Finally the Nationals are returning to Washington. Did we play any home games in May? I really don't remember. The Last couple roadtrips have been long ones with short stays at home. Hopefully we now settle into a more normal type of schedule and get some sort of rhythm going. The Astros series was one of the most disapointing I can remember in a long long time. I don't know how mad I was last night I sort of blacked out with anger. So, if anyone hears about old ladies being run over at Fair Oaks Mall it wasn't me. it probably isn't a good thing that baseball can control my mood so much, but it is my solace and when the place I am to find peace is crappy how can I be expected to have any happiness left inside.
Reds vs. Nationals
In the middle of a baseball season it is hard to lable any series as important, but I think this one is. This could be a make or break series for the Nationals. The odds of Strasburg coming up to a .500 team are now at slim to none as it would take a sweep in this series, but him coming up to a team that is five or six games under has got to be the least desired outcome. Of course in march we would have been jumping up and down to be three under at this point. It is odd how watching things play out can change your perspective. The reds are a good team with lots and lots of hitting, but their pitching is suspect. This is the type of team that scares me the most since we just made the back of the Astros rotation look like the second coming of Cy Young.
Friday June, 4 Aaron Harang vs. Livan Hernandez
Harang has not looked like himself this season and that scares me. No matter how poorly a pitcher as established as Harang performs the expectation is always that they will return to their carreer norms soon or later. I say stuff like this and then I go to look up the stats and find out I am completely wrong. Those waiting for Aaron harang to be good again have been waiting since 2007. He hasn't be a very good pitcher since leading the league in strikeouts. Maybe it went to his head and he just kept trying to strike everyone out and ended up throwing too many pitches. He also hasn't been very good against the Nationals producing a 3.99 ERA with no wins and a 1.602 WHIP. If anyone besides Zimmerman, Dunn, and Willingham can hit tonight we should be able to get to him.
Hey what is that fat old guy doing out on the mound. I didn't pay $300 to watch him pitch. Isn't that the same guy that pitched the last game i went to in 2005? I am sure this will be heard a couple times throughout the ballpark tonight as I am sure many people will stick it out and attend the game they bought tickets for, and I am also sure many of those people haven't been to the ballpark since last it was an event. Livan is having a very good season and hopefully he can continue that tonight against the Reds.
Saturday June, 5 Mike Leake vs. Luis Atilano
Leake is much better than those other two overhyped bums that had to be sent to the minors to start the season. He doesn't need any stinking minors to be a sensation. What's that you say, the list of pitchers that completel skip the minors isn't all that impressive. Why could that be? Maybe because there is no fear of protecting a middle level prospect from super 2 status. Mike Leake has been performing well and he could completely shut us down on Saturday, but he is a middle level prospect over performing at the Major League level. The could be for two reasons. No one has seen him before, or he is better than people thought. It is probably a little bit of both and he will go on to have a decent but not great major league career in the mold of a Gil Meche or Carlos Silva.
We have our own suprise rookie suckers. How do you like your sinkerballers? strike throwing machines or nibblers that hang sliders. Unfortunately Atilano has been both at times, but he is still behind in the race to be sent down which at this point has to be being led by Craig Stammen. I am hopefully that Atilano can build off his last two starts, but the Reds are a much better offense than he faced against the Giants or Astros.
Sunday June, 6 Bronson Arroyo vs. Craig Stammen
Before the season began Jim Bowden predicted a big year for Arroyo. In the beginning of the year he looked like he could be correct, but Arroyo has recently come back to earth and has not been pitching at his best. His numbers against Washington aren't as bad as i thought, but I do seem to remember one game where we completely lit him up. Maybe that will happen again and our offense can stop helping struggling pitchers out.
Speaking of struggling pitchers Craig Stammen has realized his slider sucks and he should stop throwing it 17% of the time. Stammen has been throwing harder this year and with a hard sinker and a good curveball there is no reason to throw a slider that hangs up in the strikezone waiting to be hammered. Look for Stammen to throw the slider less in this outing and actually pitch like he doesn't want to return to his beloved Indian Casinos and Syracuse Coeds.
X-Factors
The braves love to hit walk-off grandslams against closeres named Cordero. The other Cordero has gone on to have more of a carreer than our once beloved and deeply missed Chief. So maybe in one of these games we fall behind by 10 runs only to win it as Alberto Gonzalaz cranks his third homer of his carreer for a walk-off grandslam in the bottom of the ninth. I doubt it, but Cordero has been struggling and we were able to force Lindstrom to blow a couple saves even if we just gave them right back. Capps has to break out of his slump at some point and the defense can't possibly keep making errors behind him.
The biggest x-factor for us this weekend is my hat. I am serious about this folks. The current hat I have been wearing is on a modest four game win streak which is a season high in wins for any hats I own. But I don't think it is really just four wins in a row as i wore this hat to the third to last game in the Metrodome as the Twins beat Zack Grienke and Jon Rauch got the BS W. I even think this hat got to see a lot of Nationals wins last season. It did take a lot of luck for Josh Willingham to hit a walk-off in the last game the hat attended and maybe now all its luck is used up.
Final Thoughts
This is a tough series. Make no mistake about that. The Reds should win this series. They should be able to keep our tailspin going as we await the arrival of Stephen Strasburg, but as we saw this week what should happen doesn't always happen. I think we can take two of three, but it won't be easy. The Reds have very good hitting and the Nationals do not. If our pitchers can keep their hitters at bay then i think we can score enough runs to win, but we have to get back to winning the close games if we have any hopes of success.
