Not me, the li'l one, but I'm a bit pre-occupied. Still it means I'll be home at 4:30.
So ... WIN!
I know Gio looked bad, but it's not like he had bad stuff, he just had no control. So while he wasn't a "stud" in the traditional sense the Cardinals still couldn't get the big hit they desperately needed. Of course you could have almost said that about the Nats too. Thing is they did get plenty of hits, just spread out and no power. The moment of the game was of course Mattheus work, which came down to part skill (getting those ground balls) and part luck (those ground balls were hit right where the Nats needed them). I've been talking about that alot recently. You can't be as good as the Nats and not have skill and luck on your side. It's hard to make it through the playoffs without it either. This is a nearly level playing field that includes only the best teams in the league.
I was about to write that today's game is huge, but in a 5 game series EVERY game is huge. Maybe that 3rd game is kinda less important if it is the Nats heading home at 2-0, but lose that game and the 4th game is huge so, it's kind of huge itself. It'll be interesting, both teams will be looking to be better at the plate. The Cards have hit ZNN hard before (but not in the last start) so they'll be looking to get a lot of base knocks against him. The Nats will probably be looking to hit Garcia hard as well, including taking a few over the fence to make up for Sunday's power outage. Both could be mistakes. ZNN can have his wild games and if you can get a wild game to exploit you should always try that first. Let them beat themselves. Garcia is one of the best GB pitchers in the game (better than Detwiler who's the most "groundbally" Nat) trying too hard to go big against him and it could be a busy day for Descalco and Kozma.
Force me to guess and I see two offenses trying too hard and getting little but this game could go in 1000 different directions, just like yesterday.
I like what I saw from Gio yesterday. Yes he was really wild, but he was also unhittable, and it makes me think that next time when he goes out and settles his nerves he'll pitch like an ace. If 7 walks was his usual thing, I'd be worried, but his control was a bit better this year than years past.
ReplyDeleteThe Nats and Cards have scored a lot of runs off of each other this year. I think the low scoring yesterday was due to nerves and bad sun/shadow conditions. The sun/shadow conditions may be similar today, but hopefully the nerves are less, at least on the Nats side. The Cards know they really, really have to win this one. So I predict a little more power -- it can't all be singles again, can it -- and a few more runs. Nats win 6-4.
ReplyDeleteOne more prediction -- Ryan Zimmerman hits an opposite field homer to right.
ReplyDeleteOkay, trashball pitcher and we almost screwed ourselves up out of that one. And it wasn't like Eckstein could walk out and tell them to take, because Wainwright was throwing those breaking pitches for strikes, too. Sheesh. Brutal for the first couple innings. Glad that at least Hawaiian Punch managed to get that one run in otherwise it would've been awful.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Garcia stinks and ZNN brings in the breaking news and drops his own 12-6 on the Cards. Go Nats!
I still can't believe we pulled out that W with all the things that kinda went against us. Feels like it was a total steal. I'd like to see us get a good lead early (3-4 runs) and then let ZNN crush the life out of them today. 6-3 Nats. Let's do this!
ReplyDeleteHooray for pitching to contact! (re: Zimmermann, obv)
ReplyDeleteHooray for pitching to contact! (re: Zimmermann, obv)
ReplyDelete