While Stephen Strasburg will always have an ‘L’ next to his name for the game he pitched Wednesday evening, he certainly deserved better.
After giving up just one run in six innings while striking out nine and walking none, the Nationals offense thanked him by making Royals’ starter Brian Bannister, owner of a 5.70 ERA, look like an All-Star.
“He didn’t leave anything in the middle of the plate,” Josh Willingham said.
Offensive leader Ryan Zimmerman managed to get a single but did not drive in any runs on Wednesday night.
“It’s something we should be doing a lot better and we know that,” he said.
Manager Jim Riggleman recognized that the team’s biggest problem Wednesday night was the offense.
“The number of runs that crossed the plate was the biggest issue,” he said. “I want to score runs more than anybody, but they just held us down.”
It would be easy to point to a blown call at home plate as an excuse, but that only accounts for one run. An Adam Dunn single had Roger Bernadina rounding third and getting his foot to cross the plate before Jason Kendall could put the tag on. Home plate umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt called him out.
Roger Bernadina said that he was tagged high up on his leg because he had slid into home before the tag was applied at all.
“It definitely frustrated me because I wanted to score. It would be a different game,” he said. “You want to score that moment. I didn’t say much about it. I said I thought I beat it out.”
The Nationals felt justly frustrated by not getting the runs they needed home. On one play, Josh Willingham was unable to score on a ground ball to the first baseman.
“I went but I didn’t think I could make it,” Willingham said. ““Your first instincts got to be to go on the ground. Up the middle, I score easy.”
Even though he received the loss, Stephen Strasburg pitched a great game once again. Riggleman noted that he did not have his best stuff but managed to produce anyway.
“I thought he pitched really good,” he said. “With those things not going well for Stephen that’s all he gave up, that’s a pretty special effort.”
Strasburg said that the heat, which reached the upper 90s, did not play a factor in his pitching. At least he was not going to use that as an excuse. Strasburg seemed to be proud of his effort and tipped his hat to Jose Guillen who had the winning RBI single.
“A couple of mistakes but I mean they didn’t really hit the ball hard and they found the holes,” Strasburg said. “That’s baseball.”
The Nationals were unable to complete the sweep of the Royals and are now heading to Baltimore to face the struggling Orioles. In order to capitalize on their recent string of strong starting pitching, the Nationals will have to start driving in runs when they have opportunities.
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
