For the second game in a row the Nationals received a stellar performance from their starting pitcher. For the second game in a row their own hitters were shackled, too.
This time it was by Chicago White Sox ace Jake Peavy, who tossed a complete-game three-hitter in a 1-0 shutout of Washington on Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park.
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Nats starter J.D. Martin – pitching for just the second time in 16 days – struck out a career-high six batters and walked none. He kept his team in the game through six innings with just one earned run allowed. Chicago had eight hits against Martin, but none were for extra bases and four of those singles were bloops. Add in Friday night’s performance by rookie Stephen Strasburg and Washington’s starters have struck out 16 and walked none over their last 13 innings of work. But it hasn’t done them much good.
“I know what the score is and I know that I need to just try to keep us in the game,” Martin said. “I know [Peavy] is throwing a great game. With a guy like that it’s going to be hard to score runs.”
Strasburg and Martin both left facing 1-0 deficits. Peavy, who walked just two batters and struck out seven, completed his fourth career shutout and eighth career complete game. He escaped a first-and-second jam with two outs in the ninth inning by getting Josh Willingham to pop out. At one point, Peavy retired 20 consecutive batters.
“He’s a good pitcher,” said Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who struck out four times against Peavy. “He’s been one of the best over the last five, six years. Sometimes [a pitcher] beats you. I don’t know if he beat me. He practically just kicked my [butt].”
Washington (31-38) has now lost five games in a row and seven of eight. The Nats have certainly run into some strong pitchers during this stretch. Before going up against Peavy they had faced Detroit ace Justin Verlander and also Cleveland’s Fausto Carmona. But the hard truth is the lineup has produced just 14 runs over these seven losses and one run total in its last 21 innings. The lone offensive outburst was a 9-4 win at Cleveland last Sunday. Given the recent slide is there growing concern inside the clubhouse that the season could be slipping away?
“No, that’s when the panic creeps in,” said Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan. “Nobody’s panicking in here. We just have to take each game as it comes and keep battling.”
Washington’s players weren’t happy with home plate umpire Sam Holbrook. Six of Peavy’s seven strikeouts came on called third strikes. Zimmerman stood at home plate and fumed after being called out to end the sixth inning. That happened to him three different times. The Nats have had their issues with umpires not calling checked swings against opponents over the last month. So a call that went Chicago’s way in the seventh inning brought Nats manager Jim Riggleman out of the dugout for an argument. Holbrook later ejected him during another discussion – the last Riggleman would see of another unproductive day at the plate from his team.
“I feel like we have to keep running our guys out there,” Riggleman said. “We’re trying to establish the same seven or eight guys out there. We have a little bit of a platoon in right field. But I just believe in our guys that we’re going to get some pitches and start driving them and hopefully have some men on base when we do it.”
