Virtually all of the remaining series are big series. We're at the point in the season where the Nationals don't have a big margin for error, so they have to play well over five hundred to have a chance of making the playoffs. That means they have to win most series from here on out. That's going to be hard, because all of the National League East teams are above .500, meaning that the Nationals don't have an easy schedule.
Tuesday's game against the Braves--the best team in the National League East--was a big win under some trying circumstances. When John Patterson left the game with "stomach cramps," we'll admit that we were losing confidence fast. Patterson clearly wasn't his normal self--three walks in 2 2/3 innings--but 6 1/3 innings is a lot to ask of the bullpen. And we know from prior experience that being down 2-0 after three puts an undue strain on the Nationals' offense.
But both the bullpen and the offense came through. Jay Bergmann, Hector Carrasco, Gary Majewski, and Chad Cordero shut down the Braves and kept it a low scoring game, which is what the Nationals need to win. A Jose Guillen solo homer in the fourth cut the lead in half. Bergmann singled to open the fifth (can we put this guy in at shortstop?) and scored on a Jose Vidro double. Because we always want to keep it close, Vidro was thrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple. Nick Johnson then doubled, the Braves intentionally walked Guillen, and Preston Wilson singled in Johnson. On the verge of a very big inning, Schneider flied out.
(Excuse this brief interruption from an otherwise upbeat post, but the fifth inning is a good example of how the Nationals squander opportunities for big innings. If Vidro stays at second, he scores on Johnson's double and the inning ends with the Nationals up 4-2 instead of 3-2. We don't like to fault hitters for failing to get a hit in a single at bat because a hitter isn't going to get on base most of the time, but if Schneider can get on base then the bases are loaded or the Nationals are up 4-2 (5-2 if Vidro had been happy with a double). That creates the potential of a HUGE inning because the Nats would have Vinny Castilla and Cristian Guzman coming up. ... Oh, wait a minute. That doesn't work. Castilla and Guzman are punchless and we can't count on them to do much, if anything, in that situation. Nevermind. Back to the post.)
This is the way the Nationals are going to have to win down the stretch--good pitching, some timely hitting, and winning close games. It's a prescription for agony as every game is a nail biter, but the Nationals can do it, and this has the potential to be a very exciting finish.
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2 comments:
"And we know from prior experience that being down 2-0 after three puts an undue strain on the Nationals' offense."
- Patterson could have proceeded to become oddly heathy quick after he walked in that second run, shut-out the other side for the rest of the game and pitched a complete game, and those 2 runs given up could very easily been more than the Nationals could overcome.
Vidro running into an out:
1) Vidro was just very excited about getting a hit.
2) Too many Nationals runners run into outs.
Agreed on all counts, The second point raises an interesting discrepancy between rhetoric and reality. The Nationals bill themselves as a fundamentally sound team, but they are shockingly bad at some of the fundamentals, particularly baserunning and bunting.
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