The Agony And The Ecstasy

Sorry for the delay. Blogger is to the internet as Ramon Ortiz is to pitching....

After weekends like this, I'm always amazed at how fickle emotions can be. If the Nats had played last night's 3-1 loss on Friday, and if Friday's 7-3 game were played yesterday, we'd all feel a lot better today.

Friday night's game was tremendous. John Patterson and Alfonso Soriano were the stars, and both had Majority Whip caliber performances. But who does it go to?

John Patterson pitched into the 8th inning, and was dominant. He struck out eight batters, and controlled the game until a brain cramp in the eighth. After Brian McCann hit a one-out double, Tony Pena hit a hard grounder to Nick Johnson that pulled him far from the bag. Both he and John Patterson hesitated on what should've been a fairly routine 3-1 putout, and the runner was safe. An ensuing triple (and Mike Stanton relief appearance) erased the lead and Patterson's win. Had either Patterson or Johnson made the play (and I think NJ could've made it on his own), no runs would've scored.

Alfonso Soriano was nearly as dominant, but he, too, had a brain cramp, even as his third home run of the game sealed the win. All three homers came on fastballs, which were almost the last three fastballs he saw this series. (In last night's game, he got a steady diet of breaking balls and slop on the outside corner.) Soriano's homers were tremendous blasts, and the third one was an absolute monster, rising high over the deepest part of the gap to hit off the back wall -- one that he admired for a few moments before skipping into his tater trot.

But his brain cramp was especially costy. Before the Nats coughed up the lead, Soriano hit a one-out double and tried to steal third, pointlessly. He was thrown out by a mile. Think about the situation. Yes, you can score from third on an out, but is that worth the risk of an out and the loss of a runner? While Soriano's a tremendous base stealer, with Vidro, Johnson, and Guillen coming up, he's almost as likely to score from second as he is at third. When you steal third, you need to be successful something like 90% of the time, and that's assuming that the batters behind you are average. With better-than-average hitters, as was the case here, you need to be safe every time.

I love me some homers, but in the end, John Patterson gets the Whip. His brain cramp hurt, but I can't overlook how dominant he was before that. Soriano will have other days like this, even if they might not be as big, but it was John Patterson's dominance which forced Bobby Cox' hand. Had it been Ramon Ortiz throwing a shutout, do you think he would've pulled Smoltz so early, relying on his shaky pen?

Sunday's game was full of the same kinds of frustrations we had most of last season. Jose Guillen ripped a first-inning double way back into the right-center gap (when will he learn?) The Nats tried nursing that lead like it was a one-eyed kitten.

Gary Majewski earns a Lame Duck for his heartless kitten-killing performance. His one inning of relief turned a thrilling 1-0 win into a demoralizing 3-1 loss. (Why is it that there seem to be more Braves fans in DC than at Braves playoff games?)

It seems silly to say that someone with an ERA under 4 is shaky, but that's the sense I have. Majewski was almost criminally overused last season. Majewski started the year in the minors, and still pitched in 79 games and threw 86 innings. After Luis Ayala went down, Majewski was in the game seemingly every day, which can't be good for the ol' elbow. This season, he's been on an even greater pace: 94 games, 111 innings.

Despite a mid-90s fastball, Majewski's not much of a strikeout pitcher. He K'd 5.2 per 9 last year, and is in the mid-4s this season. He's gotten by because he doesn't walk many, and he doesn't allow ANY home runs. In those 86 innings last year, he allowed just TWO homers. In 14.2 this year, he's allowed just as many.

Is that a symptom of overwork? Is it just a statistical fluke early in the season? I hope it's the latter, and not the former.

Tony Armas had another effective outing, even as he didn't look too sharp. He was getting a ton of foul balls, which is always a bad sign with him. His velocity seemed down early, but as his velocity went up and the night got cooler, it seemed like he lost command of the pitches. Still, it's hard to argue with 6.1 shutout innings. The more I see him, the more I think Loaiza. He's not going to win us any games, but he's going to put us in a position where we CAN win the game more often than not.

Is it too early to wonder whether Zimmerman needs to spend some time in New Orleans figuring out how to recognize breaking pitches? Even if it is too early, you'd at least agree that he needs to be batting lower in the order, right?

Longtime readers know that I HATE HATE HATE the Intentional Walk (in 98% of cases), so it was especially agonizing seeing Bobby Cox do it twice, and have it work out both times!

The Nats have impressed me with their approach at the plate lately. For the most part, they seem to be waiting for a pitch to drive. Since it's essentially the same roster, I'm assuming that much of that is Mitchell Page's doing. Still, there are games, like last night's, that are agonizing to watch. John Thomson was on the ropes all night -- the Nats had 7 hits and 5 walks over his 6 innings of work, including 3 doubles, and could only score one!?

Even if you don't like the outcome, there's something slightly encouraging in that.