Sunday, August 13, 2006
Nationals win and Lose since my last entry
Interesting, anyone watch the replays of the game on MASN? As I started to write this blog, I turned on the tv to be background noise and lo and behold there's the game. I believe it was 4-1 when I started, and it is now 4-4. Do you think the Nationals will somehow win this time? Want to make a small bet?
Friday
Right, the games. On Friday Billy Traber pitched a great 7 inning (and 1 8th inning batter), and gave up just 1 earned run off of 4 hits (1 hr) and zero walks (and 2 SO), dropping his ERA to 5.14 from 9.00. Rauch continues to shine in the set-up role (at this point, he is too good of a relief pitcher to now go back to starting, unlike, say, Jason Bergmann), and pitched 1 great inning. Cordero pitched the 9th, and while it had a slight excitment from a walk being given up, as normal, Cordero still picked up his 21st save (the as normal part is about the walk, not the save).
Let's see, highlights from Friday's game: Escobar SB (2nd of year); Kearns CS (4th), error by Lopez (21st), pick-off by Traber; doubles by Schneider (11) and Zimmerman (36); RBI by Schneider 2 (37; who also left 2 runners on base); Traber entered with a batting average of .333 and ended the game with a batting average of .167. Considering that Schneider had the most hits and drove in the two Nationals runs, the case can be made to make him the player of the game; but the Nationals would not have been in position to win off of just 2 runs without the great pitching of Traber.
Last night's game is distracting me, so I'll end my talk of this Friday's game. First, though, I'll provide some links: Nationals.com box score; Met's fan blog - much better use of my photos (which reminds me that I probably should include something more about the Negro Leagues Tribute Night - probably need to turn off the losing game, really distracting).
- Friday's game was between the New York Cubans (Mets) and the Homestead Grays (Nationals).
Former Negro League players turned up:
and 1 of the three women that pitched in the Negro leagues threw out the first cermonial pitch:
Meanwhile, the Nationals played in the Gray's jersey's, and Billy Traber made his third start of the season (first: April 20th, second: April 25th):
Traber got lead-off Reyes out, which is a good thing, because the second batter he faced, Lo Duca hit a home-run:
- that 1 run home-run was the total offense for the Cubans/Mets (at least run scoring).
Glavine pitched for the Cubans/Mets:
. Glavine entered the game with a 12-4 record, but picked up his 5th loss of the season after this game. He gave up 2 runs, in 6 innings, off of 7 hits and 1 walk (and he also had 7 strike-outs).
As I mentioned, the Nationals won because of a 2 RBI hit by Schneider, well, here is Escobar - the second to score:
Some more things happened at the game, check out my photo set, and/or MissChatter's photo set on Flickr.com (includes a photo I should have gotten, but didn't think of until much later - thanks for stopping by MissChatter).
Saturday:
I had tickets for Saturday night, but I went to the zoo instead. Don't worry, my ticket was used.
- see the tongue sticking out? - that's the young Panda at the zoo.
I did get back to see the game, so my recap (and even if I hadn't, I've been rewatching the game while I wrote this blog - might have been a closer game if hitting a guy's shirt doesn't put that guy on base, and if the umps hadn't taken away one of Soriano's assists (runner out, called safe).
Nationals lose 6-4 to the Mets, today's game decides the series. Interesting - looked to see when they called up Bergmann, what do I see, Matos dropped from team, Bergmann recalled. That line had previosly only noted Matos unconditional release.
Right, so Bergmann. Bergmann made his second major league start (just looked, didn't realize he had a start in 2005), on Saturday. Bergmann pitched 5 innings, gave up 3 runs off of 4 hits, and 2 walks (while also striking-out 4). Bergmann faced 22 batters and threw 91 pitches (60 strikes).
Mets jumped out to early 3-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning (3 runs for the Mets in the 3rd and 1 run for the Nationals in the 4th), and added another run in the top of the sixth. That sixth inning run by the Mets was off of reliever Travis Hughes. Game over, right? 4-1 going into bottom of the sixth inning. But no - Nationals score 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. Unfortunately, that was all the runs the Nationals were able to pick up in the game, and unfortunately, the Mets were able to add 2 immediate runs in the top of the 7th. 8th and 9th innings basically didn't matter (other than great pitching by Rivera; need to start using him when the game is tied, instead of after game lost), Mets win 6-4.
Highlights: In 7th inning, Soriano threw out a base-runner, but the runner was incorrectly called safe. Game might have gone differently, but almost every team has wrong calls like this in their memory bank. Saturday's crowd: 42,507; Castro picks up his first hit as a National; Jackson again used as a PH, despite not being able to hit; Johnson hit his 18th home-run of the year, Soriano hits his 37th HR of the year. Lopez picks up 31st SB; constant talk on the TV broadcast about Preston Wilson being dropped by his team.
Total of 8 runners LOB in last two games (5 Friday; 3 Saturday).
Box score on Nationals.com.
Sunday: in a couple of hours, Mets series ends:
11-5, 5.03 RHP Steve Traschsel vs. 7-8, 5.04 RHP Tony Armas
A difference of 0.01 runs in the ERA of the pitchers?
Don't feel like doing original research this time, so:
Upcoming
Braves at RFK Monday-Thursday
Monday: LHP Chuck James (4-3, 4.69) vs. RHP Ramon Ortiz (9-9, 4.60)
Tuesday: RHP Lance Cormier (2-3, 6.12) vs. RHP Pedro Astacio (2-2, 5.56)
Wednesday: RHP John Smoltz (10-5, 3.41) vs. LHP Billy Traber (2-1, 5.14)
Thursday: RHP Kevin Barry (0-1, 7.71) vs. RHP Jason Bergmann (0-0, 7.62)
Friday
Right, the games. On Friday Billy Traber pitched a great 7 inning (and 1 8th inning batter), and gave up just 1 earned run off of 4 hits (1 hr) and zero walks (and 2 SO), dropping his ERA to 5.14 from 9.00. Rauch continues to shine in the set-up role (at this point, he is too good of a relief pitcher to now go back to starting, unlike, say, Jason Bergmann), and pitched 1 great inning. Cordero pitched the 9th, and while it had a slight excitment from a walk being given up, as normal, Cordero still picked up his 21st save (the as normal part is about the walk, not the save).
Let's see, highlights from Friday's game: Escobar SB (2nd of year); Kearns CS (4th), error by Lopez (21st), pick-off by Traber; doubles by Schneider (11) and Zimmerman (36); RBI by Schneider 2 (37; who also left 2 runners on base); Traber entered with a batting average of .333 and ended the game with a batting average of .167. Considering that Schneider had the most hits and drove in the two Nationals runs, the case can be made to make him the player of the game; but the Nationals would not have been in position to win off of just 2 runs without the great pitching of Traber.
Last night's game is distracting me, so I'll end my talk of this Friday's game. First, though, I'll provide some links: Nationals.com box score; Met's fan blog - much better use of my photos (which reminds me that I probably should include something more about the Negro Leagues Tribute Night - probably need to turn off the losing game, really distracting).
- Friday's game was between the New York Cubans (Mets) and the Homestead Grays (Nationals). Former Negro League players turned up:
and 1 of the three women that pitched in the Negro leagues threw out the first cermonial pitch:
Meanwhile, the Nationals played in the Gray's jersey's, and Billy Traber made his third start of the season (first: April 20th, second: April 25th):
Traber got lead-off Reyes out, which is a good thing, because the second batter he faced, Lo Duca hit a home-run:
- that 1 run home-run was the total offense for the Cubans/Mets (at least run scoring).Glavine pitched for the Cubans/Mets:
. Glavine entered the game with a 12-4 record, but picked up his 5th loss of the season after this game. He gave up 2 runs, in 6 innings, off of 7 hits and 1 walk (and he also had 7 strike-outs).As I mentioned, the Nationals won because of a 2 RBI hit by Schneider, well, here is Escobar - the second to score:
Some more things happened at the game, check out my photo set, and/or MissChatter's photo set on Flickr.com (includes a photo I should have gotten, but didn't think of until much later - thanks for stopping by MissChatter).
Saturday:
I had tickets for Saturday night, but I went to the zoo instead. Don't worry, my ticket was used.
- see the tongue sticking out? - that's the young Panda at the zoo.I did get back to see the game, so my recap (and even if I hadn't, I've been rewatching the game while I wrote this blog - might have been a closer game if hitting a guy's shirt doesn't put that guy on base, and if the umps hadn't taken away one of Soriano's assists (runner out, called safe).
Nationals lose 6-4 to the Mets, today's game decides the series. Interesting - looked to see when they called up Bergmann, what do I see, Matos dropped from team, Bergmann recalled. That line had previosly only noted Matos unconditional release.
Right, so Bergmann. Bergmann made his second major league start (just looked, didn't realize he had a start in 2005), on Saturday. Bergmann pitched 5 innings, gave up 3 runs off of 4 hits, and 2 walks (while also striking-out 4). Bergmann faced 22 batters and threw 91 pitches (60 strikes).
Mets jumped out to early 3-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning (3 runs for the Mets in the 3rd and 1 run for the Nationals in the 4th), and added another run in the top of the sixth. That sixth inning run by the Mets was off of reliever Travis Hughes. Game over, right? 4-1 going into bottom of the sixth inning. But no - Nationals score 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. Unfortunately, that was all the runs the Nationals were able to pick up in the game, and unfortunately, the Mets were able to add 2 immediate runs in the top of the 7th. 8th and 9th innings basically didn't matter (other than great pitching by Rivera; need to start using him when the game is tied, instead of after game lost), Mets win 6-4.
Highlights: In 7th inning, Soriano threw out a base-runner, but the runner was incorrectly called safe. Game might have gone differently, but almost every team has wrong calls like this in their memory bank. Saturday's crowd: 42,507; Castro picks up his first hit as a National; Jackson again used as a PH, despite not being able to hit; Johnson hit his 18th home-run of the year, Soriano hits his 37th HR of the year. Lopez picks up 31st SB; constant talk on the TV broadcast about Preston Wilson being dropped by his team.
Total of 8 runners LOB in last two games (5 Friday; 3 Saturday).
Box score on Nationals.com.
Sunday: in a couple of hours, Mets series ends:
11-5, 5.03 RHP Steve Traschsel vs. 7-8, 5.04 RHP Tony Armas
A difference of 0.01 runs in the ERA of the pitchers?
Don't feel like doing original research this time, so:
Scouting Report:- from Probable pitchers page.
His ERA is higher than 5.00. He hasn't completed the seventh inning in 11 starts, or the sixth in six of the 11. But when Trachsel pitches, the Mets usually win -- nine times in those 11 starts, to be exact. From June 9 through Tuesday night when he defeated the Padres at Shea, Trachsel won more games -- nine -- than any pitcher in the big leagues. What else need be said?
Armas hasn't won a game since July 23 and is looking to snap a personal three-games losing streak. In his last start, Armas frustrated manager Frank Robinson by continually falling behind in the count and having to throw 104 pitches -- only 59 of which were for strikes. Armas lasted six innings and gave up four runs -- two earned -- nine hits.
Upcoming
Braves at RFK Monday-Thursday
Monday: LHP Chuck James (4-3, 4.69) vs. RHP Ramon Ortiz (9-9, 4.60)
Tuesday: RHP Lance Cormier (2-3, 6.12) vs. RHP Pedro Astacio (2-2, 5.56)
Wednesday: RHP John Smoltz (10-5, 3.41) vs. LHP Billy Traber (2-1, 5.14)
Thursday: RHP Kevin Barry (0-1, 7.71) vs. RHP Jason Bergmann (0-0, 7.62)
