Ifelt that way before this series.Yall have several guys who are not hitting. The closer gave up a tying two run home run to the Yankees and has been hittable. Y’all lost another pitcher to injury and have a rookie fourth starter. Verlander has looked hittable. Our pitching will keep games close . Other that that, Nats been the most clutch hitting team in the league all year. Half of our runs scored have been with two outs. 3 of our runs last night were with two out and no team has more hits with 2 strikes. Y’all got learn to respect us, the hard way.
Regardless of end-result, a positive of last night was the stress and pitch count they were able to put on Scherzer. Hopefully that can be repeated tonight against Stras, with more runs scored. The Nats are managing their pen like the Astros did in 2017, so the more and more they have to use Corbin, the better it is for the Astros down the line in games 3 and 4. On a bad note, the Nats were 2 out hitting and 2 strike hitting monsters going into the series. I thought that the Astros pitchers would have been aware of that and been prepared for that, but I was wrong so far. That trend really needs to stop or we're screwed.
No they haven't. The most clutch hitting teams this season were the juggernaut Pirates, Rangers, and White Sox.
Huh? It was a single game. Cole did not have command of his off speed stuff from when the game started. It was inevitable to happen at some point. It isn't something magic that the Nationals did or did not do. The Astros had something like 15 base runners and the Nationals had 10. Games like this happen, and it is why teams do not want everything to hinge one one game, because luck plays a large part in a single game. I saw nothing that made me believe that the Nationals are better than the Astros and I saw nothing that led me to believe that the Astros took the Nats for granted. There were two teams that had their aces not on their best night, Soto got a big hit and Alvarez did not...... that is about it. The Astros win that game last night 75%-80% of the time. If the Astros lose game two (possible) then there will be fair reason to worry somewhat. Also I didn't see anything that made me thing the Nats pitching is better than the Astros. Both are very good, but the Astros had no problem getting on base.
If Cole pitched like Cole, he wouldn't have even given up two runs..... the expectation that he has to be perfect isn't fair, but the way he has pitched the last 20 starts is on par with the very best Pedro Martinez or Roger Clemens have pitched.
Cole didn't have command of any of his off speed stuff. So Soto could sit fastball on the first at bat when he homered. The double was because Cole (again) didn't get his off speed across for strikes so he fell behind 2-0 or 3-0. He had to throw fastballs to get the count up to two strikes. He didn't want to go back to the fastball so he went off speed and threw a bat pitch up that Soto hit. Soto deserves credit, but he wasn't hitting vintage Cole. At that point Cole was struggling to just throw strikes.
I thought Tucker did the right thing. We are lucky that ball wasn't caught. Tucker may have been the only one who read it correctly. If it was, he get's third, and Altuve brings him home. As far as Springer, he would have been right on Tucker's ass had he come out of the gate, but if that ball drops he has to assume Tucker is going home and he could have taken third without hesitation. Tucker isn't so slow he would get passed on the basepath. I'm not sure that Springer believes what he's preaching. He's better than that. But it shouldn't happen again. He has to know he screwed up.
Don't think things went perfect for the Nats, and no disrespect to them. They out-hustled the Astros and Soto was a huge difference maker. I'm just saying a lot of close plays that are basically random (not overall individual performances like Cole or Scherzer) went the Nat's way and they had to hang on to win it anyway. If you just look at the box score minus the runs you'd expect the Astros would have won the game, so if the teams keep playing similarly overall I think those random things will even out and the Astros are likely to win the series. The doesn't mean the Nat's are a bad team or won't wind up winning the series.
Astros played pretty bad and lost 5-4. Nationals played the game of their lives and won 5-4. I didn't think itd be a sweep, figured the Stros would have a game where they were too caught up in their press clippings. Just wish the national headlines weren't littered with faux outrage domestic abuse SJWs. I take solace in the fact that if we had a different closer, wed just be talking about pitch tipping, sign stealing, pine tar, or something else.
I have more confidence in Tucker as a base runner than anyone else of the roster arguably. He reads balls well and he has excellent instincts on the bases.
Yeah, the Nats stole that one. In Houston. Cole pitching. Scherzer didn't pitch well. Their best hitter (Rendon) was a no-show (I wouldn't expect again). And still managed to win. The Nats resilience and ability to come through in the clutch continues to impress, but they definitely came out ahead in the "things-that-go-your-way" sweepstakes that is present in every baseball game. The bad news is Strasburg is pitching tonight. After Cole, he is unarguably pitching at a higher level than anyone else in this series at the moment. This isn't really being highlighted as much as I would expect. That being said, a less strong Nats lineup even managed to hit Cole around some, so no reason the Astros can't similarly turn the tables on Strasburg tonight. Though, he's not exactly a pitcher you want to face to get out of your hitting slump. The ultimate goal would be for Verlander to take Strasburg out of the equation by having a dominant outing himself. He's going to need to pitch better than he has been.
The Nats are managing their pen like the Astros of 2015, more like. Harris Sipp Gregerson and then start churning starters on their bullpen days out there. Eventually their SP carapace will crack and we’ll get to the nice nougatty meat of their poor relievers. ng their
That Alvarez K hurt so much. Highest leverage AB by far in this game and Alvarez had just gotten a base hit off a pitcher that is extremely tough against LHB.
