Better Lucky than Good

Right now, the National are not clearly the worst team in baseball. Oh yeah, we could all rattle our SABR and prove how bad the Nats have actually played the first five games. But the difference this season is that with slightly better defense and baserunning, the Nats have been able to make few timely plays to win games.

Matt Capps is a ticking timebomb... I'm pretty sure he just walked me to load the bases. While the options are not at all appealing, now we know why Mike MacDougal was exhumed.

How Does Lannan's Game Rate

On one hand, he threw just 92 pitches to dig out 6.2 innings of six-hit ball. The only problem is that four of those six hits landed over the fence. Ibanez hit two and Werth hit one, so it isn't like scrubs were teeing off on his stuff, though the Ruiz bomb leaves much to be desired. Sometimes a pitcher can get away with a couple fly balls. Luck was clearly not on Lannan's side last night.









Only Ibanez's fifth inning shot was a no-doubter, and Lannan still recorded 14 of his outs via the ground ball. Clearly, John Lannan was in control until the seventh inning, where despite a low pitch count, things got a little sideways. The homeruns aside, walking Pedro Martinez is inexcusable at any level, which probably meant the gopher balls finally got to him. All in all, this was his best game the past month.

It is disappointing to see Lannan's record where it is. He has pitched much better than this, and it isn't his fault the offense and defense perform with the consistency of a Havana Omelette. But with so many ugly things (Nationals Baseball) to dwell on in a lost season, Lannan gets written in a success story.

Quicksand

If the Nats were losing every game 8-3, it would be easy to point out their shortcomings. But with the array of 2-1 and 4-2 losses to go along with the shootouts, it can be difficult to point at a single flaw. It does seem that the Nats compound mistakes very quickly. A botched double play always seems to lead to a hung curve ball. 2 out walks always find their way home via a dying quail down the line. As much as some teams make luck for themselves, the Nats produce plenty of opportunities for bad luck to overwhelm.

They are not the first Washington franchise to suffer from this problem, and maybe Keanu is the guy to come give a pep talk. Manny certainly isn't about rallying the troops. But I still think that Anderson Hernandez is worried about spiders at second base.