Tag Archives: Wilson Ramos

Denard Span drops in the order and delivers a win for the Washington Nationals

WP – C. Stammen (5-4) LP – S. Cishek (3-5)

S – R. Soriano (25)

Davey Johnson decided to shake up the order to try to spark the Washington Nationals, and it worked, just not necessarily the way he might have anticipated.  Denard Span was dropped from the leadoff spot for the first time this season due to his OBP of .315 coming into the game.  He proceeded to get the Nationals in the win column hitting from the seven spot.  Span went 3-for-5, and drove in the game winning run in the top of the tenth inning as he doubled to bring home Ian Desmond.

Craig Stammen coming off a tough luck loss from the night before, picked up the win as the Nationals finished this road trip 2-5 going into the All Star break. They enter the break trailing the Atlanta Braves by six games in the National League East.  They will exit the All Star break with an eleven game home stand that will go a long way towards determining if the Nationals can catch the Braves.

Bryce Harper went 1-for-5 with a walk and a run scored from the leadoff spot.  The Nationals continued to struggle to score runners, stranding seventeen runners on base today. Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Laroche, and Jayson Werth stranded eight runners from the 3-4-5 spots in the order.  Davey Johnson might need to shake these three up if they continue to fail to score runners.

Taylor Jordan did a good job in just his fourth start, going six innings, giving up just two runs, but the offense wasn’t able to get him his first win of his major league career.  Span broke open the scoring with a double to drive in Adam Laroche in the second inning.  Derek Dietrich hit his ninth homerun of the season off Jordan in the bottom of the fourth to score two.  That lead would stand until the top of the seventh.

Anthony Rendon doubled to deep right center to score Bryce Harper from first.  This tied the game at 2-2, where it would remain until the top of the tenth.  Span doubled in Desmond, followed by an RBI single from Wilson Ramos. After a pitching change, Chad Tracy doubled to score Ramos, giving Rafael Soriano a three run lead to save the game in the bottom of the tenth. 

The Nationals go into the break 48-47, and improve to 43-10 when they score three or more runs.

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005

Nationals homer their way past the Phillies, Gio Gonzalez goes seven strong

WP – G. Gonzalez (7-3) LP – C. Lee (10-3)

The Washington Nationals were able to pound out four solo homeruns off Cliff Lee to beat the Phillies in hopes of splitting this series. Anthony Rendon and Wilson Ramos hit back to back homeruns in the top of the fifth inning. Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth duplicated their teammates effort in the top of the sixth, crossing the crucial three run mark that seems to dictate when the Nationals will win or lose.

The Nationals fared well against the left-handed Lee after back to back nights of poor hitting against two other Phillies left-handers. They were able to get nine hits off Lee, giving him only his third loss of the season.

Gio Gonzalez went seven strong innings, only allowing a solo homerun to Darin Ruf in the bottom of the seventh. He gave up one run on six hits, two walks while striking out five. Gio lowered his season ERA to 3.03 with his last start before the All-Star game.

The Phillies seemed to have difficulty with Gonzalez off-speed and breaking ball all night. The biggest change from the first two games of the series was that Ben Revere only managed to get on base one time which was a source of most of their momentum in the earlier games.

Carlos Ruiz was the only Phillies hitter to manage more than one hit on the game and only he and Ruf managed to be on base more than once either.

The Nationals managed an extra run in the top of the ninth on an swinging bunt by Denard Span that brought Rendon in to score from third. Tyler Clippard pitched the eighth and Rafael Soriano closed the game out in a non-save situation in the ninth.

The Nationals are now 47-44 on the year, and 42-10 when they manage to score at least three runs in the game. The Nationals now trail the Atlanta Braves by five games in the National League East.

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005

Return of Wilson Ramos more significant than Harper

I had an opportunity to write an article that Yahoo Contributor Network chose to publish where I discuss why I think it was more significant for the Nationals to get Wilson Ramos back in the lineup than it was to get Bryce Harper back.  Give it a look:

http://voices.yahoo.com/wilson-ramos-return-more-significant-than-bryce-harper-12222025.html?cat=14

Errors costly for the Nationals again, lose 4-2 to the Phillies

WP – C. Hamels (4-11) LP – T. Jordan (0-2)

S – A. Bastardo (2)

Cole Hammels came into the game a loser of eleven games and the Washington Nationals hitter made him look like a Cy Young candidate.  He pitched eight solid innings, giving up one run on six hits, a walk while striking out four.  He gave up a solo homerun to Jayson Werth in the second inning and the Nationals didn’t threaten to score again until the eighth, where Ryan Zimmerman and Werth both failed to capitalize on a bases loaded opportunity. 

The Nationals scored off the closer in the ninth inning for the second night in a row but it was too little too late.  Wilson Ramos drove in Anthony Rendon with a pinch hit double giving him nine RBIs in the four games since his return.

Taylor Jordan pitched an excellent game again, only to see a second consecutive good start go to waste due to errors.  In the fourth inning, Kurt Suzuki was charged with an error when he dropped a perfect throw from Werth at the plate allowing Chase Utley to score.   Replay showed that Utley failed to touch the plate but Suzuki never applied a tag as he attempted to throw Domonic Brown out at second base.

In the sixth inning, Jordan got Utley to ground into what should have been an easy double play to Adam Laroche, but Laroche threw the ball off of Jimmy Rollins back, allowing the ball to go into centerfield.  Ben Revere scored on the errant throw, while Rollins advanced to third base.  Michael Young then doubled to centerfield, scoring Rollins and Utley.  This was all the Phillies would need to beat the Nationals for the second evening in a row.

The Nationals continued to struggle against left-handed pitching.  They came in batting a woeful .215, tonight they continued this trend, batting .218 against Hamels and Bastardo.  The coaching staff has got to figure something out, getting batters to adjust their stance against lefties as they are consistently unable to reach the outside strikes that these pitchers are feeding them. If they do not find an answer for this issue in the second half of the season then it will be difficult to reach the postseason.

The Nationals fall to 46-44, and 5-33 in games they fail to score at least three runs.

Additional: Scott Hairston had a fairly successful debut with the Nationals going 2-for-5 leading off, playing leftfield.

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005

A Team Effort, Nationals beat Padres behind seven strong innings from Gio Gonzalez

WP – G. Gonzalez (6-3) LP – A. Cashner

S – R. Soriano (23)

 

The Washington Nationals had a great team effort tonight to beat the San Diego Padres 8 to 5.  Gio Gonzalez pitched six and two thirds, giving up three earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts.  He seemed to have trouble early on controlling his pitches but he settled down and gave the Nationals another solid performance.  The Nationals’ hitters were able to get to the Padres starter early and often, led by Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos.  Werth went 3-for-4 with one RBI, while Ramos went 2-for-4 with three RBI’s.  Denard Span continued to improve on his numbers, going 2-for-5 and two RBI’s as well. 

 

The Padres were led by Carlos Quentin, who hit a three run homerun off of Craig Stammen in the top of the seventh, who gave up two runs and allowed an inherited runner to score on the homerun.  The Padres also got runs in the first and third.  In the first inning, Chase Headley hit a ground rule double off Gonzalez, scoring Chris Denorfia.  In the third, Headley homered to deep left field. 

 

Bryce Harper continued to struggle, going 0-for-4, with a sacrifice fly RBI in the second inning.  Davey Johnson after the game discussed how he will likely give Harper the next couple games off to clear his head, as he is 1-for-18, with a homerun and two RBI’s since returning from the disabled list on July 1st.

 

The Nationals were well below their season average on strikeouts with only three on the night, so this helped to move runners around.  The Nationals have improved their team batting average from .232 to .238 over the last six games with their recent hitting improvement.

 

The Nationals improve to 44-42, and 39-10 in games where they score at least three runs.

 

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005.

 

Wilson Ramos to the rescue, Nationals top the Brewers 8-5 on the 4th of July

WP – D. Storen (3-2) LP – T. Gorzellany (1-1)

S – R. Soriano (22)

Wilson Ramos has been missing from the Washington Nationals lineup since May 16th.  He returned with a bang, hitting a game winning three run homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning along with a two run single in the sixth, giving him 5 RBIs for the day.  Taylor Jordan had a great effort in his pursuit of his first win, pitching five and two thirds innings, giving up two runs on six hits.  He was in line for the win as he left the game, unfortunately the bullpen couldn’t keep the lead.  This is the second solid performance from Jordan since getting called up from AA with Dan Haren on the disabled list.

Tom Gorzellany, a former National, took the loss this Independence Day for the Brewers, as he pitched the sixth and seventh innings, giving up the homerun to Ramos.  He also allowed two runners inherited from Burke Badenhop to score. The Brewers starter, Donovan Hand gave up five runs on five innings pitched before yielding to Badenhop. 

Besides Ramos, who went 3-4 at the plate, Ian Desmond, Adam Laroche and Jayson Werth all had multi-hit games.  The Nationals need to find a way to consistently deliver this kind of performance at the plate to be able to catch the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.  Ian Desmond also stole two bases in this game giving him a team leading 10 stolen bases for the year.

This is the first time in over a month that the Nationals have had what they would consider their whole lineup back for a game, so hopefully with the return of Ramos this team can win more of the games they are supposed to.  It was apparent with today’s performance how much of a difference Ramos is at the plate over Kurt Suzuki. 

The Brewers have consistently fought their way back into games this series, this time coming back from a 5-2 deficit with homeruns from Yuniesky Betancourt and Carlos Gomez off Drew Storen in the seventh inning.   That brought the total runs given up by Storen to seven over the last two innings pitched, compounding the inconsistency from the Nationals bullpen that has plagued them all season.   Ramos came to Storen’s rescue in the bottom of the inning with his homerun to put the Nationals in the lead for good.

Bryce Harper continues to struggle since his return.  His first at bat back from injury was a homerun but Harper has gone 0-for-15 since then.  Opposing pitchers seem to be pitching Harper strictly away, using breaking balls and off speed pitches to keep Harper from pulling the ball.

The win today gave the Nationals a split of this four game series, and brought their season record to 43-42.  The Nationals improve to 38-10 when they score more than three runs.

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005.

Harper returns with a Homerun, Zimmermann improves to 12-3

Nationals 10, Brewers 5

WP J. Zimmermann (12-3) LP: Y. Gallardo (6-8)

Tonight marked the return of Bryce Harper, who wasted no time in announcing his return, smacking the second pitch for his 13th home run of the year.  Harper had been out for the last 31 games due to a lingering knee injury.  He showed no holdups running the bases, so now we will see how the knee reacts to his first game back. 

This was just the beginning for the sluggish Washington offense as they continued some momentum from the game Sunday night where they pounded the New York Mets 13-2, pounding out five runs in the third inning that started with a double from starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who went 3-3 from the plate, while also pitching six innings, giving up four runs.  You have to wonder if all the base running took a little out of the Nat’s starter, who is now leading the National League in wins as we approach the all-star game, as he typically goes a bit farther into games.

This two game explosion of 23 runs on 26 hits is a breath of fresh air for a team that has been batting .232 as a team.  Jayson Werth really seemed to enjoy the move back to the two spot in the order, delivering five RBI’s on a 2-for-5 night.  Ryan Zimmerman also contributed a couple RBI’s bringing his season total to 43, second on the team to Ian Desmond, who also knocked in one, giving him 49 for the season so far. This was plenty of offense to allow the bullpen to close things out.  It was a combination of Craig Stammen, Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Fernando Abad to finish off the last three innings. 

It was good to see the Nationals take one step closer to being a full roster again.  Speculation is that catcher Wilson Ramos, the last remaining starter on the Disabled List, may return as early as Thursday for the 11 am game against the Brewers on the 4th of July.  It will be interesting to see the lineup that Davey Johnson chooses to employ once Ramos returns.

At least for this night it all seemed to click for the Nationals who are now 26-19 when Harper plays, and 37-10 when they score more than three runs.  Let’s hope that the Nationals can deliver a string of wins over these next thirteen games against the next four teams, all of which currently have losing records.  It could go a long way to brining them back into contention with the Atlanta Braves for first place in the National League East.

Robert Peterson lives in the Washington DC Metro area and has been covering the Nationals since the team moved to the area in 2005.