Believe it or not, the Nationals have won a series at home, against one of the hottest NL clubs. The Nats took 2 of 3 from the Chicago Cubs, winning Friday night on Wil Nieves’ walk-off homer and today on a superb pitching job by John Lannan to improve to 9-17 on the year.
Saturday, though, the Nats fell 7-0 to the Cubs, who cruised on the back of staff ace Carlos Zambrano, who pitched 7 innings, striking out 5, walking 4, and allowing 5 hits. The other side of the pitching matchup is the Nationals Least of the Week award winner, Matt Chico, who dropped to 0-5 on the season. Chico lasted just 4 innings, surrendering 5 earned runs on 8 hits.
From the Nationals’ weakest starting pitcher to the strongest we go. John Lannan improved to 2-2 on the year with a staff best 2.64 ERA, allowing 4 hits over 7 innings of work and improving his hitless innings streak to 19. Cubs starter Ted Lilly (1-4, 6.46) also pitched well, allowing 2 earned runs over 6 innings and striking out 7. For the Nationals, Wily Mo Peña and Wil Nieves drove the only runs in early on in the second inning. But it didn’t matter as Lannan cruised, with Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch shutting the door in the 8th and 9th.
Lannan continues to make the case that he should have been in the starting rotation all along as he is clearly the most dominant Nationals pitcher early on. On the other hand, it would not surprise anyone if Chico gets handed a bus ticket to Columbus in the near future. Another note, Ryan Zimmerman went 0-4 again today, and his batting average has sunk to .222 on the year. We don’t know what the Z-Man’s problem is…he has other hitters protecting him in the lineup which never used to be the case (even though Nick Johnson is also not off to the best start). Nice to see production from Wily Mo by the way, hopefully there will be no more crying from the big man anytime soon.
Categories: Nationals
Tagged: Nationals
Categories: Nationals
Tagged: Nationals
Earlier I wrote that Carlos Delgado took a curtain call after hitting his second home run of the game today off of Will Ohman to help the Mets beat the Braves 6-3. Well it turns out Carlos didn’t actually leave the dugout, and the New York media is going to be jumping all over ”Snub-gate” tomorrow.
Honestly, I don’t blame the man. If I’m getting booed by my own fans for an extended period of time, I’m not taking a curtain call either.
-Jonathan Kraft
UPDATE: Already this is getting a ton of press. Hot Foot’s Dan Lerner also says that Delgado shouldn’t be expected to embrace a group of fans who boo him. MetsBlog’s Matt Cerone warns that Delgado has only taken two curtain calls in his entire career and says Mets fans shouldn’t be too quick to judge Carlos.
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Mets
The First NL Beast of the Week Award goes to…Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies.
And the First NL Least of the Week Award is given to…Aaron Heilman, RHP, New York Mets.
Categories: General
The Mets rebounded from their mediocre performance over the last week to take the last two games from the Atlanta Braves at Shea. The Mets defeated the Braves 4-3 on Saturday. Both John Maine and Tim Hudson left prematurely, Hudson after allowing four runs to the Mets in the third and Maine after suffering what appeared to be numbness in his throwing arm in the 6th. Maine pitched well over 5 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, striking out 7 and walking 3. Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church, and Carlos Delgado drove in runs for the Mets and Mark Teixiera and Martin Prado drove runs in for Atlanta. David Wright broke his 0-19 slide, singling and scoring on Beltran’s double in the fourth. Aaron Heilman gave up a run in one inning of work, but Scott Schoeneweiss, Pedro Feliciano, Duaner Sanchez, and Billy Wagner pitched great in relief. Wagner completed his nine inning “no hitter,” and fifth save of the year.
On Sunday, the Mets scored early and often on John Smoltz, defeating Atlanta 6-3. Carlos Delgado made a curtain call after homering twice. An unlikely long ball came from Raul Casanova, who went deep in the second. David Wright once again proved that he is the best two-strike hitter in baseball, taking an 0-2 count up to 2-2 before singling and driving in a run. Nelson Figueroa, the Brooklyn Cinderella Story, pitched well until the 6th, when Atlanta rallied on the backs of the Marks–Teixiera and Kotsay–to bring the score to 4-2. Figueroa’s line on the day was three earned runs over 5.1 innings with 3 strikeouts and 3 walks, hardly dominating stuff, but good enough today. Joe Smith, Scott Schoeneweiss, Pedro Feliciano and Billy Wagner shut the door for the Mets, with Billy notching his 6th save of the year (but giving up the “no-hitter” after surrendering a single to Matt Diaz.
The two goats in the lineup, Delgado and Castillo, look like they might be turning a corner, which would be nice as the Mets lineup has been severely diminished with the lack of production from them plus the absences of Alou and Schneider. Ryan Church continues to be the most valuable player on this team so far with 16 RBIs and a great catch that almost resulted in a nasty collision with Beltran. The one guy left to step it up? Jose Reyes, who continues to look lost at the plate.
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Mets
Start with the Beast: Chase Utley
I was inclined to go with the sexy pick of Jason Werth, but Chase’s numbers say enough: 14/28 on the week, 1.563 OPS (1.000 SLG), 4 HR, and 8 RBIs. Utley is well on his way to completing the Phillies’ MVP trifecta
Least of the week: So Taguchi
This guy has no place on this team. Werth hits .385 against lefties and has dominated the leadoff spot when he has the opportunity to hit there. Taguchi doesn’t hit, gives you mediocre fielding at best, gives you not-that-fast baserunning when he replaces Burrell, and is outright old at 38. I reiterate, he has no place on this team, especially as a starter.
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Phillies
The Nationals Beast of the Week is none other than 2B Felipe Lopez, who won back his starting position over Ronnie Belliard and crushed a grand slam against the Mets on Thursday, totalling 6 RBIs on the night.
Runners Up: John Lannan, Wil Nieves
We give the Nationals Least of the Week distinction to LHP Matt Chico, who looked to have a promising start before imploding, racking up a 6.68 ERA on the season (12.38 on 2 starts this week). We hope Matt has a place to stay lined up in Columbus.
Runners Up: Ray King, Ryan Zimmerman
Categories: Nationals
Tagged: Nationals
According to the Daily News, he might have a sprained ankle. Not good news at all.
Hey Omar, it’s time to trade for Xavier Nady, a guy who can give us proper depth in the outfield and at first base.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Mets
This is the first edition of what will become a regular feature here on NL Beast, in which we nominate a Beast and Least of the week for each team, then crown one of each for the entire division.
This week’s Mets Beast of the Week is LHP Billy Wagner. Billy completed what would amount to a no hitter (too bad it doesn’t count, it would have been the first in Mets history…) to save Saturday’s game against the Braves. Although he only pitched twice this week (Willie has been very reluctant to use Billy in non-save situations), he is really the only sure thing in this bullpen, and for that, Billy Wagner is the Mets Beast of the Week.
Runner Up: Ryan Church
We stay in the bullpen for the Mets Least of the Week award and bestow it upon none other than RHP Aaron Heilman. Aaron helped to load the bases before surrendering a grand slam to Washington’s Felipe Lopez Thursday night in DC. His ERA stands at 6.00 this year, and he has already surrendered 8 home runs on the year. Someone on WFAN recently said that “everytime Heilman pitches he looks like someone just stole his puppydog.” We couldn’t agree more.
Runners Up: Jose Reyes, Jorge Sosa
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Mets
3:25 pm
zzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz…Myers was out after 5.0 IP and 4 ER. The Phillies have 2 hits on the day through 7 innings. 5-1.
1:43 pm
That was fast - Myers gives up a first pitch homerun to Nate McLouth. 1-0.
Taguch
Werth
Utley
Howard
Burrell
Feliz
Bruntlett
Ruiz
Myers
The matchup pits Brett Myers (2-1, 4.78) against Paul Maholm (1-2, 4.22)
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Phillies
