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” . . .

(more…)

John Lannan pitched into the sixth inning and contributed two hits, and catcher Wilson Ramos hit his ninth home run, as the Washington Nationals defeated the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field, 5-2 on Saturday night. The victory, sparked (oddly) by Lannan’s bat, brought the Nats back to .500 — one-half game behind the New York Mets in the N.L. East.

Lannan provided another solid start to what has to now be considered a very successful 2011 campaign by the savvy lefty. But Lannan’s hits were the surprise of the game. He had two in all, his first two of the year, and his first two in 32 at bats. “We have been taking a lot of BP. I have been struggling out there,” Lannan said after the victory. “I never was a really good hitter. Some days, I get good pitches to hit and I was able to hit it back up the middle. Every starter up here is difficult to hit.”

The Nationals were able to tack on runs in the otherwise tight ballgame when Ramos homered with one on in the sixth. The Ramos dinger landed well back in the left field bleachers. “We are used to one-run leads, but that was big. That made us all feel a lot easier,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of the Ramos home run. “He is a great young catcher. He is looking good.”

Lannan was helped by his bullpen, which held the Braves scoreless in the game’s last innings. Ryan Mattheus, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen combined for 3.1 innings of work, giving up no hits and no runs. Drew Storen pitched the ninth inning, notching his 24th save. It was Clippard’s 24th hold.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: John Lackey’s in-game antics are starting to get old, according to the commenters on “Baseball Tonight.” Lackey threw up his arms during Boston’s 9-5 win against Tampa Bay yesterday when Marco Scutaro boofed a grounder and Adrian Gonzalez followed suit. Then Lackey let manager Terry Francona have it when he was lifted with two outs in the sixth, mouthing guttural out loud condemnations that anyone with eyes could lip-read.

(more…)

Baseball’s commenters continue to insist it’s “early” — but if you’re a Boston Red Sox fan, the clock is ticking. With the Nationals rained out in St. Louis, it seemed as good a time as any to check out Boston’s best, switching the channel from the MASN St. Louis broadcast to CSN California, where the struggling Bosox were facing off against Oakland’s Brett Anderson, one of the best young pitchers in the game. The Red Sox have always had difficulties against Anderson and, as it turns out, last night was no different, as Anderson and the A’s shut down the Red Sox 5-0.

The difference in the game was Anderson — who threw eight complete innings of four hit ball, burying his curve and baffling Bosox hitters. Boston’s best flailed away, notching eight strike outs while Anderson walked one. The good news for Boston (if there is such a thing) is that its pitching was strong through seven, with John Lackey returning to form: he looked just fine in six complete, holding the White Elephants to a single run on four hits. But this might not have been the best night to give Hideki Okajima his first outing of the season; the just-returned Okajima threw batting practice to the A’s light hitting roster, and they lit him up (.2 innings, two hits, three runs — that’s a 40.50 ERA).

“It’s awful early,” Sox manager Terry Francona said after the game. “It’s a small sample, but their guy just pitched a great game tonight. They’re a hot staff right now.” Well, it’s not that early — and while the Sox are hardly out of it in the A.L. East (and yeah, there’s still a long way to go), their best hitters are struggling (the team is 10th of 14 in the A.L.), and their pitching is nowhere to be seen (they’re dead last in the A.L. in team ERA). You can see their struggles in their eyes: Carl Crawford looks like he’s been hit with a shovel, and Kevin Youkilis shakes his head after nearly every poor inning.

So here’s the question: is it that Brett Anderson was that good — or that Boston just can’t get on track? For Francona, the glass is still half full: don’t worry, Boston is recovering from its early season woes (he says), they just ran into a tough young pitcher. But for Boston fans, that reassuring message is getting harder and harder to believe. Anderson is only the beginning. The A’s have the best young staff in the game (Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, reclamation project Brandon McCarthy — oh, and Dallas Braden and his temporary replacement, Tyson Ross) and Boston is 0-7 on the road. It might not seem likely, but it’s possible that Boston will emerge from the caverns of the Oakland Coliseum with a record of 5-13. In which case, it’ll be damned hard for the Back Bay faithful to do anything but panic.

If the Washington Nationals were to play 162 games against the Atlanta Braves they might have a shot at a division title. The Nats dominance of the Tomahawks continued on Sunday, as Livan Hernandez (aided by a clutch single in the 7th from rookie shortstop Ian Desmond), won the second game of a three game tilt against the Braves — and notched their tenth win in 18 tries against the Atlanta Nine. The Braves must think they’re snake bit: the Nationals have dominated the Braves in 2010, the only team they seem to play well against. Hernandez was his normal masterful self in throwing six innings of two run baseball — though he left the game tied. His ERA now stands at a respectable 3.73 for the season, as he solidified his 2010 legacy as the best starter on a shaky Nats’ staff. Desmond’s hit in the seventh was the difference, scoring Willie Harris and Danny Espinosa.

Past A Diving Scutaro: The Red Sox-Yankees match-up in New York last night was a classic example of late season drama, as well as a kind of petri dish for what ails The Nation. The game seemed well in hand for Boston until the ninth, the result of an unusually strong start from the normally shaky Daisuke Matsuzaka, who gave the Bosox eight innings of four hit ball. This was not only Dice-K’s best season outing, it might well have been the best performance of his career. True: the former Saitama Seibu Lions star (btw: the Lions were saved from bankruptcy by Boston bucks shelled out for a look-see at Dice-K) had help from the otherwise brilliant Mariano Rivera in the top of the 9th. The normally shut-the-door closer collapsed against a patient Boston line-up, who victimized the Yanks with dink and dunk singles and four steals. The Red Sox plated two runs and went into the last half-frame with a 3-2 lead. When the wind whipped up and it began to rain, Yankees fans streamed from the park — the game was over, finished, lost.

Drum roll: In ambled Jonathan Papelbon to shut down the Yankees line-up in the ninth. It’s not like the Steinbrenners were shaking in their boots: you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and you don’t need a scouting report to tell you to sit on Johnny’s splitter. Which is precisely what the batsmen for The Empire did, vengefully dinking and dunking the closer’s right-down-Broadway fastballs and happily banking his not-even-close free passes . . . and knotting the game at 3. Here was Papelbon’s no account (I-wish-my-splitter-actually-worked) line: single (Swisher), single (Teixeira), steal (Nunez), walk (Rodriguez) and single — Robinson Cano. With the game actually on the line, Papelbon threw like Dick Raditz, inducing a Posada strike out and Berkman fly. Too late.

When the Red Sox went quietly in the 10th, the game’s result seemed fated. “Francoma” had seen enough of Papelbon, and brought in Hideki Okajima (the pride of Kyoto) to face the Yanks in the 10th — inducing metaphorical teeth gnashing in the rain-soaked northeast. But the Red Sox made it interesting: after Curtis Granderson reached on a single, Brett Gardner bunted him over — and was safe at first. Granderson then took third on a throwing error steal (never mind, that’s five steals in just 1.5 innings!) and Okijima intentionally walked Jeter, loading the bases. It was a wise move. Marcus Thames grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Granderson thrown out at the plate. While the bases were still loaded, Okijima was sitting pretty. The Yanks were through the heart of their line-up, the game was still tied, and Hadeki was staring in at . . . ah . . . ah . . . Juan Miranda. You know — the .222 minor league prospect no-bat lots-of-speed Juan Miranda. So, with Gardner, Jeter and Thames dancing off the bases, what did Okajima do with Miranda?

He walked him.

(below: Juan Miranda mobbed by teammates after his walk-off walk)

Diamond Nuggets for 3/07/10

Spit and Vinegar:  Grizzled veteran Jamie Moyer is in Phillies camp this spring after three surgeries since the end of last season. The 47 year old went under the knife to repair three torn muscles in his groin and abdomen – injured in a late September relief outing. The $8 million man will join just 14 other players to compete in four decades. Moyer began his career in 1986 with the same Cubbies team that featured Ryne Sandberg and Ron Cey. To give some indication of his toughness, assuming an average 100 pitches per start (since I’m not counting some 60 relief appearances), Moyer has thrown 60,000-plus pitches in his career. 

Trivia Time: Which of Moyer’s teammates on that 1986 club went on to win two World Series Championships with another team?   

Swing and Miss? In the bottom of the second inning of a Cincinnati/Cleveland pre season game on Friday Redlegs right fielder Jay Bruce was called for a swinging third strike. Ordinarily that shouldn’t be a cause of dispute but Bruce’s wrists never broke and his hands hadn’t gone through the plane of the plate. But his bat did. In Bruce’s attempt to check his swing his bat broke in half and the top portion missed the pitch for strike three.  Bruce is a big kid, but I gotta believe it was the narrow bat handle that was the culprit. 

Say What? I guess the good ol days of players coining a phrase like “hit ‘em where they ain’t” or “give him some chin music” are long gone. The players are better educated than they’ve ever been and maybe the game’s gotten too sophisticated – or we have. But things may have hit a new low this week when a term best associated with Hegelian philosophy crept into the baseball lexicon. In response to a question about the growing trend of veteran players vying for a job as non-roster invitees outfielder Cory Sullivan told a USA Today scribe that it’s just part of the business now.  “It’s the zeitgeist of baseball,” he said.  Where’s Tom Hanks when you need him? 

“There’s no zeitgeist in baseball!”

Trivia Answer: Which of Moyer’s teammates on that 1986 club went on to win two World Series Championships with another team? Terry Francona, manager of the 2004 and 2007 Boston Red Sox. C’mon. You knew there’d be one Red Sox reference here didn’t you?

Centerfield Gate writer DWilly, a member of the Fenway faithful (but ardent Nats supporter), weighs in on the woes of “the Nation” — despite their win Saturday vs. the Yankees.

So . . . here’s the question: what happened to the Red Sox? I have two answers. First, too many of their regulars got old in a hurry and, second — their highly touted starting pitching was a mile wide, but an inch deep.

At this point, the Red Hose have only four everyday players they can count on – Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and the newly added Victor Martinez. The team hasn’t had consistent play at shortstop since they let Orlando Cabrera walk after the ’04 season. At third base, Mike Lowell is game, but his hip could give out at any moment. Oh, and don’t forget, J.D. “Nancy” Drew came in third in a recent Sports Illustrated list of “which player gets the least out of the most talent.” (He was tied with Elijah Dukes.) Jason Varitek is running on empty. It was painful to listen to last Saturday night’s game vs. Texas when the Rangers stole eight bases. None of Varitek’s throws was even close. Jason Bay had a great first half before going into a prolonged funk. Sure, he’s picked it up a little recently, but he’s still only hitting .255. And then there’s Big Papi. I don’t know whether he’s part of the Dominican tradition of fudging your birth certificate, but he looks a lot older than 33.

Meanwhile, the Sox starting pitching is painfully thin. Brad Penny has won once in his last 11 starts and seems headed for assignment when Tim Wakefield returns on Wednesday. Dice-K is still in rehab, and Junichi Tazawa is unproven. A better bet at this stage may be to ask one of the stellar relievers (like Manny Delcarmen), to go 5 innings every five days and let the bullpen do the rest. Picking up Billy Wagner should help.

It's no use arguing: these are not your '04 or '07 Red Sox

The tell-tale sign for me that the team’s purported deep pitching staff was really more of mirage came in the days after the July 31 trading deadline. It was reported that Theo Epstein gave the Mariners a list of eight top prospects and told them to pick five in a bid for Felix Hernandez. On that list were Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard and Michael Bowden.  At 22, Bowden has had a mediocre season in AAA and his trade value took a dive with last night’s 2-inning stint vs. the NY Junkees (8 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs). Bard, with his 100 mile-an-hour heater, could be the team’s next closer if they don’t re-sign Papelbon next year. Meanwhile Buchholz, after a pathetic game in Baltimore when he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings, has looked good in the last three starts, particularly his last one when he bested Roy Halladay in Toronto. If the season ended tomorrow, Buchholz would be the third starter in the playoffs after Beckett and Lester. That said, the Mariners’ response to Theo’s offer might have been predicted: they took a pass.

I don’t want to say the Sox won’t make the playoffs. Texas is good, but the Rangers lack a top-line starter. Tampa Bay scares me the most. The Rays are three games behind the Sox in the wild card chase. Boston and Tampa Bay square off six times in the first two weeks of September. It will be a key series and might well determine the season for the Fenway faithful. Sox fans know their team will probably make the playoffs. But they also know that this year’s team is not the same as the one that triumphed in the ’04 and 07 world series. There are just too many holes.