Nats Xtra reported quite a bit of positives from the game tonight. They talked about Zim’s great defense and the increased offense. As a fan, there were some things to get excited about, but it’s really hard to get too pumped when we still lose the game and we have a 5-15 record. We’re currently sitting 7.5 games out of first place, heck, we’re even 4.5 games out of 4th in the division. There was a lot of promise and optimism this off season, but it seems our new reality is that we are going to have to get excited about the little things this year and not base our excitement on wins…or else we are all bound for depression.
The game started off great for the Nats - they got on base with a chance to score! Calm down folks, they didn’t. Guzman got things started with a single and Nick Johnson drew a walk. Kearns came to the plate with 2 men on base and 2 outs. I honestly expected to see him ground into a fielders choice, but instead he hit a hard ball into right field. Unfortunately, Guzman was waved home and easily thrown out at the plate. Later in the game, Lopez would also be thrown out at home. Also, Aaron Boone was tossed out at second base on a single that he tried to turn into a double after Chipper Jones made an error.
Personally, I am so over having to sit back and watch these base running errors that are costing us valuable outs. Last time I checked, this is not the first year these guys have had to run the bases. I’m pretty sure base running has always been part of the game. Johnny and Ray discussed these issues and stated that the Nationals really have to be aggressive in their decision to send guys home because we haven’t had much of an offense. I can understand their point, but it doesn’t make watching these outs any easier. On the bright side, I didn’t feel the need to throw anything at Lastings tonight due to base running issues. My TV is certainly appreciative of that.
On a seriously positive note, the Nationals got 10 hits off of Tim Hudson. Even though they weren’t able to produce many runs off of those hits, it is encouraging to see the offense pick up. Maybe those cries to fire Lenny Harris sparked a little fire in the guys and they realized someone could lose their job. Also, Matt Chico looked, well, he looked bad, but the bullpen finally started to look like the bullpen of ‘07. They gave up just one run in 4 innings of work and Chief looked better than he did against the Mets last week. John Lannan will get the ball tomorrow for the last game of this road trip. We’re certainly hoping that he has an outing similar to last Thursday!
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