Results tagged “bullpen”

It's never good when a team is swept in a series. It's also never good when a team gives up a 9th inning lead. It takes a special team to get swept in a series by giving up three straight 9th inning leads. This rare feat was accomplished by the Nationals over the weekend, as they dropped three games to the Marlins. The result is that three pitchers from the bullpen, Saul Rivera, Steven Shell, and Wil Ledezma, were sent down to the minors after Sunday's game. To replace them, the team called up Jason Bergman, Garrett Mock, and Kip Wells. This is a dramatic move, and sends the message that there's a degree of losing that even the Nationals organization cannot tolerate.

The Nationals have gone 3-4 in the last week. Considering that the Nationals appear to have no interest in scoring runs, this record is fairly amazing. The Nationals are currently 28th, out of 30 teams, in the Major League in batting average at .237, 25th in OBP at .316, and 29th in slugging at .352. In fact, just pick about any offensive stat and the Nationals will be at the bottom of the list. When the season began, the assumption would be that our pitching would be rough, but our offense would be fine. The pitching has been better than expected, but everyone is wondering where our bats went.

With 1.8 percent of the season over, the Nationals were on pace to win a record setting 162 games. Currently, they are on a six-game losing streak, and now find themselves at the bottom of the NL East. That said, it is still too early in the season to be that worried about wins and losses, right Detroit? For example, a quick look at the standings show Baltimore, Kansas City, and Florida leading their divisions, and we know that that can't continue. Besides, it doesn't look like that many of you are paying attention anyway.