May 10 2010 12:04 PM
Listen, I'm not going to tapdance around it. The Nationals are tied with the Mets for second in the National League East, but our team is awesome and theirs ain't. With a -17 run differential, lousy fan support, and stopgap characters bouncing up and down the roster, these guys are still pretenders.
Which isn't to say that they aren't dangerous, they are. They've got sluggers who can punish mistakes, and finally have enough pitching that they are at least throwing somebody who might have a good game in him out there most days. And don't get the idea that, if you're down, there's still time to come back. Tyler Clipart and Madd Capps have been shutting the door like nobody's business --- logging 42 innings of 0.86 ERA late inning goodness between them. The latter leads the league in saves, and the former leads the league in wins. That's right, wins. It's disgraceful at too many levels to count. But not if you're Tyler Clipart or somebody who personally knows him. I am not one of those people. The game plan therefore should be clear. Get to these guys early and relent not!
Pitchers:
John Maine starts tonight against Luis Italiano. Mr. Itialiano, named for a tasty salad dressing, has a 4.67 ERA. That's lower than Maine but he may be trending in the opposite direction. The 25-year-old righthanded rookie looked sharp in his first two starts against LA and Chicago, but got battered the last time out against Atlanta. Good Met trivia: Luis was the compensation pick for Atlanta when the Mets signed Tom Glavine. He went 3-0 with a 2.21 ERA pitching for Puerto Rico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Get to him early! Relent not!
Tuesday, Jon Niese pitches for the Mets against Scott Wholesome (2-1, 4.35). But I don't know what's so wholesome about him. He's now started and lost at least three fights to friends and teammates while on the clock. (Randy Messenger, Sergio Mitre, and Miguel Cabrera, please step forward and collect your prizes.) He's also has ended an evening by driving 48 in a 35 MPH zone --- seemingly an innocuous infraction until the police lights started flashing. Mr. Wholesome ended up booked for fleeing the police, DWI, resisting arrest, assualting a police officer, and being a douchebag. Did he get tased that evening? Yes, he got tased that evening.
The former Marlin started the season pitching like kee-rap but has thrown brilliant ball his last three starts, with seven shutout innings agaisnt the Dodgers, six scoreless agaisnt the Floridians, and 7.1 one-run innings against Atlanta. He's walked 5 and fanned 20 over that span. he's averaged only 95 pitches over these three starts, so apparently Jim Reggaeman can't wait to get to his pen either. He's a lefty and therefore should be meat. MEAT! In fact, he's a career 1-6 douchebag against the Mets in his career, and it was a 2006 double by Paul Lo Duca that prompte him to make the mistake of asking for a piece of Miggy Cabrera. Get to him early! Relent not!
Erstwhile ace-in-the-making Mike Pelfrey returns to the mound Wenesday with his MRI in his back pocket. He takes on Nat starter Craig Stand-in. I don't know who he's standing in for, but Craig ended last season the way Johan did, getting arthroscopic surgery on a bone spur in his elbow, but he went under later in the season (September), but he appears to be all the way back. The bad news is that means he's all the way back to being the mediocrity of Craig Stand-in, with a 5.63 ERA. Don't be too fooled there, however, because he's given up a decent amount of hits, but almost no walks --- a mere four in 32 innings against 19 strikeouts. That's a league leading rate! So I guess you want to be aggressive against such a guy, as he attacks the strike zone. Get to him early! Relent not!
Good news here is that, if you get to them early, the rest of the pen is, well, not pitching like Clipart and Caps. These veteran suckers include Miguel Batsister, ex-Yankee bagman Brian Br..., well, seriously, the Emily Litella act is getting old early, but it's Brian Bruney, Tyler Walker and a bunch of other guys who signed with their beer googles on.* Bruney is especially brutal with walks.
You want to learn more about the starting lineup? You can remind yourself of some details here.
Let's get a quick run-through.
c: Ivan Rodriguez: The dude has no business rennaissancing his career to the tune of .365 /.391 / .494 // .885, but don't expect it to last, because the numbers are mostly a refection of an un-naturally high batting average, with Pudge neither walking nor hitting homers, and he hasn't OPS+'d over 100 since 2004. He's really just there to help provide a soft landing spot for Steven Strassburg, not to compete for batting titles. Gracious!
1b: Adam Dunn: He's battering .250 / .395 / .510 // .905. He sucks at first but slugs like a motherfucker. He and Josh Willingham are two walking machines in this lineup, with 45 between 'em. He went 3-4 with a pink-bat double yesterday, and I guess I'm just thankful that he's doing it for the Nats instead of the Braves.
2b: Adam Kennedy: The second Adam will be scrapping soon at a ballpark near you. Right now, he's been scrapping to the tune of a .653 OPS. He's the lesser Adam, for sure, but when you're pitching around the Dunns, Willinghams, and Zimmermans, guys like this get their cuts in, and he has 10 RBI in his last 17 games.
3b: Ryan Zimmerman: Sluggging a manly .662. Don't look now, but this guy is looking like the top thirdbaseman in baseball right now. He's had some hammy problems this season, but David Wright, you know, has had strikeout problems.
ss: Christian Guzman: Still ticking. He's fighting for PT with rookie Ian Desmond. Both are doing a pretty decent job.
lf: Josh Willingham: I don't want to talk about him. He's easy to overlook and people pay if they do.
cf: Nyjer Morgan: He's having a tough time of it, getting caught stealing a lot this season. Jim Riggleman is in denial.
rf: Roger Bernadina: This guy is getting his chance since the Elijah Dukes experiment has been unplugged. He's not hitting yet, but he has forearms that could make Steve Garvey blush.
Garvey: Heck, Popeye.
Also look for Willies: Wilie Taveras and Willie Harris: Three words. Game-saving catch. OK, one word, and one hyphenated term. The latter kills us with them.
Anyway, enjoy this series with your brothers from a few stops down Interstate 95. Enjoy your reunions with ex-Metskies like Tyler Walker, who debuted with the Mets; and Livan Hernandez, who we miss but is pitching so well he must be cheating. Thrill to the joyful National reunions of Metskies Fernando Tatis (an Expo from 2001--2003); and... nobody else. But Jerry Manuel and Razor Shines both spent their formative years in the Expo system.
The Nationals are attributing their modest success so far to chemistry. Chemistry is great, but it's never cited as an asset that otherwise losing teams have, so I'm going to atribute it to a reasonable amount of talent and a fair amount of luck, and I'm looking for the Mets to expose that luck over the next three days. Get to them early! Relent not!
* "Why did I sign with the Nationals? When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you're just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J-Lo. And to me, this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me." --- Julian Taveraz, 2009.