Last week, Ron Shandler wrote an article in the USA Today about pitching aces having meltdowns. Shandler defined a meltdown as

any game in which a starting pitcher allows more earned runs than innings pitched

Reading the piece, I started thinking about all of the meltdowns the Nats pitchers have had over the last few years. Then Craig Stammen had a meltdown Tuesday night against the Astros – 5 innings pitched, 5 earned runs. 

After a little research, I discovered that in 2009, the Nats led MLB in pitching meltdowns with 43, the Braves had 14. The Nats are doing a little better in 2010, but are still behind the league average. See the entire post on my NatsStats blog here.