When Max Scherzer was penciled in as the starter in the 1st half, you felt comfortable that he would not give up more than 2 runs in his start, and the Nats would have a great chance to win. In the 2nd half, the sentiment has changed based on the 2nd half results.
Scherzer finishes his August with a 6.43 ERA and his 2nd half ERA stands at 5.09. It would appear that small sample sizes can be deceiving, and conclusions are hard to come by with certainty but to say Scherzer got bit by the HR bug again with 2 HRs tonight.
Here is the Brooks Baseball F/X chart and the Ozuna HR pitch was on a ball up in the zone in the center. Was Ozuna waiting for this pitch?:
Here is the Brooks Baseball F/X chart and the Prado HR pitch was on a ball down and in on Prado on a 2-2 count:
Here is the Brooks Baseball F/X chart and the Dietrich RBI double pitch was on a ball that was a big mistake pitch:
These aren’t the worst pitches in the world and no way to blame Scherzer on the Prado HR. The Ozuna HR was center but above the zone and Ozuna didn’t miss it.
Here’s the video of the Ozuna HR and it didn’t look that far up in the zone:
http://m.mlb.com/video/v421767283/miawsh-ozuna-hits-a-solo-homer-to-center/?game_pk=415567
Here’s a screen grab from the Marlins broadcast:
Screengrab
FOX Sports Florida
for illustrative purposes
Here is Ozuna’s career batting averages in each zone, and he’s a .261 hitter in that spot.
Scherzer made many good pitches in the game. Previous games there were mistakes of location many times.
All we can hope for is that in Scherzer’s next start he gets back to feeling it, and can lead the Nats to a Curly W!
