After what seems like an
eternity, the Nats are finally home after their 10-game three-city west coast
road trip in which MLB thoughtfully did not include an off-day until the return
trip home. The Nats ended the trip 4-6 and even though they battled Cy Young
winning pitchers, injuries and most of all themselves, it was a somewhat
disappointing result as they could have easily been 6-4, if not better. I could
go into much more detail but we covered this pretty extensively on the Podcast
last night and that’s a much more complete conversation. Check it out if you haven’t
already.
It’s hard to believe that it’s
Memorial Day weekend and the Nats are facing the Phillies for the first time
this year, while having already faced the Marlins, Braves and Reds twice. The
Phils roll into the Nation’s Capital with a 23-24 record having a disappointing
start to the year accompanied by a troubling injury to Roy Halladay and less
than stellar production from Cole Hamels. Even with those two issues, the
starting pitching had been middle of the road with the rotation ranking 17th
in WAR, and 15th in ERA/FIP. The bullpen is a whole other kind of
awful, ranking 26th in ERA and WAR while ranking 29th in
FIP. The offense hasn’t been doing the team any favors either, ranking 26th
in MLB in OPS with a combined .690.
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TJ, Dave, Matt and O'Hara fill out the panel this week as the Citizens crew discusses the week in Nats news, offensive consistency, roster moves regarding the bench and bullpen, the starting pitching depth that is receiving little fanfare, a look at the week ahead and as always answer questions from listeners.
Back at their usual day, time and podcast length; the Citizens crew returns to talk the week in Nats news, the woes of Danny Espinosa, recent injuries, the underwhelming offense, the upcoming week, take a few questions from listeners and as always there's a few tangents.
After some technical difficulties botched our first attempt at Episode 53; the Citizens Crew put together an abbreviated Pod to cover the week in Nats news, the relationship of strikeouts to runs scored and upcoming games.
Editors Note: This now has the previews for the entire series.
The Nats continue to piece things together as the season has progressed and that was very evident in the two game sweep of Detroit. The starting pitching, led by Jordan Zimmermann continues to make strides as has the fielding (4 E's in the last three series). The Nats will face the Cubs before heading out west and look to continue to put pressure on the Braves who only lead the Nats in the NL East by two games.
The Cubs come into the series with a 13-21 record, good for last in the NL Central and 26th in baseball (ahead of TOR, LAA, HOU, MIA). While fairly average all around with a .711 team OPS (16th MLB), a slightly below average 3.76 runs per game, 3.77 ERA (3.87 FIP) the Cubs have not managed to find any traction in the early part of the season and are just 4-6 in their last ten.
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After
a three game slide that encompassed the final game of the Reds series and the
first two of the four-game set in Atlanta, the middle/back of the rotation were
instrumental in earning the Nats a series split. On the injury side of things
Bryce Harper sustained a bruised rib on Wednesday and was pulled from the game,
but was back in the lineup on Thursday. Werth missed two games, was back in the
lineup Thursday before being pulled in the 4th and is not in the
lineup for Friday’s game in Pittsburgh. Friday marks the return of Ryan
Zimmerman from the DL and Danny Espinosa from the bench. The Nats are also
tinkering with the lineup a bit, sliding Ian Desmond to the two-spot with Tyler
Moore hitting sixth in place of Werth in RF.
After
starting 1-5 against the Cubs and Dodgers, the Pirates have rebounded to a
16-12 record, winning six of their last ten, good for second place in the NL
Central behind St Louis. The Pirates currently have a middling offense
averaging 4.14 runs per game (18th MLB) with a team .705 OPS (19th
MLB). The pitching staff is just as middle of the road, with a team 3.87 ERA
(T-15th MLB) while only allowing opposing batters to hit .233 (4th
MLB) but are also walking the fourth most batters in baseball to this point, 111.
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Back with a full cast the Citizens Crew is back to talk the week in Nats news, lackluster offense, Jordan Zimmermann, Dan Haren, upcoming games and we invent the new game 'Six Degrees of Octavio Dotel'. Stay tuned after the credits for so bonus footage.
The Citizens crew is back to talk the week in Nats news, Espinosa and Lombardozzi, Dan Haren, the Bryce Harper Experience, the upcoming week and MORE! Be sure to stay tuned after the usual prelude to the close ("we'd like to thank...") as we manage to keep up the Nats talk for almost a half hour after that point.
On Monday the Nats started a tough stretch
of 39 games in which 26 of them are against teams that finished over .500 in
2012. The bright side is that after these 39, the Nats will play just 27 such
games over the final 105 (roughly 65%) games of the season. Silver linings
aside, the Nats failed to take any of three very winnable games against the
Cardinals at Nats Park and have left the fan base frustrated. As Huzz pointed
out this morning, it’s been a little of everything going wrong at different
points that have led the Nats to their record under .500 since September 28,
2011.
The Nats look to get back on track
against a Cincinnati Reds club that looked lost during a five-game skid early
in the month but have since found their footing with series’ against Miami, Philadelphia
and the Cubs, winning eight of their last ten. The Reds however are without
their ace Johnny Cueto who is currently on the disabled list with a strained
muscle in his back. Offensively the Reds are as dangerous as ever, ranking 5th
in MLB in OPS (.756) and 4th in runs per game (5.18). Cincinnati pitching
is just as lethal, ranking 6th in ERA at 3.29 (3.60 FIP, 9th),
4th in K/9 at 8.70 and 1st in K:BB at 3.72. The Nats took
one of three at Cincinnati in early April with the rubber match being tight
until a 3-run sixth, look for all four of these games to be tightly contested.
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A game that was supposed to be a pitchers duel between flamethrowing right-handers; turned in to a one-sided Mets victory Friday night. As has been the case for most of this early season, Stephen Strasburg once again did not have his best stuff and it ended up being his undoing against a sharp Matt Harvey.
The Mets started the scoring off early when Jordany Valdespin reached on an error by Ian Desmond, went first to third on a Daniel Murphy single and then was brought home on a wild pitch by Strasburg. John Buck later singled in Murphy to bring the score to 2-0 after the 1st.
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After taking two of three from the Marlins in Miami the Nats head to New York to take on the Mets. With the full accompaniment of Bryce Harper and Denard Span back in the lineup after battling illness, the offense will be primed to take on a Mets team that the Nats went 14-4 against in 2012, hitting their staff to the tune of .262/.330/.417. It should also be noted that two of those losses came against RA Dickey.
Speaking of RA Dickey, the biggest move the Mets made this offseason was to move the Cy Young winner to Toronto for a package of prospects. So far this season the Mets are 7-7, having started well but are currently on a three-game slide. This week has been particularly difficult on the Mets with multiple games postponed against the Twins and Rockies due to snow, leading to a doubleheader in Colorado on Tuesday. The offense, powered by John Buck, David Wright and Daniel Murphy, is hitting .269/.344/.443 and averaging 6 runs per game.
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The Citizens crew is back for its 50th episode! The guys talk the week in Nats news, Zim to wherever, what's eating Daniel Haren, the upcoming week, take questions from listeners and more!
One night after a depleted lineup, aided by a poor pitching performance, got shellacked by the Miami Marlins; the Nats turned to Ross Detwiler to ensure that one loss did not turn into a streak. Detwiler fully obliged and stole the show as he is in every one of his starts thus far, going seven innings on 107 pitches allowing one lone run on seven hits while striking out five.
The offense, with Bryce Harper back in the lineup, did something it does not do often: get to Ricky Nolasco. Well, somewhat. In the top of the second, following a LaRoche single and a Desmond single and stolen base a groundout and sac-fly brought both home to put the Nats up 2-0.
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