strasburgmotion
courtesy of photopete

It was a perfect day in Washington for some baseball and Stephen Strasburg and Brandon Beachy gave a sold out crowd at Nationals Park one of the game’s finer treats: a pitchers’ duel. Strasburg’s effective power coupled with devastating off-speed pitches mesmerized the Braves, while Beachy’s crafty breaking pitches kept the Nationals off their game.

Strasburg would go seven full innings of shut-out baseball, scattering four hits and walking none, while striking out nine Braves. His velocity was up, registering between 96 and 99mph throughout the outing, and his command was extraordinary, putting to rest any lingering concerns after his last two starts. Though Strasburg had said he was feeling just fine, the media wasn’t accepting his version of events. After today? That shouldn’t be a problem anymore.  After the game, manager Davey Johnson would say “The way he finished off, he blew the guy away, I said, ‘He’s back.’ I don’t think he ever left.”

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Hot Stuff!!!
courtesy of dmc-flux

The Nationals may be finding themselves in a bit of quandary: which is worse for your luck, not doing some sort of ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods, or doing the sacrifice wrong? While yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Padres was the sort that makes you wonder if the latter is more likely the case. A day after newly-minted National Sandy Leon was sent to the DL with a high ankle strain suffered at the plate – becoming the Nats’ second catcher to go on the DL in as many games – the Nationals looked listless and deflated in the field, making several mistakes early that cost runs on the board.

The offense was similarly moribund on Tuesday afternoon, collecting just five hits, and scoring just the one run on a long drive to the center field stands by Bryce Harper for his second home run.  The Padres’ Anthony Bass was stellar against the Nats and often used his pitch-to-contact style to work over the NL East leaders.  Ryan Zimmerman continues to battle against opposing pitching, hitting just .230 since his return, and neither Rick Ankiel nor Jesus Flores could find themselves aboard as the lineup turned over.

A footnote to the loss yesterday became the story, when beat reporters discovered that Strasburg had been suffering some discomfort due to some Hot Stuff ointment that relocated from Strasburg’s shoulder, where it was applied, to an area that was undisclosed by implied to be south of the belt.  Rob Dibble, proving there’s no pitching event he won’t insert himself in, has criticized Strasburg for assigning blame to the oleoresin capsicum instead of his pitch command. 

To date, Strasburg has requested to not discuss the incident – saying only “I’m going to keep that in the clubhouse,” and talked only about his pitching performance before the media. It’s not exactly clear how Dibble drew the erroneous conclusion, but then again, Dibble wasn’t exactly known for his rocket scientist reasoning in his short tenure in the MASN Broadcast Booth.

Perhaps we could arrange for a jar of the ointment to arrive at his radio studio for some demonstration tests.

courtesy of muohace_dc

When Xavier Nady entered in the 8th inning of Friday night’s contest between the Nats and Reds it looked like the hard luck loser of the Nationals pitching staff, Jordan Zimmermann, was headed for another hard luck loss. The Nationals had scored nothing for Zimmermann as he pitched seven strong innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strike outs. Nady would have none of it however as he rocketed a pitch over the wall of the Reds bullpen 377 feet away.

Nady’s entrance into the game was a lesson in managing 101 from Davey Johnson to Dusty Baker. With 1 out in the 8th inning Davey inserted Chad Tracy to face Bronson Arroyo. Wary of the lefty on righty match-up Dusty lifted Arroyo for former Nat Billy Bray who wouldn’t throw a pitch to Tracy as Davey immediately countered with Nady who made Dusty pay for not keeping up with the thought process of Johnson.

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Danny close-up
courtesy of MudflapDC

This Spring Training Danny Espinosa struggled to the tune of .241/.302/.342 with 26 strikeouts in 79 at bats, and just as it looked like he was going to end the Spring on a good note things turned sour. With two outs and Desmond having walked and stolen second ahead of Espinosa’s single it looked like the Nats had either ended their last exhibition game in a tie or sent it to extra innings, but that was not to be as Desmond was thrown out at the plate by Jason Repko to end the game and give the Red Sox the hard fought 8-7 victory over the Nationals.

This last Spring Training game for the Nationals came with many twists and turns, but the biggest might have been what happened off the field. Around the third inning Davey Johnson informed John Lannan that he would not be getting on the plane headed to Chicago with the rest of the team. Instead John Lannan was sent to Syracuse. This decision was not made lightly and it wasn’t made because Lannan pitched poorly in the Spring. The decision was made because Ross Detwiler pitched that much better than John Lannan and had earned the fifth spot in the Nationals rotation.

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Zimmerman Wins It
courtesy of Max Cook

In a week and a day Stephen Strasburg will take the mound at Wrigley Field as the Washington Nationals begin their quest to have the most successful season in franchise history against the Chicago Cubs. Everyone has expectations and if we listen to Davey Johnson, Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen, and a few other Nationals then those expectations are for the playoffs. The big question is clear: is that is realistic? On paper, the Nationals have one of the better pitching staffs in the NL, and one of the weaker offenses. That formula has worked before, but can it work for the 2012 squad at Nats Park?

This past off-season, Mike Rizzo added Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson while Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann look to give the team more innings. Add this all up and it puts the Nats in a position they are unfamiliar with. This is a team after all whose last three Opening Day starters were Livan Hernandez, John Lannan (twice), and Odalis Perez. John Lannan is now opening the season as the fifth starter due to an injury to Chien-Ming Wang, Livan Hernandez is on the Astros, and Odalis Perez was last seen headed for parts unknown.

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