Things the Nats currently cant do; Hit, Win

Odalis Perez just can’t catch a break. For the fourth game this year he has pitched more then five quality innings and did not come out with the win. Tonight he tossed six innings without an earned run, recorded seven strikeouts and allowed only five hits. Once again however, he couldn’t get the run support, or the defensive support to pull out his first victory of the season.

The Nationals continued their uninspired play this afternoon as they finished their series with the Marlins by dropping two of three. They just couldn’t find the answer for Marlins staff ace Greg Olson and his hard breaking curve, and while Olson is a good young pitcher…the Nats need to do better then beat only the number four or five starters of the opposing teams.

Containing Hanley

For the first two games the Nationals did a good job of containing Hanley Ramirez, forcing the other Marlins to produce the runs if they wanted to beat the Nats. Ramirez had been relatively silent for the first 25 innings in the series, but in the seventh and eighth innings of today’s game Ramirez smacked two bombs to break the game wide open.

Hanley’s Numbers in the series: .333 (4/12)BA, 5 R, 3 RBI, 2HR, 3SB
Hanley’s Numbers on the season: .373BA, 11 R, 11 RBI , 3HR, 2SB

Say it aint Saul

Saul Rivera coming into today’s game having not allowed a homerun since giving up a solo shot to Aaron Rowand last April 24th. He almost made it one year. Today in the 8th, in what was also his worst outing of the year, he served up Hanley Ramirez’s 5th homer of the season, breaking the homer-less streak. 361 days without a homer is pretty reliable, hopefully he will continue the consistency.

Fire Lenny Harris?

There has been some outcry amongst Nationals fans and up until now I have thought it’s too small a sample size to make a decision. So far however…in the sample size we have…the offensive production has been really poor. Lenny Harris, arguably the greatest pinch hitter of all time, maybe the first coach to get the axe if things don’t improve immediately.

Ironically enough, the pinch hitting has been the worst part of the Nats offensive game.

Nats team batting stats
Overall Hitting .222 (136/614)
Against LHP: .243 (44/181)
Against RHP: .212 (93/433)
At Nats Park: .205 (44/215)
Away Hitting: .231 (92/389)
Pinch Hitting .083 (3/36)

Team On Base: .304
Team Slugging: .336

Box Score