Oleanders and Morning Glories

MLB Headlines

MVN - a Washington Nationals blog

Home
Friends

Don’t Panic! You’re just on fire.

By Harper Gordek | April 4th, 2007

E-mail | Print | Share

Ouch. That wasn’t nice. Not only was it the team’s second loss, it marks 18 consecutive innings to start the season where the Nats have been behind. This isn’t a team made to play catch-up (or catch-me for that matter. I’m not sure what it’s made for)

At first glance you’d say the pitching stunk, but that would be unfair to the Hill on the Hill.

Shawn Hill, Inning 1: 36 pitches, 1HBP, 1BB, 1K, 2H 4R

Shawn Hill, Innings 2-5: 44 pithces, 0BB, 3K, 3H, 1R

It was really a decent outing ruined by some shoddy defense and Shawn’s inability to wiggle out of the jam., even with the double play ball. The relief core again had a bunch of disappointments and one bright spot. Monday Colome was the ok guy, yesterday it was Rauch. Ray King particularly, worries me. He pitched ok last year, but didn’t really earn his spot in Spring. He was more given a role in the bullpen. To me he’s the most likely ‘07 Osuna.

The bullpen is going to have its bad days and its good ones. That’s just how bullpens are generally. The bigger problem is the offense. Even after two games it’s gotten notice. As it has been floated out there (here’s Chris talking about it after the Dontrelle game) we’re not going to do well against lefties, and it’s only been two games. Still I can’t help but worry, given that I think the offense will underperform, due to Nick being out and the Nats decided lack of power. 2 games, 4XBH, no HRs. Not a great start.

Matt Chico goes tonight. The Nats have lost because of poor pitching and have lost because of defense, is tonight the night where the loss is clearly caused by the offense? A 2-0 pitching duel? At least, we can hope for the Nats to not be losing at one point this season. No runs in the top of the first Chico!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.