2012 Game 32

Highest Leverage PA:         3.1, PA #73, Heisey F5 vs Mattheus, Reds' 8th.
Highest Clutch Value:        .172, PA #2, Bernadina HR vs Leake, Nationals' 1st.
Lowest Opp. Clutch Value:   -.081, PA #73, Heisey F5 vs Mattheus, Reds' 8th.
QMAX rating:                 (4,5) for Gonzalez.
Bullpen Award:               None.

Batters' Leveraged Win Values:

Bernadina      0.190
LaRoche        0.104
Zimmerman      0.052
Desmond        0.036
Espinosa       0.015
Ramos          0.005
Stammen       -0.003
Ankiel        -0.016
Gonzalez      -0.025
Harper        -0.069

You remember those games earlier in the season, where the Nationals would squeeze out a victory through some timely hitting? This is a through-the-looking-glass version, in which some timely pitching squeezed out a victory. The Nationals did not have a good performance from Gio Gonzalez, but a mediocre one, and Craig Stammen managed to pitch his way into a jam in his third inning of work, following two solid innings. Stammen might have got a Hero's Palm had he not needed to be rescued by Ryan Mattheus. In other words, the pitching did just enough for the victory, in a situation that could easily have turned ugly twice over, in the 5th and again in the 8th.