The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

You wouldn’t know it from the final score that this was a 1 run game from the 5th inning until the top of the 9th inning. The Nationals take a 2-1 lead in the series in the best of 5 NLDS with game number 4 tomorrow in Los Angeles.

The Nationals bullpen has now gone 12 1/3 scoreless innings. They were stellar as each reliever did their job. Shawn Kelley came up huge as he pitched 1 2/3 innings and entered with Chase Utley on 1st base in the 7th inning. Melancon finished off the 9th inning, but was not credited with a save as he entered with a 5 run lead.

Anthony Rendon had the game winning RBIs on a two-run home run in the 3rd inning to make the score 4-1. Gio Gonzalez exited the game in the 5th inning after he gave up a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Carlos Ruiz to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Nationals.

The score remained 4-3 until the top of the 9th inning when Jayson Werth led-off against Kenley Janssen with a 450 foot mammoth home run. After that Ryan Zimmerman connected for an opposite field two-run double, and the last run scored on a Chris Heisey sacrifice fly for the final tally to make the score 8-3.

Jayson Werth went 3-4 with a walk in the game and averaged just 4.8 pitches per at-bat. Werth and Rendon were the offensive stars of the game, but every starting position player had a hit except for Daniel Murphy and Danny Espinosa.  There was a double-switch to remove Espinosa who got up 3 times and was 0-2 with a HBP.

The Nationals had 16 baserunners tonight and all Nationals starting position players reached base safely via hit, walk or HBP.

By winning this game, the Nationals are in a situation they have never been in before with a 2-1 lead in a NLDS.

Baseball has redemption as Jose Lobaton went from the outhouse to the penthouse in consecutive at-bats. Lobaton with bases loaded and one out in the 2nd inning swung at the first pitch and bounced into a doubleplay as the ball went only 60 feet back to the pitcher for an easy 1-2-3 doubleplay. Then Lobaton dropped the ball on a sure out on a play at the plate on a throw from Bryce Harper. It almost felt like Lobaton gave up 2 to 3 runs between his offense and defense, but Lobaton got up in the 4th with Daniel Murphy and Danny Espinosa on base and Lobaton jacked a home run into the visitor’s bullpen for the 3 RBIs and the difference in the game. Redemption is a dish best served warm!

The pitching by the Nationals bullpen was great again today as they have now combined for  7 2/3 scoreless innings and each reliever had some Hi Leverage pitches they had to throw.

Dusty Baker believed in Jose Lobaton’s 3-3 lifetime record against Rich Hill, and the move was looking like a bad move until Lobaton took a 73.1 mph curveball up in the zone on a 1-1 pitch from Hill, and Lobaton hit it just far enough through the cutting wind like Wilson Ramos had done so many times this year in dramatic fashion to win a game for the Nats. This was no doubt Lobaton’s biggest hit as a Washington National.

Some might say Daniel Murphy was the offensive star today as he went 3-3 with 2 RBIs with 2 RISP hits and a run scored and was on-base for Lobaton. Trea Turner got two hits today, and Bryce Harper had a RISP hit to add to his post-season resumé. In fact all Nats starting position players had a hit today except Espinosa and Rendon. Danny Espinosa got on-base twice with two hit-by-pitches. Continue reading →

The Nationals lost this game 4-3, and now are in a must-win situation tomorrow with Tanner Roark pitching.

If you knew Clayton Kershaw would struggle and give up 3 runs over only 5 innings, you would like the Nationals chances, but Max Scherzer gave up 4 runs over 6 innings on giving up 2 home runs. Both bullpens did not allow a run.

All Nationals position players got on-base safely via a hit or walk except Danny Espinosa, and the Nationals had 12 baserunners during the game, but innings stalled during Espinosa’s 3 at-bats as he struck out all 3 times with a chance to break the game open as he left six men on-base.

Dusty Baker did eventually pinch-hit for Espinosa but he did it with bases empty in the 8th inning. Alternative thinking as mentioned in the comments section is seeing the opportunity to get back in the game and pinch-hit earlier for Danny when runners were in scoring position. The Nats have a bench of 6 and with Trea Turner’s positional flexibility the Nats have three players who can play shortstop other than Espinosa: Trea Turner, Stephen Drew and Wilmer Difo.

Max Scherzer never got above 96.5 mph on his fastball and many fastballs were in the 92 to 93 mph range. It appeared the wear of the season had caught up with Scherzer on Sunday against the Marlins, and it was a much tougher outing tonight. Max averaged 95.5 mph on his fastball in the month of September compared to  averaging 94.3 tonight. He never had his reachback fastball as a weapon tonight.

“The big hit escaped us,” Dusty Baker said, and possibly he forgot about Anthony Rendon’s two-RBI single, but the fact is it did most of the night as the Nationals were 1-10 in RISP spots.

“Espinosa can turn around and hit the next pitch out of the park,” Dusty Baker said. “That’s what’s kind of frustrating…his swing was long tonight.”