MVN - Most Valuable Network

Backing Li’l d

Baseball is a funny game. Check that. Balderdash is a funny game… actually that’s not really that funny either. OK. Guess Who? is a funny game. There can be no disagreement about that.

Anyway the point is Odalis Perez had been defying expectations since his second start.  They weren’t great performances by any means, but like a 2005 vintage of Esteban Loaiza, he kept the team in the game while he was out there.  Over those 6 starts he kept the hits down (30 in 35 innings), the walks reasonable (13 - opponents has a .224 BA and a .307 OBP), and the strikeouts high (30).    For all that trouble Odalis had gotten a nice 2.78 ERA in games and a bit fat SQUA-DOOSH in the win column.    Last night Odalis had his worst game in a while, putting 13 men on base and giving up two bombs.  4 runs in 6 1/3 innings and it could have been a lot worse.  And of course, for this mediocre outing, Odalis picks up the W.  Good for him. 

The Nats offense didn’t quite “explode” the 10 runs were helped along by only 4 XBH (all doubles) and 7 walks.  But the Nats luck at the plate is starting to even out. 

April: .229 / .311 / .337 

May: .263 / .336 / .408

They aren’t really doing a better job of getting on base - that’s just the BA evening out after some bad luck in April.  They are hitting for more power though.  A quick look at the splits see no one in particular doing fantastic, Boone and Mackowiak being the hottest but seeing limited duty.  It’s just an overall shift back to average.  In April the Nats had 9, count ‘em 9 guys, hit .233 or below (with 20 ABs or more) .   Zimmerman, Kearns, Johnson Belliard, Wily Mo, Willie Harris, Estrada, LoDuca and Mackowiak.   In May they Nats only have 4 batting below that mark, Milledge, LoDuca, Belliard, and Dukes and only Milledge has seen “starter” time out  of this group.   This water is finding its level. 

Is it me or the Nats surprisingly realistic?  From Odalis about yesterday’s game

 ”It wasn’t the best way to get it,” Perez said. “I have been pitching so many good games. This is the first time that I’ve seen my offense helping me. But I’m happy I received the win. It was a battle.”

And LoDuca

Asked if he thought he would be traded if the Nationals were out of the race, Lo Duca said: “I don’t know. I doubt anybody would want to trade for somebody with 50 at-bats and has been hurt all year. I really couldn’t answer that. Depending how I come back and where we’re at from that point, I don’t see it.

While the Mets are bothered by cheering (well not the Mets as a team, just Figueroa who should be a Met for…oh about 1 or 2 more days)  

Tonight Lannan versus Maine.  Despite the impressive numbers Lannan isn’t a lights out pitcher.  He gets hit and puts men on base and doesn’t strike out all that many…for the most part.  The key is keeping those events strung out over the course of his outing and not giving up the big blast.  Lannan had his best game of the year against the Mets at Shea, 3 hits, 0 walks 11Ks (why I said for the most part.  In his other games he averages about 3 ks for 6 innings of work).   The Mets as a team though are slugging a lot better recently.  (.454 in May).  Let’s see if he can do it again.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 9:35 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.