit continued the inning, and Todd Helton's sacrifice fly brought home the go-ahead run.
That proved to be the difference in the game, and proved to be a rare occasion in which Strasburg had trouble handling an adverse situation.
2. A struggling Nationals lineup failed once again to take advantage of a struggling pitcher.
The Nats may not find themselves in a more advantageous matchup entering a game all season, with Strasburg in their corner and soft-tossing Jeff Francis and his 8.56 ERA in the other. That didn't exactly play out as expected, did it?
Francis allowed just two runs on five hits in five innings, striking out five while most notably issuing zero walks. Only four of the 21 batters the left-hander faced got ahead in the count. None worked his way into a three-ball count.
Davey Johnson was not pleased at all.
"We've faced some pitchers everybody jumps on, and they look like Sandy Koufax over there," the manager told reporters following the game.
How bad was the Nationals' offensive attack? Strasburg and No. 8 hitter Jesus Flores combined to go 4-for-5. Everybody else went 4-for-28.
213 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 213 of 213 Newer› Newest»Re. the 16-game season mentality, and losing to a bad team: in mid-June of 2006, a certain team (A), on a road trip, lost 2 of 3 to another team (B). After the series ended, Team A was at 38-29, and Team B was at 19-46. Despite this series loss to a bad team, Tam A evidently did not crumple like a discarded popcorn box. Its final record was 97-65, and it went on to win its division. It also played in the ALCS, which it lost. HA-HA! (Oops, sorry. I'm not all that fond of Team A, which is from a certain town, in a certain state, whose initials are both NY.) But I love Team B like crazy, and I suppose I always will (even if they did go 71-91 that year). :-)
but I see Davey has spoken first on the lineup...Meet the new lineup same as the old lineup.
Speaking of which, is it almost show time?
Soul Possession, My Hitterish Sofa said...
Bob Fosse would have made an excellent hitting coach.
June 26, 2012 4:07 PM
No changes tonight for #Nats lineup that has averaged 2.5 runs with .558 OPS over last 10 games: http://t.co/K7HqS5MN 11 minutes ago
Terrible off-season. The Nats only added Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson. The real worry now is the signing of Zimmerman, which I completely approved of at the time.
In retrospect, and looking at Zimm's non-fielding statistics during his career, one can see why the team was a bit hesitant. Zimmerman is at the make or break point of his career and it is not clear whether he is going to turn out to be Gilbert Arenas or Barry Larkin at this point.
Looking at Zimmerman's full seasons, his stats resemble another excellent fielding National very much: Adam LaRoche. Both of them are very decent guys and better than average players, but neither is a super star; I am not sure either even qualifies as a star.
At least at the plate, Nick Johnson had a better year in 2006 than any that Ryan has achieved. Zimmerman has been in one All Star game. It is time to get healthy and show what he can do. Otherwise, that signing will be what truly went wrong with this off-season.
I love Nick, but he's probably not the best comparison as he couldn't stay healthy.
So today's decision is to stay the course. Seems like something dramatic always happens in Denver. Remember last year when Desi's line drive hit the pitcher and he broke his neck? Last night Strassie's loses it and beans a guy. They are not going to be happy when we arrive. Although, they did win and so there is that consolation. There was also Desi legging out a triple against his brother in law. IT on mlb just had a big discussion about team hitting slumps. They weren't actually talking about the nats, but the fish. The consensus - it happens, it's contagious , eventually it stops.
If the Washington Nationals had the 16th best average runs per game (4.25) - that's just below mid range of all teams - and they had scored at least 4.25 in each game they had played, they would be 58 and 13. Enough with the 1 and 2 run outing. Strasburg had to drive in a run. Eckstein, whatever approach you are using is NOT working.
If the Washington Nationals had the 16th best average runs per game (4.25) - that's just below mid range of all teams - and they had scored at least 4.25 in each game they had played, they would be 58 and 13. Enough with the 1 and 2 run outing. Strasburg had to drive in a run. Eckstein, whatever approach you are using is NOT working.
Yeah, but Ryan hasn't stayed healthy either, although he has avoided the horrible injuries that Johnson had. I truly loved Johnson's game.
One thing that does bug me is this notion that somehow guys are going to start hitting in the second half "because they are slow to warm up" or "because they are hot weather players." The announcers keep harping on this.
The problem is that there is not a lot of meaning behind such statements. What is true, is regression to the mean. So, if someone is not injured, and not old, he is likely to hit closer to his career average during the second half than to a lower average obtained early in the season.
I doubt that this has anything to do with the weather or the time of the season. If it does, then I would question that player's training habits. Regression to the mean also does not cancel out poor early season performances; it simply means a rise towards more typical performance. Zimmerman and Morse are going to have to start hitting like the dickens to get anywhere close to what was expected for this year.
Morse has one home run in a month or so. Adjusting for injury, he needs 19 or so more in the second half to match last year. Zimmerman has three. If was hurt last year, so let's set the target for the year before where he hit 25 If these two can match those totals then the Nats should indeed be okay.
But I don't think anyone thinks such a thing is possible and the announcers should probably abandon this tiresome banter. If the two of them can hit 20 home runs between them the rest of the season, it would surely be a huge improvement over four!
Rockies pitching coach left today. Hmmmmm. He asked to be re-assigned. Interesting. So , who is their cy young clone tonight?
True that.
Yeah, but Ryan hasn't stayed healthy either, although he has avoided the horrible injuries that Johnson had. I truly loved Johnson's game.
and they had scored at least 4.25 in each game they had played,
That's not fair. Nobody scores the same number of runs every game, and nobody scores at least 4 every game. To score at least 4 every game would mean your average (WAG) was about 7.5 runs (/wag).
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