John Lannan began the 2010 season as the National’s Opening Day starter for the second year in a row, a key cog in the organization’s future. By late June, though, it had all gone wrong and Lannan suddenly found himself back in the minor leagues for the first time in three years searching for reasons why.
Those 40 days in the wilderness at Double-A Harrisburg didn’t provide any immediate answers. Lannan needed to fight his way back to the big leagues and put himself to the test again. So far, so good. On Friday night at Nationals Park the left-hander put together his third consecutive quality start since his Aug. 1 return in a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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“When I left here my confidence was still there,” Lannan said. “I just wasn’t making pitches. I didn’t have any feel for it. And that’s what I need to succeed — have confidence in my stuff, not try and do too much and get ground balls.”
Lannan (4-5, 5.23 ERA) pitched seven innings, allowing just those two earned runs on four hits with a walk. His teammates helped by providing an early lead with seven hits off Arizona starter Joe Saunders (1-2, 4.48 ERA) in the first two innings alone. Ryan Zimmerman had a two-run single, Michael Morse drove home a run with a base hit and catcher Wil Nieves hit just his second home run of the season.
But Lannan’s performance was the story. He attacked the Diamondbacks hitters from the start, employing a strong sinker — the pitch that abandoned him earlier in the season and the one that makes him so effective.
“It would be different if [Lannan] came up for a couple of starts and did well and then came back down,” Zimmerman said. “But we’ve all been with him for [three] years now. We know he’s capable of doing this. We also know that everyone goes through things like that — especially pitchers.”
Lannan tied his season high with five strikeouts and lowered his ERA 0.53 from a high of 5.76 when he was demoted to the minors on June 20. He retired the first seven batters he faced and 13 of the first 14 before Stephen Drew tripled home a run in the fifth. Gerardo Parra followed with an RBI hit to cut Washington’s lead to 4-2. But Lannan retired six of his final seven batters thanks in part to two double-play grounders. He had good movement on his sinker, used his change-up with success against left-handed batters and threw a solid curve ball. Lannan’s slider wasn’t working, according to Nieves, but with those other three pitches keeping Arizona off balance it didn’t matter.
“The last time I caught him he looked good. Today he looked better,” Nieves said. “So that’s a good sign … . When his sinker is working he’s pretty effective. What I’ve seen the last two outings he has it. He just needs to keep it there, be consistent with it and he’s going to stay up here.”
Sean Burnett pitched two scoreless innings for Washington (50-66) to earn his second save of the season. Saunders, a West Springfield High and Virginia Tech graduate, had just pitched a complete game against the Nats 10 days ago in Phoenix. But he didn’t look like the same pitcher on Friday, allowing four runs on 10 hits with a walk. Saunders eventually settled down and wiggled out of trouble a few times before departing after the sixth inning with Arizona still in the game. But by then, Lannan had the upper hand. Now, he just needs to find a way to keep it.
“It was definitely necessary for me to go down [to Harrisburg] and work on my stuff,” Lannan said. “I could have done it up here. [Pitching coach Steve McCatty] has been great, everybody here is great. But it wouldn’t have been any good to the team. So going down there … was a wake-up call. It’s a learning process. But I’m just glad to be back.”
