Nats Lose Yet Again, Get Mugged In D.C.
Hi everyone. I'm still dealing with lawyers and lawsuits. Dimitri, a Beltway Boys reader, has offered to pinch-hit for me for a couple of days while I get through this litigation mess [don't worry, I'm the good guy]. Thanks Dimitri, but gee, do you have to write better than I do??
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It’s that time of year in Washington when it gets hot and muggy, and Congressmen and lobbyists are making plans to skip town for August. If you can’t leave DC this time of year, you get frustrated.
And the Nationals pitchers are frustrated.
Nationals pitchers have become familiar with the nasty end of one-run games. So far in July, the Nationals have lost 7 one-run games, and 3 two-run games. Most of our pitchers have been improving their ERAs, so an understandable frustration with the hitting squad is natural. This broke into the open a couple days ago when Livan Hernandez announced he would have season-ending surgery – announced, mind you, to the press, not to Frank Robinson and Jim Bowden, who were taken aback considering that Livan hasn’t had an MRI since May, and the surgery seemed elective at this time. He half-apologized and recanted the next morning.
Friday night was not a one-run loss.
If Ryan Drese isn’t frustrated with himself, then he should get out of baseball. Against the Astros he allowed the longest home run so far at RFK in the first inning, instantly setting the Nationals hitters a tough task to come back against Roger Clemens. The Astros kept coming back with more runs, more hits. Ryan Drese had a right to be frustrated with his defensive squad, after another Jose Vidro fielding error eventually led to another run in the third inning, and then some poor fielding choices by Brian Schneider allowed a double steal, including Adam Everett stealing home. At the seventh inning it all broke loose, with two consecutive four-run innings.
Those of you wondering why Frank Robinson doesn’t send Drese to the bullpen in favor of Sunny Kim need only watch the latter part of this game. In less than two innings, Kim took on 6 earned runs. Those of you wondering where Tomo Ohka is right now, he played Friday night as well and did indeed take a loss and allowed seven earned runs. That said, going into that game he still had a 3.39 ERA, though he has had trouble pitching deep into games. But then again, why worry about the path not traveled…
What do we say about last night’s game? Well that’s gotta be the low point, and if it ain’t we’re in deep . . . trouble. The highlight? The loud cheering of more than 38,000 fans who stayed deep into the game. That and the knowledge that at most we’ll have to play against Roger Clemens once more this season.
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It’s that time of year in Washington when it gets hot and muggy, and Congressmen and lobbyists are making plans to skip town for August. If you can’t leave DC this time of year, you get frustrated.
And the Nationals pitchers are frustrated.
Nationals pitchers have become familiar with the nasty end of one-run games. So far in July, the Nationals have lost 7 one-run games, and 3 two-run games. Most of our pitchers have been improving their ERAs, so an understandable frustration with the hitting squad is natural. This broke into the open a couple days ago when Livan Hernandez announced he would have season-ending surgery – announced, mind you, to the press, not to Frank Robinson and Jim Bowden, who were taken aback considering that Livan hasn’t had an MRI since May, and the surgery seemed elective at this time. He half-apologized and recanted the next morning.
Friday night was not a one-run loss.
If Ryan Drese isn’t frustrated with himself, then he should get out of baseball. Against the Astros he allowed the longest home run so far at RFK in the first inning, instantly setting the Nationals hitters a tough task to come back against Roger Clemens. The Astros kept coming back with more runs, more hits. Ryan Drese had a right to be frustrated with his defensive squad, after another Jose Vidro fielding error eventually led to another run in the third inning, and then some poor fielding choices by Brian Schneider allowed a double steal, including Adam Everett stealing home. At the seventh inning it all broke loose, with two consecutive four-run innings.
Those of you wondering why Frank Robinson doesn’t send Drese to the bullpen in favor of Sunny Kim need only watch the latter part of this game. In less than two innings, Kim took on 6 earned runs. Those of you wondering where Tomo Ohka is right now, he played Friday night as well and did indeed take a loss and allowed seven earned runs. That said, going into that game he still had a 3.39 ERA, though he has had trouble pitching deep into games. But then again, why worry about the path not traveled…
What do we say about last night’s game? Well that’s gotta be the low point, and if it ain’t we’re in deep . . . trouble. The highlight? The loud cheering of more than 38,000 fans who stayed deep into the game. That and the knowledge that at most we’ll have to play against Roger Clemens once more this season.
# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 9:18 AM 
