Nationals starting pitcher Craig Stammen watched intently from the dugout on Tuesday night as teammate John Lannan efficiently mowed down the New York Mets.
Ground ball after ground ball bounded across the infield grass at Nationals Park, Lannan dispatching opposing batters one-by-one. He wasn’t dominating. But he was sure effective.
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Stammen, the 25-year-old rookie, has seen that before from Lannan – ever since he and his friend were teammates in short-season A-ball in Vermont in 2005 and later at minor-league stops in low-A Savannah and single-A Potomac.
“I’m kind of the right-handed version of [Lannan],” said Stammen, who pitched 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball during the Nats’ 3-1 win in the series finale against the Mets. “We’re a lot alike. Hitters don’t see us the same way, but he went at guys with his fastball. That’s how I pitch. I had to go out and see if it was working tonight and it was the first couple of innings so I stuck with it.”
Stammen had help from Nats outfielder Josh Willingham, who had his best offensive output of the season with a two-run home run, two doubles and single. Three Washington relievers recorded the final eight outs without allowing a hit or a run. Ronnie Belliard added an RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth inning.
“There’s some light at the end of the tunnel when you see these types of performances,” said Nats interim manager Jim Riggleman.
Over his last 34 2/3 innings – five starts total – Stammen (3-5) has allowed just 10 earned runs on 31 hits as his ERA has plummeted from 5.49 to 4.14. More impressive is the lack of walks – only five committed during that stretch. Using an effective sinker, Stammen retired the first 12 New York batters he faced on Wednesday and retired 11 Mets batters on ground balls while striking out five. That helped him erase the sour memory of his last start against New York on June 7th – a game that also followed a Lannan masterpiece.
That was only Stammen’s fourth start with the Nats and it showed.
“Last time John threw a complete game I went out and gave up five runs in the first inning,” Stammen said with a smile. “So it was in my head that I was going to go out and have a good outing and prove that I’ve come [along] a little bit since I’ve been called up to the big leagues.”
