Category Archives: Sports Fix

Sports Fix
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Redskins Preview Week Six: The Eagles

Photo courtesy of
‘Eagles vs Redskins 11/15/10’
courtesy of ‘Matthew Straubmuller’

Five weeks ago at this time the Phillies were the best team in baseball and the Eagles were 1-0 and well on their way to what was supposed to be a dream season. Now just a few weeks later the Phillies are enjoying the golf course and the Eagles dream has become a nightmare. The Bills game last week serves as a microcosm of why the Eagles season has been a disappointment to this point. Short passes went for long yardage as tackle after tackle was missed, Fred Jackson ran for over 100 yards against an Eagles defense that has allowed over 140 yards a game, and Michael Vick turned the ball over four times on interceptions.

When the Eagles acquired Nnamdi Asomugha this off-season it was thought to be the final piece to turn a defense that ranked in the bottom half of the NFL in passing touchdowns allowed in 2010 into a well above average defense. As Redskins fans have learned in recent years one big free agent signing cannot on its own turn a weakness into a strength, and the Eagles defense this season ranks second in the NFL in most passing touchdowns allowed. It is a good thing for the Eagles then that passing is not the Redskins strength, but the Eagles have allowed an average of 140.2 rushing yards a game while the Redskins have rushed for an average of 126.8 yards a game. It appears that the Redskins offensive strength matches up well with the Eagles defensive weakness.

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The Meaning or Lack Thereof of the Redskins 3-1 Start

Photo courtesy of
‘Fred Davis’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

I have spent this past week digging through so many football stats I started to dream of numbers spiraling through an immense blackness. I am filled with confusion at what all these numbers mean, what story they tell. A stat is useless unless it tells a story, contains meaning. The numbers I have looked at tell what has happened so far in the Redskins season. The numbers tell the story of a much improved team. The Redskins are a team who are controlling the game, but how much of an impact what has happened on what will happen remains a mystery.   

People smarter than me have compiled and analyzed these numbers against past history and against the strength of schedule to deduce that the Redskins have a 43.3% chance to make the playoffs. Before the season began most people would have guessed that percentage to be much closer to zero, and now it is just a bit below the odds of a coin flip. There are still those that say the Redskins have no shot at the playoffs, and this baffles me. I have never understood how some can make such declarative statements about something as unpredictable as sports. The Redskins 3-1 start is no fluke as they have outscored their opponents by a 20 point margin. Mostly on the strength of their defense.

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Sports Fix
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Redskins defeat Rams 17-10

Photo courtesy of
‘Santana Moss’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

The feeling coming into this game was that the Redskins had to win by a wide margin to prove they were truly a new team after failing to close out the Cowboys on Monday night. With a 17-0 lead after their first possession of the second half it looked like the Redskins were going to win this one easily. That is not how it ended up as Grossman had one pass tick off the hands of Santana Moss into the arms of a Rams defender for a 51 yard return that resulted in a Rams field goal, then the Rams scored a touchdown after a Sav Rocca punt as the Redskins offense continued to stall, and then Grossman made an ill advised pass to James Laurinaitis of the Rams. The Redskins defense made sure the Rams were unable to capitalize on the Laurinaitis interception, but by that time the Rams had already pulled within seven.

The Rams touchdown drive was helped by what some might say is a Redskins mistake, but what might instead be a strange rule change that resulted from the lockout. Redskins defender Rob Jackson was called for roughing the passer that tacked ten yards onto Bradford’s eight yard completion to Austin Pettis. The problem with calling this roughing the passer is that when Jackson began his tackle Bradford still had the ball. Jackson only did what every other defensive football player should do and finished his tackle. It should not be a penalty to play hard until the whistle blows. The Rams might have still scored on the drive but the 10 extra yards cannot have hurt. Overall the Redskins defense deserves credit in this game as they were able to sack Sam Bradford six times and held Steven Jackson to 45 yards rushing.

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Redskins Preview Week Four: The St. Louis Rams

Photo courtesy of
‘Sam Bradford’
courtesy of ‘Jeffrey Beall’

By now you have heard this game called a must win for the Washington Redskins. I am not sure it is a must win with so many games left in the season, but it is a should win. The St. Louis Rams have been one of the worst teams in football over the first three weeks of the season. In three games they have been outscored 96-36 while the Redskins have outscored opponents 66-53.

The Redskins are coming off a short week and will be playing a second consecutive road game, but those two things should be the only disadvantages the Redskins face in this game. The Rams at 0-3 are desperate to get their season back on the right path and in a division like the NFC West they might be able to get back in the thick of a race if they can pull off a couple wins in a row.

Last weeks game against the Dallas Cowboys was a defensive struggle as both teams failed multiple times to score a touchdown in the red zone and Dallas ended up winning the game on the strength of their defensive play and by being able to capitalize on Redskins mistakes. The St. Louis Rams defense should not provide the same challenges as the Cowboys. The Rams defense is ranked 31st in total yards allowed, 31st in point allowed, 19th in passing yards allowed, and 32nd in rushing yards allowed.

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Cowboys defeat Redskins 18-16

Photo courtesy of
‘Tim Hightower’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

Last night the Redskins lost their first game of the season in a dramatic defensive battle between two of the biggest rivals in sports. Depending on the narrative a person went into the game with that is likely to be the story they spin out of the game, and while Grossman is not a good quarterback, Tony Romo did just enough to win with a broken rib, and the two defenses battled down to the wire this isn’t a simple game to diagnose.

While Tony Romo is being lavished with praise this week about how he is a wounded warrior with an enlarged heart Rex Grossman is going to be killed on talk radio, but Grossman passed 37 times and completed 22 of those attempts for 250 yards with one TD and one INT while Romo passed 36 times completing 22 for 255 yards and an INT. Grossman did have the fumble at the end of the game, but when Romo has been in that situation in the past he has done the same thing. The two quarterbacks had comparable games, but one team won and the other lost and that makes one a hero and the other the goat.

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Redskins Preview Week 3: The Dallas Cowboys

Photo courtesy of
‘Cardinals5’
courtesy of ‘Homer McFanboy’

Tony Romo has banged up ribs and if he plays DeAngelo Hall will be aiming for them. Felix Jones has an injured shoulder and if he plays DeAngelo Hall will be aiming for that as well. I can’t decide if what Hall said this past week is bad or simply stating the obvious. If an injured player plays and that injury is known then players on the other team are going to be looking to exploit it as a weakness. It is just the way football works, but this is a big rivalry and everything is magnified.

In 2010 both the Redskins and the Cowboys finished with 6-10 records. The Cowboys got rid of coach Wade Phillips late in the season and replaced him with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett while the Redskins choose to get rid of 26 players. Among the players the Redskins rid themselves of were aging and under-performing veterans who were replaced with younger players better suited to Mike Shanahan’s system. The Cowboys came into 2011 thought of as a contender for the NFC wildcard while the Redskins were thought to be nothing but a contender for Andrew Luck.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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A Shutout Win, And A Glimpse Of The Future?

Photo courtesy of
‘Win!’
courtesy of ‘oddlittlebird.’

On a warm Sunday afternoon on the final weekend of September, the Washington Nationals shut out a division opponent in a game with major playoff implications. The starting pitcher, a high draft pick and source of occasional frustration, pitched six shutout innings; Washington’s best offensive player smashed a two-run home run to break the game open in the late innings; and the team’s sterling bullpen pitched three perfect innings to secure the win.

OK, so the only team who had their playoff chances affected was the hapless Atlanta Braves, for whom the 3-0 loss was their 15th of the month of September. Atlanta’s lackluster performance, combined with the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, cut the Braves’ lead in the National League wild card race down to a single game with three still to play. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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As the season wanes, Nationals continue strong, beat Braves 4-1

 

Photo courtesy of
‘win’
courtesy of ‘oddlittlebird.’

When this season started, I thought the Nationals might well win about 72 games this year. An improvement over last year’s tally of 69, but hardly a big step forward. With four games remaining, the Nationals are 77-80, still in reach of .500 ball. The Nationals are 14-9 in September, their best span of the second half, and have been playing meaningful baseball in September for the first time since 2005. While winning out isn’t a given, with Atlanta playing for their lives, and the dominance of the Marlins over the Nats, it’s still a distinct possibility that this team could finish at 81-80.

Today’s victory over the Braves can largely be placed in the hands of the battery, with Chien Ming Wang throwing 6 strong innings and limiting the Braves to a single run, and Pudge Rodriguez’s eighth inning rally-killing theft-prevention throwout of Michael Bourn. The veteran catcher’s final home start of the year (and possibly in a Nationals uniform) was certainly one of his more memorable ones, calling a phenomenal game against the very tough Braves offense, and nabbing two runners on the basepaths, as well going 1-2 with a walk.

After the game, manager Davey Johnson was very complimentary of both. Of Wang, he said, “[he had] a remarkable season, got better every time out… If I’m here [next year] he can have my salary. If you’d seen him throw in December, and where he is right now, my hat goes off to him.” Regarding his catcher, Johnson was praising of his training routine (5 hours a day, 7 days a week), and gave no thought to pulling Pudge early for a standing ovation.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Strasburg Stumbles, Nats Bumped Off By Braves

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_8416’

courtesy of ‘NDwas’
Now that Stephen Strasburg has made a full recovery from Tommy John surgery, all that’s left for fans of the Washington Nationals to hope for is that his starts in 2012 go a lot better than his start on Friday night, when Strasburg’s disastrous first inning turned out to be the difference in a 7-4 loss to the playoff-chasing Atlanta Braves (89-68).

The start was officially delayed by 14 minutes while the field was given extra time to recover from the day-long rains that soaked the District. Whether it was this minor disruption of routine or the generally damp and humid conditions that affected Strasburg is not clear. However, he had trouble locating the strike zone in a 38-pitch first inning, and when either his four-seam or two-seam fastball did find the zone, it was carted all over the Nationals Park outfield.

After Strasburg struck out Michael Bourn on a changeup to lead off the game, Martin Prado lined a single off the glove of Danny Espinosa. Chipper Jones followed by pulling a two-seam fastball into right field on a full count, sending Prado to third. Dan Uggla fisted another four-seam fastball into center field to score Prado, the game’s first run. After Brian McCann swung through a 97-mile-an-hour fastball, Freddie Freeman doubled Atlanta’s advantage by singling to right before Jack Wilson pulled a ground ball that should have gone straight into Ryan Zimmerman’s glove and ended the inning. However, the ball took a fat hop, nicked the heel of Zimmerman’s glove, and bounced to left field as Uggla crossed the plate to make it 3-0. Strasburg managed to retire Jason Heyward to end the inning, but the out came in the form of a 395-foot fly ball that drove Rick Ankiel to the warning track in dead center field and nearly ended the competitive portion of the game right then and there.

Strasburg retired 9 of the next 10 batters and exited after the 4th inning with the Nationals trailing 3-1 thanks to an RBI single by Wilson Ramos in the second inning. However, Washington’s middle relief let them down. In particular, Collin Balester, who relieved Strasburg, made his predecessor’s performance seem masterful. Davey Johnson, trying to prolong his team’s five-game winning streak, pulled Balester after three batters and brought in Atahualpa Severino, who allowed both of his inherited runners to score on a double by Uggla, who came around himself on an RBI double by McCann.
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Sports Fix
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Redskins defeat Cardinals 22-21

Photo courtesy of
‘Roy Helu’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

The Washington Redskins are 2-0. Before the season began there were more than a few people employed by large sports networks that predicted the Redskins would win only two games all season. The Redskins 22-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals wasn’t pretty, but the Cardinals are a good team. The Cardinals are favored over the Rams to win the NFC West and the Redskins were picked by most to go nowhere but last in the NFC East. Based on the strength of their win against the Giants the Redskins found themselves favored against the Cardinals. While the Redskins did end up winning they did not make it easy on themselves and neither did the Cardinals.

Looking at every offensive stat except for points the Redskins dominated. They out rushed the Cardinals 172 yards to 93, they out passed the Cardinals 283 yards to 231, and they had the ball for 17:00 more minutes and ran 31 more offensive plays. Yet the Redskins narrowly squeaked by with a one point victory.

The game started off well for the Redskins until they made it to the red zone. Rex Grossman and Tim Hightower led the Redskins down to the Cardinals six yard line where Grossman was intercepted on a third down attempt to Santana Moss. It was not a good decision by Grossman and cost the Redskins three points and all the momentum they gained from the sustained drive.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Neutered Nats Flop Against Fish, Lose 3-0

Friday night was never going to be easy for the Washington Nationals. A letdown of some kind had to be expected after an emphatic four-game road sweep of the New York Mets earlier this week, and the red flags waved even more frantically when Davey Johnson announced that he was giving both Michael Morse and Jayson Werth a day off. (And he meant it; Alex Cora was first off the bench to pinch-hit.) And that was before anyone bothered to check the statistics and note that Florida had had the Indian sign over Washington this season, with an 8-4 head-to-head record entering this three-game weekend series, the next-to-last of the season between these two clubs.

But no one expected the Nats to go down as meekly as they did in the 3-0 loss. Javier Vazquez, a pitcher who has generally been mediocre to below-average since being traded by the Montreal Expos to the New York Yankees prior to the 2004 season (exceptional outliers in 2007 and 2009 notwithstanding), recorded his first complete game since September 25, 2009 (when his Braves defeated, yes, the Nationals), and he needed only 104 pitches to do it. True to form, there was nothing particularly special about what Vazquez was doing. He threw his fastball for strikes, got ahead in the count, and took advantage of a Nationals lineup that seemed completely uninterested in working the count. Of the 30 batters that Vazquez faced, 17 either took a first-pitch strike or swung at the first pitch.

The Nationals were compliant in their own demise as well, making two foolish mistakes on the basepaths. The first came in the second inning with the score still 1-0. After Rick Ankiel had singled to center with one out, Espinosa flicked a ball into left-center field. The ball was cut off quickly by center fielder Bryan Petersen, but Ankiel was still able to advance to third. However, Espinosa either underestimated Petersen’s arm or thought it was the right time to take the double play out of the equation. Regardless of his reasoning, he was easily cut down at second base for the second out of the inning. Chris Marrero flied out to right field to end the once-promising inning.

The other, less forgivable lapse came in the seventh inning, with the score 3-0 but Vazquez wobbling for the first time all night. Ryan Zimmerman and Laynce Nix singled to lead off the inning before Ankiel (fooled by a curveball) and Espinosa (unable to catch up to a fastball) struck out swinging. Then, with Marrero at the plate in search of a first home run of his term with the Nats, pinch-runner Brian Bixler was picked off of first, despite the fact that second base was already occupied by the less-than-speedy Zimmerman and it was unnecessary for Bixler to take undue risks on the basepaths with the tying run at the plate. The whole sequence summed up the lazy, haphazard approach the Nats offense brought to the ballpark last night.

Lannan wasn’t much better, though he managed to wring six innings and a quality start (in name only) out of his evening. He struggled to locate his fastball and changeup in the early going and gave up six of the eight hits recorded off him in the first three innings. The pitches that weren’t hit were taken outside of the strike zone, and this is what led to Florida’s first run of the game. Gaby Sanchez and Petersen worked one-out walks in the second inning and advanced to third and second on a wild pitch. Sanchez scored on John Buck’s single to center, and if Petersen hadn’t stopped between second and third base to make sure the ball would drop, he would have scored as well. As it was, Lannan got out of the inning with no further damage after Vazquez failed to get a squeeze bunt down and got Buck thrown out at second base and Emilio Bonifacio grounded into an inning-ending force play.

The Marlins added their other two runs in the third inning as Omar Infante and Mike Stanton opened the inning with back-to-back doubles before Stanton came home on Sanchez’s single to center. Again, the damage could have been worse, but Petersen went too far when turning first base after his two-out single and managed to get himself thrown out 7-6-3.

It was, in short, the type of game that was to be expected on a cool Friday night in September when both teams are eliminated from the playoff race (mathematically as well as realistically).  If there’s anything positive to be taken from it, it’s that Saturday’s game shouldn’t be nearly as somnolent. After all, Werth and Morse should be back, and some kid named Strasburg is on the mound.

Sports Fix
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Redskins Preview Week Two: The Arizona Cardinals

Photo courtesy of
‘Giants1’
courtesy of ‘Homer McFanboy’

Last Sunday the Redskins beat the Giants handily by not allowing any points in the second half while outscoring the Giants by 14 in those two quarters. The following Monday should have been a well earned day off in reward for the victory, but the ‘Skins players wanted no such thing and went to practice on Monday to further prove their commitment to making this a new era.

Tim Hightower is looking forward to facing his old team and thinks that the Redskins should win this game. His statement could end up on the Cardinals’ bulletin board, but with a Philly columnist writing this week that the Eagles will win the NFC East because, “The Redskins are still the Redskins,” and Giants corner back Antrel Rolle insisting that the Giants would beat the Redskins 95 times out of 100 the Redskins have some bulletin board material of their own. Football is an emotional game and man players play better when they think they have something to prove. The Redskins played a good game against the Giants, but still have to prove they can play that well on a consistent basis.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Cardinals shocked the world and ended up in the Super Bowl. One of the reasons they made it that far was the play of Larry Fitzgerald, and now with Todd Heap added to the passing attack the Cardinals have two game changers to catch the football. The man whose job it is to get the ball to those dangerous targets is recently traded for Kevin Kolb. Kolb has yet to deliver on his promise, but with pass catchers as good as Fitzgerald and Heap any quarterback can be dangerous. Even if Kolb has trouble sustaining a drive against an improved Redskins defense Fitzgerald and Heap give the Cardinals big play ability.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Redskins defeat Giants 28-14

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_8031’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

When looking over the Redskins schedule there were games where the Redskins should win, could win, and should struggle. The Giants hadn’t lost to the Redskins since 2007, the Redskins defense was one of the worst in the NFL last season and the Giants feature a strong running and passing attack, and the Redskins entered 2011 as a team surrounded by questions on the offense. The Redskins didn’t just not struggle against the Giants they dominated. The yardage comes out about the same as the Giants passed for 268 and rushed for 75 while the Redskins passed for 305 and rushed for 75, but the Redskins managed to outscore the Giants by the final score of 28-14 due in large part to 21 straight unanswered points. Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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Redskins 2011 Season Preview

Photo courtesy of
‘Young|Veteran’
courtesy of ‘Danilo.Lewis|Fotography’

The story of the 2010 Washington Redskins needs no retelling. If the images of McNabb sulking on the sidelines and Haynesworth rolling on the ground aren’t burned into your memory then you weren’t paying attention. It can be argued that the issues with McNabb were partly his being taken out of comfortable surroundings and then feuding with the Shanahans. What cannot be argued is that McNabb threw a career high in interceptions with 15 and his lowest number of touchdowns since 2003 with 14, and his 77.1 passer rating was his worst since his rookie season in 1999 when he had a passer rating of 60.1. At the age of 34 Donovan McNabb had the worst season of his career, and he found himself benched for Rex Grossman in the final three games.

The main issues with the Redskins in 2010 were the same as they have always been. They continued to try and be the off-season champs with the trade for McNabb and stuck with Albert Haynesworth in the 3-4 defense despite his objections that he was not that type of player. Haynesworth swore that by working out with his personal trainer he would be ready for the 2010 season, but he failed multiple fitness tests and missed time in training camp. This season the Redskins do not have a McNabb, Portis, or Haynesworth, but what they might have is a team. The 2010 Redskins were seen as a disappointment more because of the expectations than the results. The team finished with the record the talent dictated it should.

The Redskins have made it a habit to ignore problems at the bottom and middle of the roster and to try and go for the big splash. The Redskins never wanted to put a team on the field. They wanted a collection of stars they hoped would play well together and cover up shortcomings at non-glory positions like the offensive and defensive line. When the big name signings and trades failed the Redskins ended up left with nothing and struggled through season after season. This off-season the Redskins took a different approach. They traded 35 year old defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday to the Cardinals for 24 year old running back Tim Hightower. In 13 games started for the Cardinals in 2010 Hightower averaged 4.8 yards a carry and 46 yards a game with an average of only 9.6 carries a game. A league average running back average 4.2 yards a carry in 2010. With a normal workload of between 20-25 carries a game Hightower could provide a vast improvement to the Redskins running game.
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Special Events, Sports Fix, The Features
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We Love Sports: The Wounded Warrior Amputee Celebrity Softball Game

“Not many people get an opportunity to actually come down on the field,” 21-year-old Josh Wege said after his pre-game warm up at Nationals Park with ball and glove in tote. “Well … they actually get to come on the field but to actually play a game on this field, this is incredible.”

It’s true. More often than not, the people playing ball on a Major League field are professional players employed by Major League Baseball. On Sunday, though, the giant state-of-art sandlot located in Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood hosted the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team in an exhibition game against a group of D.C. celebrities. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats get to Dodgers’ Kuroda for 5, win 7-2.

Photo courtesy of
‘Lannan delivers’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

The Nationals’ offense exploded for four runs in the first inning on the overcast Labor Day afternoon, all on home runs, to give John Lannan a lead to work with against the Dodgers. While Lannan would at times struggle against their lineup, he still went 5 1/3 IP of 1-run baseball. Lannan would strand 5 trolley-dodgers on the base-paths, strike out four and walk two to earn his 9th win.

The Nats tore through Hiroki Kuroda today, getting to him for 5 runs on 8 hits, with four home runs, but Kuroda also put up a season-best 9 strikeouts against the Nationals today. The Dodgers’ bullpen added three more Ks for an even dozen against the Nats, four by Danny Espinosa, who’s in a bit of a slump of late.

 

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Milone debuts with a bang, Nats win in the 9th over Mets 8-7

Photo courtesy of
‘home away from home’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The Nats added another chapter to the Ryan Zimmerman, “Mr. Walkoff” legend book tonight, as he brought the game back from a deficit in their last at-bat yet again this season. The bloop single off Mets closer Bobby Parnell with the bases loaded in the 9th was his 14th game-winning plate appearance of his six-year career. The Nats have now won 20 games in their last at-bat, and 10 in sudden death situations.

The major league debut of Tom Milone on a comfortable September night in Washington was something of a preview for Nats fans. Milone, whose 12-6 year at Syracuse came with 155 strikeouts and just 16 walks, is a fearless medium-velocity pitcher with pinpoint command. What the fans will be talking about, though, isn’t how he wasn’t afraid to come in on the hands of the righties, it’s about what he did with his bat.

Milone jacked the first pitch he saw in the 2nd inning into the Nationals’ bullpen for a 3-run homer. This wasn’t a barely-clears-the-fence job, either, it was a bona fide legitimate home run that had all of Nats Park standing up. Soon as he made contact, that ball was clearly out. He became the 27th player in MLB history to hit the first pitch he faced for a home run, and the 8th pitcher. The last pitcher to do it was the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright in May of 2006.

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Sports Fix
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Homestand Preview: The last long one

Photo courtesy of
‘crazy eyes’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The dog days of August are done, and we’re into the last month of baseball season. The Nationals, while still better than previous years, are a long way from the playoff hunt. That does not mean, however that you can’t see some good things at Nationals Park. This homestand brings with it the return of Stephen Strasburg, the debut of a new rookie in the starting rotation, a free concert, and the start of Fan Appreciation Month.

There are a lot of reasons to find yourself down at Nationals Park for an early Fall game, and there just aren’t that many left to go before we head into the dark of winter. Capture the light while it’s still present, folks, and see the Nationals play some solid baseball in the meantime.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Mental Errors Doom Nats In 4-2 Loss To Arizona; In Memoriam Mike Flanagan

Photo courtesy of
‘Desmond touches ’em all’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Any Washington Nationals fan who bothered to sit through the entirety of Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks would probably have felt a nasty shock of recognition. For one night, the Nationals of April and May re-emerged and reminded the 17,881 in attendance that there was a time when the team was in the bottom half of the National League table in every major offensive statistical category. They allowed 24-year-old Lynchburg native Daniel Hudson to come within one out of a complete-game shutout before back-to-back solo home runs by Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes forced Hudson to yield to J.J. Putz, who forced Wilson Ramos to lift a foul popout to Lyle Overbay to end the game. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Detwiler And Werth Lead Nats Over Snakes, 4-1

Photo courtesy of
‘Curly W’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

After the emotional Sturm und Drang that was this past weekend’s three-game series against the Phillies, the Washington Nationals needed a nice, quiet game that wouldn’t overly tax the bullpen. Luckily, they got just that kind of performance from Ross Detwiler, who allowed just one run on six hits over 6.2 innings as the Nationals defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-1 Monday night at Nationals Park.

On a night when most of the focus of the Washington brass and media was on Stephen Strasburg’s third rehab start with Class-A Hagerstown (for the record, Strasburg went three innings and allowed one earned run on two hits, walked one and struck out six while throwing 60 pitches in front of Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo and principal owner Mark Lerner), the 25-year-old Detwiler continued to build on his impressive year, pitching into the seventh inning as a starter for the first time since June 20, 2009.

How much of Detwiler’s improvement is genuine progress and how much is a product of mere year-to-year statistical variance is hard to gauge. His strikeouts per nine innings ratio has jumped to 6.61, up from 5.16 in 2010, though he only managed just three strikeouts Monday night after fanning seven in his previous start against Cincinnati. Detwiler’s also been getting more ground balls with his more effective sinker. 48.9 percent of all balls in play against him have been grounders this season, up from an even 43% in 2010. As a result, both Detwiler’s Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) and expected Fielding Independant Pitching (xFIP) have dropped by more than a run from 2010 (the FIP has fallen from 5.64 to 4.54, while his xFIP has fallen from 4.97 to 3.96).

But there’s no denying that the left-hander has gotten very lucky when it comes to stranding runners on base. Entering Monday night, Detwiler’s left on base percentage was an unsustainable 86.6 percent. Remarkably, he managed to bolster that number on Monday night, as Arizona stranded five of their seven runners while he was in the game. Indeed, the most crucial moment of Detwiler’s outing came in the top of sixth inning, when he allowed a single to Justin Upton and walked Chris Young to load the bases with two outs and Washington on top 4-0.  Henry Rodriguez was warming up in the Washington bullpen, and on another night, Nationals manager Davey Johnson might have pulled the trigger on a pitching change. But this time, he only visited the mound to have a word with Detwiler, and his faith was rewarded when Detwiler induced Paul Goldschmidt to ground into an inning-ending force play.

Along with Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann, the development of Detwiler will be fascinating to watch. The good news is that the Nationals and their fans will have plenty of time to make a determination. Detwiler has one more full season before being eligible for arbitration, and he won’t be a full-fledged free-agent until after the 2015 campaign.

On the other side of the coin, the Nationals offense didn’t make Arizona starter Joe Saunders work particularly hard (he had only thrown 90 pitches when he made way for a pinch-hitter after six innings), but the Nationals didn’t to have particular trouble hitting certain of his pitches. As it turned out, Saunders’ two-seam fastball was particularly ineffective, and it was responsible for all of Washington’s runs. In the bottom of the second, Jonny Gomes dropped a two-seamer into right field to drive in Jayson Werth for the first run of the game. Two innings later, after a Ryan Zimmerman infield single and a walk by Michael Morse, Werth hit another Saunders two-seamer quite a bit farther. The ball sailed into the front row of the right-field seats for a three-run home run that turned a 1-0 lead into a 4-0 cushion and capped off a fine night at the plate for Werth (2-for-4 with his other hit a pulled double into the left field corner in the second). The well-paid right fielder is very quietly having a fine second half to the season, with a .358 on-base percentage and a .778 OPS in 137 plate appearances since the All-Star Break entering Monday night’s game. While those numbers still don’t measure up to his outstanding statistics in Philadelphia, Nats fans can now expect, rather than hope, that Werth has got his feet under him in the nation’s capital.