The headline on the Washington Nationals’ website is all about John Lannan, and how he struggles against the Philadelphia Phillies. But the story on Saturday night, when the Nationals were dumped by the Ponies (by an it-wasn’t-even-close 5-to-zip score) had little to do with Lannan — and an awful lot to do with Roy Oswalt.
Oswalt, who’s suffered through a 2011 campaign with a bad back, was at his best on Saturday, scattering eight hits over eight innings while shutting out a Nationals’ team that couldn’t put together any kind of offense. Oswalt’s outing was good news for the Phillies, who will depend on their starters in the post-season. “He’s back,” Phellow Phil Cole Hamels said. “I think that’s pretty much it. He’s back. When he has the velocity, you know it’s game time.” The only threat against Oswalt came from Ryan Zimmerman, who was 3-4 and continued his rocket-like ascent into the top tier of N.L. hitters.
Facing off against Oswalt, Lannan was just average — which wasn’t nearly good enough. The Nationals lefty, who has compiled a good season (8-9 with a 3.61 ERA), couldn’t keep the heavy hitting Phillies off the base paths. That said, his five inning three earned run outing deserved better, as the team played poorly behind him. The resulting loss came at the hands of Wilson Valdez, whose triple scored two and Hunter Pence, who parked one in the left field bleachers.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Nationals packed the ballpark on Saturday (setting a single game attendance record), as busloads of Phillies’ fans came down from the north to root for their best-record nine. The Nationals are 22nd in attendance this year, which isn’t all that bad when you consider their record. The Nationals have put people in the stands at a much better clip than other (better), teams . . . including the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Rays and Indians . . .
It wasn’t so long ago (the Nationals were playing out in Los Angeles, to be specific) that we wrote about walk-off grand slam home runs. They’re really, really unusual — a walk-off grand slam that results in a single run victory has happened (by our count) just 25 times in major league history. A two out walk-off grand slam is even more unusual. And, as we noted in our previous post, an inside the park walk-off grand slam home run has happened just once.
Which makes last night’s walk-off grand slam off the bat of Brian Bogusevic in Houston (albeit, on a 2-2 and not a 3-2 count, but wouldn’t that be something) even more special. The fact that thousands more watched it live than normally would have (during an MLB “live look-in”) is stunning.
The GWRBI (GS) came off the arm of Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol and sent the fans in Houston into ecstasy, and it was a bomb: Bogusevic scorched the ball to dead center and it hit above the yellow home run line in Minute Maid Park. A shot. The grand slam gave the Astros a 6-5 victory.
That’s five walk-offs in a single night in baseball, equaling the season record of five set back in late May. Still . . . still, the Houston walk-off was the most uplifting (so to speak) and jaw-dropping. Oh, and Bogusevic’s walk-off grand slam was hit by a pinch hitter . . .
Ian Desmond’s high bounding infield hit and Rick Ankiel’s hustle home in the bottom of the ninth inning provided the winning margin for the Nationals on Sunday, as they took the third game of their three game set against the New York Mets, 3-2 at Nationals Park. Desmond’s hit came after Ankiel, in a heads-up play, was able to take third base in the ninth with one out.
Jordan Zimmermann returned to his ace form as a Washington starter, throwing six complete innings and striking out seven. The only negative in the win came when Drew Storen gave up a two out home run in the ninth inning to Mets’ super utility guy Scott Hairston. The Hairston bomb tied the game, leading to Storen’s fourth blown save on the year.
Aside from Desmond and Ankiel’s ninth inning heroics, the story of the game was Zimmermann, who scattered seven hits in throwing 64 strikes in 107 pitches. Zimmermann pitched out of a major jam in the sixth inning. With Mets on second and third, Zimmermann struck out New York heavyweights Angel Pagan and Jason Bay.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: After shuttling Jerry Hairston to Milwaukee and Jason Marquis to Arizona, the Nationals decided that Minnesota was asking too much for Denard Span. Which meant that rumored trade bait Drew Storen will remain in Washington, along with Roger Bernadina and Steve Lombardozzi — all three of whom (but it was probably just two of them, don’t you think?) Minnesota apparently wanted for their concussed lead-off centerfielder . . .
You could almost hear the sizzle of doubt at Nationals Park last night: uber sub Jerry Hairston was being shipped to Milwaukee, Jason Marquis was considering boarding the red eye for Arizona, Roger Bernadina and Drew Storen were wondering whether they should make plans to rent an apartment in Minnesota and (worst of all), Yunesky Maya was preparing to take the mound for the slumping Washington Nationals. So there it was: a loss for sure.
But just hours later, Maya was celebrating his best outing of the year (and preparing for a stint on the disabled list — or in the minors), Davey Johnson was going on about “a very good ballgame,” Jayson Werth was being interviewed as “the player of the game” on MASN — and Roger Bernadina and Drew Storen were still plying their trade for the Washington franchise.
The short story is that Jayson Werth won the Nationals’ tilt against the New York Metropolitans with an attitude-lifting three-run first inning homer (it was all the Nationals would need in their 3-0 win), Maya pitched effectively through 5.1 innings and closer phenom Drew Storen registered his 26th save. It was hard to determine who was more happy: Werth or Maya.
“I’m tired of saying I’m close, but I’m working in the right direction,” Werth said following the victory. “I know why, I guess — it’s just a matter of having the right swing during the game.” Like Werth, Maya was in a sort of a rehab — spending most of the season trying to command his fastball and pick up his in-game pitching pace. On Saturday, all of that worked well: he threw 78 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Wilson Ramos went 3-3 in last night’s 3-0 win, proof positive that he remains amongst the Nationals’ most streaky hitters. He’s 5 for 6 over his last two games, which follows a stint in which he went 1 for 24. The Twins must have “traders” remorse. We read somewhere that Ramos’ name has been mentioned as one of the players the Twins would like to get in any trade for Denard Span. That would be a “no” . . .
Despite being atop the AL Central for most of the 2011 campaign the Cleveland Indians may have been showing their true colors over the past three weeks. After a blistering April (18–8) and a decent May (14–12) the Tribe rolled into June with their chests out as they sported a 12-games-over-.500 record and a solid five game lead over second place Detroit.
Descriptions of Manny Acta’s Boys as being this year’s version of the 2010 World Champion Giants: a collection of youngsters, wily veterans and reclamation projects that just might be for real — seemed to have some merit. At the time the Indians were pitied as being “the-best-team-in-baseball-that-no-one- went-to-see” — given that their attendance numbers were near the bottom of the league. Maybe Clevelanders knew something we didn’t.
June came, the weather warmed and the Indians cooled. They’ve lost eight of ten and 15 of 20 (and that was before their two most recent losses in a three game set with the Tigers), but actually they haven’t even looked that good. During those 15 losses they were shut out six times and in their last five victories they won two games by a 1-0 margin. Their lineup has been anemic since the middle of May and for the year they are hitting just .250 as a team. That ranks them tenth of 14 A.L. teams. Their pitching and defense rankings are only average (8th in both categories) and their unearned run total of 23 (a measure of how often their errors hurt them) is also smack in the middle of the pack.
Were it not for the fact that, other than Leyland’s boys, there isn’t a team in the division within a whiff of .500 (well, okay the Pale Hose are three games under .500), the Indians wouldn’t have looked so strong early on. Actually, their play against those central division bantamweights is an uninspiring 12-11. Add it all up and the Indians are, well, average. Given that Cleveland’s payroll is 26th out of 30 teams “average” probably isn’t all that bad. At least they can say they’re not the Cavaliers.
(Top: Photo of Cleveland’s Manny Acta by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America)
Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez was the hero again on Sunday in New York, providing a clutch single in the 11th inning to give his team a 3-2 lead, as the Washington Nationals went on to seal a 7-3 victory. Laynce Nix padded the lead with a three run home run that put the game out of reach. The win allowed the Nats to exit from a tough New York series with a 2-1 edge in games, and brought their record to 4-5 on the season. The Nats will take Monday off, before facing the Philadelphia Phillies in Washington beginning on Tuesday. It looks as if “Pudge” could be shaping a new role on the team — not only as back-up to Wilson Ramos, but as a player you have to bring to the plate when the game is on the line.
Guess Who’s In First Place? Yeah, okay — the Phillies. But over in the AL Central the Cleveland Indians have compiled an astonishing 7-2 record and lead the Pale Hose by a full game. The Tribe, it seems, is hitting on all cracked cylinders: off-season acquisition Orlando Cabrera is hitting .375, youngster Michael Brantley is hitting lead-off (and getting on base), fleet footed shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera is racking up hits (and strike outs), and yesterday righty sophomore Josh Tomlin threw 6.2 in taming the Seattle Awfuls. This will make former Nats’ great and Cleveland manager Manny Acta feel good — he was telling anyone who was listening in Spring Training that the Indians were a sleeper and that they would compete for the top spot with the Twinkies and Konerkos. So, break up the Indians — right? Well, not just yet.
NL Least fans will remember that, back in 2009, the Florida Marlins began the season 11-1. That was their record on April 19. Everyone around the league was oohing and ahhing about the Fish, with some commentators saying that they were “the team to beat” in the National League. And it’s true: the Marlins were on fire, they were playing well — but not well enough. On April 27, the Marlins still had 11 wins, but with 8 losses. On May 8, they were 16-14. They were a solid team, even a very good team, but they weren’t great and they certainly weren’t the team to beat in the National League. They had come back to earth. On May 23, they were six games under .500. We all breathed a sign of relief: the sun rose in the east, set in the west — and the Florida Marlins were still the Florida Marlins. Of course (Marlins fans will claim), their team went on to have a pretty good year: they finished in second place in the NL East, which was good enough for . . . ah, second place in the NL East.
The same thing could happen to the fast-starting Indians. But it’s doubtful: they aren’t an average team, they’re a franchise that’s rebuilding. They won’t be 16-14 on May 8, they’ll be 14-16, or worse. They aren’t even the very good 2009 Florida Marlins: they’re the not-very-good 2011 Cleveland Indians. The Indians have some “good young players,” including underrated right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, who’s one of the best young players in baseball. Which is to say: when sports yackers tell you that a team has “some good young players,” what it means is “they better have, because they don’t have much else.” Of course, we can’t be totally negative. If the Tribe finishes the year at .500, it will be one of this year’s most dramatic stories. One thing’s for sure: back in 2009, the same columnists and baseball writers that said that the Marlins were the team to beat had forgotten all about them in September.
It’s a well-known story, but bears repeating — particularly now that Nats’ ace Stephen Strasburg’s name is being mentioned in the same sentence as Herb Score’s. On Wednesday versus Kansas City, Strasburg eclipsed Score’s MLB record for strikeouts in a pitcher’s first four MLB starts. Strasburg has 41 strikeouts in his first four starts — Score had 40. But it will take some time for Strasburg to equal Score’s considerable achivements, even if the former Cleveland hurler (he passed on in 2008), battled injuries nearly his entire career. Like Strasburg, Score made his mark as a rookie phenom; he came up with Cleveland in 1955 and set the American League on fire, going 16-10 with a 2.85 ERA. But unlike Strasburg, Score was surrounded by a team of All Star hitters and pitchers — Bob Feller and Bob Lemon had already made their mark on baseball, and Feller was a legend. The Tribe of ’55 were a powerful mix of slap hungry hitters and long-ballers: Vic Wertz, Bobby Avila, Ralph Kiner, Larry Doby. Score struck out 245 hitters that first year, a mark that stood until it was broken by Dwight Gooden in 1984.
In one of baseball’s well-known in-game incidents, in May of 1957, Score was hit by a Gil McDougald line drive that broke his cheekbone and sent him to the DL. It was said that Score never recovered his pitching motion and remained intimidated by the batted ball — the reason for his fall-off in production. But Score set the record straight in an interview with a baseball writer in 1987, saying that his career was cut short not by McDougald, but by a torn tendon in his pitching arm. “The McDougald line drive had nothing to do with my career ending prematurely,” he said. Score took a year to recover, but when facing the Senators in a game in 1958 a tendon in his arm snapped. Score visited a specialist in Baltimore and took three weeks off, then came back — again against the Senators. “I went in as a reliever, struck out five or six and ended the game on a popup to the outfield,” Score recalled. “But I hurt my arm again on that pitch. After that pitch, I was never the same again. My pitches never had the same movement on them. I had no snap.” Score was out of baseball after 1962. He spent 35 years as a Cleveland Indians radio announcer, before dying in his home town in Ohio in 2008.
Score had two good seasons — his rookie year in 1955 and his sophomore campaign of 1956, when he was 20-9. Mickey Mantle said that he was the toughest left hander he ever faced. It is said that Mantle tried everything against Score, alternating batting righty and lefty against him, but nothing worked. He could never touch his fastball, even after the McDougald incident. Score’s amazing rookie season (227 innings, 245 strikeouts) is a kind of touchstone for baseball statisticians, a model of what it means to be a phenom. But Score was not the only rookie pitcher to have set a league on fire. Dwight Gooden’s 276 strikeouts in 1984 (in just 218 innings) blasted past Score’s mark and Gooden was (arguably) even better the next year, when he fanned 268. Gooden matched this with a head-spinning 1.53 ERA. No one has equaled Gooden’s rookie strikeout record, though Kerry Wood came close, striking out 233 in 1998. Score, Gooden, Wood, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Don Sutton, Gary Nolan, Mark Langston and Hideo Nomo are the only rookie pitchers of the 20th century to strike out over 200 batters in their rookie campaigns.
It’s going to be virtually impossible for Stephen Strasburg to match Gooden’s feat, but only because it’s doubtful he will have a chance to pitch as many innings. St. Stephen is due to pitch every fifth day (not every fifth game) and will likely be shut down in mid-September. Plus, he’s on a strict under-100 pitch-per-game count, monitored by Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman. Then too, it’s unlikely Strasburg will pitch much over 170 innings in his rookie campaign– if that. This ought to be simple arithmetic (ought to be), but it really isn’t. The Nats know what every Nats fan knows: that if Rizzo and Riggleman had their druthers, Strasburg would pitch fewer strikeouts (and not more) because, arguably, fewer strikeouts mean fewer pitches. Which is to say: Rizzo and Rigs are not so worried about a “McDougald moment” (there’s nothing anything can do about that), they’re worried about a “Score moment” — when a young pitcher throws that one pitch that (cumulatively) snaps that tendon and sends a good arm into early retirement.
Still, Strasburg’s first three outings are not only historic, they’re in the Herb Score/Dwight Gooden range. And better. Strasburg has 41 strikeouts in just 25.1 innings and sports a 1.78 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. He’s averaging 14 strikeouts per nine. That’s better than Score (9.7 per nine) or Gooden (11.4 per nine) or Wood (12.6 per nine). In fact, it’s unheard of. So logically (arithmetically), Strasburg could slap aside Gooden’s ’84 record if he could pitch as many innings (Gooden pitched 218). He won’t. St. Stephen would likely shrug all of this off (as he has, and consistently), by saying that baseball is about winning, not personal records. That’s refreshing (and true), but baseball fans are nuts about statistics not simply because records are there to be broken, but because numbers tell us important things about players. And Strasburg’s statistics tell us that, at least to this point, St. Stephen is a Score/Gooden/Wood once-in-a-generation pitcher.
