The Washington Nationals sent Jordan Zimmerman to the mound in Game 2 of their NLDS matchup against the San Fransisco Giants hoping for a strong performance from the right-hander, especially after his no-hitter Sunday against the Marlins, and they got just that.
Zimmerman finished his night with 8 2/3 innings of work allowing just one run on three hits, one walk and six strikeouts. When he was relieved by Drew Storen with two outs in the top of the ninth, though, he still had a shutout intact.
Zimmerman walked after retiring and Gregor Blanco to start the inning, and despite having just 100 pitches, was removed from the game. Storen then came in and allowed back-to-back hits to Buster Posey (single) and Pablo Sandoval (RBI double) that tied the game 1-1.
The focus here is Jordan Zimmerman, though. If Matt Williams had left him in the game, he could have more than likely finished off the shutout with under 110 pitches on the evening.
Looking a bit closer, the move by Williams still doesn't make sense. Not only had Zimmerman retired 20 consecutive batters beefore waling Panik, but Posey hasn't had that much success against him in his career. In 15 career at-bats against Zimmerman, Posey has just three hits against him, with all three of them being singles.
The move would have made sense if Zimmerman had been pulled after Posey reached, as Sandoval (the next batter) is 6-13 (.462 AVG) in his career against him.
So what do we take away from all of this? Just the fact that Zimmerman came out and pitched one hell of a game for the Nationals in his 2014 postseason debut.
In fact, he is the first pitcher in MLB history to leave a postseason game with a shutout intact through exactly 8 2/3 innings.
Tags: 2014 MLB Playoffs, 2014 NLDS, Jordan Zimmerman, MLB, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 4, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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