Who is that masked man? Photo by Hal Jak for TalkNats
The Nats went from a four-inning partial game to complete their suspended game from last Sunday to a lengthy rain delay while learning that starting second baseman Starlin Castro fractured his right wrist to a Stephen Strasburg early exit in the first inning to an amazing performance for 5 1/3 innings of shutout baseball by Erick Fedde to lead his team in a win by a final score of 15-3 over the Orioles.
“They picked up Stephen Strasburg ,” manager Dave Martinez said. “It was a good win for us. [Fedde] stepped up, and it was huge. … He picked us all up today.”
It was Luis Garcia‘s debut game, and he was very good going 2-5 with 2 RBIs and a double and some fine plays on defense. Every Nats starter had at least one hit, and the club pounded out 19 hits and 2 walks to crush the Orioles. A total of seven Nats had multi-hits in this game.
“He’s gonna play second base for us,” Martinez said about Garcia. “I liked his at-bats. … He has a good glove. The kid has a lot of energy. He’ll get a chance to play second base almost every day.”
For now, the Nationals will have to see what they can do with this nerve impingement in Strasburg’s right wrist and hand which is causing his thumb on his right-hand to go numb. He has received treatment and cortisone shots and clearly that is not working.
On defense, Carter Kieboom set a Nationals’ record with 11 defensive assists and most of those came from playing in defensive shifts.
“Really good to see. A lot of fun watching those two guys play and do well,” Martinez said about Kieboom and Garcia as top prospects getting the opportunity to play. “Carter’s defense has gotten better. He’s worked really hard at it.”
We commented in a tweet that part of this COVID world is keeping family and friends from attending debut games this year. Between yesterday and today, Seth Romero, Dakota Bacus, and Garcia have all made their MLB debuts with nobody allowed to celebrate in-person.
All of a sudden this #Nats team got real young in front of our eyes. This lineup averages just over 27-years-old. Luis Garcia for instance is 20 1/4 years of age.
📸 by Steve Mears for TalkNats https://t.co/XvUJU9IEF7 pic.twitter.com/A6x5WBZ2td
— Talk Nats ⚾ (@TalkNats2) August 14, 2020
