(apologies; i’m a week behind on posting this)
Cycle #26 starts with a 3-game set at home to Philadelphia, one that set attendance records for the Nats Stadium.
Good
- Ross Detwiler put in perhaps his best appearance of the season in the opener against Arizona on 8/22 (box/gamer). He gave up just one run on 6 hits and 3 walks through 6+ innings and beat Arizona’s nominal “Ace” and northern virginia native Joe Saunders. My opinion on Detwiler’s future use continues to waver; clearly he’s above Gorzelanny in the pecking order but I continue to doubt his ability to stick in the starting rotation. A few more quality starts should start to change my opinion.
- Jordan Zimmermann‘s 2nd to last start on 8/23 (box/gamer) was a tale of two pitches. He pitched 6 shutout innings, allowing just 3 hits and one walk. Four batters into the 7th; a ground out, a walk, a homer and a double erased his clean outing and tagged him with a loss. His horrible run support continues; his offense was completely shut down by Arizona’s ace Ian Kennedy.
Bad
- Its hard to really knock Livan Hernandez for what he did on Friday 8/19 (box/gamer). After throwing just a handful of pitches before enduring a 2 hour rain delay, he dutifully came back out on the mound instead of burning a spot-starter for his team. Unfortunately the Phillies were ready for him; 4 runs on 7 hits in 4 ip. Luckily for all involved, Gorzelanny came out and pitched 3 innings of shutout ball before the team scored SIX runs in the bottom of the 9th to get the unlikely win. Unfortunately for Hernandez, its just one more piece of evidence that his days with this club are numbered.
- John Lannan got bounced around by a feisty Phillies team on 8/20 (box/gamer) and took a loss in a game that nobody on the staff could have won. Counterpart Roy Oswalt pitched 8 shutout innings after getting an extra night’s rest and the team’s offense went to sleep. He gave up 5 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and four walks in just 5 innings. The massive influx of Philadelphia fans set a new stadium attendance record, besting the previous record by nearly 3,000 fans.
Mediocre/Inconclusive
- Chien-Ming Wang drew the Phillies ace Roy Halladay in the 8/21 series finale (box/gamer) and pitched toe to toe with him before a rain delay knocked both starters out. Wang gave up 3 runs on 5 hits, including two shocking home runs that seemed out of character for his pitching style. Keeping the Phillies hitters to 3 runs over 5+ innings may seem herioc but I’ll just give him a mediocre outing on the day.
Relievers of Note and other News
- Stephen Strasburg‘s 4th rehab outing is scheduled for Monday 8/22 in Hagerstown. Results? Better than the last time. 3 innings, 2 runs on 2 hits and 6 K’s while working mostly on off-speed pitches. The opposing team stole four bases, an indication to me that they knew Strasburg wasn’t really holding them on that well. 60 pitches 40 of which were for strikes. Zuckerman seemed to think it was a successful outing.
Thoughts on the offense
- Mr Walkoff Homer Ryan Zimmerman got his 8th career walkoff with a memorable grand slam on friday 8/19. According to rather dubious google research, the career leaders in baseball history are a slew of hall of fame sluggers with 12 each. Ryan is 26 and in his 7th pro season and is nearly in the conversation of having the most of these for his career.