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America's Team In Great American Ball Park: Washington Nationals Lose 4-3 To Cincinnati Reds On Miguel Cairo Walk-Off Single.

CINCINNATI, OH - AUGUST 26:  Paul Janish #7 of the Cincinnati Reds and Wilson Ramos #3 of the Washington Nationals look for the call at the plate as umpire Chad Fairchild #75 signals safe in the seventh inning at Great American Ball Park on August 26, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati defeated Washington 4-3.  (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

• America's Team Top 5: 

5. Dontrelle vs Chien-Ming: One-time Florida Marlins' starter Dontrelle Willis is (10-5) in 17 career starts against the Washington Nationals, but he hasn't faced the franchise since 2007 when he was (1-1) in 3 starts against the Nats pitching for the Fish. Washington had a .343 average against the left-hander in '07, scoring 12 runs, 6 earned in 17.0 IP in which he walked 6 and K'd 8 during his last year with the organization that acquired him in 2002 after the Chicago Cubs had selected him in the 8th Round of the 2000 Draft. Willis walks the first two batters he faces tonight, Ian Desmond and Brian Bixler, then strikes Ryan Zimmerman out with an 0-2 fastball. The Nats are now 1 for 30 w/ RISP in the last four games after going 1 for 29 in three-straight losses to the D-Backs. A groundout to third by Michael Morse advance both runners and leaves it up to Jayson Werth to drive the Nats' first runs in. (1 for 31 w/ RISP). Jayson Werth grounds out to short. 2 LOB, 1 for 32 w/ RISP...

Star-divide

4. RISP Woes: Danny Espinosa doubles to start the top of the second, and one out later (1 for 33 w/ RISP) moves to third when Wilson Ramos grounds to second and is robbed by a diving Brandon Phillips. Two down, 1 for 34 w/ RISP. Dontrelle Willis issues the third walk of the game, this time to the opposing pitcher, and Ian Desmond gets a shot to give the Nats the lead, but grounds out weakly on the first pitch he sees after the walk. 1 for 35. 0-0 after one and a half. An error by Ian Desmond, his 22nd, on a grounder to short off Reds' third baseman Todd Frazier's bat and a two-out single by Dontrelle Willis bring Brandon Phillips up with runners on first and third and his single through second scores the Reds' first run, 1-0 Cincinnati after two innings in Great American Ballpark.

3. 1 for 36?: An error by Brandon Phillips on a Brian Bixler grounder and a one-out single by Michael Morse off Dontrelle Willis and the Nats have another runner in scoring position in the third. First and second with Werth at the plate, when the Reds' starter bounces one and Bixler takes off for third, but Cincinnati backstop Ramon Hernandez blocks it expertly and throws Bixler out before Werth grounds to short to end the Nats' third. After an 11-pitch scoreless bottom of the third in which Chien-Ming Wang allows only a walk, Dontrelle Willis issues his fourth free pass in four innings on four pitches, putting Danny Espinosa on to start the frame. Jonny Gomes moves Espinosa into scoring position with a line drive single to left and Wilson Ramos brings them both home with his 11th HR of 2011. Oppo-boppo blast by the Nationals' backstop, 3-1 Nats in the fourth.

2. Two-Out Walk: Still 3-1 Nats in the sixth after Chien-Ming Wang throws an 11-pitch 5th in which he gives up a one-out single but nothing else. 73 pitches, 46 strikes, four hits allowed, one run, unearned through 5.0 IP by Wang. Danny Espinosa walks on four pitches again, eight straight balls from Willis to the Nats' second baseman, but a swinging K by Jonny Gomes and a double play grounder from Wilson Ramos end the top of the frame. After retiring the first 2 batters in the Reds' sixth on 5 pitches, Chien-Ming Wang loses a 10-pitch battle with Paul Janish, walking the Cincinnati shortstop before he gives up back-to-back two-out singles by Dontrelle Willis (3 for 3) and Brandon Phillips (2 for 4) who drives in his second and the Reds' second run of the night, 3-2 Nationals after six. Wang's done after 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K's, 92 pitches, 58 strikes, 10/6 GO/FO. 

1. No Cheese, No: Tom Gorzelanny takes over for Chien-Ming Wang in the seventh and gets a weak groundout to second from Joey Votto before issuing a one-out walk to Jay Bruce and giving up a single to left by Ramon Hernandez. Gorzelanny gets Drew Stubbs looking for out no.2, but Reds' third baseman/shorstop Todd Frazier ties it with a two-out single to left-center that makes it a 3-3 game. There's a delay in the 8th as two banks of lights go out in Great American Ballpark. Reds' lefty Aroldis Chapman's already warmed up when they stop things. Chapman comes back out after the 20+ minute delay and gives up a leadoff single to Jayson Werth. Danny Espinosa bunts Werth over/wastes an out, and after a walk to Jonny Gomes, two straight groundouts end the Nats' eighth. 

0. STRAIGHTEN THAT CAP!! PUNK!!: Sean Burnett gives up a leadoff walk to pinch hitter Dave Sappelt in the Reds' eighth. A sac bunt by Brandon Phillips moves Sappelt to second, and he holds up at third on a grounder to center by Edgar Renteria that probably should have scored him. First and third with one out for Joey Votto. Burnett gets the left-handed Red looking with a 2-2 slider for out no.2, and throws a 1-2 slider by Jay Bruce for out no. 3 and the end of the eighth. Ian Desmond singles off Francisco Cordero and two outs later he's at second when Michael Morse grounds out to short. 3-3 in the 9th. 1 for 13 with RISP, 2 for 42 in last four games. Collin Balester gives up a one-out broken bat single to short by Drew Stubbs and a line drive to lefty by Todd Frazier. First and second with one out and Miguel Cairo hits a gapper to left-center to win it. Ballgame. 4-3 Reds.

• Miss The Game? The DC Faithful Were Watching...

Num Name - Comments
1 dc Roach - 222
2 Ed Chigliak - 83
3 cat daddy3000 - 63
4 hscer - 62
5 datr22 - 34
6 RobBobS - 34
7 Joey Fox - 25
8 Doncosmic - 14
9 kingfishfarms - 14
10 PerrtMason - 13

 

• Doghouse's Canadian Post Game WPA Graph: "Game 130: I don't understand Davey's bullpen management":

20110826_nationals_reds_0_20110826215406_lbig__medium

via www.fangraphs.com

  • Coming up to speed: Chien-Ming Wang (+11.5%) goes 6 IP, giving up only 1 ER despite 4 BBs and only 2 Ks.
  • I understand he'd rather start: Tom Gorzelanny (-21.0%) gives up the tying run in relief.
  • Not so great in a high-leverage spot: Collin Balester (-36.0%) gives up the losing run.
  • Not clutch: Ryan Zimmerman (-23.3%) is 0-5 with 6 LOB.
  • Moar catcherz: Wilson Ramos (+9.4%) hits a three-run shot for lead in the 4th (+23.5%).

Nationals now 62-68.

Comment 14 comments  |  0 recs  | 

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thanks, Tom......."Tom Gorzelanny lhp 1 year/$2.1M (2011)"

Bally?…….not looking good, pal…

"Goggles Rule! Squinty, winky & arms akimbo…the batters will be so confused" by MissB on Aug 16, 201, regarding Clip and Purke...

by cat daddy3000 on Aug 26, 2011 11:16 PM EDT reply actions  

well, I'll be...........Marrero finally

AdamKilgoreWP Confirmed: Marrero is coming up tomorrow.
3 minutes ago

"Goggles Rule! Squinty, winky & arms akimbo…the batters will be so confused" by MissB on Aug 16, 201, regarding Clip and Purke...

by cat daddy3000 on Aug 26, 2011 11:21 PM EDT reply actions  

Tyler Moore was also taken in that 2006 draft, and he has 30 bombs for Harrisburg

Why not us? Why not now?

by Expos4 on Aug 27, 2011 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions  

nats need to have a someone better than werth to hit behind morse. now that worth has gone major south again we don’t have SP talking about his great at bats, which is usually anything less than a 3 pitch stike out. johnson keeps him in the 5 spot and he keeps leaving men on base. almost 130 games and management seems to want to justify their mistake in werth signing at the expense of the rest of the club. hard to imagine how much better the nats would have been with nyger morgan in the outfield instead of werth. one jerk over the other except one can hit and run.

by fortmyer on Aug 26, 2011 11:24 PM EDT reply actions  

Since when is Werth a jerk?

And he’s hitting .265 since the break and much better these past few weeks. Right now, who is better to hit behind Morse? Desmond is looking good, but there isn’t a good enough reason to mess with him when he is finally heating up. Espi? No. Ramos/Flores? No. This team needs Werth to get back to the way he was, a way that many pitchers still view him as. He hasn’t had a good year, but he is still a great player and vital to our franchise.
Nyjer Morgan was terrible. He was a black hole in the leadoff spot and had a terrible personality that hurt the players around him. Werth is one of the leaders of this team, along with Zimmerman, Desmond and possibly Strasburg when he returns. Those are the type of personalities you want in a dugout.

Skins rule

by Horcasitas4 on Aug 27, 2011 1:17 AM EDT up reply actions  

Well said.

Reading the SI article this week about Nyjer made me want to scream. His antics weren’t charming last year, they were disruptive and in many cases just plain dirty. Dumping him was the right way to go for a team not playing for just one season.

"I was a victim of a series of accidents. As are we all."
---Malachi Constant

by The Herndon Kid on Aug 27, 2011 9:48 AM EDT via iPhone app up reply actions  

I know what you mean

But at the same time. I wish some of our fans would just get rid of this notion that struggling players “can’t hit,” like fortmyer thinks of Werth above. Just because he is not hitting right at this moment, people assume that he can’t, won’t, and never could hit. It’s just a fixation with immediate results: “he needs to hit and he needs to hit NOW.” They don’t care if his average is slowly climbing. They want it to jump from .230 to .280 immediately. And they ignore the fact that pretty much every other statistic proves that he’s one of our core players EVEN with a low average. People said it about Nyjer too. And obviously he possesses the ability to hit because he’s doing it right now (not saying we should have kept him because he’s definitely not a fit with this team). But I just wish some people would lose that “he sucks! get rid of him” mentality

Whats the frequency, Kenneth?

by ZimforPrez on Aug 27, 2011 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions  

slow motion walk to the plate, take strike one, leave runners on base 12 the last 2 games, hit solo homers, drive in 48 runs and bat under .230 after 470 at bats, collect 11 millions dollars. those #‘s usually don’t apply to great hitters. my thought is nats are stuck with him and now have to justify his presence. mostly phillie fans where i live and while they boo him (they boo everybody) they are glad he was the one that left. hasn’t milwaukee done fine with the disruptive force of morgan?

by fortmyer on Aug 27, 2011 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions  

If Morgan played in 2010 the way he's playing now, he would never have gone anywhere...

He was awful last year and disruptive on top of it.

In hindsight, it seems Rizzo was right about what he could be however.

Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."

by Patrick Reddington on Aug 27, 2011 10:53 PM EDT up reply actions  

Someone explain to me

why Ballester is still on the team. not only do you have Severino in AAA, you have Wilkie, Mandel, and Zinicola tearing up AAA.

Free Josh Wilkie!

LET SEVERINO PITCH!

by jeff550 on Aug 27, 2011 4:25 PM EDT reply actions  

I think those guys are still developing, and someone has to take innings at the MLB level so they can do that...

organizational filler can exist at all levels….[c’mon Bally, prove you belong!!!….-request #87]

"It seems to me that DJ doesn't understand using his players to their strengths,
He only knows what strengths he wants his players to have." -by RobBobS on Aug 24, 2011

by cat daddy3000 on Aug 27, 2011 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions  

Nah

I think 3 years at AAA is enough for Wilkie. Zinicola has already been at MLB ST for Toranto. I think Rizzo just likes a 95 MPH fastball over a 89MPH fastball, regardless of results(which I dont agree with)

LET SEVERINO PITCH!

by jeff550 on Aug 27, 2011 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions  

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