Yesterday, DJ Herz pitched the gem of the season for the Washington Nationals on a day that the offense was a little sluggish. The Nats needed Herz’s zeroes with a scant 1-0 lead then a 2-0 lead when he exited after 6.0 innings of shutout baseball. Herz was so good that he nearly had a no-hitter — and one grounder found a seam through the infield and made its way onto the green outfield grass for the only hit on Herz’s record. Of the 19 batters he faced, 13 went down via the strikeout. Only six baseballs were put in-play.
At times, the rookie left-hander looked at the embroidered message on his glove in cursive that reads “Breathe.” I asked him if I was reading it correctly, because at first, all I had was a fuzzier photo and asked him if that said “Breathe”, and he responded, “Yes it does.”
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