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We've played four innings at Nationals Park, and what Jason Marquis is doing with efficiency, Michael Pineda is doing with pure stuff. Marquis has only allowed two walks through four innings, getting three ground balls on five pitches in the first inning and seven groundball outs overall (including a double play). But Pineda, who started throwing 90-91 mph early in the game, is touching the mid-90s now, and he's struck out five in the last three innings, including back-to-back Ks of Danny Espinosa and Ivan Rodriguez to end the fourth with the bases loaded.
The game is still scoreless, though the Nationals have had more chances. They lost one in the first inning when Jayson Werth challenged Franklin Gutierrez on Ryan Zimmerman's shallow fly ball, and got thrown out at home plate when umpire Derryl Cousins ruled that Miguel Olivo had barely tagged Werth's jersey on a throw up the line.
In the fourth, third base coach Bo Porter didn't send Roger Bernadina on another fly ball to Gutierrez, and Bernadina wound up stuck at third. That's what a good arm can do for you in the outfield sometimes, even though Gutierrez's throw was off-target the first time.
So we're still scoreless at Nationals Park, and we'll see where this pitchers' duel between Marquis and Pineda goes.
