Six outs from disaster. Instead thanks to Bryce and a carrying wind the Nats are going to Chicago with a fighting chance as opposed to an outside one. We'll discuss these two games in more detail tomorrow but the general problems remained for 7 innings. No hitting. No getting on base. No pressure on the Cubs pitchers. No runs.* Was the 8th a sea change or a momentary respite.
*Same almost goes for Cubs. They are being carried by Rizzo / Bryant
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The Cubs were playing with house money last night, so they still have to feel pretty good about their chances. They did what they needed to do, which was to win one in D.C., and the fact that Hendricks beat Strasburg in game 1 must make them feel pretty good if the series goes to 5 games.
For Monday's game, if Scherzer is healthy, it looks like it should favor the Nats. Winning the first game in Chicago would be huge and take a ton of pressure off of Roark. Here's hoping the Nat's offense walks up and Scherzer has a dominant outing.
Some thoughts (I was at the game last night):
Nats pitching, including their relief pitching, has been very good.
Contreras home run, like Zimmerman's home run, was very much "wind-assisted"
MAT has been hitting the ball hard. I'd like to see him move up to the 6 slot if Dusty continues to use Werth.
Any chance the Nats start Strasburg on 3 days rest if they are down 2 - 1? Strasburg only threw 80 pitches. Essentially, this puts Roark into long relief and gives Gio Game 5 on full rest. I have nightmares about Gio's last Game 5 outing.
Turner, Werth, Wieters look absolutely terrible at the plate. Any chance Lobaton gets a start? Wieters is adept at getting hit by pitches, though.
Harper. On the asterisk: not totally. Contreras has been on base constantly and has a jack.
On March 21, in your 'Roster Guess' posting Harper I said this:
Froggy said...
I predict Zimmerman will be NL comback player of the year.
...or an owner of a restaurant near Nationals park.
I'm just saying...
On April 3 Harper said:
"It's time for predictions
The Nats have only one obvious hole, Ryan Zimmerman."
http://natsbaseball.blogspot.com/2017/04/opening-day-2017-nl-east-predictions.html
Trea is pressing. Maybe the road game on Monday helps him relax, but right now Maddon is going to tell his pitchers to just throw him 0-2 pitches and watch him chase. Turner needs to take a walk or two and flip the script.
Flukes are part of playoff baseball. Cubs got one on the foul ball error on Rendon (that was not a fair ball) in Game 1. Nats have to cash in if they get a break their way in Chicago.
I couldn't (and still can't) believe Zobrist didn't make a better effort to catch Zim's dinger. I know he can jump higher than he did. He barely got off the ground. Never mind magnificent or spectacular. A merely decent jump would have easily enabled him to rob Zim of the winning homer. Of course I'm delighted he chose to wear his concrete boots for that play, but it could have just as easily been an out.
I say get the guys back in the lineup that actually carried the Nationals during the injury outbreak. Howie Kendrick / Brian Goodwin in left, Wilmer Difo at short. I'd also give Loby a start in game 3. He has a knack for timely post-season hits, and he doesn't play catch with Michael A. when guys steal second like Weiters.
Baseball is funny in the sense we all claim to have a feel for how a guy is playing based on what we see. What I see is Turner whiffing on a Carl Edwards curveball that never even sniffed the strike zone. Trea missed it by nearly two feet. Strike 3. Bryce comes up and similarly flails at a curve unsuccessfully, only to hit a hanger into the second deck a couple pitched later. Every guy sucks until they don't suck anymore. There's no way I'm pulling Turner for Difo. He offers too much with game-changing speed and excellent defense to bench him, regardless of how good Difo has been this year. You want Difo in? Give Werth a rest. I have yet to see anything from him since he came back from injury - and surprise surprise: he's still struggling two games into the playoffs. Right now, he's lumped in with the players that are part of the problem, not part of the solution. In regards to Turner, I don't know you do with him. This series is too short to shake up the batting order and drop him lower... I think we just have to hope he turns it around. But he MUST be more patient and stop chasing pitches. Series is too short to make major changes. All I will say is we can/should look at LF. We have better players chomping at the bit.
Werth doesn't belong on the roster, much less starting. The only reason he's there is sentimentality and "veteranness". Howie, Lind, Difo, Goodwin, Robles. Doesn't matter who. Just shouldn't be Werth.
I'm in agreement on Trea, he needs to just be more patient but there's no way you sit a guy like that
I was at the game nearby. He couldn't have reached Zim's homer. It looked much closer on tv. MAYBE Lorenzo cain/Trout/Ken Griffey Jr get close. But it was about 7 feet behind him and 13 feet high.
I agree. The fact Werth is still getting starts is honestly staggering. Just managerial malpractice. Play Lind. Play Kendrick. Play Robles. Play Goodwin. Play anybody else.
Totally. Somebody should sit him down and say
1. Relax. Focus on a certain zone to crush and be patient.
2. Think about bunting if you're against a RHP who falls off mound a ton.
3. Crowd plate. The scouting report is clearly to pitch him away relentlessly.
Career triple slash against lefties:
Werth .293/.393/.538
Kendrick .293/.341/.436
Difo (SSS) .292/.330/.481
Lind .217/.263/.329
Goodwin and Robles don't have enough PAs against lefties to consider. I wouldn't start Difo or Lind at LF in a playoff game. Against a lefty (such as Quintana), Werth is probably still your best bet
G Cracka: I hear you, but I'm sorry. Werth's career numbers vs lefties aint giving you a sense of how he's hitting right now at age 38. After going like 6 for 80 or whatever since returning from injury. It's not like I would look at Adrian Gonzalez's numbers vs RHP right now to decide whether to play him. He's old, sort of injured, and done.
Agree with Bx. Career figures, as it pertains to Werth, are somewhat irrelevant at this point. "Did you know that Werth once hit 36 HR in a season (2009)? That's double the career high for Kenrick!" Who cares? The guy is a shell of his former self, and understandably so. He's 38 and he's not Adrian Beltre. Besides, Kendrick is 5 for 10 against Quintana, while Werth has never faced him. I like Howie's chances. He better get the start. And if he goes 0-4, I will not be sitting there wishing Werth had played.
I like Howie for the start today. And save Werth for some late inning pinch hit heroics. (Although, on second thought I hope those aren't necessary.)
Look, fellas. I'm the biggest Trea Turner fan on the planet, and have been since long before he became a National. I watched him and Carlos Rodon lead my school, NC State to the CWS in 2013. I've never, until this season, worn a team jersey with a player's name and number. But I happily sport TURNER 7 on my back these days. But 0-fer is 0-fer. All that speed and game-changing disruption is TOTALLY NON-EXISTANT when he's not getting on base. Wilmer Difo or Jose Lobaton or Mortimer Snerd on base is more productive than Trea Turner not on base. If Wilmer had been a barely adequate replacement when Trea was on the DL, then I wouldn't think of starting him either. But he BY FAR was not merely an adequate replacement. He was an excellent replacement. Average, pop, speed, defense, fire and enthusiasm....PLAY HIM!!!
Series baseball isn't a question of who's a better player. It's a question of who's playing better.
I get your point Sammy, but then let's consider who's playing better:
Difo in the final Pittsburgh series: 2-12 with a HBP. Over the month of September (and a couple days in October), Difo's OPS dropped fifty points from .740 to .690
Trea Turner in the final series: 4-12 with 2 walks. Over the month of September, his OPS rose thirty points from .757 to .789
Trea IS the better player. Yeah, he's had two bad games to start the series. But there's literally NO info that can support an argument that Difo is the better player at this moment.
Oh yeah? Literally NO info? You really want to suggest that? Horsehockey. Difo was playing better when he was playing every day than Trea Turner did following his DL stint when he was playing every day.
Y'all tell me again what we're losing with Trea sitting. I'll tell you we're losing the NLDS with him playing.
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