After the Rays intentionally walked Adam LaRoche before Danny Espinosa, Espinosa delivered the final blow in the sixth inning, breaking the tie. The Nationals went on to win the rubber game of the series 5-2.

The move to walk LaRoche in front of Espinosa made sense to the Rays. Espinosa hit the decisive double from the left side, where he’d only been hitting .188.

“I definitely take it personal in a sense that, I want to get ’em. I want to make them pay for what they’re doing.”

Gio Gonzalez struggled early, throwing 50 pitches over the first two innings but was able to pitch into the sixth inning and earned his ninth win. After Gonzalez left the game, Craig Stammen entered to pitch the seventh and issued a leadoff walk. After two walks, Johnson brought in reliever Michael Gonzalez.

Not to be outdone by Stammen, Gonzalez also issued a walk, thus loading the bases. Johnson then brought in Ryan Mattheus, who reached a full count before he was able to get the job done, striking out Will Rhymes with two outs to leave the Rays stranded.

» Continue reading “Nationals have last laugh; take 2 of 3 from Rays”

Moore called out although replays show he was safe (via DC Sports Bog)

This was a big weekend for the Nationals. After winning six straight (by sweeping the Red Soxs and Blue Jays), the weekend series with the New York Yankees (who were also riding a six game winning streak entering the series) were going to be a test for both first place teams. The Nationals didn’t finish with their desired result, getting swept in the three games by the New York Yankees and losing 4-1 today.

It’s not that the Nationals didn’t play competitive or at a lower level than they had previously. Despite each of the weekend starters not giving up many runs, the offense was unable to score runners or to take advantage of opportunities. There was also defensive miscues and poor reliever performances that also contributed to the losses. (Granted a missed call did factor into Saturday’s game, costing the Nationals the win and turning the game into an extra innings marathon.)

Plus, there’s the added worry of Ryan Zimmerman‘s prolonged offensive slump. The third baseman is now hitting .229 and went 0-13 with two strikeouts, one walk and no RBIs in the weekend series. (Davey just wants to get Zim in “a happy place.”)

» Continue reading “Father’s Day Notes”

This season Rodriguez has a 75% save percentage.

Through 3 blown saves, Davey Johnson has stood by Henry Rodriguez as closer. But, after things got a little too interesting last night, Johnson is now considering changing things around. In the 2-1 win the Phillies last night, Rodriguez allowed the tying and winning runners to reach scoring positions. He also threw two wild pitches in a 1/3 of an inning. (Rodriguez has 8 wild pitches this year.)

So far this year, Rodriguez has been somewhat of a Jekyll & Hyde act, being inconsistent with a lack of control. Last night Sean Burnett was able to bail Henry out, but now Johnson is forced to rely more on the bullpen. Closer Drew Storen is out until the All-Star break (at least) and Brad Lidge still a few weeks removed from returning. Also today there was even more unfortunate injury news with Ryan Mattheus being placed on the disabled list (foot). Davey Johnson doesn’t have many more candidates to chose from.

» Continue reading “A team’s gotta have options”

No, the Nationals do not currently have Katy Perry in their possession. If that’s the impression you got, sorry about that. The closest they’ve gotten to the pop superstar is with reliever Ryan Mattheus. It’s not that Mattheus knows Perry personally or through six degrees of separation (or not to our knowledge, anyways). Rather, Mattheus has gone the non-traditional route with his walk-out song, choosing Katy Perry’s song “Firework” as his entrance music.

That’s a far cry from Tyler Clippard’s entrance to “Ready or Not” by the Fugees or Drew Storen’s entrance to “Bad Company” last season.

Mattheus initially chose Katy Perry’s AT 4o song as a joke with teammate Cory Van Allen when he was in Double-A Harrisburg. “It was early in the year, so neither of us had a walk-out song yet. I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m just gonna do this. Katy Perry.’ And it was kind of fun, kind of a joke. And then I got (to the majors), and I had had success using it, so I was like, ‘I gotta do it.’”

The thing is, although Mattheus chose the song as a joke (he still wasn’t sure how people would react to him jogging out to Perry crooning “Baby you’re a firewooorrrkkk, come on let your colooorrss burst…”) but little did he know how successful choosing the song would actually be for him.

» Continue reading “Reasons to keep Katy Perry”

Happy Leap Day! Hopefully the Nats will LEAP into some Spring Training success this weekend (my fingers totally made that awful pun on their own).  It’s a lot of hurry up and wait until then, but where there’s baseball, there’s news.  Leggo!

-Apparently its unlucky if you’re a young Nats pitcher and DON’T have Tommy John surgery.  Sammy Solis will join the TJ club with Strasburg and Zimmermann soon. [Federal Baseball]

-Ian Desmond has shed a few pounds, but he’ll have to really step up to shed those expectations in 2012. [Comak]

-Possibly the most devastating news in a while: Bryce Harper is off Twitter. The Nationals are such fun-suckers. [Nats Enquirer]

-Everything involving Adam LaRoche’s recovery seems to be going well and right on schedule. [District on Deck]

-Ah, the enigma that is Ryan Mattheus.  He has the talent to be a permanent bullpen presence, but will he be able to string together enough performances to earn it? [Nats Journal]