Nats Try to Salvage Season against Royals

On Monday, the Nationals took a big step in the right direction. First, by breaking a 6 game losing streak. Second, by scoring enough runs... 2... to land a starter a win whose name isn't Stephen Strasburg. The last time the Nats got a win that wasn't started by Strasburg was 10 days ago from Livan Hernandez.

To take it a bit further: The last Washington Nationals starter to get a win that isn't named Strasburg or Hernandez was on May 31st. 20 games ago. That was Luis Atilano. Unfortunately, this has become the problem with starting pitchers over the last month or so. The Nats simply can't score enough runs to win, even when their starters give them a quality outing.

Well, Monday night the 2 runs were enough to take out the abysmal Royals. Although the Royals are 17-19 in their last 36. I don't think we even want to discuss what the Nats record is over that time frame. (The answer is 12-24... yea... ouch.)

The Nats look for a sweep of this series to get their derailed season back on track. Not on track for the wild card, or the division, but for respectability. They'll have to do so on Tuesday on the remarkable 5-4 record of Luis Atilano and hits unsavory 4.77 ERA. The Nats will face Royals RHP Anthony Lerew for the win. Lerew has only 15 games of MLB experience since 2005, and it will be only his 2nd start on the year. If there is a day for the Nats bats to wake up, it must be Tuesday against this greenhorn starter.

The Nats have a 4:35 pm start from Strasburg on Wednesday, and hopefully that can end this series with a 3 game winning streak to take the trip to Baltimore for a 3 game series against the MLB worse Orioles (19-50). Last year on this date, the Nationals were 21-47, so yes, the Orioles are on pace to be worse than the Nats were last year. Take THAT Peter Angelos... Oh, what's that? You're making money on the Nationals success this year? Damn.

Game 27: Frustration and a Riggleman Error

Sorry for the extended delay between this post and last night's game. This blogger was coming off of a bad day at work, followed by a Philadelphia Flyers loss to put them down 3-0 to the Bruins, and a Nats near comeback win, with eventual disappointing loss to the Braves. I was in no place to blog without anger and rants. Let's go for it now, however.

The Luis Atilano and the Nats took on Tommy Hanson and the Braves for the 2nd of 3 in this series. I predicted weeks ago that Atilano would eventually have a disappointing night, because he's 24 years old and has only had 3 MLB starts. Well that night was last night. He threw 98 pitches in 5 1/3 innings, but he never got into a groove. He got out of a brief jam in the first, but after that he gave up runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th innings, and put 2 men on in the 6th before getting yanked by Manager Jim Riggleman. Sean Burnett replaced him and, to no real fault of his own with 2 men on with only 1 out and facing the top of the order, gave up an RBI hit and a sacrifice grounder to short stop. But when he left, the score was 4-4 and although those two runners on base were credited to Atilano, giving him 6 earned runs on the night, the Nats saved him in the 8th.

In the 8th, Desmond singled on an error and then Bernadina crushed a double for a runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out for pinch hitter Josh Willingham. The Hammer singled to left field and scored both Ian and Bernie to tie the game. In comes Matt Capps in the 9th for an inning, right? Wrong. In comes Matt Capps for an inning in the 9th, and then back for the 10th. This is where I question the Manager.

Jim Riggleman has done a brilliant job managing this club this year. He's always innings ahead of the game in his decisions and double switches, he uses his bench, and doesn't overuse his bullpen beyond what he needs to do. I understand bringing Capps in in the 9th to try and hold onto the game, although I think he would have been more useful once the club got a lead, because that's... his job. But I digress, Riggleman made a mistake last night. He doesn't make many, but this was a big, fat, massive one.

Riggs brought in his closer to pitch 2 innings, which is 1 inning beyond what Capps should have pitched in this situation. Cappy was 11 for 11 in saves this season and just came of receiving the Delivery Man of the Month for April. Now, Capps has a 1 in the L column, and for a closer, his mentality to pitching could now change. He's no longer perfect, and that tends to affect closers in a very negative way. This club hasn't had a real closer since Cordero in 2007, and you can't take advantage of when when you get him. So Riggs, you've been a great manager all year, but you've made your first mistake. Learn from it, and don't make it again.

Bob Uecker & Analyzing the Current Nats Starters

I'm going to start this blog with the sincere comment of the day. Bob Uecker is going in for heart surgery today to repair a damaged aeortic valve. This condition is serious and may require a follow up procedure. Uecker will miss at least 3 months, but probably more. My thoughts are with Bob Uecker and his family, including the Milwaukee Brewers family. Uecker has been the radio guy for the Brewers for 40 years this season, and is one of the broadcasting faces of baseball. Brewers games won't be the same without his play-by-play. I may just make a point of watching "Major League" this weekend.

Now, back to the Nats:

It recently came across the wires that the Nats are going to shuffle up their starters a bit to spread out our two lefties in the order. Previously, Olsen had been 5th in the rotation, and Lannan 1st. Making back to back lefties in the rotation. Now Olsen has switched with Stammen after the off-day to put some distance between them. So now the rotation officially is:

1. John Lannan (LHP; 1-1; 5.53 ERA; 10 Ks)
2. Luis Atilano (RHP; 2-0; 2.25 ERA; 2 Ks)
3. Livan Hernandez (RHP; 3-1; 0.87 ERA; 10 Ks)
4. Scott Olsen (LHP; 1-1; 6.14 ERA; 14 Ks)
5. Craig Stammen (RHP; 1-0; 6.75 ERA; 9 Ks)

If you would have told me 30 days ago, as the team was leaving spring training, that this rotation would be producing the way that it has, I would have had some nasty words for you for getting my hopes up about the return of real baseball to DC. And I would have been eating my words.

My offensive and defensive rundown was extensive yesterday, so I won't be quite as extensive with these guys, because I've been talking about most of them (Atilano, Hernandez, Stammen) all season. So read ahead for my thoughts, including the first Stephen Strasburg mention of my blogging campaign.

You may look at the rotation, and say "whaaaat? Atilano is number 2 in the rotation? Why not Livan?" Well, the answer is simple, really. Atilano is a placeholder for Marquis while he's on the DL with "loose bodies" in his elbow. Although, if Atilano keeps pitching like this, who knows. The likelihood of that seems low, however. Other teams are starting to get more tape on Luis with every start, and at some point sooner than later, he's going to get blow up in a start. It's inevitable. It's a matter of how he recovers after that. Does he go back to hitting his spots are just throw meatballs down the middle? Time will tell.

Lannan is having a... well... a year. Some people out in the Natosphere are speculating that he's hurt because he's not pitching his best. Missing some spots, etc. The problem with a guy like Lannan is that he's a Greg Maddux style pitcher. You may say, "What the heck, Capitol Baseball guy, how is being like Maddux a bad thing?" Well, Maddux is obviously one of the best pitchers of this generation. A member of the horrifying Braves trio that was Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine in their prime. But Maddux was the best of the best location pitchers. He wasn't going to overpower you, but he was always going to hit his spots. When he didn't, he got lit up. And Lannan is missing spots, and giving up more solid hits than we, and the team, have come to expect from him. In my amateur opinion, John isn't hurt, he's just missing spots. Only time will prove me right or wrong.

Bringing up Garrett Mock was the wrong call by Rizzo and Co. on the Opening Day roster. Give them credit, however, because they fixed it quickly. Turns out that Mock may have been hurt as well. Which leads me to this point: come on, pitchers! Communicate with your trainers -- I'm looking at you Garrett, Jason Marquis, and Ross Detwiler. I know you're trying to make a mark on the team, but you'll make more of one when you finally pitch healthy, and you won't hurt the team nearly as much. Olsen should have been up all along; no reason a guy making $1 million for a 1 year deal should start in AAA. If you're gonna make the investment, give the guy the chance at least. They did, and it's been the right call so far.

Livan and Atilano have been covered extensively here in other blog posts, so I'll refer you to the archives to hear my thoughts on them.

Enjoy game one against the Marlins from Sun Life Stadium where Olsen will take on Ricky Nolasco. Should be another great early season game.

Jim Bowden's Leather Pants & Carpenter's Jinx (Game 17)

Well, he did it again. I kid, I don't truly believe in the "jinx" concept. But, why tempt fate? You don't say "no-hitter" during a no-hitter. You never, ever do it. I'm looking at YOU Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. This time around, our buddy Bob Carpenter (who I do genuinely like, I'm just on a mini rant) decided to say "The Washington Nationals are in their 5th error free game." The next inning: error. The inning after that: error. Then, an error in the 7th. Baseball commentators now don't have the same respect for the unwritten rules of announcing that guys like Harry Kalas and the always under-the-influence Harry Caray. On a much funnier note, Carpenter caught former Nats infielder Ronnie Belliard singing to his bat in the clubhouse. Hearing Bob sing "I love you" was just priceless.

Now, to the actual game...
(As an aside, Jim Bowden should take a celebratory lap around XM Headquarters on his segway with the success of Atilano, Dunn, and Clippard this evening. Thanks to @AdamKilgoreWP on the Twitter for the inspiration.)

Luis Atilano looked good. Period. 6 IP, 1 run on 5 hits and 2 errors behind him. He also had a strikeout and ended with an 1.50 ERA in his first ever MLB game. He threw an incredible number of first pitch strikes, got a lot of ground ball outs, and got out of the few jams he got in with negligible damage. He even swung a good bat, making the opposing pitcher, Haeger, throw a lot more pitches than you'd generally like to throw to the opposing pitcher. This is exactly what you want to see from the guy who's probably going to be replacing your $7.5 million starter for at least a few weeks. My hat is off to Luis.

Adam Dunn's freezing cold HR streak is over, for his 2nd and 3rd home runs of the year. His first hit the TOP deck in right field. That, my friends, is a blast. His second (thank you, Jerry Crawford for the 2nd RBI on that homer) was a high drive to the Scoreboard Pavilion. His batting average is still a cool .204, but his on-base percentage is a sexy .386.

In one of the most bizarre baseball plays Capitol Baseball has ever seen, Willie Harris gets the epic fail of the evening. In the bottom of the 8th inning, with the bases loaded and 1 out, Willie Harris goes up hacking on a 3-0 pitch from a guy who couldn't hit the strike zone if it was the size of a blimp. He runs to first, and reaches safely on a fielder's choice force out at home. He then decides to walk off of the field of play, and into the dugout, violation of Rule 7.08 Subsec. J, and is called out. I don't have any idea what was going through Willie Harris' head, maybe he thought there were 3 outs? Maybe he thought... I don't even know. But it was boneheaded, and he certainly won't be getting the Silver Elvis wig this fortnight.

Finally, the quick rundown of other notables from Game 17:

• Tony Plush has twice as many triples (4) on the year as doubles (2), and one of each of those tonight. That's just... wow. The man is a sports car with legs.
• Tyler Clippard has turned into "Set-up Man Extraordinaire." He's the Nats wins leader (3-0), meaning he keeps the team in games to allow for big comebacks; he's appeared in 8 games, pitched 13 2/3 innings, has 2 holds, and 18 Ks. He's become the true rock of the bullpen early on.
• Pudge left the game early with lower back tightness. Hopefully it's nothing, otherwise, the Nats going to be really hurting behind the plate.
  

Stay tuned this weekend for the first post with images from Capitol Baseball's seats in Section 409.

Atila-no the Hun

Luis Atilano looks to command the mound tonight in his MLB debut like Attila led the Hunnic Empire in 440 AD: with brute force.

Atilano was drafted in 2003 by the Atlanta Braves , and has remained in the NL East ever since. Despite his propensity for injuries, the Braves before and the Nationals now, see major upside in this starting righty. And his start of the season in Syracuse, it's easy to see why. Atilano's 2-0 with an outstanding 1.64 ERA. Two runs in two starts ain't half bad, either.

That said, why am I not excited? I'll tell you why. It's Luis Atilano. He has looked great in the 'Cuse this year thus far, and was 2-0 in AAA last year, too. But we've seen time and time again that minor league success simply doesn't always translate to major league success. Now let me be clear, I am not saying that Atilano will be bad. It just is hard to gauge how good this kid guy will be until we see what he looks like against Manny Ramirez, Andre Ethier, and Matt Kemp, not the minor league's equivalent of Pete Orr. I'm excited for his outing, and you should be, too. Let's just be happy it's not the "hi I'm not hurt, oh actually, nevermind, I have loose bodies in my elbows" Jason Marquis.

UPDATE: Here's today's lineup. I hope that the Nats can get some offense from it to help out in Atilano's debut.

1. Tony Plush, 8
2. Adam Kennedy, 4
3. Cristian Guzman, 6
4. Adam Dunn, 3
5. Josh Willingham, 7
6. Pudge, 2
7. Willie Harris, 5
8. J. Max, 9
9. Luis Atilano, 1