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Jul 6, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher Doug Fister (58) throws to the Cincinnati Reds during the first inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Fister Bounces Back Against The Reds

Doug Fister was heading into last night’s game off of a start in Atlanta where he had trouble in the fourth inning. He gave up all four runs in the fourth, including back-to-back home runs. Last night, the 31-year-old right-hander was able to pitch well, but he hasn’t been able to rack up the groundball outs.

He gave up two runs (one earned run) on eight hits, struck out two, and walked one on 86 pitches. 62 of those 86 pitches were for strikes, but he still left a lot of pitches up in the zone. Last night, he had 15 flyball outs. That is the most flyball outs that he had in an outing since April 16 against the Phillies.

Right at the beginning of the game, Fister hurt his own cause by making his own error. Reds’ catcher Brayan Pena reached on a throwing error by Fister and advanced to second base. He nearly got out of the inning, but for the second straight outing, he was not able to get the pitcher. In two at-bats against him, Anthony DeSclafani went 1-for-1 with a walk and a RBI double in the second inning. All that being said, it was still a good outing for Fister. However, if he’s not going to have that swing and miss stuff, he needs to be able to keep the ball down in the zone more consistently.

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