. . . because, while the Nationals keep winning in Philly, they still have seven games to play and, no matter what they do, will finish no better than third. We’re not just being killjoys: while it’s wonderful to see our Anacostia Nine play so well (especially at “Nats Park North”), there are some among us who (in the middle of the 7th inning last night — and then again in the 8th) stood up and screamed — “that’s just great, but where were you in June?”
The answer oughta be obvious: trying to find a pitching staff. That the Nats have now won consistently, when it counts the least, is evidence that (finally), that seems to have been done. John Lannan didn’t pitch brilliantly last night, but he fought hard and well (he’s not the same pitcher we saw last year), and a whole handful of other arms have now emerged: Milone and Peacock, and Wang and Detwiler — not to mention Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg (and, just maybe, Livan Hernandez). And those are just the starters.
Then too, the bats have nearly ended their slumber: the Nationals pounded out ten hits last night, which included home runs from Danny Espinosa (his 21st, setting a Nationals rookie record), and the vastly underrated Wilson Ramos (who hit his 14th, which is none too shabby). More importantly, the Nats shook off their disturbing habit of serving tea to men on base — eight were left on base last night, but that number is going down, and they’ve damned near returned to the league mean.
As important (we think) is that the Nationals are now 9-8 against their in-division rivals — with the bonus that Nats fans have started to stream north. That an indication (perhaps), that Nats fans are anticipating what might (might) happen next year. “It’s a fun time,” Danny Espinosa said of his visit to the not-so-friendly confines of The Bank. “It’s a fun game to play against them. I want to play them hard because I know we can beat them. We are showing that. For myself, personally, I enjoy playing against the team.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’ve decided to change the description of the New York Mets — they’re no longer “the chokes.” That description more aptly fits the Atlanta Braves, who barely showed up to play the Marlins last night in Miami, and lost to the stinking Fish. It wasn’t even close. Now they know how it feels. The Braves now lead the Cardinals (who woulda thought — and certainly not us), by a single game and some spit. The Cardinals surprised everyone (including their own fans) and rallied to beat the Mets in St. Louis, 6-5 . . .
Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the New York Mets may well have been a more fitting end to Livan Hernandez’s role as a Nationals’ starter than many Nationals fans believe. While Hernandez left the game with momentum shifting to the Mets, in what would turn out to be one of the less interesting games of the season, the standing ovation that greeted him was given not so much for his steadiness as a pitcher, as it was for his love of the city, the franchise and the fans.
Livo threw the first pitch for the Nationals, and the first pitch at home. And despite his journey in and out of Washington, he always made one thing clear: he preferred to play here. “I appreciate all the support. It’s very nice,” Hernandez said after the loss. “I left the bases loaded. I tried to get out of the inning, but it didn’t happen. I want to say thank you to the fans for supporting me this year.”
The Nationals loss to the Mets continues a sluggish end-of-season sprint to the finish. The Nationals are 4-12 over the last two weeks, and are struggling with (what else) trying to put runs on the board. Sunday was no different. The Nationals strung together only seven hits, while leaving sixteen on base. The big blast came off the bat of Lucas Duda (that tied the game), that preceded four singles and a sacrifice bunt. The Madoffs scored four in the sixth, then gave up just two hits the rest of the way.
The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: There were six foul balls hit into the section yesterday, a veritable barrage when compared to previous games. One was caught by a Mets fan (in the air, no less) in Row DD, who waved the ball and saved it for his son — who was out getting a hotdog. “I knew I missed something,” the boy said when he returned. “I just knew it.”
Another foul ricocheted off an older woman’s head, and ushers scrambled to bring an ice pack. A sometime fan walked up from below to snap her picture. “Now that was weird,” a fan said when she returned to her seat. A young man over in Section 130, snagged a foul and smiled at his girlfriend — the hero of the hour. “Give it to a kid,” a fan yelled. He ignored that and gave it to beaming Suzy.
Twelve hits and four home runs — one dinger each from Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse, Laynce Nix and Danny Espinosa — and the steady and solid pitching of Livan Hernandez provided Washington with a 9-2 victory in Atlanta. The win broke a six game losing streak and helped to erase the troubles the team had in Cincinnati, where they were swept by the Redlegs.
Starter Hernandez, who has been up-and-down all season, spun his magic against a tough Atlanta line-up; he threw seven complete innings of five hit ball, bringing his ERA for the season to 4.29. Both before and after the game, Hernandez (who threw his 50,000th career pitch during the game) talked about his desire to stay in Washington.
“I love to stay here. It’s not about the money because I know I can make more money,” he said following his win. “It’s about I enjoy every day that I am here. I enjoy playing baseball here. It’s where you feel comfortable. I lived before with no money. This is where you feel good.”
Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson was energized by the win. “I love games like that,” Johnson said from the locker room. “Guys were having good at-bats, good swings every time they went up there. That’s what made it real fun.” The Nats accumulated twelve hits during the victory, including three each from Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse. Laynce Nix was 2-4 and hit his 15th, the most he’s had in any season.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Eisler Livan Hernandez Carrera has had an unusually long career. He started with the Florida Marlins after defecting from Cuba in 1995, and played in the 1997 World Series, where he won two games and was awarded the series MVP. He’s played for the Giants, Expos, Nationals, Twins, Rockies and Mets and is acknowledged as one of the best defensive pitchers to play the game (he’s had only eleven errors in his pitching career) . . .
Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitcher Daniel Hudson is the one who got away: back at the trade deadline in 2010, it was Hudson (then with the White Sox),who was dangled before Mike Rizzo in exchange for Adam Dunn, but the Nationals’ G.M. took a pass. Hudson ended up in Arizona, where he’s blossomed into a top flight starter.
It’s easy to see now what everyone saw in the righty — Hudson was brilliant on Wednesday, spinning a near shutout as the Nationals could not catch the D-Backs in the ninth, and dropped their second in a row to the Snakes, 4-2. Hudson scattered nine hits in a game that he exited with two outs in the ninth.
“He was pretty good, man, and I was surprised,” Arizona catcher Miguel Montero said of Hudson’s outing. “I was a little surprised, because in the bullpen, he looked like he had a little bit of a control problem. He got into the game and he was painting those corners, man. It was a shame he couldn’t get the shutout.”
The loss was notched by Livan Hernandez, who dueled Hudson all night. The crafty Washington righty threw 7.1 innings and gave up four — but he pitched much better than his numbers indicate. Two of those runs came with men on base and reliever Henry Rodriguez on the mound.
Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson blamed himself for leaving Livo in too long. “I take responsibility for that one,” Johnson said. “He was really pitching a great game and when he’s good, he’s really good. I had it in my mind that if he gives me seven, I’m getting him out of there. I balked. He got into trouble and couldn’t get out of it.”
It must be tough having to drive all the way back to Philadelphia after losing a game to the Nationals — but that’s what Phillies’ fans had to do on Friday night, as Ryan Zimmerman and his teammates stunned baseball’s best team in a come-from-behind victory that was capped with a 9th inning walk-off grand slam home run. The 8-4 Washington victory was perhaps the most dramatic of the season for the Nationals, who trailed the Phillies going into the ninth, 4-2.
The evening started inauspiciously: a two hour twenty-two minute rain delay threatened to end the contest, and Livan Hernandez could not get untracked, giving up four runs on seven hits in four innings of work. But the Nationals bullpen (Tom Gorzelanny, Sean Burnett and Todd Coffey), held the Phillies to one hit in five innings. The Nationals came back to score one in the third and one in the fifth, but the game seemed over by the time the Nationals took their last at bats. That’s when the fun started.
Jayson Werth led off the ninth with a nose-in-the-dirt single off closer Ryan Madson. Danny Espinosa and Jonny Gomes then singled. Gomes’ seeing-eye grounder scored Werth. Wilson Ramos followed with a bunt that was nearly nabbed on the fly by Madson, that moved two runners into scoring position. Madson then walked pinch hitter Jesus Flores, before Ian Desmond’s bleeder into right field scored Danny Espinosa with the tying run.
The bases were jammed when Rick Ankiel struck out, which brought Zimmerman to the plate. Zimmerman battled Madson before putting his 3-2 offering into the left field seats for the walk-off grand slam. “For me to even get up to the plate to have that at-bat in that inning was unbelievable,” Zimmerman said following the victory. “Jayson had that great at-bat. Jonny had a great at-bat. Ian had a great at-bat.”
The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: In the run-up to Friday night’s game, the Nationals put their best face on — with a scoreboard “Dick and Jane” ditty about how to behave “when you’re at the ballpark.” They do this at Fenway too, but they wait until the 7th inning, when most fans are so blitzed they can’t even see the scoreboard. “They have that up there because Phillies’ fans are here,” a Nats booster noted last night. “What they need to do is run it in Philadelphia . . . ”
Washington and the Rockies rapped out 33 hits in scoring 22 runs on Saturday — but the Heltons were just too powerful and downed the Nationals, 15-7. This was a poor outing for Livan Hernandez (now 6-11 on the year) who gave up nine hits and seven runs in just 3.2 innings.
The big bats of Colorado showed up in force: Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki were a combined 5-8, while normally light hitting catcher Chris Iannetta was 4-5. The Nationals bullpen was also ineffective. Tom Gorzelanny, Todd Coffey, Sean Burnett and Henry Rodriguez gave up a combined ten hits in 4.2 innings of work.
The Nationals fought back in the top of the sixth, scoring four runs to bring the game to within three, at 10-7. It was the only strong point of the Washington showing. “I was really pleased with the team,” skipper Davey Johnson said, after the loss. “We battled back and scored a bunch of runs with two outs, and that was a good sign. Stuff like that happens here.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Cincinnati Reds were swept by the Mets at the end of July, but then took three of three from the Giants — a sure sign the team was still in the thick of the N.L. Central race. But since then the Redlegs have tanked. They dropped two of three from the Astros and have now dropped two in a row to the Cubs . . .
They look awful. Yesterday in Chicago (which has a seven game winning streak, though no one knows exactly why), Dusty Baker’s boys were eaten by Carlos Zambrano, who gave up six hits in six innings and homered off Johnny Cueto in the second inning. Zambrano (whose homer was a straight-away-to-center shot), is now 9-6 . . . Cueto couldn’t make it out of the fourth . . .
It’s quite possible that finally — five months into the 2011 baseball season — the Nationals have finally found their leadoff hitter. Batting in the first slot in the line-up last night, centerfield veteran Rick Ankiel blasted two home runs in leading the Nationals to a 5-3 victory over the Braves at Nationals Park. Ankiel’s homers allowed Livan Hernandez (six innings, six hits and three strikeouts) to walk away with his sixth win of the season.
Ankiel’s homers were only his fourth and fifth of the year and came in the first and the fifth inning — both off of usually reliable Braves’ starter Jair Jurrjens, who registered his fourth loss. Ankiel, who has been in and out of the line-up all year (and has struggled at the plate) seems finally to be swinging with authority. “You just look for a pitch to drive. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you make it happen, sometimes you don’t,” Ankiel said after the victory. “Lately, I’ve been making good contact and good things are happening.”
It’s too soon to tell whether Ankiel’s Monday night performance means that he will be an every game feature at the leadoff position, but Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson liked what he saw: “Now he [Ankiel] is [playing] and he has cut down on his strikeouts, his swings are better,” Johnson said. “That comes with playing. In the last couple of years, I don’t think he has played much.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: If either Pittsburgh or Cincinnati are to have a chance in the N.L. Central, they’re going to have to beat the teams behind them. Last night they didn’t. Newest Ahoy Derrek Lee celebrated his arrival in Pittsburgh with two home runs, but the Pirates couldn’t beat the no-account Cubs, suffering their fourth loss in a row by a 5-3 score. Catch ‘em while you can; they’re fading, and fast . . .
