It wasn’t a vintage performance from Gio Gonzalez, but that’s not what the Nationals needed anyway in a 5-2 win over the New York Mets on Sunday. Their starting left-hander shrugged off the idea that a long rain delay before the start of the game – 2 hours, 26 minutes – had any effect on his preparation. But he did need 110 pitches to get through 5 2/3 innings, gave up seven hits and walked two batters and his own manager said he wasn’t a happy camper after beginning his stretching program a little after noon for a game that began after 4 p.m.
“I know he was a little upset. He stretched at 12:30 and was ready to go. And then it was going to be 3:15. And then it was 4 o’clock,” Davey Johnson said. “That’s not easy for anybody. You kind of gear up mentally and then you got to shut it down and gear up mentally. He held us in there and did alright, but not to his standards.”
Gonzalez stranded two runners on base after laboring through the first inning with close to 30 pitches. The Mets left two more on base in the third. But the real killer was a leadoff triple by Ronny Cedeno in the fifth resulting in nothing. Gonzalez struck out Jason Bay, got a fly ball to right from Kelly Shoppach and struck out pitcher Jeremy Hefner. Gonzalez finally exhausted himself in the sixth after a leadoff double by Ike Davis, a fly ball and then an RBI groundout. A two-out walk to Shoppach, the No. 8 hitter, was the last straw.
Johnson later teased Gonzalez that his hitting – he had a base hit in the fourth inning – was better than his pitching. Gonzalez completely ignored a post-game question about his pregame routine being disrupted, instead complementing the Mets and praising his catcher, Kurt Suzuki. We all know wins are a context-based stat with little value in determining the league’s best pitchers. But it’s still cool to look up and see your name on the leader board and no one in baseball has more wins than Gonzalez. Only Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto and Tampa Bay’s David Price have as many. Gonzalez is 16-6 with a 3.23 ERA. His WHIP is 1.16. He is tied for ninth in the majors with 161 strikeouts. According to Fangraphs, only four pitchers have a higher WAR (wins above replacement) at 4.1. Gonzalez is just ahead of teammate Stephen Strasburg (4.0) in that category.
“It means a lot, especially with a new organization, a new team. This is definitely an accomplishment we all did together,” Gonzalez said. “This wasn’t definitely all by myself. This was one-through-nine every game and they play their hearts out for me every start. So this is a thank you to the bullpen, a thank you to the team. But we’re not done yet. We’ve got to continue to keep playing. Hopefully we stay that way and we keep winning.”
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