BOTTOMFEEDER BASEBALL BLOG

Dedicated to the constructive criticism of the Washington Nationals.

ALL ARTICLES AND PICTURES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ARE (C) DAVID W. NICHOLS

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Win Under the Sunshine in Florida...uh, wait a minute

The O's just completed a 6-4 victory over the young but still hapless D-Rays. Bedard got touched for 4 earned in 5.2, but the New and Improved (c) bullpen shut em down the rest of the way. Bradford got one out, followed by John Parrish, Danys Baez and Chris Ray.

Parrish is a particularly excellent story thus far. Left for dead after elbow reconstruction, he's come all the way back and throwing harder now that before the injury. And he has really seemed to harness both the control he lacked earlier in his career and the maturity on the mound needed to succeed at this level. Parrish has always been a hyper guy on the mound, bouncing around and fidgeting between pitches. He's still a bit manic, but seems to have found a way to "slow the game down" enough to throw strikes. His K/BB rate is 14/2 at this point, in 8.2 innings, which by anyone's measurements is getting it done.

And nice to see Jon Knott get called up and immediately produce. He homered in the loss the other night, and had two hits and a ribbie today. He went .280/.353/.572 last year in Portland with 32 homers and 113 rbis. With the O's lack of production against lefties, they gotta find a way to keep him on the team.

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