The Air Was Shattered by the Force of Danny’s Blow

Strikeouts are proliferating throughout the game of baseball like never before.  Last year was the highest strikeout rate in the history of the game and the American League is on a record-setting pace in 2013. Batters in both leagues flail helplessly just over twenty percent of the time. Historic rates were usually no higher than 16 percent, but those figures have been steadily on the rise in recent years.

This year the American League will be helped by the shift of Houston to the AL.  Houston batters are striking out almost three in every ten times they go to the plate. By comparison, the hapless 2003 Detroit Tigers who won only 43 games struck out only 18 percent of the time.

So when you watch Washington second baseman, Danny Espinosa, swing mightily at a ball in his eyes rather than try to get a pitch he can hit to the right side to movethe  runner over, you are watching the modern trend in the game, not one player’s abject failure to abide by time-honored strictures of the game. Basebll has steadily moved away from the concept of choking up on the bat with two strikes and trying to make contact. The modern hitter gets three strikes and he wants the most out of every one.

It may be a trend in the game, but successful teams are embracing it less than others. The Cardinal team that is looking more formidable as the season establishes itself, strikes out less often and scores runs without the long ball. Detroit and Texas in the AL are succeeding by striking out more in line with traditional averages.

Not surprising to anyone who has been watching the Nationals this season, Washington is second in the National League in strikeouts, whiffing 22 out of 100 plate appearances. LaRoche is playing in a Houston area code with almost 3 whiffs in ten plate appearances, while Desmond is close behind at 2.5

What is counter-intuitive is that the Atlanta Braves are the team with the highest rate in the NL.  Teams like the Braves are making it work by hitting the ball out of the park when they do manage to make contact. The Braves lead the NL in home runs this season and are well ahead of the Nationals in that category.

So when the Pirates pitching staff–that leads the NL in walks–met the Braves flailing bats who knew what to expect. But it was the Pirates who swept the series. A similar outcome might have awaited the Nationals. Entering their weekend series in Pittsburgh, the Nationals’ OBP of .291 was second only to the Marlins’ .287.

Would Washington follow Atlanta’s lead?. A.J. Burnett made it look as though they would and that coaxing them into their straight jackets would be easy. He struck out nine in seven innings with only a single walk. Zimmerman K’ed four times. The Pirates sent their best two relievers: Melancon and Grilli, out to finish the job and they truck out five of the six Washington batters they faced.

Davey Johnson called a team meeting and told his team they were pressing, that they needed to have more fun. Someone must have mentioned that it is never fun listening to the sound of a third pitch strike nestling into the catcher’s mitt, because the Nats came out on Saturday a different team. Veterans Zimmerman and LaRoche took the lead, drawing five walks between them and scoring three of the five runs. But it was the smart at bats that players like Desmond, LaRoche and finally, Tyler Moore, had that made the difference. Their three sacrifice flies won the game.

On Sunday it may have appeared that the team reverted to its old self, scoring five times on two home runs. But Danny Espinosa had a great at bat in the second inning, refusing to chase bad pitches with runners on second and third and only a single out. He got a sacrifice fly out of the bat and the first run of the game scored for the Nats. It erased a horrible inning for Gio Gonzalez in the first and righted a badly listing ship. Espinosa ripped a home run to left the next time up.

The Nationals have looked like they were correcting course during several other series: against the Reds and the Braves most recently. Maybe it just takes time to get everyone on the same page. But the trip to PNC Park turned out much better for Washington than Atlanta. A season is made up of dozens of small pitched battles. This last one was carried by the Nats and maybe the direction of the war changed for the better. Whether the Nats can overtake Atlanta or the Cards remains to be seen. But baseball is always more fun when you are winning, right Davey?