Not Good

Few teams could make Pedro Astacio look good. Astacio has been bad all season and probably has limited time remaining as a major leaguer. Astacio's ERA in May, June, and July, respectively, was 7.32, 7.63, and 6.14. He gives up almost two home runs every nine innings, and batters are hitting .295 against him, with an OPS of .853. And yet he held the Nationals to two runs on four hits in six innings. The Nationals got only one hit over the remaining three innings, and didn't score after the fourth inning.

It was a pathetic offensive display against a pitcher who hasn't been able to get many people out this season, and it cost the Nationals the game. Surprisingly, Ryan Drese pitched well enough to win, giving up three runs on seven hits over six innings. Drese was upset because Frank Robinson pulled him with a 2-2 count on Dave Roberts in the seventh inning with a man on second and no one out. It was an odd move, but it seemed to work after Eischen struck out Roberts. Unfortunately, Robinson left Eischen in to pitch to the right-handed Joe Randa, who promptly doubled in the runner. Why Robinson left in Eischen is anybody's guess, but Robinson said that he assumed Eischen would know that he should pitch around Randa to get to the next two hitters, both of which were left-handed. Frank, might we suggest a more open communication system?

The Nationals dropped 5.5 games behind Atlanta, and that race is getting dangerously close to being over. The Nationals are still one game back in the wild card, but they are only one-half game ahead of Philadelphia and a game ahead of Florida. The Nationals have now lost 13 straight one-run games, and gone are the days when we could confidently assume that the Nationals would win a close contest. As if we needed more proof, tonight's game against the Padres proved that the Nats just don't have enough offense to justify an assumption like that.