Prediction: The Nationals win 5-2. Big Z goes only 3 innings for the Marlins, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits. Detwiler, meanwhile goes 7 strong shutout innings for the Nationals.

 

I was at least half right. The Washington Nationals did win the game behind a very strong start from Ross Detwiler, 2 to 0.

Ross Detwiler has gotten off to a hot start in 2012, he only continued that against the Marlins. (Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE)

I was incorrect on Carlos Zambrano. Big Z did not struggle like I suspected he would Zambrano went 7 very solid innings for the Marlins. He struck out 6 hitters and did not walk a batter. The only blemish on Zambrano’s line was Rick Ankiel.

Source: FanGraphs

The Marlins best scoring chance happened in the second inning. Giancarlo Stanton led the inning off with a single. After a Gaby Sanchez line out, Austin Kearns lined a double down the third base line to set the Marlins up second and third with only one out. John Buck lifted a fly ball, but unfortunately for the Marlins, it was hit to Rick Ankiel, who has one of the strongest outfield arms in baseball. Donnie Murphy then struck out to end the inning.

Rick Ankiel led off the bottom of the third with a solo shot to center. It was the Nationals first hit of the game. Ankiel also had a hit in the fifth inning. His single off of Zambrano in the fifth was the second, and the last hit the Nats would get off of Big Z this evening.

This game was a pitchers dual that we would have expected for either game 2 or 3 of this series. Both pitchers brought their A games.

Detwiler pitched a gem of a game going six, with three hits, no earned runs, and seven strikeouts. With only 79 pitches, Detwiler was lifted after 6 innings. Have to wonder if he was on some kind of a pitch count?

Zambrano finished the game going seven innings, with two hits, one earned run, and six strikeouts. I assume he would have pitched the eight inning, but the Marlins needed to get some kind of offense going, so the Marlins sent Chris Coghlan instead.

Zambrano had his best start of the season, and as a Marlin Friday night against the Nationals. (Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE)

After Logan Morrison beat out an infield single, Chris Coghlan sent a deep shot to the warning track. Rick Ankiel was able to get underneath it at the wall and retire Coghlan. Jose Reyes grounded out, but Morrison was able to advance to second.

Next batter had the at bat of the game. Emilio Bonifacio fouled off 7 straight pitches and faced 15 total pitches before he drew a walk. The Marlins now had their hottest batter, and the guys they need at the plate. Tonight however, was not going to be a heroic one for Hanley Ramirez. He swung at a high fastball to end the threat. The Marlins were trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the eight.

Steve Cishek handled the eight inning for the Marlins. Cishek struck out Xavier Nady, then Ankiel came up again, and got his third hit of the game. On the hit, Ankiel rounded second and dared Stanton to throw him out. Stanton threw a perfect ball to second, but Jose Reyes missed the tag and Ankiel had himself a double. The next batter, Jesus Flores hit a grounder back to Cishek and Cishek had Ankiel hung between second and third. Cishek, however, decided to go to first base and retired Flores.

This poor decision would come back to haunt the Marlins. After intentionally walking former Marlin, Chad Tracy, Ian Desmond singled to score Ankiel, extending the Nats lead over the Fish to 2 to 0.

This was the first run Cishek had allowed in his 9 appearances (8.1 innings) this season.

In the ninth, Henry Rodriguez came into attempt to close the game for the Nationals. Rodriguez got Stanton to fly out to shallow center. Rodriguez walked Sanchez and allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch. Greg Dobbs flew out and John Buck drew a walk. With the game tying run on second, Chris Coghlan grounded into a fielders choice to end the game.

The Nationals win and move to 11-4 and the Marlins fell to 7-7. Both teams will be right back at it on Saturday afternoon. Remember, this game will start at 1:05 PM EST. The game will feature two of the better pitchers in baseball, Anibal Sanchez and Stephen Strasburg.

Prediction: Anibal Sanchez throws a gem, going eight shutout innings and allowing only one hit. Strasburg allows three runs over seven innings for the Nationals. Marlins win the game 3-0.

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I was able to talk to Michael Natelli from District on Deck. Here is a look at the chat we had.

Ehsan: The Washington Nationals are off to a hot start. Is the Nationals pitching staff as good as we are seeing now, or should we expect some regression?

Michael: It’s hard to say they’ll be this good for 162 games, simply because of how well they’ve performed. If each of the five starters performed at their best for the whole season, I wouldn’t question the concept, however, I just don’t see that happening. Every player has hot and cold streaks (in this case on the mound), so the rotation is likely to drop off some. But, when Edwin Jackson (12-9 last year, 3.79 ERA) is your fourth guy, that says something about this staff. Though it won’t be perfect, I expect pitching to be a highlight of this year’s season.

Ehsan: Bryce Harper has struggled a bit in Triple-A, does this slow start delay the Nationals plans on when they are going to bring him up?

Michael: Well first off let’s establish that the man isn’t even 20 yet, so there’s no reason to be concerned long term at this point. But to get to your specific question, it’s still unclear as to what the Nationals’ plans are with Harper. They brought him into Big League Camp, but it never sounded like they were intending on actually giving him a roster spot for Opening Day. Harper is indeed struggling right now, so to me, his call-up time table depends on a few things. 1) Around late-June/early-July, where are the Nats in the standings? At that point they will have a sense of whether or not they’ll be competing, so that will help with making the decision of whether or not to bring Harper up from the minors. 2) At that point, what’s the production from Rick Ankiel/Roger Bernadina looking like? If collectively they’re slacking and that’s causing the Nationals to lose games, that may motivate the Front Office to give Harper a shot. 

Bryce Harper, only 19, is going to debut in the majors sometime in 2012. (Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-US PRESSWIRE)

Ehsan: It’s too early in the season to look at numbers and make a judgment on any player, but in your opinion, has Jayson Werth proving to be the player the Nats wanted when they signed him to that long contract a season ago?

Michael: No one really knows what exactly the Nationals were looking for when they acquired Werth. Some say they thought he’d be the impact bat that would guide them to the playoffs, while others say that Werth was just a decent player the Nationals wanted, and they saw it as an opportunity to show the world/future free agents that they’re willing to spend in order to get the future free agents to start considering them. My personal expectations for Werth were to hover around .270-.275 with 20-25 homers and 90 or so RBIs, with roughly 15 stolen bases. His home runs and stolen bases (20 and 19, respectively) were as expected, but the RBIs and hits were not there. Granted some of that was due to a lingering injury to Ryan Zimmerman, but he should have had at least 70 RBIs in Zimmerman’s absence, and it still doesn’t justify the 130 hits.

So again, to answer your question, I think Werth will indeed become the player the Nationals wanted this season. Will he be worth his salary? No. But what the Nationals wanted? Yes. He won’t keep up the .327 average he currently has, but somewhere in the .280′s in not inconceivable, and when Michael Morse returns, that will take some pressure off, allowing Jayson to be himself more. Assuming Morse stays in the lineup and Zimmerman is healthy, Werth will return to form.

Ehsan:Stephen Strasburg is a monster on that mound. Is his inning count going to hurt the team later down the road? 160 is the magic number, I believe.

Michael: Strasburg has been a blast to watch and yes, 160 is the number. The way this bullpen has performed so far, I don’t believe the innings limit will hurt the team as far as pulling him early goes, but in terms of Strasburg missing starts come August/September, the team will definitely suffer. Strasburg has been a Top 5 pitcher in the NL so far, so even if whoever replaces him (presumably Chien-Ming Wang?) pitches well, he won’t duplicate Strasburg’s success. So unfortunately, this dreaded innings limit may come back and haunt the Nationals come playoff time. But if Strasburg goes on to have the career people expect him to, it will be well worth it.

Strasburg will take the mound against Anibal Sanchez in the second game of the three game set. (Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE)

Ehsan: What pitching match up are you looking forward to most this series? What about pitcher-hitter match up?

Michael: I’m very excited to watch tonight’s matchup of Ross Detwiler and Carlos Zambrano, as this is Detwiler’s first time facing the Marlins as a starter, and it will be a much different team than he has seen in the past. Zambrano’s career numbers against the Nats also make this an interesting matchup, because despite not being the greatest pitcher over the past few years, Zambrano holds an 8-3 career record against the Nationals with a 3.35 ERA in 15 appearances. So, neither team’s ace will be on the mound, but tonight’s matchup makes for a good story. 

Thanks to Michael for answering those questions for us on MM. Good luck to the Nationals and their fans in this series. Go Marlins!

You can ‘Like’ Marlin Maniac by clicking here. You can follow Marlin Maniac on Twitter @MarlinManiac and you can follow Ehsan Kassim on Twitter at @ehsank24.