If there was a bright spot today, it was the Nationals bullpen threw 5 shutout innings after Joe Ross was pulled with no outs in the 5th inning. The Nationals lost 5-3, but the offense had their chances with 11 men in scoring position and could only convert once and finish 1-11 in the game.
To continue on the thoughts on the bullpen, the Nationals bullpen has only been scored upon in just 1 game of the previous 7 games dropping their bullpen ERA to 4.99 and giving the worst bullpen crown to Texas and Detroit.
The Nationals had their chances in this game and actually had bases loaded and no outs in the 1st inning, and Ryan Zimmerman struck out. The Nats were only able to push home one run in that inning when they had a chance to score the knockout punch in the first inning which is what happened to Jhoulys Chacin in his last road start. Zimmerman left 4 men-on-base, but it was Michael Taylor batting in the 6 spot in the order who struck out 3 times in the game and left 6 men-on-base. Some days it just is not your day. Taylor was a key to the offense with home runs in the previous 2 games. Ryan Zimmerman’s homerless streak is now at 22 days, and he continues to struggle with bases loaded (1-7) and men on 3rd base (5-22). Since last year and through the playoffs, Zimmerman is 1-17 with bases loaded of which 10 of those outs were strikeouts.
Chris Speier‘s 3 games of managing this team in Dusty Baker‘s absence finished with a 2-1 record and his biggest decision was when to hook Joe Ross from the game. Hindsight was clear that Speier waited 2 batters late on going to the bullpen. Ross gave up 2 runs in that inning and that was the difference in the final score.
Blake Treinen took a bouncer off of his chin after the grounder hit his foot. Chris Speier said Treinen is fine and just has a contusion on his foot.
The Nationals will now jump on a plane and get into San Francisco around 10PM local time and 1AM in the east.
