Photo by MudflapDC
With their loss yesterday to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Washington Nationals now find themselves with something they haven’t experienced since late 2011: a losing record. Yesterday’s loss, completing a three-game sweep by St. Louis and extending a home losing streak to six, left the Nationals with a 10-11 record and the team’s fans with a bit of early-season worries.
Consider the offense. Bryce Harper’s first-month power show aside, the Nationals have been rather anemic at the plate with a team batting average of .235 (21st-best in Major League Baseball). The lineup also currently lacks the services of Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos, who are both on the disabled list, but the batting order was expected to be strong throughout. Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond, for instance, have yet to switch on.
After yesterday’s loss, manager Davey Johnson told reporters he might start messing around with the familiar lineup. Steve Lombardozzi, a bench regular, will get the start at third base today against the Cincinnati Reds, while Jayson Werth might be moved from second in the lineup to the heart of the batting order. Lombardozzi has only been up 29 times so far, but he’s hitting at a .345 clip.
And then there’s the pitching. Stephen Strasburg lost his fourth consecutive start, and head Nationals cheerleader Thomas Boswell believes he’s found the reason why: Strasburg can’t throw “strike one.”
In 2011, Strasburg threw first-pitch strikes 71.6 percent of the time, the highest in baseball. He carried over his “challenge” mentality from college and put fear of shame into hitters. Last year, he threw 62.3 percent, 34th among starters. Wednesday, he was down to 56.2 for the season, an awful 84th among 107 starters.
The “strike one” problem isn’t endemic to Strasburg, though. The Nationals other four starters—Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Dan Haren, and Ross Detweiler have all seen their numbers dip.
The bullpen hasn’t been much relief, though. The Nationals’ 4.48 earned run average in relief is the fifth-highest in the National League.
But, should Nationals fans be panicky at this point? They were the cover subjects of Sports Illustrated’s supposedly accursed baseball preview, and the consensus pick by most major sports news organizations to run the table in the National League and win the World Series. So, yeah, expectations were a little inflated. But is it panic time yet?
No. There are still 141 games left. And even though this is the first time the Nationals have been a sub-.500 team since September 27, 2011, it’s a long season. And believe it or not, they’re actually hitting better this season than they were at this point last year.
