Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Mets Nip Nats

Yesterday the Nats traveled to Port St. Lucie on what turned out to be a terrible day for the organization. Granted, that might be a little bit dramatic, but any day that sees injuries to a future HOFer (Pudge), the Face of the Franchise (Zim), and the up-and-coming 2B stud (Espi) is not a very good day in my book. Lets look at some of the highlights.

- On the offensive side, there really are no highlights to point out aside from LaRoche going 1 for 1 with 2 BBs. Should be mentioned that owners of the Nats hits were LaRoche, Bernadina, Marrero, Ankiel, Flores, and Espinosa.

- The Beat Writers extraordinaire provided great news when they said that Espinosa felt fine after that game and that he was just day-to-day, pending an X-ray. Lets just get the team healthy so that Opening Day 2011 can erase the memory of 2010's festivities.

- The Nats once again played an error-less game.

- On the bump, Tom Gorzelanny had a much improved outing his 2nd time out; posting 4 innings of 2 H, 1 ER ball. What is not yet improved is his strike-rate, he threw 65 pitches but only 36 of them for strikes; a stark contrast to the rest of the staff this spring. He also added 4 strikeouts, but 3 more walks giving him 6 BB and 5 K in his 2 outings.

- Worst Star of the Day goes to Craig Stammen, who did nothing to help his stock as a reliable bullpen arm. In just 1.2 IP, he gave up 3 runs, walking 1 and striking out 0, raising his ERA from a stellar 1.50 to a paltry 4.80. Not good for someone who is trying to be the long-man out of the pen.

- Henry Rodriguez gave up another run, but didn't walk anyone. Progress.

- #1 Star of the Day - Brian Broderick. The 24 year-old Rule 5 draftee continued his impressive spring by allowing just a walk in his 1 inning today. His spring totals are now 8.2 IP, 1.04 ERA, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K. I can definitely see Broderick starting the season in the Nats bullpen, keeping the righty away from his original team, the Red Birds.

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