NL Beast

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.