[ Photoset ] Nationals top prospect starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann (from my sister's alma mater UofW Stevens Point – cold place!) made his major league debut in style yesterday "for the win". I've never used FTW before and I'm assuming that's what it means! Many fans thought the game would be postponed like last Wednesday's after a day of constant rain, but it was not. So Jay-ZNN made his debut in front of a tiny crowd after a 2 hour rain delay, but man, was it ever awesome! The relief corps, including two new faces in Kip Wells and Garrett Mock, did their job holding the one run lead all the way through closer Joel Hanrahan after another brief delay. Woo! After the game as he was ducking into the dugout for the clubhouse, Manager Manny Acta thanked the handful of fans remaining behind the dugout and praised them for being the best fans for sticking it out. Nats win 3-2 over the Braves in a game that ended long after Metro stopped running.
(Man, I so totally need seats in the first row behind the dugout.)
Nice job. I love the Dukes breaking bat shot. I was on the 3rd base side and got basically the opposite shots. :)
It was great seeing you on top of the dugout shooting your photos. I think your JZim27 picture is so good I may want to license it!!! I will let you know!
Your Image #45 of Beimel on the ground is where he got injured. Rumor is that he hurt his leg or hip and will spend 2 weeks on the DL. I wonder who will take his place?
Hi Andrew. Saul Rivera was recalled and Beimel is on 15-DL. Word came out about 2:30pm.
Cheryl, thanks! Wasn’t that game awesome? I’ll have to check out your pics shortly… slammed at work (as usual).
Thanks, Andrew!! Yeah, I just posted that image with a new post about Beimel getting injured. Ugh, of all the rotten luck!
Cheryl – You are joking, right???? Saul Rivera?????
Beimel has been everything advertised and more and to replace him with Saul? Tavares has to be the 8th inning setup man and Mock or Bergmann for the 7th.
MC – Let’s talk later on Image #7. If I can get a deal done with JZim27, I will license that photo and take it up the ladder for MLB licensing. That was so smart to do it on that angle to get RZim11 in the background.
With all these codes, I am thinking R2D2 (?) from Star Wars!!!
Andrew – Not joking. Not sure Saul even reported to Syracuse.
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090421&content_id=4358476&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
Cathy –
I know, I hate it when work gets in the way of baseball! :) I didn’t have time to add to many photos last night, but put up some on Dave’s blog. See you tonight?
http://natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/04/photos-jordan-zimmermanns-first-mlb.html
Cheryl – I read it and my stomach is now qweezy!!!
What I have always liked about relief pitchers is if they had a signature pitch then you knew they were good. KRod’s slider, Billy Wagner’s 98 MPH fastball, Mariano Rivera his “cutter”, Brad Lidge his slider, and I draw a blank on Saul Rivera and his signature pitch and my mind wanders to MEATBALL (that is mean–sorry).
So Saul gets sent down 2 days ago and there is nobody better to come up given Detwiler, and Clippard and others who could easily hang out at the “bigs” for 2 weeks while Mr. Beimel gets that hip better.
Yep, we’ll be there tonight!
I don’t think that Rivera reported to Syracuse yet since he had 72 hours so maybe that is why they are bringing him back since he was in the area. Just guessing.
It was tough to watch Saul’s meltdown last week because he was our workhorse last season and pitched great at spring training and WBC. I saw him retire Venezuela’s 3, 4 and 5 hitters and looked fantastic! Maybe pitching competitively so early in the season was not a good thing after all. I really like Saul as a person and know he plays with his heart and hopefully he’ll come back with everything he’s got left. He knows that his job is on the line.
I am concerned that people will boo him coming back today. I hope not though. I wish some fans out there understood that the team needs their most loyal supporters the most when they are down. They don’t need bandwagoneers. They need fans. :)
Hey Cathy. Not a big deal, but I just noticed that your timestamp in comments is an hour off. Just wanted to let you know.
Agree – the team needs its fans.
Huh – I’ll check on the timestamp thingie!
Apparently I have to remember to manually change that every time daylight savings time changes! Future comments should have the correct time.
Cheryl – I don’t think he will be boo’d upon getting called into a game. What I am concerned about is if he gives up runs in another relief situation that he will probably be boo’d.
Saul’s problem wasn’t necessarily giving up a HR but hitting 2 batters in a row means you have control problems and he should have been pulled and that Opening Day HR to Ryan Howard never should have happened IMHO.
Incredible photos… I take it that you were one of 70 still left.
Thanks, Anthony! Yes, I was – and it was wonderful being right behind the dugout!