Ah, if only John Lannan could pitch every Nats game. Check that. Ah, if only John Lannan could pitch every Nats game and have every Nats game be against an injury-depleted, Triple-A quality Mets lineup. Yes, that'd be perfect.
Lannan showed the big boys how it's done, with a complete game shutout as the Nats won 4-0 -- the first win for Jim Riggleman. (Apparently Manny Acta forgot to knife the Riggleman voodoo doll last night.)
It was a typical John Lanann outing: excellent without being dominating. Lannan doesn't do anything flashy. None of his pitches are going to make your mouth drop, nor the batters rub their eyes. But he's got three above-average pitches, and he has terrific command.
He can put anything where he wants it, in any pattern. When he's on, as he was yesterday, the batters can't do anything but pound the ball in the ground. Sometimes they go through the infield -- he did give up seven hits -- but when you don't walk anyone nor allow many homers (or many hard-hit, long fly balls either) you're not going to give up many runs.
And that's exactly how Lannan is greater than the sum of his individual pitches. He keeps the ball on the ground and in the park. Simple, really. In an ideal world he'd be able to miss more bats (just one K yesterday), but it's not necessary for what he does now.
Lannan had a bit more defensive support than JD Martin did the game before. Ryan Zimmerman was back in the lineup and Alex Gonzalez played second. Even Cristian Guzman made a terrific play, ranging deep into the hole to field a ball, throwing a perfect strike to nail a runner on a sure hit.
Johnny's not going to start 'til Sunday at the earliest. Nats fans hope they won't have to wait that long for another win -- but they're certainly not holding their breath.
Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. Now he occasionally twitters about the Nats.
