Going Deep with The Nats

The Washington Nationals had a scare after Max Scherzer hit a 3-run home run as Scherzer took himself out of the game before the bottom of the 2nd inning started. Scherzer exited with a 6-0 lead.

The Nats bullpen just needed to protect that 6 run lead and Dusty Baker asked Matt Grace to go 3 innings and Grace couldn’t go that far as he exited going 2 2/3 while giving up 3-runs. Sammy Solis came in and retired the last batter in the 4th inning and gave up a single and a walk in the 5th inning and was relieved by Matt Albers who just didn’t have it. Albers promptly gave up a 3-run home run to Marcell Ozuna of which 2 of the runs was charged to Solis. The 6 run lead was gone.

Albers then gave up one more run to make the score 7-6 and that is how the game would end.

Howie Kendrick was 5-for-5 on the night including a 2-run home run. All Nats starters had at least one hit except Ryan Zimmerman who was 0-5 and Matt Wieters was 0-3 with a walk. The game ended with runners on 3rd and 1st as Zimmerman pulled an outside pitch harmlessly to the 3rd baseman.

Gio Gonzalez departs in the 9th inning to a standing ovation

On what would have been just the 25th birthday of Jose Fernandez, his family friend of Cuban heritage, Gio Gonzalez, took the mound in his hometown Miami and was spinning a no-hitter to start the bottom of the 9th inning. Gio’s pitch count was at 103 and this looked doable. First, Gio needed to get through the top of the potent Marlins batting order of Dee Gordon, Giancarlo, and Yelich. ESPN and MLB Network both interrupted their regular broadcasting to show this “live”.

Unfortunately, the no-no was broken up quickly to begin the 9th inning by Dee Gordon. What a performance by Gio Gonzalez! There was still a game to be played and this was very reminiscent of a late inning Scherzer potential no-hitter against the Marlins on June 21st of this year in which Scherzer stayed in the game after giving up a hit in a 1-0 game, and lost the game. On this night, Nationals manager Dusty Baker wisely took the baseball as soon as the no-no was no longer and went to his closer in a tense 1-0 game. At this point, it was all about “win preservation”.

Sean Doolittle came in to face Giancarlo Stanton representing the winning run, and on the third pitch Doolittle got Stanton on his splitter to ground hard to Adrian Sanchez who was playing a no-doubles defense at 3rd base, and the grounder came right to him as he turned a 6-4-3 doubleplay. Christian Yelich then got an infield hit to raise the drama meter, and Marcell Ozuna stepped into the batter’s box representing the winning run. Doolittle induced a harmless infield pop-up to end the game and a well-earned 4th save as a Nat.

The only run of the game came in the 6th inning from the combination of a leadoff Brian Goodwin booming double that missed a HR by a foot or two. Wilmer Difo bunted Goodwin to 3rd base, and  Bryce Harper hit an oppo single for the only run of this game, and it was the game winner!

The Nationals only accumulated 3-hits in this game. It was a pitcher’s duel with some great defense. José Ureña pitched well for the Marlins in a game that felt like a post-season game. Gio Gonzalez just happened to be better. Gonzalez’s ERA dropped to 2.66, and Gio is 4th in the Major’s behind only Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and Chris Sale. Continue reading →

The Nationals had a nice comeback win from a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1 with a 2-run home run from Adam Lind and a solo home run from Brian Goodwin to back a 7 inning gem from Edwin Jackson along with bullpen perfection from Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle.

Rockies starting pitcher Jon Gray had a perfect game going into the 5th inning, and he unraveled quickly. It could have been worse for Gray.

Edwin Jackson was victimized by a 2-out walk to the opposing pitcher that led to the Rockies only run, and Jackson got better as the game progressed. He was at a 70 pitch count through just the 4th inning but righted himself in the 6th and 7th innings allowing Madson to pitch the 8th for his 4th Nat’s hold and Doolittle for the 9th for his best outing for the Nats and his 3rd save.

The Nationals dropped this game to the Rockies by a final score of 10-6, and the game ended with a bases loaded doubleplay — or was it? The replay officials said it was a doubleplay which was the call on the field although replay showed Trevor Story was clearly off of 2nd base a split-second early. The score would have been 10-7 with 2 men-on-base and Adam Lind stepping into the batter’s box if the officials reversed the call on the field, but that is not how the official scoring would write the ending in the boxscore.

https://twitter.com/JWerthsBeard/status/891773066954645506

The highlight of the game was the 238th home run of Ryan Zimmerman‘s career into the Nationals bullpen that tied the game at 4-4, and that is as close as the game was in Erick Fedde‘s MLB debut. That 238th home run by Zimmerman set the Washington baseball record for most home runs ever eclipsing Frank Howard‘s 237 D.C. based home runs. Zimmerman would add a booming home run later in the game and finish with 3 hits and 4 RBIs.

Erick Fedde’s day did not go well. He could only go 4 innings and gave up 7 runs of which 5 were earned. He showed 4 different pitches including 2 looks on his 2-seamer. He just couldn’t put away many of the batters in 2-strike counts. Continue reading →