The Cardinals Are Evil, The Nats Lose

Cardinals 3, Nationals 2

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cardinals	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0		3	8	1
Nationals	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		2	5	0

Another game against the Cardinals, another tough loss for the Washington Nationals.  On Monday night after returning home from a 6 game road trip, the Nationals lost to the Cardinals 3-2 as the evil Cardinal watched from hell.  Rumor has it, if you stare into his dead eyes for 30 seconds you will burst into flames.  Nobody has had the guts to test him...

Wait, what happened?  Oh, I guess there was a baseball game played too.  It was much of what you would expect.  Pete Kozma was booed, and the Nats lost.  A few good things happened...sort of.

Washington Nationals Bullpen Attends Caps Game, Caps Collapse, Gio Chooses Soccer

A few Washington Nationals pitchers made the day/night baseball/hockey doubleheader on Saturday.  Tyler Clippard, Craig Stammen, and Drew Storen were spotted in a suite at Verizon Center during the Caps matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning following a loss of their own to the Atlanta Braves earlier that day.  The Caps were up 5-1 at one point, but you'll never guess what happened.

Nats Blow Lead, Beat Reds In Extras

Nationals 7, Reds 6 (11 Innings)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11		R	H	E
Nationals	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	2		7	10	3
Reds	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	0	1		6	13	0

Read the full box score at MLB

Tim McClelland Just Called Strike 3...

The Nats bounced back from an embarrassing 15-0 loss on Friday to defeat the Reds 7-6 in an 11 inning affair on Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati.  Ian Desmond and Wilson Ramos hit 2 big time homeruns (watch at bottom) in the 11th inning to help the Nats make up for a blown save in the 9th inning by Rafael Soriano.

With Ross Detwiler set up for the win after 6 innings of 1 hit ball and a 5-3 lead, the Reds scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to stun the Nats and new closer Rafael Soriano.  But the Nats fought off the adversity, taking home the win in extras.

Great American Ballpark once again showed why it is one of the toughest parks on pitchers as the Nationals hit 5 homeruns in the contest. (Cincinnati hit 7 the night before).  Bryce Harper hit a 2 run shot in the 3rd inning, Wilson Ramos hit a 2 run shot in the 6th inning, Werth hit a solo shot in the 7th, and then Desmond and Ramos homered in the 11th to seal the victory.

Man With Baby Catches Jayson Werth's Homerun Ball (FP: "That is impressive...just don't drop the kid")

With the score 5-2 in the bottom of the 8th with the tying run at the plate, Davey Johnson let Drew Storen fight through the situation.  An Ian Desmond error allowed a run to score and a terrible throw by Bryce Harper who tried to throw out a guy at home who had already scored, allowed the runners to advance and the tying run to stand on 2nd base.  Storen stepped up and struck out Xavier Paul to end the danger and the inning.

But in the bottom of the 9th, the collapse was completed.  Sin-Soo Choo lead off the inning with a homer, and then Joey Votto hit a triple off the wall and scored on a wild pitch.  It was Rafael Soriano's first blown save of the season.

Craig Stammen pitched the 10th and 11th innings giving up a run, but taking home the win.

One of the most interesting plays of the game was a Bryce Harper single up the middle.  Reds shortstop Zack Cozart came across the infield and booted the grounder, the ball rolling a few feet away right in the 1st-2nd baseline.  Bryce Harper hustled to first base, then took a big turn around the bag, considering trying to take 2nd base on the play.  Only Bryce.

The Nats and Reds meet again on Sunday afternoon...

Nationals, Teenage Mutant Ninja Hurlers Shirts

Here's a shirt that the Nats players are possibly wearing at Spring Training.  Google puts a date of January on this, so I don't think that this was randomly created today.

If this is the same shirt as described above, the players are Rafael Soriano, Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard, and Craig Stammen I believe.  I can't tell anything from this picture, lol.  Heroes On The Half Street!

Nats shirt created by @ambp77 (See links below)

You can get this shirt online here for $30 bucks.

Allan (@ambp77) first created the Photoshop for Tumblr then sent Ross Detwiler the image to create shirts.  It appears that Ross created the shirts, and a cause for minor buzz before a Spring Training game.  I suggest you see the other photoshops of Nats players at his Tumblr, they are awesome.

Bad Night For Nats

Nationals 0, Brewers 6

Tonight wasn't pretty as the Nationals saw their winning streak end at 6.  They lost to the Brewers tonight, giving up 6 runs without scoring a single run.  Detwiler didn't pitch that bad, but he did give up 4 runs over 4.2 innings.  Craig Stammen came in from the pen and proceeded to give up 2 more runs to get the Brewers to 6.  Cory Hart and Aramis Ramirez both homered for the Brewers.

Their isn't much to talk about on the offensive side of the coin.  Lombardozzi, LaRoche, Morse, and DeRosa all recorded 1 hit on the night, and that was all she wrote.

"Michael Morse gets what you call a thing" -Bob Carpenter

H-rod pitched well in the 8th and Storen had a solid 7th inning, although both had zero pressure on them.

Can't win them all.  The Nats are at it again tomorrow for the third game of four against the Brewers. 

Wake Up Davy!

Good Mornin, Good Mornin!  And what a lovely morning it is!  The sun has come up. Tomorrow is now today. Davy Johnson told us last night that he needed to sleep on his decision about the Washington National's closer position.  Well...

 WAKE UP DAVY!

The birds are chirping.  The sun is out (for now).  The Nats won last night.  Everything is sunshine & rainbows.  Well everything except that pesky closer position.  So who's it gonna be Davy?  You have a few choices:
Henry Rodriguez - Tyler Clippard - Sean Burnett - Craig Stammen - Committee 
Say Henry Rodriguez.  I dare you.  After H-Rod gave up a walk-off grand slam to Joey Votto and the Reds a few weeks ago, the young pitcher's time was up.  But as Davy does to a fault, he stuck with his guy.  "Yes, he's my closer."  It was too close a call on Monday night against the Phils.  He fooled you once Davy, shame on him.  If he fools you again, shame on you!
You've got Sean Burnett, but he is your only lefty (besides Gorzelanny) in the bullpen.  You are possibly going to have to use him for a matchup before the 9th inning.  But with three right handers coming up in the final frame, perhaps Burnett would fare well.
You've got Tyler Clippard, but you love having him pitch the 8th inning.  Plus he isn't pitching as well as he has in the past.  Clip has 1 career save under his belt.  Give the guy a chance!
Then you've got Craig Stammen, who has been having a career year this season.  Stammen's ERA is 1.44 and he has struck out 23 in 19 innings.  He's been pitching the 6th & 7th inning, but maybe you can leapfrog him over Clip.
I think you like your 3 inning plan.  The starter pitches 6-7 strong.  Guy C in 7th if needed.  Guy B in 8th.  Guy A in 9th.  But if you really want. you can throw out a committee.  You could Alternate Clippard & Stammen and toss in Burnett to face righties.  You could keep Clip in the 8th slot and alternate Stammen & Burnett.  Or you could just flip a three sided coin?
So as you read the morning paper today, think it over.  Think long and hard.  Because if you put in Henry to close one more time, and he can't get the job done, then your managerial skills need to be questioned.
Who's it gonna be Davy...Who's it gonna be...?...

Season Preview: The Nationals Bullpen

This season the Nationals have three guys who have some decent closing experience.  The young starting pitching staff should be able to go deep most nights, and these guys will be available to finish games:

Drew Storen (Closer):  Storen has been the closer in training for the last few years.  In 2011 he ended the season with 43 saves as the Nationals official closer.  He got about 1 K per inning last season, but he starts the season on the 15 day DL with an elbow issue.

Brad Lidge:  Lidge will start the season out as the closer as Storen heals and will move to a 7th inning type guy (I think).  Lidge was known for choking away big games and has been demoted from his closer role on multiple occasions by multiple teams.  We can only wait and see if we signed the dominant Lidge or the not so great Lidge.

Tyler Clippard:  Clippard made the All-Star team last season as an 8th inning set-up man.  This is a fairly new and unique "position" and Clippard has been lights out leading the league last season with 38.  In fact the Nats like him in this position so much they are having him stay in the position despite the injury to Storen.

Henry Rodriguez:  This guy fires the ball to the plate like nobody else at freak speeds often hitting 100 on the radar gun.  H-Rod averaged over 1 strikeout per inning last year and is a young fireball throwing pitcher, which could be good in the middle innings, or possibly if he has to close out a game.

The pitching staff includes only two lefties, which isn't exactly great.  Tom Gorzelanny, a demoted starter, and Sean Burnett who is in the league mainly because he is a lefty.  The other two righties that will start the season in the pen are Craig Stammen, a minor league type that the Nats tried to use as a starter in the past, and Ryan Mattheus, who pitched well in his first season in the majors last year.