162 games in one night

That sound you heard last night was an entire, 162-game season, passing by in one night.  The Nats' 2-3 loss to our new archrival Braves encompassed a season's worth of frustration and sadness - and frustration. Let us count the ways.  

• The game featured another wasted start by Stephen Strasburg. Stras struck out 9 in 7 innings as he had some nasty off speed stuff working.  The Braves tied the game at 1-1 on back to back to back bleeders, and probably had two good swings off of Strasburg all night.  Once again that effort was not good enough thanks to an anemic offense.
• No loss is complete without a wasted key at bat from Jayson Werth. Pinch hitting for Strasburg in the seventh with the go-ahead run on second Werth's strike out was practically pre-ordained. The only surprise is that he went down swinging. Despite being the July Player of the Month Werth and his $14 million-a-year salary is still unreliable in the clutch, and his dramatic game-winning homer in game 4 last year increasingly looks like a case of the blind squirrel finding an acorn.
• Last year, Natitude translated into lots of good luck: walk-off wins due to wild pitches; game-winning pinch hits from Chad Tracy or Tyler Moore; Harper taking baseball by the throat, etc. etc. This year's declaration of 'World Series or Bust' broke one of the cardinal rules of baseball: you have to be humble - or else. Davey Johnson forgot that the greatest sin a human can commit (at least to the ancient Greeks, who have been validated by 3,000 years of history) is hubris. 
• Last year, Natitude also translated into hard hit balls finding gaps and driving in runs. This year, as it was last night, it seems like 90 percent of our line drives find gloves. Case in point is the seventh. Harper hits the ball on the screws right to Heyward. Of course, that line-drive out would have scored the go-ahead run IF Werth had moved the runner to third instead of striking out.  There were numerous line-drive outs last night: Rendon's sacrifice fly could have been a double to the gap; Uggla robs Desmond, etc.
• Last night's loss even featured a bull pen melt down even when Davey made the right move. Clippard has been lights out all season but even he faltered last night, giving up the game-winning homer.  #snakebit. 

I guess to be more precise, I should blog that last night's loss means the passing of the NL East. Catching the Braves, even if we someone sweep the remaining 8 matchups, is unlikely but the wild card is still an option. The Nats are 'only' 7 games back of the Reds and only have to pass one other team, the Diamondbacks, to get there. But as many have said, before the Nats can realistically make ANY run to the playoffs they have to start hitting.  

That brings me to our ray of hope: kudos to Bryce Harper for calling out the team, from the manager on down, last week. Last September he carried us down the stretch and he can do it again. Unless he does, it will be a long, long off season.

Go Nats!

You're Welcome (I think)

It took a few days, and some infuriating losses, but it looks like Natitude may be returning to southwest Washington.  A week after firing Rick Eckstein - 6 hours after I blogged about the need to do just that - the Nats' offense seems to have awaken.

Of course, we also thought that after the Nationals scored 13 runs in support of Stephen Strasburg to finish a four game sweep of the Padres.   So, in the words of the old Negro spiritual:* 'we will see.'

Last week's blog tried to end on an optimistic note, namely that things could change for this team if Bryce Harper got hot and rejuvenated our offense.  Thankfully, that seems to have started happening.  The Nats have won 4 of 5 to reinvograte the team's season, again, and Harper has gone 7 for 16 with two homers, one a walk off to win a must-win game versus the Pirates, and 6 RBIs.

In addition to revisiting last week's blog, I also want to expand on today's Washington Post story by Nats beat writer Adam Kiglore.  The author examines a handful of reasons why this season has been so frustrating and disappointing.

One was the underperformance of the Nationals' left-handed hitters, in particular Adam LaRoche - who to be fair has always been a slow starter and could very well carry the team again as he did in August last season - and Denard Span.  Injuries in general have hurt, in particular to Harper who is also left-handed.

Another reason was the addition of Span turned the team from a bashing, slugging one to a more balanced nine that could manufacture runs with speed and small ball.The common denominator to both diagnoses problems?   No more Michael "Beast Mode" Morse.

Even though he hits from the right side, we do seem to miss his pop, and in hindsight it would have been great to keep him along with Span and not resign an aging LaRoche.  Of course, one can argue that with Zimmerman at third we need a Gold Glove fielder such as LaRoche at first.  And again, LaRoche could get super hot again and save his and our season (though he's 35).

But as much as we may miss the presence of another home run hitter, or if he would be that much better than LaRoche or Span offensively, I think we may actually miss Morse more in the clubhouse.

One other reason Kilgore lays out for the disappointing season is the pressure that comes with being a  'World Series or Bust' favorite.  No one can argue that any of the Nats, with perhaps the exceptions of the stoic Zimmermann and now-stoic Strasburg, and the carefree Gio, have handled that pressure well.   Tight play has defined this squad for most of the season.

One can safely assume that Morse could have helped with that problem. Or solved that problem. Or the personable and likeable and 'Take On Me" loving Morse would have kept that from ever BEING a problem in the first place.  

Beast Mode would have trumped World Series or Bust.

Natitudes and platitudes
* Maybe Mike Rizzo is not a genius.  Regardless of the Morse trade, the descision to not bring back Sean Burnett and rely on Zack Duke as our only lefty in the pen was a mistake. And Kilgore pointed out the the failure to resign Edwin Jackson does not look that good in the rear-view mirror AND cost the team a draft pick.
* Then there is Drew Storen.  Not sure how to assess how any pitcher could come back from the game 5 debacle, but save to say the Nats have not handled him well, and a pitcher who two years ago saved 43 games has regressed all the way to AAA.
*Finally, Kilgore did not mentin the bad ju-ju of picking William Howard Taft as the 5th

The Nats are killing me

As some of you may have noticed via social media, I've been a bit cranky when it comes to our hometown Washington Nationals.  Most of that crankiness was initially aimed at often ridiculous (the violence that pops up all to often during the Presidents race) and sometimes important (the stale and cheap patriotism of a standing ovation to honor convalescing veterans, an ovation that seems to absolve fans of actually helping veterans or thinking about our 13-year odyssey in Afghanistan*) topics.

But my crankiness is now metastasizing into full-on, Carolina losing to Dook after Zeller tipped in one of THEIR shots, depression.

The Nats are killing me.  

Two Sundays ago, Evan and I watched Washington complete a four game sweep of the Padres by scoring 13 runs.  THIRTEEN!  We had won 7 of 10 games, and were only 4 games back of the Braves.  Natitude was back!

But since then we've played our worst baseball of the year.  After this weekend's sweep to the Dodgers the Nats are now 2 and 8 in our last 10 games. Whatever good mojo the Nationals had has been eviscerated.  The Nats are now in 3rd place, half a game behind the Phillies for second in the East, and seven games behind the Braves AND the second wild-card spot.

It's hard to understand how a team that has Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman can be this mediocre, and unable to build up ANY momentum over the course of 100 games.

Injuries is part of the story, especially for the lack of momentum that has kept this squad from ripping off a few 5 or 6-game win streaks.  Two weeks ago the 7 out 10 streak coincided with Harper then Wilson Ramos coming off the disabled list. 

But what gives now?  The big 3 pitchers have been great (despite today's stinker from ZNN), and even Dan Haren (on the hill tomorrow looking to end a 3-game losing streak!) has pitched better since coming off the DL.

It's not news that the offense has been horrible, frustrating, depressing, you name it. Saturday night's game was indicative of one of the biggest issues: driving in runs. The Nats had 12 hits but only scored one run, driven in by pinch hitter Roger Bernadina.  Against the Dodgers the Nats batted .077 with runners in scoring position.  

When a team with so many good players underachieves, who is to blame?  Is it Davey Johnson, his line ups, the way he uses the bull pen?  Is it hitting coach Rick Eckstein?  The Nats rank near to bottom of almost every offensive category.

Is it underachievers like Denard Span or Jayson Werth, who had a great second half last year but is currently making almost $500,000 per RBI this season and is hitting less than .200 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs?

I'll offer two things that could help a now healthy squad play better, maybe catch the Braves, and/or secure one of the two wild card spots.  I'm not going to touch the pitching, which outside of 2 or 3 bad outings from Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano has been generally great.

One is a simple line up change.  I'd go back to the future, and move Werth and Harper back to the top of the order, Zimmerman, then my big move of Desmond at clean up, followed by LaRoche, Rendon, Ramos, and Span (who has played great defense but is simply not getting on base enough).

Werth seems to stink everywhere else, and excelled at lead off last year. The second slot is the new third; you want to put you best hitter there since that spot gets about 15-20 more plate appearances than the 3 hole does a year.

Desmond often rises to the occasion with runners on base, and moving him up two places gets him a few more - important - at bats.  He's a free swinger but drives in runs.  

Two, fire Rick Eckstein for a number of reasons. One is admittedly cosmetic. Do something to get the team's attention/make them feel guilty/light a fire/insert sports cliche here. 

But others are valid.  The team is not hitting, and more importantly their approach to pitchers seems odd and confusing.  

Hitters guess and look for one pitch when they should be aggressive, take pitches when they should be expanding the zone looking for a pitch to drive.  

Or they frequently expand the zone at the wrong times, swinging at first pitches when it's actually time to work the count.  At bats look discombobulated; case in point was Harper Saturday night. He struck out LOOKING, taking all three strikes, when the situation called for looking for a pitch to drive no matter where it was (like Joe DiMaggio** or Tony Gwynn).  As much as I pick on Werth - ask Evan - we can not ignore that Harper has been swinging at too many bad pitches and taking too many 2-strike ones since he came off the DL; his pitch recognition - or approach - needs some improvement.

You can't fire the players so sadly have to fire the hitting coach. Bring in Frank Robinson, or Mrs. Robinson (the nation(als) turn their lonely eyes to you**) but do something.

These changes would work, or are at least worth trying, and I hope the Nats do something soon. It's past time to get hot. Going to last year's line up with Desmond at clean up and Eckstein at home could very well work.

GO NATS!

* One other thing I've been cranky about has been the generally lousy music the Nats play but that has gotten a little better. Positive developments include LaRoche using Steve Earle's 'Copperhead Road' as his walk up song; LCD Soundsystem's 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' and Stevie Wonder's 'You Haven't Done Nothing' making appearances lately, and Chuck Brown's 'Bustin' Loose' is heard after most homers (but there is still too much modern shlock country, too much AC/DC).
* One ray of hope. Line up change or no line up change, Harper is capable of getting red hot and carrying a team as he did in May and September last season. The big 3 should continue to be awesome. And we play the Braves head to head alot; if we sweep those games we're in!

Nats Name George Allen New GM

The future is now at Nationals Park!

In trading four prospects, 3 of whom were among our top 10 according to Baseball America, for 2011 All Star Gio Gonzalez GM Mike Rizzo in NOT looking towards 2013.  In the suddenly competitive NL East Rizzo clearly thinks - as does Manager Davey Johnson - that the Nats can compete with the pitching-rich Phillies, the young Braves, and the renamed and restocked Miami Marlins.

The real loss in that trade is losing prospects - and pitchers - like Brad Peacock and A.J. Cole.  Peacock was the Nats' minor league pitcher of the year last season, and in 12 big league innings only gave up one run.  Tom Milone also looked good during a late season call up.  But the move reflects both a desire to get better now, and the fact that Washington has quite a bit of pitching depth in the minors.

In an end of the season interview with the Washington Post Johnson went so far as to say the Nats were only one player away from contending for a playoff spot in 2012. Most folks thought Johnson meant a center fielder or legit lead off hitter.  

We'll see if a 26-year old All Star who won 31 games, in the tough American League, in the last two years while pitching in the gargantuan Oakland Coliseum - who now is our number 2 or 3 starter after Strasburg and Zimmerman -  is that 'one player.'

A few Nats Notes:

• It will be - at least look like - a big league rotation next year, with Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gonzalez, Chien Ming Wang and John Lannan.
• Lannan was our number one starter in 2009 and 2010; now he's number 5.  Bad for Lannan but proof of progress in our pitching staff, right?
• The two other off season moves the Nats have made also fit the 'contending team' model.  Veterans like Mike Cameron, our new back up outfielder, and Mark DeRosa, who can play everywhere, are the kind of bench players contending teams feature.  Then again, you could probably say the same thing about Jerry Hairston last year.

More there there than I thought

Like most of the hundreds of Nationals fans in Washington, I've gotten excited by their recent hot streak.  Though they have a talented roster, I thought that it was merely a hot streak on the backs of surging players such as Michael Morse, Danny Espinosa and pitchers like Jordan Zimmermann rather than proof that this year's squad is a talented and legit team. 

But something in today's Post is making me rethink that position.  Adam Kilgore reports that the Nationals have outscored their opponents 26-6 this year in extra inning games.  And yesterday, as the Nats - the Washington Nationals - played on national TV in the Fox Game of the Week a graphic showed that 11 percent of Nationals games have gone into extra innings, the highest percentage in baseball in almost 50 years. 

Not sure if the extra inning-games percentage means much: it could be that our bullpen is NOT as good as we thought, blowing leads too often; or it could mean than this team never gives up and has a talent for late-inning comebacks. 

Either way, I think outscoring your opponent by 20 runs in extra inning games is impressive. It demonstrates both physical talent - making plays on offense, defense and the base paths AND making pitches - and mental toughness and confidence. 

A young, talented roster AND confidence - and now Davey Johnson?  Go Nats!

A few more notes:

• I love the Davey Johnson hire, in theory.  He's a great baseball man with an impressive track record.  But it has been 10 years since he managed.  But of all the potential managers available it's hard to quibble with a hire like Johnson.
• Also hard NOT to root for Equatorial Guinea in the women's World Cup.
• One potential concern for the U.S. team - not enough Tar Heels (or less there there than usual). Historically fellow alums have made up half the roster, but this year only 3 of the 21 players on the U.S. team are from Carolina: Tobin Heath, Heather O'Reilly, and Lindsay Tarpley.