Nats take 3 of 4 from Pirates, win 5-2
Off Day: The Nationals have an off day on Monday before beginning a 3-game series with the Houston Astros on Tuesday at 8:00pm (MASN)
Nats GameBlogs: Check out an archive of Pete McElroy's Nats GameBlogs for a recap of every contest the Nats have played in '08. [link]
The Nationals bullpen did a great job today, helping nail down the 5-2 win for Tim Redding. Saul Rivera, Luis Ayala and Jesus Colome retired 8 of the 9 Pirates they faced. Redding improved to 4-2.
The Nationals, who are off Monday before heading to Houston for a 3-game series beginning Tuesday night, finished up this 11-game home stand 8-3.
Post Game
Cool Saul
The person everyone in the clubhouse talked about was Saul Rivera. He came in the game with runners on 2nd & 3rd and 1-out in the 7th. He got out of the inning without allowing either runner to score and the players said if they gave out game balls, Rivera would get it.
A is for Aaron
Aaron Boone, filling in for Ryan Zimmerman, who asked for and was given the day off, hit his first home run of the year and played solid defense at 3rd base. Boone, who is still learnig the game at the age of 35, knows what his role is on this team and that is to be ready to go at any time and produce.
Home, Sweet, Home
The Nationals wrapped up their homestand going 8-3 and won thier 3rd consecutive series. They have won 6 of 7 and 9 of their last 12.
Red-bull
Tim Redding picked up his 4th win of the season by pitching 6 1/3 innings of 1-run ball. This was his first victory since April 18th.
Final Numbers
Pirates 2-9-0
Nationals 5-13-0
WP-Redding (4-2)
LP-Snell (2-2)
In Game update's
Nats Stars
Guzman: 2-4, Run
Kearns: 2-4, RBI, Run
Boone: 1-4, HR (1)
Bullpen: 2 2/3 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 K
Wily Mo
Wily Mo Pena, pinch-hitting in the 8th, just missed his fisrt HR of the season. He hit the top of the wall in left field and settled for an RBI double. It was his first double and 4th RBI of the season.
Nats though 7 innings
Tim Redding, lifted in the 7th after giving up a 1-out single and double, was replaced by Saul Rivera. Rivera came in and cleaned up the mess left by Redding. He got Jose Bautista and pinch-hitter Doug Mientkiewicz to ground back to him and get out of the inning with no damage done.
Willie Harris, a defensive replacement in the top of the 7th, led-off the bottom of the inning with a double and was singled home by Felipe Lopez to give the Nats a 3-run cushion. It was the 300th RBI of Lopez's career.
Starters Final Numbers
Redding: 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, ER, 5 K, HR, WP. 96 pitches, 64 strikes.
Snell: 6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, BB, 2 K, HR, HB. 101 pitches, 59 strikes.
Pitcher's through 6 innings
Tim Redding is pitching as well as he did in his first start of the season. In that game, he gave up 1-hit and no runs in 7 innings. Today is nealry as good. here is his line:
6 IP, 4 H, ER, 0 BB, 5 K. 86 pitches, 58 strikes
Ian Snell, who started off slowly, has been decent since the first. Here is his line:
6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, BB, 2 K. 96 pitches, 57 strikes.
He was still throwing in the mid-90's in the 6th.
Nats Pitching & Offense
Tim Redding has faced just 13 batters through 4 innings, one over the minimum. He gave up his first hit in the 4th, a single to Nate McLouth, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Two batters later, Jason Bay singled but was stranded on the bases.
Aaron Boone, starting in place of Ryan Zimmerman at 3rd, hit his first home run of the season to give the Nationals the 3-0 lead.
Official Scoring
There is a rule in baseball, written or unwritten, that if a player doesn't touch the ball, it won't be ruled an error. This has happend twice in this series. Today, Rob Mackowiak hit a fly ball to left that was slicing towards the seats on the left field line. Jason Bay was racing over to make a play, slid to make the catch, but came up empty. The ball landed in fair terratory and was ruled a hit.
Yesterday, right fielder Xavier Nady either lost the ball in the sun or mis-judged it and it went over his head for a double. he was there in plenty of time to make the catch, but didn't. He never touched it, so it was ruled a hit.
I never understood the rule, that if you don't touch the ball it's not an error. My feeling is, if you can make they play and don't, it should be ruled an error. What are your thoughts on this?
Hot Bats
The Nationals bats picked up where they left off yesterday. The used 3 hits, all singles and a hit batsman, off Ian Snell, to take an early 2-0 lead.
Nick Johnson and Austin Kearns delivered RBI singles to left to score Cristian Guzman and Lastings Milledge, respectively.
Pitcher's through 3 innings
Tim Redding is perfect through 3. He's struckout 5 Pirates, including 4 of the last 6 batters. The only ball hit hard, was from lead-off man Nate McLouth, who flew out to the warning track in right. Redding has thrown 38 pitches.
Ian Snell, after giving up 2-first inning runs, has settled down and gotten help from his defense. With runners on the corners in the 1st, Aaron Boone grounded into the 5-4-3 double play. In the 2nd, Tim Redding, attempting to sac bunt, grounded into the 1-6-4 DP. Snell has thrown 52 pitches.
No more streaking
For the first time since September 19, 2006, Ryan Zimmerman was not in the starting line-up for the Nationals. Unless he pinch-hits or is a defensive substitution, his consecutive games streak will end at 205.
Aaron Boone will start at 3rd in Zimmerman's place. Jeff Francoeur of the Atlanta Braves has the current longest streak of consecutive games played with 355.
DC's Iron Man
Ryan Zimmerman had played 205 consecutive games for the Nationals, that is until today. He and Manny Acta decided that he would take today off. With a scheduled day off Monday, that would give him two days to rest. Yesterday he passed Brian Schneider for the most games played for the Nationals, 370, and he had the second longest active streak of consecutive games played, the Braves Jeff Francoeur is at 355.
Home, Sweet, Home
The Nationals finish up their longest homestand of the season today. Entering today's game, they are 7-3. The go to Houston for a 3-game series on Tuesday before returning to Nationals Park on Friday for a 3-game series vs. the Marlins.
Starting Line-Up's
Nationals:
2B Felipe Lopez
SS Cristian Guzman
CF Lastings Milledge
1B Nick Johnson
RF Austin Kearns
3B Aaron Boone
C Paul LoDuca
LF Rob Mackowiak
P Tim Redding
Pirates:
CF Nate McLouth
2B Freddy Sanchez
LF Jason Bay
C Ryan Doumit
RF Xavier Nady
1B Adam LaRoche
3B Jose Bautista
SS Brian Bixler
P Ian Snell
Game Preview
Pirates (12-18) vs. Nationals (13-18) The Nationals, 7-3 on their current homestand and in their last 10 games, look to take the final game of the 4-game series vs. Pittsburgh.
Yesterday they squandered a 5-1 lead and held on to beat the Pirates 9-8 behind Cristian Guzman's career high 6 RBI.
Today Tim Redding faces a Pittsburgh line-up that has a never-say-die attitude and fights until there are 27 outs. He'll be opposed by Ian Snell.
Pitching Match-Up
RHP Tim Redding (3-2, 3.55) is looking for his first win since April 18th, when he beat Florida 6-4. In that game, Redding had a season high 10 strikeouts, gave up 3 hits and 4 earned runs in 6 innings. In his last two starts, a loss and a no decision, Redding has given up 5 runs on 8 hits in 11 innings. He's pitched good, but not good enough to get a win.
The last time he faced Pittsburgh, 2005, Redding pitched 5 innings and gave up 5 hits and 4 runs, all unearned and was saddled with the loss. In his career vs. the Pirates, 9 starts, he's 1-2, 3.83 ERA.
Pitching at Nationals Park hasn't been to kind to Redding, He is 1-2, 4.05, compared to 2-0, 2.77 on the road
RHP Ian Snell (2-1, 4.93), winless in his last 3 starts, hasn't won a game since April 12. In his last 3 outings, Snell hasn't been sharp, giving up 22 hits and 11 runs in 16 innings. His last start, a 5-4 loss to the Mets, Snell gave up 4 runs, 5 walks and threw 92 pitches in 4 1/3 innings.
Last season, Snell faced the Nationals twice, pitching 14 innings and giving up 4 earned runs and 8 hits. He didn't factor in in either decision.
The righty is having a tough time with right-handed batters. They are hitting .391 off of him and lefties are batting just .221.
I agree with you about the error rule but, I also think it may leave too much up for debate. Who will decide if the player should have been able to make the play?? Some guys are more athletic & gifted than others so how do you decide what the "standard" should be??