It’s times like these that I ponder the sanity of baseball fans.  Why in the world would I return to my apartment at 1:30 am after watching my team lose 6-1 in multiple downpours over the course of six hours?  In baseball, fans tend to think, “I can’t leave.  What if I miss something amazing?  Remember last year, Zimmerman’s walk off grand slam the night before Mother’s Day?  Leave? Never.”

But tonight, there was nothing to stick around for.  In fact, if you came a few minutes late, you missed Odalis Perez struggle through the first inning giving up 4 runs on 5 hits after a critical Lopez error.  Only 1 of those runs was charged to Perez, who exited the game after the third inning with tendinitis.  Colome’s inning was interupted by rain; upon returning, he gave up 2 more runs.  One of them came from a double steal executed perfectly by Cesar Izturis and Rick Ankiel.   The Nats would need Sanches, Manning, Rivera and Rauch to finish the game. 

Jesus Flores doubled in the 5th inning and Ryan Langerhans drove Flores in for the RBI.  But, the bats would fall silent again for the rest of the night.

The skies opened up on the hapless Nationals last night.  The wrath of angry fans, the dissapointment of the always hopeful, the impending losses that we’ll surely collect as we move forward — all of it could be seen in the darkened sky above Nationals Park.    No, God has no misery on GM Bowden and the challenged team he’s assembled.  Every time a storm passed by, another followed quickly behind.  If only nature always cooperated with this kind of metaphoric accuracy. 

The grounds crew worked hard tonight, despite the AP’s stark criticism of their work.  The teams took to the field early after the first rain delay and the guys hustled to finish preparing the field while the teams waited.

The only glimmer of good news came as we first arrived at the park.  When the bullpen guys strolled out across right field, they were joined by Ryan Wagner.  Wagner seemed optimistic about a quick return and talked to reporters along the same lines earlier in the day.  We’ve been asking about Wagner’s rehab and recovery plan for months, but haven’t heard a thing from the mainstream media.  Anyway, we think this is great news and we were happy to see him back with the team, even if he’s thinking rehab a little faster than team officials.

Here’s another team update on Zimmerman and actually some good news (for now):

The solicited opinions on the MRI of Ryan Zimmerman’s left shoulder (non-throwing arm) were returned today by Dr. Timothy Krimchek and Dr. James Andrews…both doctors offered identical treatment plans as previously advocated by Nationals orthopedist Dr. Ben Schaffer…namely, that Zimmerman will receive rest and anti-inflammatories before being reexamined in one week.

On Perez, Acta said he would miss his next start.  He’s experienced the shoulder pain for three to four starts.

Chico, the pitcher not the beat writer, had an MRI yesterday for pain in his left forearm and elbow.  He will miss his next start and results of the MRI are expected today.

Tonight, young southpaw John Lannan (4-5) takes on Todd Wellemeyer (6-1).   Earlier this season, Lannan gave up only two runs over 6 2/3 innings to St. Louis, though he got tagged for the loss since the Nats couldn’t score a run.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.