The Nats (Gnats, to the Mets) 2016 thread

[Frayed Knot]

Steven Strasburg returned to the rotation today after the minimum 15 days on the DL - only to leave the game tonight after 40 pitches with some as yet undisclosed problem.
May be nothing but could certainly take him out of the series next week in DC where he was lined up for the opening game of the series on Monday.

[Frayed Knot]

Series for Sept 12-14:

Monday - Montero vs Mat Latos
Latos faced the Mets in relief eight days ago during the Sunday game of the last series and managed to do something very few pitchers have, he served up a HR to Jay Bruce. That was his Nats debut and he's pitched to just one batter since. This will be his first Nats start.

Tuesday - Syndergaard vs AJ Cole
Cole started the Friday game in the last series, the one game the Nats won as he out-pitched Syndergaard while holding the Mets to 1 R, 3 H over 6 IP. His other three ML starts this season have been less than successful but, then again, a pitcher having his best start of the year vs the Mets has been a common theme in 2016

Wednesday - Gsellman vs Tanner Roark
This will be a rematch of the middle game in that series where the Mets and Gsellman prevailed 2-1 -- and that's pretty much the way we'll probably have to win this one as we essentially never hit Roark ever.
With the exception of one bad relief outing in 2015, the Mets have never scored more than 2 runs against him in 14 games/8 starts giving him a career 2.70 ERA / 1.12 WHiP across 60 innings pitched

[Frayed Knot]

Among the stuff I missed yesterday amidst the 17-0 blow-out and the fact that the high-light shows were short on high-lights on account of the news involving Fernandez and later on Arnie, the Gnats & Buccos got into a dust-up over Harper getting a boo-boo on his thumb.

Harper led off top-3 with a triple and, when the relay throw to 3rd went awry, Pirate 3B-man Kang slapped down a fake tag to fake Harper into not knowing about the overthrow.
The tag allegedly caused an awkward slide by Harper resulting in a jammed (but not broken) thumb and cries of 'Dirty Pool!!' by the Nats.
So then in the bottom of the 3rd, the first pitch to Kang whizzed in back of his head. Pitcher AJ Cole got ejected immediately and the dugouts emptied almost as quickly.
No fights but a lot of yapping and pushing with Sean Rodriguez and, not surprisingly, Francisco Cervelli & Jayson Werth were the main yappers.


FWIW, I don't think the fake tag stuff is dirty pool at all. It was illegal in all the softball leagues I played in but everyone in those games had to go to work the next day. This, seems to me, is no different than Muffy, or any one of a million 2B-men, faking fielding a grounder to keep the runner from 1st heading to 3rd.

[bmfc1]

Wilson Ramos left tonight's game with an injury. It would be a shame if this hurt WSH's playoff chances.

[Frayed Knot]

bmfc1 wrote: Wilson Ramos left tonight's game with an injury. It would be a shame if this hurt WSH's playoff chances.

You sound oh so concerned.



Meanwhile, Keith & Ron totally disagreed with my above assessment on the Kang fake tag thing.
Now I'll have to admit that I was going by only the description and have yet to see the specific play, but I was surprised, especially by the vehemence of their reaction and Ronnie even more than Keith.

[Edgy MD]

Add a page to the unwritten rule book.

[bmfc1]

Tough break for WSH as Wilson Ramos tears his ACL and is gone for the season.

[Frayed Knot]

As they say on the schoolyard ... 'That's gonna leave a mark'


oe: just saw the replay of his injury. He just jumped up for a high throw and came down and folded. Totally a non-contract injury.
And he's a FA this winter too, coming off probably his best season.

[bmfc1]

Bad throw by Ryan Zimmerman. Thomas Boswell:

The man who made the high weak throw to home was first baseman Ryan Zimmerman who has hurt his shoulder so often, then played through pain with cortisone shots in pennant races, that he doesn’t throw the ball so much as he attempts to synchronize all of the things that don’t work properly in his arm until he can launch a toss-lob that’s painful — to watch.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/once-again-injuries-threaten-to-haunt-the-nationals-in-october/2016/09/27/45456f4c-84b6-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html

[metirish]

Strasburg out of the NLDS , possibly longer

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17700972

[Zvon]

metirish wrote: Strasburg out of the NLDS , possibly longer http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17700972

Hmm.wow.