Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats
Click here to watch Nats win #10 on MASN via MLB.TV at 6:30 pm tonight with the rest of us. Just a quick reminder of what we are doing if this is your first time: As a group, we are going to be re-watching all 105 wins from the Nats 2019 season in chronological order at 6:30 pm each night. We will all try to sync up to the same point in the game, and this is a work in progress to maneuver to the same point in the game. Feel free to ask in the comments section where everyone is in the game so you can sync up. Many people are joining in at different points, and most people are not commenting — rather just following along.
The MLB.TV library is unlocked and free to everyone for the 2018-2019 season courtesy of MLB. This win #10 is in the 20th game in the season, and the Nats took a 9-10 record into this game with a chance to move back to .500 with a Curly W!
The Nats had already dropped two tough games in this Marlins series which included a Max Scherzer loss the night before. This game was no a “salvage” game to get the Nats back to .500.
This was the series that many thought the Nationals would use to breakout. Max Scherzer, arguably, had his worst start ever as a Washington National in that game. If you saw the game, it was statistically worse given that the Marlins were only scoring 2.5 runs per game before this game, and Scherzer yielded an astonishing 7 runs over 5 1/3 innings.
If manager Dave Martinez just accepted the fact that Scherzer did not have it — which you could see in the first inning when Scherzer labored and gave up two runs — but with a 4-to-3 manageable deficit at the top of the 6th inning, Martinez chose not to go to his undependable bullpen are roll the dice with Scherzer who then gave up 3 more runs allowing a one-run game to seemingly go out of reach.
“It was just location,” said Nats manager Davey Martinez said before the game about Scherzer. “He left too many balls up and over the plate, and when you do that, you have big league hitters and tonight just wasn’t his night. He said he felt good. But his location was just not good tonight. … He gave us everything he had today.”
It could have been worse on the scoreboard and remember that the home team did not need to bat in the 9th inning since they had the lead.
“For me, it’s easy to really tell the pitches are right down the middle,” Scherzer said after that start. “When you pitch down the middle in this league, you get hit. They’re very familiar with my stuff and they’ve seen me over the years — that when I leave pitches down the middle to these guys, they are going to kill it. Mentally, you start thinking about what’s causing the problems of why wouldn’t you have command. What mechanical little things would you do differently? ”
To add insult to injury, Anthony Rendon was hit by a pitch on his left elbow and was in so much pain that he was removed from the game, and they did an x-ray that fortunately showed no break — but as Nats fans now know Rendon was not going to play for a long time and a week later would land on the 10-day IL. With no Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon and the poor bullpen, this would be the stretch after this game where the Nats would drop 21-of-their-next-30 games. It was some of the worst baseball we had seen since 2010 and that was saying something.
Fortunately for this game, like so many, it was Stephen Strasburg on the mound as the team’s stopper. When he came up for the Nationals, he was the team’s ace until Scherzer was acquired, and with his first inning pitched in this game, Strasburg would tie then surpass his former teammate, Gio Gonzalez, for the most innings pitched in the Nationals 14-season history since they came to being in 2005. Stras had thrown 1,252 1/3 innings since his debut in June of 2010 to that point, and now is at 1,438 2/3 career innings now in his career of regular season games. y.
For the Marlins, they had Trevor Richards on the mound. The Nationals had seen him a few times if you include Spring Training.
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA ▼ |
OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Adams | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Anthony Rendon | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.500 | 3.500 |
| Trea Turner | 9 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Victor Robles | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | 1.333 | 1.667 |
| Kurt Suzuki | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Spencer Kieboom | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .250 | .250 | .500 |
| Juan Soto | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .200 | .429 | .200 | .629 |
| Ryan Zimmerman | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 | .200 | .400 | .600 |
| Adam Eaton | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | .333 | .000 | .333 |
| Michael A. Taylor | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .000 | .333 | .000 | .333 |
| Wilmer Difo | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | .500 | .000 | .500 |
| Total | 47 | 41 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 9 | .268 | .362 | .439 | .801 |
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Stadium: Marlins Park, Miami, Florida
Line-ups:
