Nats up, Cordero down
Liquor me up and call me Bowden! Cordero is injured! What was their first clue - the two weeks of low 80’s fastballs? Yes, yes in fact that was their first clue and they pretty much ignored that bloody knife in the hands of the murderer waiting for the baseball version of a confession, Cordero shouting “OW OW OW!” on the mound. Well, you got your man Nats! Cordero had to stop mid-batter in the 9th and he’s out. The Nats however are on a roll. Win. 4-1 in their last 5, 5-2 in their last 7.
It’s not the hitting doing it, although they have been not dreadful the past 7 games .246 / .325 / .351… wait… that is still pretty bad. Forget what I said. Yuk! P-tooie!
The pitching though is much better. A 3.43 ERA the past 7 games. 29 BB to 47 Ks. A reasonable 3 HRs given up. The starters espeically have been coming through. Only one bad game (I’m looking in your direction Matthew Lesko Chico) and when a team is kept in it, good things can happen. That was basically the philosophy of the 2005 First Half Nats.
Now with a pitching match-up that actually favors the Nats not only on paper, but in brief thoughts about the game, with Shawn Hill matching up against I believe Dan Jurgens (Oh no! Superman!). Win this and that’s a nice little streak to take into a 4-game Pirate series that you have to look at with the goal of taking 3 of 4. Then the Nats are 14-18 and pretty much exactly where they should be.
[If this happens please please please PLEASE do not start saying “since April 24th the Nats are…” as proof of the Nats talent level. Please. They are what they are INCLUDING the first 15% of the year. You can’t ignore that. You can’t. Please]
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3 Responses to “Nats up, Cordero down”
April 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I said before that they can’t keep winning at a 2-10 pace. Look it up in the archives. But I agree, just like the 2-10 streak wasn’t indicative of their actual talent, going 7-2 isn’t either.
14-18 sounds about right. Still, that’s not bad - just a turn of the wrist, or a bad hop and we’re .500. Consider - it was only 18 months ago that this team was going to lose 223 games in a single season.
Finaly points: I’m actually pretty estatic with 14-18. This team ISN’T hitting like it could and should. When that picks up, .500 isn’t unreasonable, me thinks. Also, its encouraging to see that its the PITCHING that’s doing the heavy lifting. Let’s be honest, its MUCH harder to find and raise good pitching. Its not as hard to find a power hitter. I’d much rather be winning with good pitching than hitting. Hitting you find, you can raise in the minors. Pitching is just so damn unpredictable.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Haper - quick question - I know this affects the Phils, and I wanted your take. Its chilly in April, and chilly means tight muscles and more dense air. Any chance the reason we aren’t hitting is weather/temp related and it will pick up (like the Phils usually do) when it turns warm?
May 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
It could be. VERY generally teams hit better outside of the first two months, but I’d be real hesitant to apply that to a specific team. You could get better information to apply to the Nats say…Baltimore/DC splits and weather records, to see if the time and area matter but I’d rather get specific to the 2008 Nats.
You can look at a few things
1) Are there any Nats known to be slow/fast starters
2) Are they any Nats performing outside reasonable expectations
3) are there any injury circumstances
for 1) there’s Zimmerman a slow starter - + on offense getting better
2) Kearns should get better, Guzman’s power should down. But outside of those two nothing is CRAZY wrong
offensive wash
3) Pena and Johnson are coming back from injury and should get better as the year progresses, same with Dukes. Johnson though (along with Young and LoDuca at his age and position) are injury risks. I’d say this one favors the offense getting better
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