Week Commencing 6th August

As a Nats fan, I've seen this kind of situation far too often, where the rookie is replaced by another rookie. #64 Lucas Harrell is relieved by #65 Mickey Storey and he's facing Adam LaRoche first off and the Nats 1B misses out on a juicy hanging offering, popping up to Scott Moore.

Michael Morse took a big swing at strike one, then connected with the second pitch of his bat. That'll be on the ESPN homerun film tonight, off the third tier of advertising over Tal's Hill. 3-0 Nats. Storey reacts admirably, striking out Werth swinging then coaxing a comfortable flyout directly to RF to end the half-inning.

Bottom of the 6th is started by Altuve popping out to Lombardozzi on two pitchers and Gonzalez legging out an infield hit to Espinosa's left, beating the SS' throwing to LaRoche. That's a brutal changeup to Steve Pearce for strikeout #10 and Maxwell becomes ZNN's first 3 pitch K of the night, racking up number #11 of the game, equalling his MLB best.

Nats 3-0 Astros.

#63 Xavier Cedeno replaces #65 Mickey Storey, the lefty pitching Cedeno gives up a bloop single to Suzuki and here comes Tyler Moore, pinch hitting for Zimmermann, who's out after just 87 pitches over 7IP, 11Ks, 1BB. Cedeno uncorks a fine curveball to sit Moore down and turns Lombardozzi around, hitting righty now, the 2B flies out to LF J.D Martinez. Roger Bernandina hits against the southpaw Cedeno and works a 7 pitch walk. Cedeno's night is done and it's right-hander Fernando Rodriguez called in to face Zimmerman. The Nats 3B is jammed on a 3-1 pitch and flyballs harmlessly out to RF.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's #51 Michael Gonzalez up for DC and Brett Wallace greets the LOOGY by first pitch singling to RF. Gonzalez recovers well, getting J.D Martinez to ground into a 6-4-3 double play after falling behind 3-0. Pinch-hitter Ben Francisco's first bat and the ex-Giant, Philliy and Blue Jay is struck out on a changeup.

Nicely done and not as eventful as usual from Gonzalez. I couldn't do with the drama at 0324 on a Friday morning.

Nats 3-0 Astros.

#43 Fernando Rodriguez continues into the 8th and Adam LaRoche quickly flies out to LF. Michael Morse once again takes a big swing at strike one, then once again hits a solo shot, this one over RF, 4-0 Nats. Jayson Werth gets under a very high fastball and skies out to 2B. Danny Espinosa chops one between Altuve and Gonzalez for a single but Kurt Suzuki flies out to RF on his first pitch to end the Nats portion of the eighth.

#17 Sean Burnett is on to pitch for the Nats, Chris Snyder grounds to Espinosa for out number 1, sending pinch-hitter Matt Downs to the plate, Downs rolls one to Espinosa's right and the shortshop's throw just beats the rapid Downs to first. Jose Altuve's speed may have caused Espinosa to bobble the ball as the Astro's 2B could well have legged out the single anyway, Espinosa gets nabbed with his 10th error of the year and Marwin Gonzalez is at the plate with Altuve on first base. Burnett strikes out Gonzalez with a low fastball to end a potential rally.

Nats 4-0 Astros.

Astros LOOGY Wesley Wright opens up the 9th against pinch-hitter and newest Nat Cesar Izturis, who singles into LF. Fellow switchie Lombardozzi follows suit, chopping a ball almost exactly to the same area and there's speed on 1st and 2nd, leading to the idea of a double steal? Bernandina's all about the bunt here and drops a beauty down the line to load up the bases with no-one out and thunder coming up. Zimmerman destroys lefties, so once again Brad Mills calls to the 'pen for a rightie, Chuckie Fick (Any relation to Robert?, yes as it turns out, Nephew of the former Nat C) Zimmerman, sac flies to LF, Izturis scores and it's 5-0 Nats This is set up for LaRoche to put further distance between the Nats and Astros, he's facing a rookie rightie who couldn't get southpaws out in AAA. Alas for the Nats, LaRoche toe-ends a pitch straight to 2B for a 6-4-3 double play, ending a potential big inning for the Capital City's outfit.

Bottom of the 9th and it's former closer Drew Storen getting the ball, this is a sure sign the team still favours Tyler Clippard as the 9th inning stopper, he's facing RF-now-1B Steve Pearce and Pearce gets a good mornin', good evenin', good night 3 pitch K. Justin Maxwell -heavens- earns a six pitch walk and Brett Wallace has something to work with, taking a 2-1 fastball across the ground to RF for a single. J.D Martinez can now make this a save situation with one swing of the bat and Nats pitching whiz Steve McCatty looks even more hangdog than usual, putting the call in to Tyler Clippard, who begins his warm up. A potentially sticky situation is resolved when Matinez chops into a relatively routine 6-4-3 double play to end the game at Nats 5-0 Astros

And now, at exactly 0400, I'm off to bed.

You mean Flores is even worse than Zuk in controlling the running game? Wow, he must be bad.