Washington Nationals Rapid Reaction: Gio Gonzalez And Bryce Harper Help Lead Nats To 4th Straight Win

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Gonzalez Shuts Out Braves For Six Innings

While Gonzalez’s last outing against the Cardinals was a quality start, he ran into some trouble in the fourth inning and gave up all three runs. Last night, it looked like Gonzalez was going to have that kind of inning in the top of the first. He walked Pedro Ciriaco and Freddie Freeman with one out. It looked like Gonzalez had an inning-ending double play when Nick Swisher grounded out to third, but Yunel Escobar made a bad throw to first to continue the inning.

Normally, you would see the 29-year-old get rattled in a situation like that, but Gonzalez kept his composure and got Cameron Maybin to ground out to short to end the inning. After that first inning, Gonzalez got into a groove. He struck out eight of the next 13 batters he faced and he was able to escape out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning without giving up a run. He went six innings, gave up no runs on two hits, struck out ten, and walked four on 106 pitches (63 strikes).

According to Brooks Baseball, Gonzalez threw 70% of his four-seam fastballs for strikes, but another pitch that he dominated with was his changeup. Out of the ten changeups, eight went for strikes and only one was put in play.

That being said, he did have four walks last night (tied a season high) and only threw 11 first pitch strikes to the 24 batters he faced. While Gonzalez did a good job of keeping the line moving for the starting pitchers, the amount of walks have to go down, especially when pitching with a 7-0 lead.

Next: Harper Is Finally Getting Pitches To Hit

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Harper Getting Pitches To Hit And Taking Advantage

After not swinging at a single pitch on Thursday night (four walks and a RBI), Bryce Harper has been finally getting pitches to hit and he is finding a way to make pitchers pay for that. Over the last two games, Harper is 5-for-9 with four runs scored, two doubles, two home runs, and three RBI’s.

Last night, Harper was able to cap off a four run third inning by making Shelby Miller work. Miller got ahead 1-2 in the count after striking Harper out in the first, but the Nats’ center fielder fouled off three straight pitches. After working the count to 3-2, Harper swung at the tenth pitch and hit a cutter over the wall in left-center for a two-run shot and his 33^rd of the season. Plus, it was the 500^th hit of his young career.

By hitting home runs in back-to-back games, Harper has now tied his August home run total that he had in 98 at-bats. The difference for him now is that Ryan Zimmerman has been red hot at the plate, which allows Harper to see more pitches and get more pitches to hit than usual. He saw 25 pitches last night, which was the most of any player in the Nats’ lineup.

Even with the Nationals not in first place at the moment, Harper still looks to be the clear choice for NL MVP. In addition to the 33 home runs, he is now at 100 home runs scored, and has an on-base percentage of .469. Right now, it seems Harper is putting up video-game type number in the eyes of his teammate and last night’s starter, Gio Gonzalez:

https://twitter.com/chelsea_janes/status/640351884113526784

Next: Desmond Doing The Little Things

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Desmond Doing The Little Things

Besides Bryce Harper, the only other Nationals’ player to score two runs last night was Ian Desmond. Desmond went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the 8-2 win. While the Nats’ shortstop had a good night at the plate, he has done a good job of doing the small things each of the last two games.

If you flashback to Friday night, Desmond was able to get a key sacrifice bunt down with two strikes that moved the runner over to third base. Then, last night, Desmond made a good play in the field in the first inning to take a hit away from Maybin and keep the Braves off the scoreboard.

One inning later, Desmond hit a pop up to center on a 2-2 pitch that ended up falling into center field for a leadoff double. He would go to third on a Ramos groundout and then come around to score on a wild pitch by Miller. Then, in the fourth, he took a 0-2 cutter and hit it into center for a base hit.

Finally, four innings later, Desmond stayed aggressive on a 2-0 pitch from Ryan Kelly and hit a double to left field. When you look at the team’s numbers since the All-Star break, Desmond has had 26 runs scored, which is second on the team behind Bryce Harper’s 41. His 26 RBI’s are tied for second on the team with Michael Taylor (Ryan Zimmerman leads with 39).

However, could the correlation with Desmond’s good hitting in the second half (.287/.348/.520) be because his defense has improved? Out of the 23 errors he has this season, only three of them have come in the second half of the year. As the season winds down, Desmond has become one of the team’s key run scorers and has rebounded from a miserable first half of the season.

Next: Recap: Nats Score Early And Often In 8-2 Win Over Braves

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