Strasburg Hot, Davey Not

Braves 7, Nationals 5

As temperatures reached close to 120 degrees (on a dollar store wall clock thermometer), the Braves outplayed the Nationals to take the 7-5 win in Hot-Lanta on Saturday afternoon.  Strasburg started the game but had to leave due to the heat and the Braves took advantage of his replacement Chein-Ming Wang.

Strasburg only made it through 3 innings, giving up 3 runs in the 3rd inning.  After the inning was over, Davy Johnson decided that Strassy was sick and removing him would be the best move, and Chien-Ming Wang came into the game to give up 4 runs in 2 innings.

Strasburg's body language on the mound made him look tired and bothered by the heat.  After giving up runs his body language dropped even more, and Davy Johnson decided that Stephen's night was over.  A view from the dugout looked like Strassy didn't want to come out, but it was his own fault because he either was exhausted by the heat or was pretending that the heat was to blame for him giving up 3 runs.

Davy said his blood pressure was up, his face was white, he wasn't talking, he was dizzy, and he was extremely dehydrated, but should be fine.  Always seems to be a lot of excuses for Strasburg, this one however may be warranted.

With the Nationals mounting a comeback bringing the score to 7-4 in the 6th inning, Davy Johnson made the biggest mistake of the game.  With runners on 1st and 2nd with 0 outs, Johnson decided to let Ankiel pinch hit for Chien-Ming Wang.  Instad of having Ankiel (or someone better at bunting) bunt over the two runners, Davy let the .225 hitter swing away.  Ankiel proceeded to ground into a double play and the Nats couldn't get any more runs in the inning.

If you don't think that Ankiel can lay down the bunt you have an entire roster of players including pitchers that you could use in that position.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out would have been huge in a 7-4 game.  Instead the score remained the same and the Nats ended up losing.

Other notes:  Bryce Harper has now gone 9 at bats without a hit...Morse picked up 2 more hits...

Nats look to salvage the series on Sunday afternoon at 1:35...