Washington Nationals Reaction: Gio Gonzalez Shows No Rust

Gonzalez Keeps His Focus

When I was previewing this game on Monday, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Gonzalez in this game because of the long layoff. However, I liked the mentality that the Nats’ left-hander had in this outing. For starters, I like that new pitching coach Mike Maddux has the starter who is pitching the next day track the other starter like Gonzalez did for Scherzer on Monday.

As for last night’s start, Gonzalez had good command on all of his pitches. He threw 61 of his 95 pitches for strikes and he had his good command from the get go when you look at the fact that he threw 18 first pitch strikes to the 23 batters he faced and had seven three-ball counts (three of them against Freddie Freeman).

Plus, he avoided the crooked inning, which usually keeps him from going deep into games. The inning that stood out last night was the second, which began with a Jeff Francoeur single and Erick Aybar reaching on an error by Danny Espinosa. However, Gonzalez regrouped and struck out Tyler Flowers, got Gordon Beckham to fly out to right, and Chacin to pop out to second to get out of a big jam.

While it is only one outing and against a Braves lineup with no big offensive threats outside of Freeman, it was interesting to see the impact that Maddux is having in Gonzalez and for Nats’ fans. Hopefully that impact leads to more consistency during the rest of this season.

Next: Harper Comes Up Clutch

Harper’s Clutch Hit

All night long, the Nationals offense struggled to find any rhythm against Jhoulys Chacin. The Braves’ right-hander went six innings, gave up no runs on five hits, and struck out eight on only 69 pitches (52 strikes). Chacin pounded the strike zone all night and only had two three-ball counts (Daniel Murphy in the fourth and Jayson Werth in the fifth).

However, once Chacin left the game, the Nats had opportunities against the Braves bullpen, which isn’t its strongest unit when you consider they were using the former closer, Jason Grilli, in the sixth inning Monday night.

After the Nats ran into a double play in the seventh, they went up against Jim Johnson in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Stephen Drew picked up his first Nats hit via a single to center. Two batters later, Rendon drew a walk, which caused the Braves to go to O’Flaherty to face Harper.

Harper, who had struck out looking against O’Flaherty the night before, was able to hit the game-winning double past Francoeur in left. This is the second time O’Flaherty has given up a game-winning hit against the Nats this year (Murphy’s 10^th inning double on Opening Day).

Even though Harper didn’t hit his 100^th career home run, he continued his runners in scoring position success from last year when he hit .301 (second behind Michael Taylor) with eight home runs and 55 RBI’s (led team in both categories).

Next: Bullpen Has Late Inning Magic

Bullpen Able To Pull Late Inning Magic

So far this season, Dusty Baker has done a lot of mixing and matching in the bullpen, but it has paid off. After a scoreless seventh inning by Shawn Kelley, Oliver Perez came in to start the eighth, but walked the first two batters and threw a wild pitch on the first nine pitches before facing Nats’ killer, Freddie Freeman.

But, Perez got the best of Freeman and struck him out with a slider before being taken out for Blake Treinen. Even though Treinen ended up loading the bases, he was able to use his nasty sinker to get Jeff Francoeur to ground into an inning ending double play. Due to the Nats scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth, Treinen picked up his second win in four appearances.

On a night where Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable after back-to-back outings, the Nats bullpen gave up only one run (Kelly Johnson RBI double in the ninth), gave up three hits, and struck out six batters.

Next: Recap: Harper/Bullpen Key In 2-1 Win

Felipe Rivero entered the game in the ninth inning and was the one who gave up the Johnson double, but he was able to strike out Mallex Smith with a fastball to win the game and pick up the save. He showed why many think he can be a future closer.

While it is only six games, one of the things the Nats new bullpen has done is shown good control. Perez’s two walks put the bullpen’s walk total up to seven, which is the second least in the National League. Only the Cubs have fewer walks with one.