After missing last nights game, and with Hill on the mound today, Kristen and I were excited to head to the game. When the Nats took the lead it looked like we would finally give the Mets a run for their money, and avoid a sweep. Hill pitched well for 7 innings, but it looked like he was getting lucky on a lot of pitches. In my opinion it wasn’t his best outing, but he was able to keep the Nats in the game. It looks like Wily Mo likes Washington. He had a couple of good defensive plays today in right field, as Kearns moved to center. Pena also hit a rocket home run to left center. However, it wasn’t enough as the Nats fell to the Mets 8-2.

As the Nats entered the 8th inning with a tie game (2-2) Hill was relieved by Jon Rauch. I still haven’t gotten over the last few blown games, and have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to this guy pitching the 8th. He sure didn’t help his case today. He got hammered, and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits. Sure one was on a grounder that either Lopez or Jimenez might have been able to field, but no error was called so the run was charged to Rauch. It was his 68th appearance, and I think the guy needs a nice long break. Hopefully that will come with the reappearance of Jesus Colome.

It was painful to watch the Nats get hammered in the 8th. We were sitting by the bullpen today, and the highlight of the inning was watching Colome show up. He walked into the bullpen late in the 8th inning and looked a bit disheveled. He greeted his fellow teammates and got a hug from Aponte. Kristen and I commented that it looked like Colome had just made it the stadium. Turns out we were right! Colome was due into DC early this afternoon but after a series of flight delays only made it to the game in the 8th inning. It’s a shame, I would have liked to see him pitch instead of Rauch today. Anyway, we are very glad he is back and his butt is healed.

Its going to be a long road trip for the Nats and we hope they can regain some of the magic they had been playing with at the end of July. Only 16 home games left at RFK…were did this summer go?!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.