Major League Baseball ToDay

What’s wrong with Chico from the Nationals?

Chico had his third consecutive subpar outing in the Nationals’ 7-0 loss to the Cubs on Saturday. He lasted four innings and gave up five runs on eight hits, falling to 0-5. In his last three games, Chico has allowed 16 runs in 13 innings.

Chico didn’t execute his pitches in the first two innings. In the top of the first inning, which lasted 18 minutes, the Cubs scored three runs. Mark DeRosa highlighted the scoring with a two-run single. The next inning was just as bad, as Chico gave up a two-run double to Derrek Lee.

Chico, who never established his fastball in the game, agreed with St. Claire’s assessment that he is pressing on the mound.

“I think I’m trying to do too much. I just have to settle down and let everything happen,” Chico said. “I’m trying to get out of the rut that I’m in.”

Chico hesitantly said that he is not worried about his job.

Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano (Big Z) was on the opposite side of the spectrum. Zambrano held the Nationals to five hits, while striking out five batters. The only time the Nationals made any serious threat was in the first and seventh innings. In the first, Washington had runners on first and third with two outs, but Lastings Milledge struck out to end the inning.

In the seventh, they had runners on second and third with two outs, but Zimmerman struck out swinging.

“He comes right after you,” catcher Johnny Estrada said. “He pounds the strike zone. He believes in his fastball. It’s overpowering. It’s good enough to get you out. He doesn’t go out there throwing meatballs. He locates from both sides of the plate. He rarely pitches in patterns.”

Nationals fans don’t want any more losing lopsided performances from their starting pitcher. They were ready to celebrate in their new ballpark with their Washington Nationals merchandise but it doesn’t look like they will be doing much of anything but watching in disbelief.

Even with some early-season injuries, lineup changes and inconsistent hitting, the Astros’ defense has never wavered.

Their play in the field has been outstanding.

So far this year, the Astros have committed only three errors. This is the fewest in the National League.

“I think they’ve made all the plays they’ve had to make,” manager Cecil Cooper said. A lot of the Astros extraordinary defense goes back to Spring Training. They were making the defensive stops then and now that they are doing it in the regular season is no surprise to anyone. Fundamentals are what every coach and manager emphasize. He also said, “Those are some of the first things we talked about — making sure the plays that we have to make, that we make them.”

The Astros made those plays in Spring Training, and the countless hours of practice they put in have carried over to the regular season.

They are a team to be reckoned with. If the game is close, the Astros will probably win.

The Astros fans do appreciate the fact that their team is the best defensive team in the National League. Even though the Astros haven’t been attending games like they did last year, the many thousands that come to the games wear their Houston Astros merchandise as they cheer their team on.

The Pirates knew what it is like to lose consecutive games. They now know what it is like to lose consecutive extra-inning games.

They just want to find a way to get timely hitting so they can come from behind in games and get a win.

They have played 4 extra-inning games so far and that can be very tiresome for any team. Pittsburgh played a 12 game versus the Cubs and lost it. On Wednesday, they played 15 innings and lost by a bigger margin.

The truth is they have to start winning extra-inning games. The momentum from one extra inning game is taken into the next one. If you lost, then you will probably lose the next extra-inning game.

Just add this one, a 6-4 defeat at the hands of the Cubs at PNC Park, to the list of deflating defeats the Pirates have had only a week into the season.

It had to be heartbreaking by the way it happened. From the first seven innings, people thought the Pirates had no chance of winning. Jason Bay gave up a ninth inning homer, which sent that game into extra innings.

That was likely true for many of the 9,735 fans in the stands who were watching Cubs starter Ryan Dempster post zeros on the scoreboard with seemingly little effort.

The small crowd that was brave enough to even show up at PNC Park had their Pittsburgh Pirates merchandise. But down to their last at-bat in both the ninth and 14th innings, the Pirates rode the momentum of their slumping heart-of-the-order hitters to pump a few extra breaths into the offense.

The Cubs beat the Pirates (not in extra innings) in the third game and swept them.

There are 162 games in the regular season and each one is of the utmost importance. Some seem to think that games in the later part of the season count more than the earlier games.

Well, the last time I checked, each game counts as either 1 win or 1 loss. The games at the end mean just as much as the ones at the beginning of the season. If a team wins their games in the beginning, then there is less stress to win them in the end.

Some teams continue to support their team no matter how their season goes. Teams like the Toronto Blue Jays see a good attendance despite never have won a World Series. They also support their team by wearing Toronto Blue Jays merchandise.

It really doesn’t matter how many games you win because in the end all that really matters is if you won the World Series or not. Often times a superb team gets knocked out of the playoffs and the underdog wins.

To be honest, teams have to do just enough to get by in the regular season but they have to bring their best stuff come playoff time.