I attended last night's game at Woodbridge and here are my observations on Patterson's pitching:
He was not as sharp as one would like to see him. He walked 2 - both in the first inning -usually an indication that things are not quite right with him, and threw a wild pitch. It did seem to me, and those around me, that a few of his pitches that were called balls could have been strikes - he was not missing by much, not really wild, just not sharp. I believe he threw more first pitch strikes than he did in Frederick last week. His velocity looked pretty good, though I could not really tell. He used up a lot of his alloted pitches in the first inning, though he only gave up 1 run, a leadoff home run (the next time that batter faced him, he was out on a fly ball). He took the mound for the 4th inning, so evidently he still had some pitches left. However, at that point it started raining and the umpires stopped the game and the ground crew covered the field. The rain stopped before they even got the tarp on and Patterson went to the bullpen to throw, but after a few pitches he stopped and a discussion was held. When the game started again, after a 16 minute rain delay, Shairon Martis took the mound. I hope that this was either precautionary or he was near the end of his pitch count, and not that his arm stiffened up. Accoroding to the item on the Nats website, Patterson said his mechanics were off. I watched him warming up before the game and he seemed to be concerned about the length of his stride. At one point he measured the distance from the rubber to the point where his left foot landed. One thing that worried me somewhat is that when not pitching, he seemed to shake his hand and/or his arm a lot as though they might be numb. This could be from the nerve irritation and might mean that he still has that problem. He apparently did say, however, that he felt no pain in his arm. Overall I would say that he is still far from the "real John Patterson" but is slowly making progress. My guess would be that he still needs at least 2 more rehab starts and may still not be 100% when he returns to the rotation.
These are only my observations. If anyone who saw or heard the game has any additions and/or corrections, please post them.
