Seven is considered a lucky number by some. Too bad it’s also the number of losses the Nats have had in the last seven games. There were some highlights tonight, just not enough of them. Ronnie Belliard got the offense moving with a solo shot in the bottom of the 3rd and Odalis Perez looked much better tonight than he did against the Cardinals. Tonight Perez pitched 5 scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the 6th.
Saul Rivera came in during the 6th inning and while I was watching him struggle with his pitches, I started to wonder what happened to our rock solid bullpen from just one year ago. Fortunately, Saul got out of the inning and threw a solid 7th inning to keep the Nats in the game. Ayala entered the game in the 8th, but couldn’t hold Marlins. Helms scored the only 8th inning run for the Marlins on a Jorge Cantu single.
Rauch came out to pitch the 9th, but like Ayala, he too gave up a run. The boys came out fighting in the 9th though. Milledge got things started with a double. Johnson came up after Zims fly out. He hit a monsterous ball that almost surely was a home run, but Willingham made a spectacular play and knocked the ball back into play. Luckily he couldn’t make the catch and Lastings scored to bring the Nationals within one. However, Lo Duca couldn’t deliver and grounded into a double play.
Maybe I’m confused, but I thought that part of reason for signing Lo Duca was for his offensive power. Schneider is currently batting .296, while Lo Duca is hitting .233. In the bottom of the 8th, Paul Lo Duca got lucky again by a lack of communication with Florida’s outfielders. What should have been a routine fly ball, turned into a double for Lo Duca when the Marlins dropped the ball. The same thing happened Tuesday night. Yes, he did get to second base, but in my mind I can’t consider those hits legitimate doubles. Unfortunately, Lo Duca wasn’t so lucky in the 9th and he hit into the game ending double play, leaving Johnson, the tying run, on second. It was a tough end to what seemed like a promising rally.
The attendance was again noticeably low. Unlike previous nights, there weren’t any NCAA championships to keep fans at home, and none of the other DC teams were playing. I’m interested to see what the Nationals have to say about the lack of attendance. Also it was an absolutely gorgeous night to spend at the ballpark. With a game time temperature of 70, it was great baseball weather. Given the fact that the Nats are playing in a beautiful, brand new park, there is really no reason the stadium should be so empty…winning record or not.
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April 11th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Yea we all think that Lo Duca is an $ss and probably wasn’t the best use of $5 million dollar but I think you need to lay off how much better Schneider is doing offensively. You are dealing with a 10 game sample size. I don’t think Lo Duca is going to produce like he has in the past but let’s wait at least til the end of may to declare that Schneider is an offensive machine compared to Lo Duca.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I think it’s easy to forget that Lastings was the reward for Schneider’s depature and I still do think Lastings will be worth that trade. But because in the end we basically swapped our defensive catcher with TOAST for offensive production, we’re going to be watching TOAST’s offensive production closely. I don’t doubt that Schneider will have another mediocre season and I expect PLoD will be mediocre, at best, as well. It’s just — don’t sell this waist of 5 million dollars as the answer to all our offensive problems. If there’s no offense (and you can bet there’s not going to be a lot of defense), then let the kid (Flores) learn and platoon with one of the vet catchers.