RealGM

Nats 10.5 back already and face the meat of the Phillies rotation. Halladay today.

Nats lose the first game 5-4, but they had a 4-3 lead on Halladay. Burnett gets the loss as he can't contain the Phillies' lefties late. Really discouraging loss, as the Nats' hitters did what they needed to do to scratch out a win.

Marquis versus Lee tonight.

Anyone surprised that the bullpen is faltering though? Riggs has pretty much used the same 3 guys all year. I keep pointing out to that Werth deal. It really makes you wonder if they should have used that money (whether its the $10 million this year or the $126 million total) on improving the pen, maybe keeping Dunn and Willingham and making minor improvements here and there.

Nats have been losing winable games lately and it's gotta be frustrating.

We've been making small errors (running themselves out of an inning, etc) and when you're the Nats, especially without Zimmerman, etc, you don't have much margin for error.

Rafael122 wrote:Anyone surprised that the bullpen is faltering though? Riggs has pretty much used the same 3 guys all year. I keep pointing out to that Werth deal. It really makes you wonder if they should have used that money (whether its the $10 million this year or the $126 million total) on improving the pen, maybe keeping Dunn and Willingham and making minor improvements here and there.

I would say yes--Werth is silly overpaid.

But Coffey, Slaten, and Rodriguez all have under 2.50 ERAs in the pen in addition to the big three and Kimball looks like a keeper. Plus, amazingly Nix has somehow had better production than Dunn or Willingham this year.

Not sure how much better we'd be spreading the 18 million around instead of Werth. At least we'd probably still have fireworks though...

pineappleheadindc wrote:Nats have been losing winable games lately and it's gotta be frustrating.

We've been making small errors (running themselves out of an inning, etc) and when you're the Nats, especially without Zimmerman, etc, you don't have much margin for error.

It's really frustrating, especially since the defense this month has been great.

5-13 (I think) it one-run games. Last two days I think we've had runners it scoring position with no outs at least four times and come up empty.

Really frustrating.

Nats bats, hopefully, are coming around? They've scored enough runs to be up 2-0 on the Phillys right now. Against high quality pitching.

Espinosa crushes lefties (.300, 4HR in 50 AB). Righties, eh, not so much.

Fun night at the Park last night to see Phily fans sit on their hands. Businessman's special this afternoon with Oswalt versus Lannan, but you ain't going back to work after sitting outside in the 95 degree weather today...

God I hope the bats are coming around. You have to figure they have to inevitably improve somewhat...

Zimmerman only a couple weeks away (likely) as well...

Nats take the series! They could have swept them, but taking 2 out of 3 was nice. This was something Riggs needed because I feel like he's coming under fire lately. He's a solid manager, and he's done a good job, more or less considering none of his guys are swinging the bats well and his franchise player has been out for a month.

Rafael122 wrote:Nats take the series! They could have swept them, but taking 2 out of 3 was nice. This was something Riggs needed because I feel like he's coming under fire lately. He's a solid manager, and he's done a good job, more or less considering none of his guys are swinging the bats well and his franchise player has been out for a month.

Well, well, miracles happen.

Couldn't agree more on Riggleman. But, is he a good manager when the talent is in place for a playoff run?

I think he's great developing the psyches of young players, and making the most of what he has, though (Ex: Ian Desmond on pace to steal 50 bases).

It's hard to say, they just started spending money this year and the talent won't start coming until next year (granted, Espinosa and a host of others are already up here, but guys like Strasburg and Harper are all due to make impacts soon).

Really nice series by the Nats.

Glad that Lannan got the W today.