The season is over and this game was a microcosm of the whole season. The Nationals lost in their 15th shutout of the season, but it was understandable in this game. They had a first inning of bad luck where they had two hits and the inning was over in 4-pitches with the Rockies starter seeing the minimum number of batters. That is hard to do when your first two batters get hits. We have seen too many times where this team has hit into bad luck or did not make their own luck. You will never win a game you don’t score runs, and in this game the Nats pitchers gave up a dozen.
One thing we learned today is that Nats Spring Training will open up on February 13th of 2019, and we will see if that includes Bryce Harper and several other players.
“I enjoyed it,” manager Dave Martinez said. “My first year of manager is over and I’m looking forward to my second [year].”
Before the game, general manager Mike Rizzo announced that his manager Davey Martinez would return for 2019 as the team’s manager. While Martinez was brought in to be a difference maker, he showed in September that he can win against playoff teams. This game was not indicative of what we have seen lately from this team, but the 15 shutouts and the pace of home runs given up by Nats pitching was a problem all year as this 2018 team set a team record for most home runs surrendered in a season.
The Nats offense finished up with an off-day, but Bryce Harper finished on a high note.
“We have to work on the small aspects of the game — attention to detail,” Rizzo said.
When this team meets in February in West Palm Beach for Spring Training, they will have fundamentals to work on while Rizzo will also look to upgrade the starting rotation, the catcher position, and the 8th inning set-up man.
