Nats Xtra reported quite a bit of positives from the game tonight. They talked about Zim’s great defense and the increased offense. As a fan, there were some things to get excited about, but it’s really hard to get too pumped when we still lose the game and we have a 5-15 record. We’re currently sitting 7.5 games out of first place, heck, we’re even 4.5 games out of 4th in the division. There was a lot of promise and optimism this off season, but it seems our new reality is that we are going to have to get excited about the little things this year and not base our excitement on wins…or else we are all bound for depression.

The game started off great for the Nats - they got on base with a chance to score! Calm down folks, they didn’t. Guzman got things started with a single and Nick Johnson drew a walk. Kearns came to the plate with 2 men on base and 2 outs. I honestly expected to see him ground into a fielders choice, but instead he hit a hard ball into right field. Unfortunately, Guzman was waved home and easily thrown out at the plate. Later in the game, Lopez would also be thrown out at home. Also, Aaron Boone was tossed out at second base on a single that he tried to turn into a double after Chipper Jones made an error.

Personally, I am so over having to sit back and watch these base running errors that are costing us valuable outs. Last time I checked, this is not the first year these guys have had to run the bases. I’m pretty sure base running has always been part of the game. Johnny and Ray discussed these issues and stated that the Nationals really have to be aggressive in their decision to send guys home because we haven’t had much of an offense. I can understand their point, but it doesn’t make watching these outs any easier. On the bright side,  I didn’t feel the need to throw anything at Lastings tonight due to base running issues. My TV is certainly appreciative of that.

On a seriously positive note, the Nationals got 10 hits off of Tim Hudson. Even though they weren’t able to produce many runs off of those hits, it is encouraging to see the offense pick up. Maybe those cries to fire Lenny Harris sparked a little fire in the guys and they realized someone could lose their job. Also, Matt Chico looked, well, he looked bad, but the bullpen finally started to look like the bullpen of ‘07. They gave up just one run in 4 innings of work and Chief looked better than he did against the Mets last week. John Lannan will get the ball tomorrow for the last game of this road trip. We’re certainly hoping that he has an outing similar to last Thursday!

It is clear from watching the Mets and Phillies tonight on ESPN that those teams are on a whole different level right now.  Only eight months ago, it was the Washington Nationals who helped to determine which of these two rivals would win the NL East.  The Nats tough play against the Mets in September and the fact that the guys embraced the spoiler role really made a difference last fall.  Fast forward eight months and here we are — watching Church rack up RBIs for the Mets.  The Phillies and the Mets both played tonight to win.  The rivalry is building.  The games matter to them.  No errors.  No stupid mistakes.  Clean baseball and lots of heart.

I guess you could say we play in a difficult division, but I’m tired of the rampant excuse-making.  We don’t have that one guy that sparkles - in the clubhouse, at the plate, on the field and on the basepaths.  No Ramirez, Rollins or Reyes, for us.  We don’t have Atlanta’s rotation, full of impeccable veterans that have proven their ability over time.  We don’t have a slugger like Howard or an RBI machine like Wright.  This is starting to sound like the lyrics of Heart — except, this year, we lack that too.

So, what do we have? Would you call it a class quad A team?  Perhaps, it’s not just that we’re losing games, dealing with injuries and trying to move around pieces that don’t work.  Maybe, we are a step below our competitors on every front.  We’re sure playing like it.

I’m a patient person and I can appreciate a plan to re-build from the ground up.  I have a hard time appreciating that plan when it’s executed inconsistently and I’m flat out tired of watching minor league ball at the major league level (and at major league ticket prices).

We’re mid-way through April and desperately in need of a major turnaround.  I don’t want to get down on one guy or the next because this team was assembled by the powers that be and sold as an offensive improvement over last year.

I’m still frustrated that starting pitching was called out as the only problem and that a starter was confronted sternly by his GM in front of the media and prompty sent to AAA as an example to others. 

Perhaps the bullpen will be next to experience the GM’s wrath.  The strongest component of last season and an element that remained untouched throughout the off-season continues to struggle to get us out of ballgames.  I suppose there’s enough blame for them too, but when you ask relievers to pitch in games where we can’t afford to give up even one run, every single game, you’re going to wear them down quickly. 

The larger problem is why we can’t score any runs, can’t get clutch hits and can’t string together a few base hits.  And don’t get too excited about turning this around anytime soon.  We face Hudson on Monday, Smoltz on Tuesday and Santana on Wednesday.  Sure looks like a fun week for Manny Acta.

Game Recap:  Lastings got caught stealing and lost a very consequential ball in the sun.  Austin hit a solo shot.  Rivera and Ayala both gave up home runs to Hanley Ramirez.  A wild pitch by Saul Rivera scored two Marlins runs.  It was close for most of the game, but it quickly turned ugly. 

Back to watching the professionals.

Wishing a happy birthday to Nats third base coach Tim Tolman.

The Nationals lost again last night to the Marlins 6-5. After leading for most of the game, they let the win slip away again with poor plate execution and silly fielding mistakes. The attitude of this team has changed this season. They aren’t the spunky, energetic, fighters we saw last year. With a 5-13 record, the worst in baseball still, and a team that isn’t hitting, when does an early season slump become a real problem? Zimmerman still says, “It’ll pass, and we’ll start winning, and everything will be fine.” That’s nice, but when Zimmy? There seems to be this complacency with losing, and a thinking that winning games will come eventually. It’d be better if winning could happen now and we got rid of this “wait and see” attitude.

The Nationals had numerous chances to win the game last night. Zimmerman was at the plate twice with runners in scoring position will less than two outs and failed both times to bring them in. He is now 1-23 with runners in scoring position, not a pretty stat when you are batting third. Austin Kearns continued to struggle also. Last night his at the plate slump carried over into right field where he missed a couple of catches he usually would have made. Kearns did come up with a big base hit in the ninth to tie the game, but those kind of hits from him are few and far between this season. Other silly mistakes cost the Nats chances also. Felipe Lopez, who is looking much better hitting lead off, had two errors at second last night. Additionally in a silly base running move, Cristian Guzman ran off second forgetting there was only one out, and cost the team another chance to score. Estrada also had an error on a throw to second. With his arm not back to full strength, the fact that he’s never really been able to throw out runners, we may be seeing a lot of E-2’s from him this season, especially in the NL East where we face Ramirez, Reyes and Rollins all the time.

Shawn Hill made his 2008 debut last night. Hill did pretty well until the sixth inning when he started to fall behind on the count, and gave up key base hits. It was nice to see Hill back on the mound. He cruised through the first five innings with little problem. Shawn said after the game that he didn’t feel any pain last night, and the discomfort he has isn’t something he can’t pitch through, so good news there. As usual though, Hill blamed himself for last night’s loss, “You got a 3-1 lead, I’m not going through the heart of the order at that point, I’ve got to do a better job of maintaining that lead.” Don’t beat yourself up too much Shawn, your teammates didn’t help you out much either.

I hope I see some better baseball this afternoon for the last game against the Marlins.

Prior to Thursday’s loss the Potomac Nationals were on a ten game winning streak. After attending Shawn Hill’s rehab start there a few weeks ago, we decided to make an effort to attend more games there this season. With the Nats in Miami, and as an attempt to look at some of the positives in the Nationals baseball organization, we decided to take a trip south to check out some of the Nats top prospects in action.

Every Friday is Ladies Night at Pfitzner Stadium. All ladies get in to the game for free and can also enter to win a bunch of great raffle prizes. They are doing things right at the single A club. Their energetic and helpful staff runs a lot of fun in game promotions. After tonight’s game they even had a band and a pitching machine. (Note – my fastball is not up to even high school standards, clocking in at a whopping 32 mph.)

We were treated to a great game. The Potomac guys beat the Wilmington Blue Rocks 6-1. Right handed 2007 draft pick Jordan Zimmermann was on the mound for the P-Nats. We had seen Jordan a bit during our spring training trip, but were excited to see some of his game stuff. So far this season, Jordan has allowed only one run in over 14 innings of work. He was impressive tonight also. Zimmermann threw five scoreless innings against the Blue Rocks. He allowed only three hits and recorded six strike outs. Jordan is currently 2-0 with a .061 ERA. Not too shabby. It was great to see him in action tonight.

Zimmermann was aided by his teammates’ offense. The P-Nats capitalized on an error in the first inning by Blue Rocks shortstop Chris McConnell, and had five consecutive hits, resulting in five unearned runs. Dee Brown added the final run with a solo homer in the third inning. We saw some great fielding also. First baseman Chris Marrero had some good plays, but also had an error in the 9th inning. Catcher Devin Ivany caught a few guys attempting to steal second.

We caught up with Jordan Zimmermann after the game and asked him a few questions about his pitches and his goals for this season…

Can you tell us a little bit about the pitches you like to throw? What are you working on?
Um I like to throw my fastball, and my slider, and I’m currently working on my curve-ball.

How was spring training? Did anything surprise you?
Actually I was down there for the instructional league last year, so I kinda knew what to expect, so when I went down there this year, it was pretty much the same thing.

Did you have fun?
Oh yeah, but it was a lot of work though, lots of early mornings.

Can you tell us a little bit about the day you were drafted?
Um actually me and my parents and my college coach, we watched the first round on TV at the school. We got to about number 50 and I knew I was getting pretty close, so I started getting nervous. I got up and started walking around the halls and hung out in one of the classroom areas. Then my agent called me and said hey you got picked up, number 67.

What did that feel like?
It was big relief. I was really excited. I just wanted to get going and start playing right away.

What are your goals this season? You said you were working on your curve-ball, anything else in particular?
I mean I kinda want to, well my main goal really is to end up at double A. So yeah that’s my biggest goal this season. Also while I’m here I just want to keep putting up zeros on the scoreboard.

Who did you look up to growing up did you have a favorite player or anything?
Um no not really…

Did you have a favorite team?
Yea a big Brewers fan, I love the Brewers. We used to go to lots of games.

Lastly, what worked for you tonight? You put up a lot of zeros. (Jordan pitched five shut out innings on Friday night)
Um my slider was pretty good tonight, I was locating it to the outside corners against the righties pretty well. Also kept the ball down to get the ground outs and the fly outs.

It was nice to see the up and comers in action. It also reminded us that there are some good things on the way, even if things look a little tough right now. Hey Barry told us to change up our routine. Friday’s game was the first we didn’t attend or watch on TV and they won! Hopefully that doesn’t mean we have to stay away all season.

It was about time!  We decided to skip watching or listening to the game all together (it’s been a rough two weeks) and instead drive south to watch the Potomac Nationals on this beautiful night in Virginia. 

Manny decided to shake things up too by rewarding Felipe Lopez’s patience and good attitude with two consecutive starts and the lead-off spot.  The move was an effort to jump start the offense — and it worked.  Lopez led off the first inning with a double.  Overall, he had a 3 for 5 night with 2 runs scored and a stolen base.  I really like this move.  If Felipe could keep this going, we could actually have a legitimate speedy lead-off guy.  Tonight was encouraging.

In general, the team finally seemed alive tonight.  Six runs on ten hits gave us the win –  3 came off of starter Andy Miller and another 3 off of reliever Justin Miller.  Felipe, Guzman, Zimmerman, Johnson, Estrada and Milledge all played key roles.  Finally, they were able to string together their hits and bring runners home.  Nice job guys.

Redding also had another fantastic night.  In six innings of work, he gave up 3 hits and 4 runs with 1 walk and 10 strike-outs.  Finally a pitcher has a great outing and actually gets the win to match. 

The lead was defended by a strong bullpen presence throughout the rest of the game.  Ayala gave up 1 hit in his 1 and 2/3rds innings.  Better yet, he threw 14 strikes in 18 pitches to retire 5 batters.  King and Rauch also pitched well and slammed the door shut on the Marlins to lock up a desperately needed Nats win.

In other great news, Paul Lo Duca has finally went on the Disabled List to make room for Shawn Hill, who is expected to start tomorrow night.  Lo Duca has been nursing a swollen hand for almost a week.  The move is retroactive to April 14.  Lo Duca predicts ten more days or so before he’s back.  No Lo Duca for the home-stand – it’s like a present.

And just a side note — the attendance for tonight’s game was a pathetic 13, 279. 

Congratulations to Chris from Capitol Punishment for being featured in this great story on Nats bloggers.  And – thanks to Marc Fisher and the Washington Post for recognizing and supporting the hard work of the dozens of Nats bloggers that love this team, even after 4-12 starts.

Congratulations Jim.  Your off-season moves, bragging and segway riding have produced the worst team in baseball.  Thirteen games.  Twelve losses.  The Nats are now 4-12 — the worst team in Major League Baseball.  After a two week downward spiral, all we have to blame is ”starting pitching.” Right, that’s it.

Lannan, you’ll note, struck out 11 batters and gave up only one run in 6 innings.  An excellent outing for one of our best young pitchers.

We got a whole lot of nothing from the lineup.  Nick Johnson’s home run put two runs on the board.  After that, a runner here or there, but not much to work with.  Kearns got caught in a rundown trying to steal 2nd.  You think Church or Schneider are calling our signs?  Victory came with Schneider at bat.  Hanrahan’s wild pitch ended the ball game.  Church and Schneider celebrated their victory.

So, how did it all fall apart after Lannan’s phenomenal start?  Rivera struggled a little, straightened himself out but then suffered a fatal Belliard error during his work.  Eventually, that run would score on Rauch - by none other than Ryan Church, who is hitting .340.  Ayala couldn’t get Wright out, but we’ll settle with the walk; it could have been worse.  Colome battled but pitched scoreless for two innings.  Ray King took the ball in the bottom of the twelth to give up a hit and a bunt hit.  On Church’s bunt, King got a lucky call and the force out at 3rd.  Joel Hanrahan came in to pitch to David Wright and got a double play ball.  He battled until the 14th and fell apart.  He had to intentionally walk Wright and Delgado.  You could almost just predict control problems to follow.  Sure enough, a wild pitch.  Mets win 3-2.

Defense was alright minus the critical Belliard error and a dropped ball by Pena.  Nieves, the recently called up backstop, threw a runner out at 2nd in the 11th inning.  How long’s it been since you’ve seen a Nats catcher TRY to throw out a runner?  To actually nail one? He didn’t hit at all, but he did draw a walk.  That’s still a dramatic defensive improvement over Toast and Estrada.

A good fight with extra innings and all but Lannan deserved the win tonight and got no help from his teamates.  “Frustrating” is in my vocabulary.  This blows.

Today, “two religions (Catholicism and baseball) collide.” - Express

I was fortunate enough to attend today’s Papal Mass at new Nationals Park.  It’s not terribly relevant to this blog, but you may find the photos enjoyable.   

Stan Kasten was there, checking things out around the park.  Metro did alright.  I’m not giving out gold stars or anything, but they moved the crowd of 46 thousand plus to and from the park without a total collapse.  It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t quick, but it worked.

Security was thorough, as expected.  Restroom and food lines were incredibly long.  It was pretty strange to see our baseball stadium morphed into a religious place.  Corporate signs were covered with American flags and plain colors.  The Red Porch and Red Loft were covered too.  The cherry blossoms in left field are beautiful right now. 

The ceremony was nice.  Did you know Placido Domingo was going to perform? I sure didn’t; what a treat.  He was phenomenal.

I heard rave reviews about the park from many people.  I got caught as an amateur tour guide for awhile after telling one person how to get to the Diamond Club.  As a line formed around me for questions, I ducked out of this duty and tried to dissapear quickly.

The Pope entered and exited through the dugout.  I can only hope this brings our guys some divine help.  They sure need it.  Don’t worry — the Pope Mobile drove past the bullpen too.  I may or may not have said a quiet prayer for Chief’s fastball to return. 

The lineup looked different, but the result was the same as usual. The Nationals fell to 4-11 after being unable to hold an early lead. Manny moved Belliard up to the #2 spot, while Milledge went down to the 5th spot, dropping Kearns to 6th.

Guzman got things started by drawing a walk and was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Zimmerman. Then Austin Kearns hit a solo home run in the 5th inning to give the Nats a one run lead. I heard Bob call the play on TV and I actually had to check the replay to make sure it was Austin. While it was great to see him finally hit, I have to wonder how many at bats will go by before we see another RBI from Kearns.

With Chico coming off such a fantastic outing against the Braves, I had high hopes that he would be able to hold the Mets. After giving up an early homer to Ryan Church, he kept the Mets scoreless until he was hit hard in the 5th inning. I’m not sure what the problem is this year, but the Nationals starters have continued to show a strong start, only to give it up with a huge inning for the opposition. This particular inning resulted in 4 earned runs for the Mets.

Chief came in during the 8th inning and had a questionable warm up with the pitch going in the dirt. The trainers and coaches came out, but he said he was okay to pitch. With the Nats down by 3, it seemed like a good decision to allow Chad to get some time on the field in a non-save situation. He got through the inning with just one hit, but his speed seemed to be suffering as he was consistently in the mid to upper 70s.

Even though Paul Lo Duca is too injured to swing a bat, the Nats are keeping him on the roster. The team chose to send reliever Chris Schroeder down to AAA to make room for a second, healthy, catcher on the roster. I was surprised to see the team called up Wil Nieves instead of Jesus Flores. However, the rules state that unless Flores would be replacing a disabled player, he has to remain in Columbus for 10 days. If Lo Duca goes on the DL, the Nats could really use the offensive spark that Flores can provide.

If things don’t pick up soon, I think that it’s really only a matter of time before we see some changes to this team. With all of the off season moves and promises that were made to fans about a stronger offense, it’s getting more difficult to sit back and watch these losses. To add salt to the wounds, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider are playing great baseball so far this season.