Everyone knows that the Washington Nationals are one of the best teams in baseball and once again predicted by analysts to be World Series Champs. As the season starts without some of our key guys: Span, Rendon, and Werth, the team knew they would have a slow start but not one that we are seeing now. Though there are 155 regular season games left, this “poor play” is beginning to raise some eyebrows.
The pitching has not seemed to be the problem as of yet, but more so what happens on the defensive end and how we are not moving runners in scoring position. There have been multiple errors in the 7 games that we have played, mostly attributed to the shortstop Ian Desmond. The month of April has not been so friendly to the silver slugger over the years as he just cannot seem to make the play. Ian Desmond has 5 errors in 5 games and is really starting to take the heat from analysts like Boomer Esiason and John Feinstien as they comment on previous games like such:
“It’s time to lower the boom on Washington shortstop Ian Desmond,” Esiason said. “In Monday’s 3-1 opening day loss to the Mets, Desmond committed three errors, two costly ones on the field
that led to three unearned runs and one thoughtless post-game gaffe.
“Max Scherzer, who just signed a seven-year, $210 million free agent contract
, was dominant. The former Tiger was nursing a no-hitter through five and two-thirds when Desmond dropped a pop fly that would have ended the inning, and preserved a 1-0 Nats lead and Scherzer’s no-no. Instead, the Mets’ Lucas Duda singled in two runs.
“‘He is what he is,’ Desmond later said about Scherzer’s debut. ‘You get 200-million something dollars, you better have no-hit stuff.’ Could the fact that Desmond and Washington failed to agree on a contract extension have prompted such a dumb comment? I think so…”
Although it seems like Desmond is struggling the most he is not the only one to blame considering how our offense has been quiet especially when we have people on base. Solo homers come frequently but its the RBI’s that count the most particularly when you are down in the game or our pitcher does not have his best stuff. Nats’ skipper Matt Williams seems very frustrated as you can tell if you have been watching post game interviews as he comments on their play saying its, “About as bad as you can get” and “It makes no difference….Nobody’s tight.Nobody’s playing tight.” However, he is very optimistic about the games ahead and how his ball club can turn it around as he describes it as them going through a “bad spell”.
Hopefully in the games to come we can see the players sharpen defensively and get those bats going!
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