The Daily Feed

Detwiler Solid As A Rock, Nats Beat Cubs 2-1

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
Win!
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

It was business as usual at Nats Park Monday afternoon when the Nationals faced the fifth place Chicago Cubs. Left-handed starter Ross Detwiler soared to his ninth victory of the season with a 2-1 win and held the Cubs scoreless during his seven innings pitched.

Detwiler gave up four hits while issuing three strike out and three walks over 93 pitches thrown (62 for strikes). His performance denied the Cubs run support but Chicago’s starter righter-hander Jeff Samardzija was playing it just the same. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Cardinals Offense Pounds Jordan Zimmermann, Nats Fall 10-9

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Jordan Zimmermann
courtesy of Keith Allison

It was a game the Nationals could have won. A four-run first inning made the team’s offensive efforts look solid. But a short outing from starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann helped this game fall into the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals lineup in a 10-9 loss.

Zimmermann lasted a total of three and one-third inning and gave up eight earned runs – the most of his career. His 93-pitch start also saw two hit batters and two homeruns from the Cardinals offense before he was replaced by reliever Craig Stammen in the fourth. Manager Davey Johnson indicated after the game that he’s not worried about Zimmermann’s shoulder or arm in general. He attributed this loss to being one of those games where it just gets away from the pitcher. According to Johnson, Zimmermann’s just as strong as ever. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Strasburg’s Sharp, Nats Beat Marlins 4-1

Photo courtesy of Mylar Bono
The Smoking Gun(ner)
courtesy of Mylar Bono

The plain and simple story of Sunday’s Nationals game versus Ozzie Guillen’s Miami Marlins is that right-handed starter Stephen Strasburg posted six innings of shutout baseball, allowing just three hits, in Washington’s eventual 4-1 victory.

Not only that, but Strasburg aided his effort by adding run-support. Strasburg’s single off Miami right-hander Rick Nolasco in the second inning drove in Jayson Werth for the Nats first run of the day.  Washington continued to score, having all nine batters in the line-up face Nolasco at the plate, by way of small ball. Continue reading

Sports Fix, The Features

Nationals stand pat at deadline, win 3-2

Photo courtesy of
‘Storen’
courtesy of ‘photopete’

As the 4pm deadline crept ever closer the questions about a potential trade with the Minnesota Twins for CF Denard Span were met with silence. No one was talking about the trade. As the clock struck four, not a positive thing had been said about the prospects of the trade for four hours. Storen would remain a National, and entered the game to an ovation from the crowd of 25,307 on hand.  Leading 2-1, Storen gave up a home run to Scott Hairston, his second of the day, to blow his fourth save this season. The Nationals went into the bottom of the ninth tied at two.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Bat Boy Lends Nationals Pitcher His Helmet

Photo courtesy of
‘bat boy’
courtesy of ‘a loves dc’

With certain colleagues around these parts, I have learned to “agree to disagree” during arguments about the existence of the DH in the American League. I fall into the, “I like entertaining baseball” category; some may fall into the other side of “We like when the ninth guy up bunts, it makes the game more pure. Double switches, that’s baseball!” Like I said, though, agree to disagree.

However, Drew Storen (that other major pitching prospect for the Washington Nationals not named Stephen Strasburg) may have given me some motivation to come around to the other side – an excuse to tag a post with the infamous “Natinals” monker. As Michael Tunison at the Sporting Blog passed along:

The second of the Nationals two 2009 first-round picks (who is only slightly less heralded than the first one, but still generating his share of anticipation) was looking for a batting helmet with ear flaps on each side…Starter John Lannan offered his, but the helmet wouldn’t fit Storen. As it so happened, the bat boy’s did.

No, it’s not a jersey mistake, but it’s still really quite entertaining – and that’s something we can all agree on.