Going Deep with The Nats

One pitch was the difference in this game in a 3-1 Nats loss. Stephen Strasburg gave up a 2-run home run in the first inning to Solarte and that was really the only bad pitch on the outing by Stras. He went 6.0 innings striking out 8 batters while giving up only 4 hits and 1 walk and departed behind 2-to-1. Stras flashed 99 mph on the radar gun tonight and averaged 97.3 mph on his four-seamer. Stras threw almost an equal amount of fastballs to a combo of changeups/curveballs.

The game started off looking promising for the Nationals as they worked Travis Wood for 36 pitches in the 1st inning, but then Michael Taylor led-off the top of the 2nd inning seeing just one pitch for a quick out followed by De Aza and a quick at-bat by Jose Lobaton that seemed to right Travis Wood’s pitch count as he got through the second inning on only 9 pitches.

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From the Nationals Twitter

About an hour before first pitch, word came that Max Scherzer was scratched and put on the 10-day DL with a neck injury. Dusty Baker went to Plan B which was 9 innings of bullpen work to get it done, and oh did they get it done. The Nats used 6 of their 8 bullpen arms to hold the Padres to just 1-run with some very good pitching and some tremendous defense that included home run robbery and some slick doubleplays and catches in the gap.

In the process of holding a 7-1 lead, Dusty Baker did not have to use the back of his bullpen saving the arms of Brandon Kintzler and Sean Doolittle. The usage of the Nats bullpen and their pitch efficiency also kept all of the Nats bullpen arms at 15-pitches or less except for Matt Grace who certainly “took one for his team” going 4 1/3 innings and throwing 52 pitches.

“Gracie saved my bullpen to where I could just go 1 inning or a fraction of an inning,” Dusty Baker said. “That worked out perfectly, and we still have a couple fresh guys that we didn’t use. Hopefully everybody should be available tomorrow as well.”

The offense started the game with a Howie Kendrick lead-off home run and the offense kept going until they scored 7 runs with all Nats starting position players getting at least one hit except for Matt Wieters. The positive impact of Wieters was felt on the basepaths — yes, the basepaths. Wieters scored the second run of the game based on hustle. It all started when the Nats starting catcher beat-out an almost certain doubleplay ball and was safe at first base. He then hustled to second base on a groundball in the hole by Michael Taylor and the Padres shortstop threw the ball away and Wieters got back on his feet after his slide at second base and motored around third base and was sent home by third base coach Bobby Henley and Matt lumbered home and scored!

Andrew Stevenson‘s impact was once again felt with the glove with some great plays in rightfield, and in this game Stevenson would also use his speed to steal 2nd base and take an extra base on an error. That allowed Dusty Baker to insert Alejandro De Aza for a pinch-hitting opportunity and De Aza turned on a fastball and sent it deep to centerfield (video here) which scored Stevenson. The official scorer ruled it an error which didn’t seem fair, but at least De Aza got the RBI as it was a sacrifice fly at the very least.

Matt Grace went 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball as he started the game and was informed he was starting about the time BP began. Yes, he was helped by a Michael Taylor catch above the centerfield wall to rob a home run and some other great defense, but credit to Grace who threw 52 pitches on the evening. Grace had never gone more than 2 2/3 innings before in his career and was able to do it with an efficient pitch count. On August 1st for instance, Grace went only 2 2/3 innings while throwing a career high 53 pitches. The only reliever who gave up a run tonight for the Nationals was Shawn Kelley who surrendered it on a booming home run which cut the Nats lead from 2-to-0 to 2-to-1.

“I was trying to just take it an inning at a time — pretty much,” Matt Grace said. “I knew I could give 3 [innings], for sure. I think any inning after that was a plus, so that was kind of my mindset going into this.”

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The Nationals knew that facing Jhoulys Chacin in Petco meant a low scoring game, and Edwin Jackson matched him in runs 1-to-1 for a pitching gem in an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel. Dusty Baker’s strategy seemed to be to score some runs with some small ball, and that is how the Nationals pushed across the first run of the game. The difference in this game came from the only true long-ball via a clutch Ryan Zimmerman solo home run off of the Padres’ bullpen while “The Firm” held the opposition to zero runs for a Nationals win!

For the Nationals first run, they played some small ball after a lead-off double by Howie Kendrick. Wilmer Difo bunted Kendrick to 3rd base, and he scored on an Adam Lind sacrifice fly in a 2-strike count deep to the opposite field. The Nationals second run and game-winner was a trademarked Ryan Zimmerman oppo home run that was a laser shot to rightfield. That made the score 2-to-1 which was also the final score of the game.

The high flyballs were not carrying in this game and several were caught on or near the warning track. Runs were at a premium, and the Nationals had other chances to score runs as did the Padres. Maybe some extra credit to the pitching and the defense which was good by both teams. Both Anthony Rendon and Adam Lind got robbed by Padres leftfielder Jose Pirela, and Rendon returned the favor in the 7th inning by robbing the first batter of the inning, Austin Hedges, of a sure double.  Continue reading →

Most one run losses can be traced back to one or two mistakes. Tanner Roark was the hard luck loser in this game going 7.0 innings holding the Angels to 4 hits and 2 walks but 2 of the hits were home runs adding up to 3-runs. It was the Kole Calhoun‘s 2-run home run in a 2-1 game in the 6th inning which was the difference in this one.

Ryan Zimmerman staked the Nationals to a 2-0 lead on a booming home run. After that it was a whole lot of missed opportunities with runners in scoring position for the Washington Nationals.

In relief, Sammy Solis was excellent once again out of the bullpen striking out Mike Trout on his way to a perfect 1 2/3 innings.

Michael Taylor turned in a Web Gem to run down a ball in the left-center gap that ended in a full dive to catch the ball. It was just another great defensive play that this team has turned in on this 9 game homestand. Continue reading →