Pointless Blowout Lists

Man, the Mets pitching blows. Mike Bacsik could probably be their #2 starter. I kid, I kid... well, sorta.

Anyway, Matt Chico started and won, and had one of the funkiest pitching lines you'll see: 5+ innings, ZERO strikeouts, 11 base runners and only 3 runs allowed. When I saw that, I immediately thought of Russ Ortiz. I checked it out at baseball-reference.com and Chico is the 35th pitcher since 2000 to win a game while striking out nobody and allowing that many base runners. And, as I suspected, Russ Ortiz was the last pitcher to do it. Chico himself did it earlier this year, just a few days before Ortiz, when he took down the Braves. (For what it's worth, Ortiz appears on the list three times, so Chico's well on his way to being a career mediocrity!)

The 13 runs scored by the Nats is one shy of the team record (DC version). You may recall the 14 runs they put up earlier this year against the Marlins, in a game they barely won. They've scored 12 runs 4 times, strangely, three of those times came this season. The '05 team maxed out at 11 runs a few times.

The 9-run victory is the third largest they've had. They pounded the Cardinals in August to the tune of 11 runs and beat Florida by 10 back in Sept. 05.

Since '05, this is the 31st time they've struck out 2 or fewer batters in a game. Not surprisingly, this is only the 8th win in those games. They beat Atlanta in '05 without striking a single batter out.

Ryan Langerhans continues his late-season surge to avoid futility. His improbable rapture-inducing homer increased his batting average to .166. That would give him the 21st worst batting average of all time -- just a point ahead of Don Zimmer -- for anyone with his 240+ plate appearances. He's a solid six points ahead of Ken Williams' 1988 season, the worst any outfielder has had in major league history.

Robert Fick (!!?!?) had another hit, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. With a hit in his next game, he'll have the third longest streak in Nats history. He's got a ways to go before he catches up to Ryan Zimmerman, who had 17.

A surprising win, for sure. They now have 70 wins, one fewer than they had last year. One measly win against the Mets of Phillies ties their record, and likely clinches a third-place finish for Manny Acta in Manager of the Year voting.

Shawn Hill's recent struggles weren't just his left shoulder; his right elbow has been barking, and he's having surgery to 'decompress' a nerve, similar to what John Patterson went through. Egads. Hill's arm history is about as scary as Patterson's and neither of them can really be counted on for 180 innings. With them, you take what you can get from them. I just hope this fixes it for Hill, instead of being one of these nebulous and constant arm problems like with Patterson. Next year's win/loss record needs it especially.

(I'd imagine the Nats would target a veteran arm or two, if only for innings-eating purposes, for next year, whether by minor league contract or by trading for someone -- to toss two stupid names out there: Padilla, Lowe -- who's on a contract that their team might be willing to part with)