Game Notes by Lucky Jarmes:
"In a game that saw yet another solid starting pitching performance, the Nationals lost again tonight to the Mets, completing the sweep. Following a 6 inning, one run outing by John Lannan a series of gaffs across the board let to a 14 inning game resulting in a Mets win.
Aside from a run in the first, Lannan was lights out tonight, serving up only 3 hits. The run in the first was number one of said gaffs. A fly ball to Wily Mo Pena, that should have easily been the first out, was ruled a Ryan Church double which scored Jose Reyes. Lannan went on to give up only one more hit though six, striking out 11.
Figueroa pitched equally as well for the Mets. Ryan Zimmerman improved to a whopping 1-12 against the Mets this year with a ground ball up the middle, which was followed by a two run shot by Nick Johnson.
The bullpen came on in perfection, keeping the 2-1 lead intact through 8, at which point Manny Acta forgot how baseball works. After a Ronnie Belliard error extended the inning with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Acta opted to bring closer Jon Rauch in to face a left handed Carlos Delgado instead of Lefty specialist Ray King. Rauch proceeded to let up an RBI single to Delgado, tying the game.
After watching both teams exhaust their bullpens, the game went to the bottom of the 14th, at which point a wild Joel Hanrahan, already on for two innings, walked the bases loaded and pulled what will now be affectionately known as a "gnat." Throwing a wild pitch with the bases loaded in an extra inning away game.
Things I hope never to see again:
An Austin Kearns steal attempt followed by a bunt attempt. Seriously, this went very backwards. An Austin Kearns steal attempt. Willy Harris and Rob Mackowiak (a .105 and .000 respectively) still in the majors, over a Justin Maxwell. Or anyone.
Things I hope to see far less:Manny Acta trying to think."
3 comments:
Once again the nats play solid defensive baseball with good pitching....but where the hell are the bats?!
as the nats continue to grow, u just cannot ignore the obvious reasons as to why they can never seem to bring it to the next level. they have a great group of young talent to build on such as zimmerman who may already be the best defensive third baseman in the game, cordero...if acta doesnt make his arm fall off, and now lannan, especially from what we saw tonight, a couple years ago this kid was a high school punk getting into the picnic area free with an empty pepsi can, and last night he found himself mowing down his former favorite ball club. however, its mistakes like the one belliard made on the simple ground ball and milledge not being heads up and having ryan church tag up on from first on a fly ball to CENTER. the team will improve, but they need to be a force in the off season as well which is something they have lacked even when they were in montreal. its goign to be interesting to see where this team is in 5 years. yodeeerrrrrrrr
I think I'm going to say the unthinkable for Nats fans. It's time to give Zimmerman a break. I think this is a key to our offense being about as potent as your grandfathers. He is wearing wrist braces when not in play, and his swing looks pretty bad. Where as slumping Zimmerman last year would be hitting ropes right at players and swinging at bad pitches, this year's slumping Zimmerman is hitting either crap pop ups or ground balls. Something is either still wrong with his wrist, or his psyche, but the kid needs a few days off. Put Boone in there, and see if things don't get stirred up. Cal's record is a long way off, buddy.
I still stand by the lineup I posted earlier. Getting Zim out of the three spot would help. He's not a 3 hole guy. Mix that lineup up, Manny. It's not like the production can decrease.
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