2012 Game 23

Highest Leverage PA:         3.1, PA #45, Ankiel GDP vs Cahill, Nationals' 6th.
                             3.1, PA #61, Cahill GDP vs Mattheus, D'backs' 8th.
Highest Clutch Value:        .120, PA #44, Lombardozzi 1B vs Cahill, Nats' 6th.
QMAX rating:                 Soldier of Fortune (6,2) for Zimmermann.
Bullpen Award:               None.

Batters' Leveraged Win Values:

Lombardozzi    0.099
Desmond        0.073
Bernadina      0.026
Werth          0.025
Zimmermann    -0.043
Harper        -0.071
Espinosa      -0.074
Ramos         -0.077
LaRoche       -0.104
Ankiel        -0.293

This loss was the most disconcerting one of the season so far, at least for me. As the Leveraged PA and 'Clutch' Value numbers indicate, the Nationals lost the game in the sixth inning, when Cahill induced Ankiel's double play ball. (Ankiel's horrible Leveraged Win Value is largely made up of the -.208 value accrued in this single plate appearance.) That was followed by the disastrous Diamondbacks' 7th, when an intentional walk came back to bite the Nationals in the nether parts. At the moment, four runs is an insurmountable lead for the level of offense the Nationals are achieving.

A note on Zimmermann's QMAX rating — To quote the fabled Big Bad Baseball Annual, the Soldier of Fortune outing is the kind 'where pitchers with exceptional control can work effectively despite giving up more hits than innings pitched'. That is to say, Zimmermann pitched well enough to entertain the possiblity of a win, although not the likelihood. It is, as it were, the geographical antipode of the Power Precipice.