Game #75 It’s Gio’s turn to be the guy!: Game Thread

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals are mired in a 6 game losing streak and the only way out of it is WIN. Some of the players are making their manager look bad by not executing. Today is Gio Gonzalez’s turn to step up.

Will Dusty Baker go with Wilson Ramos behind the plate instead of Jose Lobaton to catch Gio Gonzalez and will Clint Robinson get the start at 1st base or will it be Daniel Murphy at 1st base and Stephen Drew at 2nd base? Zimmerman has hit Garza well but is it significant what Zim did in 2011 when he went 2-4 against Garza? Maybe Drew at 3rd base today in place of Rendon?

From our sources, we are being told there are no personnel changes today which means don’t expect Trea Turner.

Matt Garza pitches for the Brewers today, and the Nats have faced him several times over the years.

Here are the Nats stats against Matt Garza:

Here is Gio’s stats against the Brewers:

Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium: Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI
1st Pitch: 4:10pm EDT
TV: MASN2, FSWI-Brewers, MLB.tv

Line-ups (subject to change without notice):

  1. Ben Revere CF
  2. Jayson Werth LF
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Daniel Murphy 2B
  5. Wilson Ramos C
  6. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
  7. Anthony Rendon 3B
  8. Danny Espinosa SS
  9. Gio Gonzalez LHP
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Was something brewing at the end of April that pointed to danger ahead?

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats losing streak now at 6. Where is the in-game strategy?: Postgame

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats were behind 5-3 in the 8th inning and had Daniel Murphy on 3rd and Wilson Ramos on 2nd with no outs. Ryan Zimmerman stepped in against the pitcher and struck out looking. Anthony Rendon walked to load the bases. Danny Espinosa then struck out, and with 2 outs Clint Robinson popped out.

Dusty had Jayson Werth, Chris Heisey, Stephen Drew and Clint Robinson all available when Zimmerman’s spot came up in the 8th inning. Here was the chart of what Zimmerman saw. Pitch #8 for the strikeout was right down the middle.

zimmerman K 6 24 16

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Game #74 Cy Scherzer must be the stopper, now!: Game Thread

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Andrew Lang

Do you want the good news or the bads news first? The good news is the Nats hold a 4.0 game lead over both the Mets and Marlins in the NL East and can work this weekend on widening that lead. The bad news is the Nationals fell into some bad luck in a 5 game losing streak, and it must end tonight with Max Scherzer taking the mound in Milwaukee where he has pitched very well as Scherzer has a career 1.69 ERA pitching 3 times in Miller Park. You may remember the gem Scherzer threw last year in Milwaukee when he had a complete game 1 hit shutout with 16Ks.

The Nats face 23-year-old Zach Davies who is a 6’0″ 155 pound righty from Puyallup, Washington. Davies was an original draft pick of the Orioles in the 26th round and was traded last year for Gerardo Parra. Davies has had some success lately ranking 10th in the NL since May 4th in ERA at 2.40 although his overall ERA is 3.62. Davies is a finesse pitcher who is a sinkerballer and changeup specialist. He can also throw a curve and cutter and the occasional slider. His fastball tops out at 91 and the changeup has big speed differential at 79mph.

No Washington Nationals player has ever faced Davies before, and this will be the first time.

Max Scherzer has faced several of the Brewers before and here is his stats against them:

 

Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium: Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI
1st Pitch: 8:10pm EDT
TV: MASN2, FSWI-Brewers, MLB.tv

Line-ups (subject to change without notice):

  1. Ben Revere LF
  2. Michael Taylor CF
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Daniel Murphy 2B
  5. Wilson Ramos C
  6. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
  7. Anthony Rendon 3B
  8. Danny Espinosa SS
  9. Max Scherzer RHP

Screenshot_2016-06-24-17-04-58

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A 0-5 game with the error that loses the game. Buckner to Taylor. Vin Scully was the voice for both.

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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The Fourth 18-gamer — Steady as she goes.

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Section222

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A Houdini Act by Ollie, A HR by the Buffalo and the biggest gaffe of the year by MAT

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The ineptitude just got to a whole new level. Michael Taylor just allowed a Puig single to turn into a 3 base error for a walk-off Little League HR.

Joe Ross was cruising and like he often does falters late in the game. Sure enough Grandal singled, Puig singled and A.J. Ellis bunted them over to 3rd and 2nd. Dusty Baker pulled Joe Ross with 1 out and brought in Oliver Perez who had to face a righty pinch-hitter in Enrique Hernandez and struck him out on 3 pitches. The next batter was Corey Seager who he got to fly out to get the Nats out of trouble and keep the game knotted at 2-2. The game would remain tied into the 8th inning with 2 outs as Wilson Ramos came to bat.

Pedro Baez the hard throwing righty came in to face Wilson Ramos, and the Buffalo smashed a HR to deep leftfield to put the Nats up 3-2.

In the 9th, the Nats had bases loaded for some add-on runs but couldn’t come through as Bryce Harper harmlessly grounded out.  Michael Taylor struck out for the 5th time in the game with no contact. Taylor carried his issues into the field and allowed Puig’s single to roll under his glove to score Kendrick around from 1st base as the tying run and Puig ran through the stop sign and scored the Little League style HR for the Dodger’s walk-off win 4-3.

The Nats losing streak is now at 5 games. What does Rizzo and Baker do now?

boxscore 6 23 16

All of this on Dusty Baker Bobblehead night, and the Dodgers honered Dusty Baker who caught the ceremonial 1st pitch from his old Dodger teammate Tommy Davis.

To quote the great Vin Scully as Yasiel Puig was scoring and the camera focuses on Taylor, “Michael Taylor who struck out 5 times has the error that KILLS Washington.”

https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/745864753621282816

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Game #73 Line-up order change. The youngsters tonight in Joe Ross and Urias: Game Thread

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats are now in a 4 game losing streak and must win tonight for a happy plane flight to Milwaukee and the day-off tomorrow. Julio Urias does not turn 20 years old until August, and he will face Joe Ross who just turned 23 years old a few weeks ago. Dusty Baker has in fact shuffled his batting order in the #5 and #6 spots by moving Wilson Ramos up to the #5 and Ryan Zimmerman to the #6.

Urias has already made 5 starts and threw a 5 inning shutout against the Brewers. Urias of course has not faced any Nationals players which only gives us our scouting report on him. His reportoire consists of a 4-seamer at 94mph, a curveball at 77, a slider at 88 and a changeup. Urias mixes up his pitches well, and his issue is hitting his spots and repeating his delivery. Righties are slashing .306/.358/.484/.842 against Urias. Expect only 2 left-handed batters in the starting line-up today.

Here is Joe Ross’ stats against the Dodgers:

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Baseball is a cruel game. Roark had a 7 inning gem…spoiled: Postgame

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Tanner Roark took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 8th inning, and Roark looked fantastic for the first 7 inning. Then it started to unravel and nothing seemed to work for him in the 8th inning. He walked the lead-off man Joc Pederson on a 3-2 pitch that was so on the edge (see chart below) and could have been called strike 3 and probably should have been strike 3. Then Puig lined a ball off of Espinosa’s glove for a single, and then Yasmani Grandal smoked a 3-run HR to win the game in a 2 strike count.

The Nationals squandered chances on-base all night long, and had a chance to widen the lead several times. This loss extends this losing streak to 4 games for the Nationals.

This is the chart that walked Pederson to start the 8th inning:
roark to pederson 6 21 16

Bryce Harper and Danny Espinosa supplied the runs via solo home runs, but the team was 1-10 with RISP and the only hit came from Tanner Roark where Ramos was thrown out at the plate.
boxscore 6 22 16

Dusty Baker is the manager and the question was do you pull Tanner in the first sign of trouble? In the top of the 8th with 1 out and Ramos on 2nd base, do you pinch-run for him?

Dave Roberts had his pitcher Kazmir intentionally walk Daniel Murphy to load the bases to pitch to Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman struck out and is now 0-9 this season with bases loaded with 4 strikeouts.

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Game #72 Tanner Roark needs to be the stopper in LA + Draft Pick Updates: Game Thread

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The last 3 games have to be put behind us, and on to what we have now with Tanner Roark for the Nats, and the Dodgers will pitch lefty Scott Kazmir tonight. Yasiel Puig is set to come off of the DL tonight.

The Nationals have actually moved up to 6th in NL OPS putting the team on the top half of the league. The home runs have certainly helped, and Danny Espinosa and Michael Taylor are both trending up.
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