THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013
PAGE 7B
THE SHOW
Nat's all-star still slumping
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Washington Nationals second baseman Danny Espinosa, left, can't hang onto the ball as St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Carpenter (13) is safe at second with a double during Wednesday's game.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals' first batter, Matt Carpenter, got it started against Stephen Strasburg by stretching a single into a double when Bryce Harper's throw to second base was bobbled.
One out later, Matt Holliday singled. Carlos Beltran walked. Yadier Molina delivered a two-run single. And then a throwing error on Daniel Descalso's grounder padded the score.
Just like that, 23 pitches in, the Cardinals built a three-run lead against Strasburg's Washington Nationals. And that was enough. On the strength of that half-inning, the Cardinals beat the Nationals 4-2 Wednesday to complete a sweep and give Washington's All-Star the only four-start losing streak of his young career.
Needing to be nearly perfect given Washington's lack of offence, Strasburg (1-4) improved considerably after that 12-minute first inning. Getting ahead in the count, he threw 110 pitches over seven innings, giving up no other runs and a total of five hits, along with seven strikeouts.
"I was trying to throw the perfect pitch. I tell myself going into the game, 'Don't do that.' And I go out there and I do it," said Strasburg, who hasn't won since opening day against Miami. "So I was really happy I was able to make the adjustment, get the feeling back. My velocity came back up, I was throwing a lot more strikes, and they weren't taking as good swings."
That initial inning, though, was precisely the sort of "scratch and claw" offense that Cardinals manager Mike Matheny spoke about before the game.
"People hate our 'small ball' theory," Matheny said, "but when we're not banging balls into the stands every single night, we've got to do other things, whether people like it or not."
His club used that style to add
an insurance run in the eighth off Drew Storen — who blew a ninth-ning lead against St. Louis in Game 5 in October — on Holliday's chopped single that didn't leave the infield.
"The thing that the Cardinals did is, they've got their boppers in the middle, but then they've got guys like Descalso and (Shane) Robinson and Kozma. Strasburg said. "They grind you out. They're not going to give in. They're not just going to strike out."
Trying to generate something for Washington's slumbering offense, Ian Desmond bunted for a base hit with one out in the second, then stole second and advanced to third on a flyout to the warning track. But rookie third baseman Anthony Rendon struck out to end the inning.
Strasburg actually was the one who got Washington going at the plate, grounding a single up the middle to lead off the sixth. Denard Span followed with a single, and Jayson Werth's groundout moved the runners up for Harper.
He grounded out to second, but at least that got Strasburg home to make it 3-1.
In the seventh, a pair of singles put runners at the corners with one out, but Kelly got out of that jam when pinch-hitter Lombardozi struck out and Jhonatan Solano, taking off from first on a hit-and-run, was thrown out at second by catcher Molina.
"Somebody said last night it feels like we're 0-20. But it's not that bad. We're only one game under .500, and it's April. We'll be all right," Werth said. "What we're going through: It's the first time this team has dealt with expectations, and there's something to be said about that. But we'll adjust."
Werth's fourth homer, off Trevor Rosenthal in the eighth, gave Washington its second run. But that was too little to stop the Nationals from dropping below .500 for the first time since finishing the 2011 season 80-81.
--starts this season allowed four hits and a walk with four strikeouts. He had to rely solely on his two and four-seam fastballs, too.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
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Chicago Cubs third baseman Cody Ransom fields an infield hit by Cincinnati Reds' Zack Cozart in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 24 in Cincinnati.
Reds beat Cubs, take eight of 10 in an early homestand
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CINCINNATI — Todd Frazier gave Mat Latos all the run support he needed, and Latos gave the Cincinnati Reds exactly what they needed to finish off a 10-game homestand in style.
Latos retired the first 10 batters and 15 of the first 16 he faced and mostly spared an overworked bullpen, and Frazier hit a long home run and the Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 Wednesday.
Latos (1-0), the victim of two blown saves among his first four
With one out in the sixth inning of a scoreless tie, Frazier blasted a 2-1 pitch from Jeff Samardzija 480 feet to straightaway center field to increase his team-leading home run total to six.
"This is what we wanted so bad," Reds manager Baker said. "This sets us straight for a couple of days."
It turned out not to be a problem.
"In the bullpen, I had a really good slider and changeup," said Latos, who's strung together 11 consecutive scoreless innings. "I don't know what the hell happened. It's tough. Everybody in the big leagues can hit the fastball. I had to focus on hitting spots, keeping the ball down and away and getting them to hit it on the ground."
Jonathan Broxton replaced Latos with two runners on base and nobody out in the eighth. Both runners moved up on Cody Ransom's sacrifice bunt, but pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano struck out and shortstop Zack Cozart went deep behind second base to flag down David Jesus's
grounder and throw him out to end the inning.
"I was going to throw it regardless, because there were two outs." Cozart said. "I saw out of the corner of my eye that he wasn't too close to the bag. I've been struggling at the plate lately, so to make a play like that makes you feel pretty good."
The Reds wrapped up the home stand, one of two of 10 games on their schedule this season, with eight wins despite playing two games that lasted 13 innings, another that went 10, a third that was suspended almost 19 hours from one night to the next day by rain, and Wednesday's game, the start of which was delayed 89 minutes by rain. They won eight games on a homestand of 10 or fewer games for just the sixth time in franchise history and the second in two years.