chw42

That was a foul tip that hit the ground.

I think Jose was looking fastball the whole time when he should have been sitting slider given Manoah couldn't throw a competitive pitch with the fastball until the 3-2 pitch.

Huge missed opportunity. Jose missed an absolute hanger on 3-1.

Manoah lost his fastball command.

Manoah can kind of pass as a young Lance Lynn both physically and stuff-wise.

I think it's cause he was throwing mostly sinkers. His 4 seam got up to 93.

They lost yesterday cause Semien botched a routine play in the 9th with 2 outs. They also had bases loaded and 1 out in extras and couldn't score another run to end it.

Way to get him after falling behind 3-0.

Ump is giving Lance a huge zone.

The Nats hit him pretty hard last time out. It doesn't look like he's off his game tonight though.

Very different inning first inning than Lance's last start.

Eloy hit fine in the Oakland series, he wasn't real good in TB though.

Jose must have a littany of bruises

Agreed. A top 5 of Robert, Moncada, Abreu, Eloy, Vaughn seems a lot better.

This thread isn't meant to be a critique on Vaughn. I think he's done a wonderful job this year regardless of how he's hit in these situations. I'm just trying to understand why this is happening. I honestly think it's a blend of bad/anxious approach and teams taking advantage of his inexperience on breaking pitches.

I did a little more digging cause I was curious. His problem only comes with 2 outs and RISP. With RISP and less than 2 outs (or with runners on in general), he's hit .366 with a similar amount of chances. So I looked into how they were pitching him location-wise. First image is with no runners on, 2nd image is with RISP and 2 outs, and 3rd image is RISP and less than 2 outs. If teams are willing to pitch him with RISP and 2 outs with mostly sliders and outside (they absolutely wear out that outside corner), why aren't they doing it when there's RISP and less than 2 outs? The only explanation I can think of is they want him to ground into double plays, but you'd think a strike out would be just fine with who we've hit after him this year.

If we're only up 5 games going into Cleveland on September 23rd, you should be. Otherwise, no.

Bummer has been throwing 94 for a while and was successful with it for the most part until he couldn't throw strikes against the Rays.

Maybe feeling a bit threatened is what the team and managerial staff actually needs.

Would you say the race would get remotely tense if we are only 6 or 7 games up by Thursday?

I'm still haunted by the 4 game series there last year.

I sure as hell hope not, but ask the Red Sox and Mets how fast a big divisional lead can disappear in a matter of weeks.

They get to play the Rangers for 3 coming up and just swept the Angels. They've been pitching their ass off. If we keep playing like crap they can be as close as 6 games back come Thursday. As much as I'd like to think the race is over, it's kind of not if we continue the bad play we've had as of late.

He played fine on Friday didn't he? If anything, he probably showed off his speed more on Friday than any other game this year.

I like how we sat him against Oakland to prepare him for games on turf only for him to maybe play once on the turf.