Game Review: Opening Day 3-31-2008

Today, the Nats faced off against the Phillies in Citizen's Bank Park.

Weather:
~40 degrees with very light breeze

Hitting:
Quick Thoughts
Wow, we can hit. Also, OBP, OBP. RISP, too. Finally, Willie Harris sucks.

Last night, with Perez on the mound in Nationals Park, the Nats proved they could pitch. Today, they proved equally skillful hitting. An even split between displays of OBP and power, the Nats managed 11 runs and 12 hits, after failing to score for the first four innings. The 5th and the 9th were today's two big innings, sandwiching the 6th inning all about LMillz. In Citizens' Bank Park, the bandbox in Philly, the Nationals only managed one home run, but cranked out 5 doubles. OBP was only display by Lo Duca, Guzman and Johnson, while Kearns raked, Zimmerman flailed and Willied Harris flailed. Oh yeah, we rallied from a tie game in the 8th with a timely 5-run 9th and effective two-out hitting was displayed by all.

Individual Performances
Guzman-2 hits and a walk--Guz hit fairly well today, but as usual showed little power, continually managing to slap the ball just enough to get on base. He did have some decent at-bats 7-8 pitch at-bats though, so at least he's trying to wear down pitchers a bit. No steals, obviously.

Milledge-2 hits, 1 HR--LMillz hit a nice 2-run homer in 6th that sparked the Nats' initial rally, his first HR as a Washington National. Since I watched on MLB Gameday, his hand-slapping antics are unknown.

Zim-Sac Fly, 0 hits--Post homer hangover. One would assume that Zim might launch into a hot streak after his heroic antics last night, but instead he had a bad day and once again seemed to be pushing himself too hard, somewhat ironic given the protection behind him now.

Johnson-2 hits, 1 BB--OBP king looks back to his old form, hitting 2 doubles and grabbing a walk for good measure. NJ looks like he's fresh and trying to make up for lost time. Here's hoping he stays healthy.

Kearns-2 hits, 2 BB, 1 SO--Kearns seems to be benefiting from NJ's prodigious OBP abilities, with 2 RBIs today. He looks to be in as good form as Johnson does and the two may be a formidable pair if they can keep producing. Austin had a double and a single, both with 2 outs and men on.

Lo Duca--1 hit--Lo Duca had a nice two out double in the 5-run 9th inning that kept the Nats' rally alive. It was his only hit of the game, and it came off an imploding "Flash" Gordon, so take it with a grain of salt and a syringe of B12.

Belliard-1 hit--See above. Ronnie had another two out double off a failing Gordon that should likewise be taken with a grain of salt. He got an RBI for his trouble, but Belliard looks ice cold after a hot spring training. FLop waits in the wings.

Harris-1 BB, 1 SO--Willie Harris sucks. Badly. If any of you are praying for Elijah Dukes to turn his life around, pray for his health, too.

Chico-1 hit, 1 SO--You know how badly Willie Harris sucks? Chico out-hit him. With one out and the Nationals down by two. Willie Harris stinks. Chico's timely hitting sparked a 4-run rally in the 5th inning that put the Nats ahead initially.

Meat Hook-1 hit--Pinch hit in the 9th, got a hit and an RBI. 'Nuff said for the big man.

Pitching
Quick Thoughts
Chico wasn't bad. Hanrahan and Ray King were. Rivera and Colome cleaned up the mess. We need more first pitch strikes, too.

Chico-3 ER, 5.1 IP, 4 SO, 1 BB--He wasn't THAT bad. Chico managed to pitch fairly effectively for 5 innings, at least if you measure effectiveness by surviving while keeping scoring to minimum and avoiding "the big inning." By that standard, he was fine. However, Matt seems to have issues with first pitch strikes, continually getting behind in the count, only to come back and strike batters out once he's in a jam. His inability to stay in the zone also limited his outing today, and he needed 96 pitches for 16 batters. Not quite the domination displayed by Tim Hudson last night. He also has a tendency to keep working in the same spot, not really changing location substantially. While this makes sense on some hitters (and to be fair, he almost always kept the ball DOWN), once in a while, it might be nice to see him tossing one of his copious balls outside, rather than continuously pounding the inside corner on righties.

Hanrahan-.2 IP, 2 SO, 2 ER, 1 BB--Joel had a bad day. He started off with two quick strikeouts that ended the 6th. When he came back on in the 7th, he seemed to have lost all control and couldn't get a batter out. He left two runners on for King.

King-1 IP, 1 ER, 1 SO--King wasn't terrible, just not good. Called in to clean up Hanrahan's mess, he allowed one of Hanrahan's inherited runners to score, then allowed a run of his own across as well before pitching himself out of the inning.

Rivera and Colome-2 IP, 1 SO (Colome), 0 BB--They came, they pitched, the Nats rallied in the top of the 9th, they conquered.