You need to score to win. You need to hit to score. The Nats haven't hit so they haven't scored. Simple as that.
Strasburg was great (though not everyone thinks so - you can see this looking to my Twitter responses saying he was great) but an error and a overthrow turned 0 runs or 1 runs into 2.
In 2012 and 2014 the Nats couldn't score. This feels similar. Change things up. Blow them out today.
The whole key for the Nats' offense, especially against the Cubs pitchers, is Trea getting on base by whatever means and disrupting the defense.
ReplyDeleteBut even then, somebody has to actually put the gotdang ball in play, and NOBODY has done that with any kind of consistency since Clinchmas Day. Stras pitched a freaking gem, but you can't win a tie game no matter how many innings you play. As much as the team all talked about not being satisfied with just winning the division, bigger mission ahead, getting a championship, blah blah blah, their play, their effort, their enthusiasm have all shown that they ARE satisfied with winning the division and the playoffs are just a nice cherry on top of the Cool Whip.
F.P. said the other week, "You can't just turn it on and off." But he was half right. You can darn sure turn it off, and that's exactly what has happened. Now they're finding that turning it on doesn't come so easy.
OMG, they lost one game and the whole town has given up. How about everyone taking a deep breath and waiting to see how game two plays out?
ReplyDeleteHarper, I suspect that some of your long term posters have already committed suicide, so we may not hear from them again. Do your readers attend the funerals as a group? This is a very strange group of fans (fans being short for fanatics).
They put themselves in a hole. They are good enough on paper to dig out of it. It is time for them to translate that on the field in the playoffs. Walk the walk. Well, Gio can skip the walks part tonight. LOL.
ReplyDeleteLast night was frustrating purely because the Nats should have been able to hit against the pitching that was thrown out there. Hendricks is the type of pitcher the heart of the lineup usually feasts on and Carl Edwards Jr has NEVER pitched well against the Nats. And yet the team had a total of 2 ABs with runners in scoring position. One of them being Stras. That's downright pathetic. Hell Hendricks had 3 walks, how can you not get a player over to 2nd??
ReplyDeleteVery disappointing and I feel especially bad for Stras. He pitched his heart out and the time wasted it. They need to get their heads on straight on put on their big boy pants today.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has beaten Stras up for years for not being DA MAN. Well, guess what -- he was totally DA MAN on Friday and got completely and utterly let down by his entire team. Stras was a million times better yesterday than Kershaw and Kluber were, but their teams picked them up.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not over, but I'm pissed at how uptight and underperforming everyone but Stras was, even Murphy, who had no problem carrying a whole team in the playoffs when he was a Met. Yep, same guy who homered TWICE off Hendricks in the 2015 playoffs drank the Nat Kool-Aid and waved meekly at his 86 mph offerings. (To be fair, if Murphy's liner in the 1st had gotten past Rizzo into the corner to give the Nats the lead, the whole narrative might have changed. But it didn't.)
Now the weight of the world rests on . . . Gio.
Why did Kendrick pinch hit in 7th last night? Why didn't Lind hit there? It wasn't like there were going to be many other opportunities to pinch hit him. An extra base hit there makes it 2-1 or hr makes it a tie game. That made zero sense to me. Why didn't Taylor try to steal 2nd. We ran all over the Cubs during the regular season. I think everyone is freaking out bc a) the Nats played tight again, b) no one trusts Gio to win game 2. Pitching Max in game 3 was pretty stupid. I know everyone will say - oh he's hurt. I will bet you any amount of money that if it was up to Max he would have pitched game 2. I think the Nats made a very regular season type decision to not "push him" and have him pitch game 3.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, if Gio wins tonight then you change to loving Max in game 3. Also, I know this is crazy but at what point does the manager or GM start pay for this team's lack of success in the postseason? I think Rizzo and Baker are both great. I think they should both stay. I just don't have an answer for what to do next if anything.
@Jay I thought the same thing, but I think I see where Dusty was going. If Dusty brings in Lind, then the Cubs would have countered with a lefty. Of course, at that point, then you could bring in Kendrick, but looking at his career splits, it doesn't look like Kendrick does that much better against lefties than he does with righties. So I think he figured he would use Kendrick against a righty who was up over 100 pitches, and save Lind for later if needed.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a tweeter account so I have to post this way from tonight's game...#28 is a statue.
ReplyDeleteWow. Great game! I do wish Turner would get a hit or get on base though, but at least we're not down 2-0.
ReplyDeleteTwo years in a row, I go to G1 instead of G2 and they lose G1 both times and win G2 both times. Oh well, happy that they evened the series.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHappy we won, but not yet convinced the offense has found its way. We got two big swings out of 30 ABs. You have to have some guys in the lineup that can hit good pitches. We had that in the first five months of the season. That's why the offense was so potent. Now we're hitting pretty much only mistake pitches...just like 2012-2016. Wilmer Difo needs a start at short. Trea just isn't getting the job done with the bat. Give Wilmer a shot. We need the leadoff man on base. Period.
ReplyDeleteBut BIG congrats to my boy Ollie Perez for throwing two pitches and getting the win!!!
I agree they are not out of the woods yet, but the energy and confidence carrying over from this comeback may just light the fire. Combine that with Max (with two good legs, fingers crossed), we may see a 2-1 lead after Monday. There is a very long road ahead still though.
ReplyDeleteAre you looking for free Facebook Followers?
ReplyDeleteDid you know you can get these AUTOMATICALLY & ABSOLUTELY FREE by registering on You Like Hits?