Tag Archives: Adam LaRoche

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed, The Features
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Nats Beat Cincinnati 6-3 For Their Third Consecutive Win

Phillies vs Nationals 8/1/12courtesy of Matthew Straubmuller

Right-handed starting pitcher Dan Haren threw his longest outing of the season Saturday afternoon leading the Washington Nationals to a 6-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The game was a much stronger outing than the last time he faced the Reds during the first week of the season. The Nats lost that match-up 15-0, but Haren’s start and Washington’s offense gave the Nats their third consecutive win.

Washington made right-handed pitcher Mike Leake work hard early. After a three up, three down first inning, seven of the Nats’ starting nine faced him in the second while scoring two runs to give Washington a 2-0 lead.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed, The Features
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Nats Bats Are Quiet Again, St. Louis Wins 2-0

pitcher of lightcourtesy of philliefan99

For the second time in that many days, the Nationals fell to St. Louis, losing 2-0 Tuesday night, on six strong innings of work from left-handed starting pitcher Ross Detwiler. Detwiler gave up two runs on eight hits, walked two, and struck out two on 93 pitches (60 strikes).

Washington’s defense was the strongest positive worth noting in a game where their bats fell short. In the first five innings, the Nats turned four successful double plays to rob St. Louis of additional runs. But not even spectacular defense from shortstop Ian Desmond, second baseman Danny Espinosa, first baseman Adam LaRoche, catcher Kurt Suzuki, and Detwiler could win them the game. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Dan Haren Gets His First Win, Nats Beat White Sox 7-4 for the Sweep

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DSC_6983
courtesy of MudflapDC

Right-handed starting pitcher Dan Haren earned his first win in a Nationals uniform Thursday night leading Washington to a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox and a 7-4 victory. The theme of the night for Haren was dancing himself out of trouble, though it was an improvement from Friday night’s 15-0 loss in Cincinnati. Haren pitched five innings, gave up ten hits and three runs with five strikeouts in addition to throwing one wild pitch and hitting a batter.

Chicago fought hard to prevent the sweep, shelling the Nats with thirteen hits, but they weren’t quite as successful on the base path. The White Sox stranded eleven runners leaving the game in Washington hands if they were able to maintain the lead. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Nats Set A New D.C. Home Run Record, Beat Cubs 11-5

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Adam LaRoche
courtesy of Keith Allison

The Washington Nationals took advantage of a young, less-than-mediocre Cubs pitching staff on Tuesday night when the team went on to beat Chicago 11-5. Manager Davey Johnson’s offensive lineup hit a franchise record six home runs off the Cubs, which is the most homeruns in a single home game by any Washington-based ballclub in baseball history.

Starting pitcher, right-hander Edwin Jackson also had quite the night on both sides of the game. He earned his ninth win of the year having pitched five and two-thirds innings. Jackson gave up seven hits, four earned runs, one walk, and struck out eight on 93 pitches (62 for strikes). Jackson also got in on the hitting action going 2-for-4 including a hit off Cubs rookie starter Chris Rusin. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Detwiler Solid As A Rock, Nats Beat Cubs 2-1

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
Win!
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

It was business as usual at Nats Park Monday afternoon when the Nationals faced the fifth place Chicago Cubs. Left-handed starter Ross Detwiler soared to his ninth victory of the season with a 2-1 win and held the Cubs scoreless during his seven innings pitched.

Detwiler gave up four hits while issuing three strike out and three walks over 93 pitches thrown (62 for strikes). His performance denied the Cubs run support but Chicago’s starter righter-hander Jeff Samardzija was playing it just the same. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Cardinals Offense Pounds Jordan Zimmermann, Nats Fall 10-9

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Jordan Zimmermann
courtesy of Keith Allison

It was a game the Nationals could have won. A four-run first inning made the team’s offensive efforts look solid. But a short outing from starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann helped this game fall into the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals lineup in a 10-9 loss.

Zimmermann lasted a total of three and one-third inning and gave up eight earned runs – the most of his career. His 93-pitch start also saw two hit batters and two homeruns from the Cardinals offense before he was replaced by reliever Craig Stammen in the fourth. Manager Davey Johnson indicated after the game that he’s not worried about Zimmermann’s shoulder or arm in general. He attributed this loss to being one of those games where it just gets away from the pitcher. According to Johnson, Zimmermann’s just as strong as ever. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Edwin Jackson Dominates The Cardinals, Nats Win 8-1

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
K-chart
courtesy of MudflapDC

Starting pitcher Edwin Jackson faced his former club, the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, for the first time on Monday night since being traded to Washington. It wasn’t a complete game shut it but it was pretty close. Jackson threw eight innings in an 8-1 game that ended in the Nationals’ favor to start out this three-game series.

The Nats 1-2 punch at the top of Manager Davey Johnson’s lineup came out of the gate strong to start. Outfielder Jayson Werth drew a walk off Jaime Garcia followed by a two-run laser of a homerun hit to the right field bullpen by rookie outfielder Bryce Harper in the first inning.

Washington maintained their lead for the game’s entirety and continued tacking on runs as they went, including a Werth solo homerun in the fifth. The Nats took advantage of Garcia’s exit in the sixth and went on to score a total of four runs in the sixth and seventh: Danny Espinosa scored on a Werth ground out off reliever Fernando Salas and Michael Morse scored on a Jesus Flores single off reliever Lance Lynn. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Detwiler’s Consistency and LaRoche’s Bat Win It For The Nats

Photo courtesy of Matthew Straubmuller
Nationals Pitcher – Ross Detwiler
courtesy of Matthew Straubmuller

The Washington Nationals avoided a sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday night in a battle of the southpaws between left-handed pitcher Cole Hamels and Ross Detwiler. Long Story Short: It was most certainly Detwiler’s night.

Manager Davey Johnson was acting like a proud papa in the post-game press conference while explaining how proud he is of young Detwiler, who went on to pitch seven innings of three hit ball in the 3-0 Washington win. Detwiler’s seven innings of three hit ball combined with a line of two walks and three strike outs over 88 pitches (54 strikes) proved to be an efficient outing for the lefty.

But it woudn’t be a win without some run support, right?

First baseman Adam LaRoche went 3-for-4 against Hamels with a leadoff, first pitch homerun – his twentieth of the season – to right field to put the Nats on the board early in the second inning. According to Johnson, LaRoche has been the glue of the team this season and this game most certainly proved that to be true. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Nats Fall 3-2 To Phillies

Photo courtesy of Matthew Straubmuller
Phillies vs Nationals 8/1/12
courtesy of Matthew Straubmuller

The Phillies beat Washington 3-2 Wednesday night due to a lack of run support. What Philadelphia did was take advantage of right-handed starter Edwin Jackson at the right times.

This was Jackson’s third career start against the Phillies, and while he has beaten them once before earlier this year, Wednesday was a different story. Jackson threw five and two-thirds innings and gave up eight hits, three earned runs, four walks (one intentional), three homeruns, and struck out six over 108 pitches (63 for strikes).

Wednesday wasn’t a complete failure though. Jackson managed to strikeout Ryan Howard in all four of his plate appearances. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Phillies leadoff man and shortstop Jimmy Rollins from going long twice — once in the third inning to put his team on the board and once in the fifth to tie the game up. It was the eighth career multi-homerun game of his career. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Zimmermann Stays Steady, Nats Beat Mets 4-3

Photo courtesy of afagen
Nats pitcher Jordan Zimmerman
courtesy of afagen

If you’re looking for consistency then look no further than RHP Jordan Zimmermann. The Nationals’ third starter in the rotation secured his seventh victory of the season Wednesday night with a 4-3 Washington win against New York, pushing him to a winning record of 7-6 thus far. This is the first time Zimmermann’s had a winning record since his 2009 rookie season.

His biggest struggle of the season is one that’s been out of his hands though. Run support behind his pitching is bellow average when compared to the rest of the rotation. The Nats average 3.95 runs with Zimmermann on the mound and 4.16 runs a game.  Zimmermann was 2-2 with a 3.56 ERA against the Mets in nine career starting appearances before last night and has worked at least 6.0 innings in all 19 starts this season. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Espinosa Comes Up Big, Nats Beat Rays 5-2

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
Future All-Stars
courtesy of MudflapDC

Left-handed starter Gio Gonzalez had a shaky start to Thursday night’s interleague game between his Washington Nationals and the Tampa Bay Rays.  Gonzalez faced seven batters in the second, allowing the Rays to take an early 1-0 lead, but the Nats came back from behind for a 5-2 victory.

Gonzalez had a lot of trouble, according to Manager Davey Johnson, due to “missing the plate” or at least that’s what home plate umpire Cory Blaser thought of his performance. He threw 98 pitches, 58 for strikes, over six innings and gave up seven hits, two runs, and two walks while striking out four and throwing one wild pitch. The minor setback was to no avail for Tampa Bay, though, because the Nats regained a temporary lead in the third inning before taking it all back in the sixth.

Second baseman and switch hitter Danny Espinosa went 2-for-4 and had a hand the two plays that put the Nats ahead to beat the Rays. Rookie left-handed starter Matt Moore gave the Nats some trouble but they still managed three hits and two runs off of him over five innings pitched. Moore’s struggles in the third came directly after Gio’s shaky second inning. That’s when Espinosa and outfielder Bryce Harper scored to take the Nats’ first lead of the night. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Nats Fall 5-3 in the 14th, Lidge Charged with the Loss

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
Zimmerman
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

By the end of the 4 hour 49 minute, 14-inning Nats-Yankees game at Nationals Park Saturday afternoon, it was easy to forget that right-handed pitcher Jordan Zimmermann even started the game. The Nats took a 5-3 loss, their fourth extra inning loss this season, after reliever Brad Lidge gave up a two-run double to Yankees first baseman Mark Texeria in the fourteenth. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats mount comeback, deal Cards 8-6 loss

Photo courtesy of
‘bang, zoom go the fireworks’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

On the night when Ryan Zimmerman returned to the lineup for the first time in over two months, the Nationals put together one of their more impressive rallies. In the seventh inning tonight, they plated six runs against the St. Louis Cardinals, four of which scored with two outs. The Nationals got to their former teammate Miguel “Miss Iowa” Batista for five runs in a “6-run, 5-hit, 3-walk, 1-hit batter, 1-wild pitch, 12-batter rally.”

Second only to the offensive explosion against the Cardinals’ bullpen was the quality of the fans this evening at Nationals Park. The crowd of 26,739 was on its feet for a good part of that 7th inning rally, likely fortified by the new Shake Shack at the ballpark. On a day when many feared that the fans of Nats Park could only be plied by fancy bawbles and gewgaws in the form of concessions, fans of the home team showed that they could get into a close game, and were on their feet and rallying around the home team as they beat the Cardinals’ bullpen into submission after being down by four.

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Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Delayed Gratification Edition

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DSCN0905 by bhrome

Capitals
Record: 23-12-5, 51 points
Last Two Weeks: 4-0-1
Place: Tied for first in the Southeast, Fifth in the East

We’re pretty much at the halfway point of the 2010-2011 Season, and the Caps have settled into a winning groove after their brutal losing streak in early December. They’re about to be tested, though, as January looks to be a defining month for the season. Two games against co-leader of the Southeast Tampa Bay, tough games in Philly and Atlanta, and home matchups against the Rangers and Senators, with just a few matches against teams they should beat.

Looking back on the Winter Classic, we saw a Caps team that continued their first period struggles, their second period explosion, and a third period full of fight. That’s been this Capitals team all season long, and until they can figure out their first period struggles, I think they’re not going to be strong contender for Lord Stanley’s Cup. There’s much to work on this season, and still a good amount of time to see it happen. Continue reading →