Fiasco III: With A Vengeance

Well, so much for Adam Kennedy being a defensive improvement over Cristian Guzman at second, an opinion that isn't really supported by the stats. Kennedy threw away the ball trying for a double play in the O's half of the fifth, allowing the tying run to score, and then Tyler Clippard coughs up the winning hit in the eighth. Welp. More details from Patrick Reddington, if you want them. Mark Zuckerman asks if maybe it's time for one of the players to step up and have a little "come to Jesus" talk with the rest of the team. Harper at Nationals Baseball examines the collapse of the team from possible contenders into the drearily familiar cellar of the NLEast.

Brian Oliver brings the weekend roundup for the farm teams; for just the Sunday results, April Whitzman at NatsProspects has the News & Notes.

Left fielder Richard Giannotti singles in the winning run for the Blue Crabs in the bottom of the ninth, giving Southern Maryland a 6-5 victory and a sweep of Sparky Lyle's Somerset Patriots. Camden won yesterday as well, so the Blue Crabs hold their 3-game lead at 37 and 25, while the Patriots fall 3.5 games back in the Freedom Division behind York. The Crabs hit the road for a four-game series against Lancaster, starting with a double-header tonight at 6.

Bowie lost to the Curve 12-3 last night, foiling the Baysox' hopes for a sweep; down in Frederick, the Keys pounded the Wilmington Blue Rocks 10-3. Tonight's Bark in the Park night at Harry Grove Stadium, as well as Kids Eat Free night, so bring the dog and the kids. :)

There's more stuff I want to talk about out there, but I have an accounting final tonight so it'll have to wait.

Rule 5 Sunday - The Woman Behind The Man Behind The Plate II

On the one hand, the Nationals and their wives aren't being stalked by hordes of papparazzi and continually pestered by fans for autographs while trying to get a bite at Five Guys, which is a good thing, but on the other hand it sure makes doing this feature of the blog a damn sight harder. Fortunately, the Nats320 blog came to my rescue this Sunday with a heart-warming post about Wil and Yormarie Nieves' support of the Capitol Area Food Bank last June, featuring some great photos of the lovely couple. Go read the whole thing; it features some folks from the Nationals' front office doing some good works as well.

[Note: the original version of this post had copies of the photos posted. I screwed up in not noting that the photos were copyrighted, and have taken them down at the blogger's request. Sorry, guys.]

Somewhat related: a good article by Kate Kirkpatrick in the WaPo about the glamorous, exciting lives of Nationals wives. Or, actually, not so glamorous. RTWT.

Fiasco II (Electric Throwback Boogaloo)

I caught the last three innings of this atrocity while eating dinner at Carpool in Arlington, and honestly wish I hadn't. Well, at least they didn't throw the game away this-oh, wait...they did. DAMN IT! Patrick Reddington has all the horrible details.

On a more positive note, Sue Dinem at Nationals Prospects has the news from the Nationals' farm system.

The Blue Crabs won again last night, posting a 6-1 victory over the Somerset Patriots in support of lefty starter Craig Anderson's eight scoreless innings. This win puts the Blue Crabs three games up on the Camden Riversharks with nine games left to play in the first half, and they'll be going for the sweep tonight at 5:05 on Meet The Team Sunday.

Baysox made it three straight against the Curve in Altoona last night, winning 5-3; they'll be going for the sweep tonight. Meanwhile, the Keys took the rubber game of the match against the Winson-Salem Dash and will be hosting the Wilmington Blue Rocks tonight at 6 PM. They're having a Lil' Kins giveaway, playing catch on the field before the game, and shooting off some fireworks afterward.

Joe Posnanski's looking to put together a list of the top 100 sports books. Go on over and add your favorites to the list. I'm thinking of doing my own (much shorter) list of favorite baseball books.

Rule 5 Sunday post will be up later.

Game 74: WTF?

Doghouse at Federal Baseball says it most simply and best: Fiasco. Or would you prefer Nats320's In The Most Awful Way Imaginable? They both  work for me. Patrick Reddington with the recap. It pretty much figures, though: the Nats get the bats to wake up, T-Plush starts hitting & playing defense as we all know he could, and then the infield defense kills us. Mark Zuckerman justifiably rails about the errors, but sames some flames for Riggleman's ridiculously dumb managing last night that set up Clip & Save to fail. Nationals Fanboy Looser places the blame squarely on the manager's shoulders. My opinion? Rizzo needs to have some words with his manager and let him know that not only do things need to change, they need to change now if he wants to keep managing.

Looking at the defensive stats, it does look as though Desmond's glove has followed his bat into its slump. His range factor per nine innings has gone below the league average, as has Guzman's at second base, although neither of them are more than a couple well-played games away from getting back over that line. I'm still thinking that Desmond's errors are a result of him getting to balls that other shortstops wouldn't have gotten close to, but he does need to work on his throwing. Problem is, if they've been doing infield drills before every game, and he's just getting worse, what's the answer? More one-on-one work with Listach, who was a decent shortstop in his days with the Brewers? I don't know, but I hope someone on the Nationals staff figures it out soon.

Steven at Fire Jim Bowden turns a critical eye on the Jason Marquis signing. Nationals News Network joins the chorus calling for Willie Harris to be released; so far, we're the only ones suggesting that Maxwell come back up. 

Down on the farm, Rochester and Harrisburg posted wins while the Class A teams suffered the agony of defeat. April Whitzman at NationalsProspects has the rundown; Sue Dinem posts a game report from Woodbridge where the P-Nats fell to the Pelicans.Speaking of the P-Nats, they'll be having their annual silent auction on July 3. Lots of cool stuff available.

The Blue Crabs bounced back from their Thursday loss to the Newark Bears and  gave a 7-2 drubbing to Sparky Lyle's Somerset Patriots last night in St. Charles, pounding out six runs from the fifth inning onward to give reliever Chris Mobley his third win of the season. The Blue Crabs now have a two-game lead atop the Atlantic League's Liberty Division with ten games left in the first half. Tonight's game is NASCAR Night, with fireworks after the game.

Down on the Orioles farm, the Baysox kicked off their three-game series at Altoona with a 5-1 win, breaking a 1-1 tie in the top of the ninth with four runs scored off Curves reliever Mike Dubee and securing win number 7 for Baysox starter Zach Britton. The Keys took the rubber game of their match against Winston-Salem with an 11-2 laugher, lighting up Dash starter Charlie Leesman for six runs and going on to brutalize the bullpen for five more.

Inside blogball: Nationals Fangirls are moving up in the food chain later this summer, joining a blog network being launched by Albritton Communications, parent company of WJLA-TV here in Washington as well as News Channel 8 and those scumsuckers at Politico.com. Good luck to you, ladies!

Yesterday was a good day for the Nationals.

No game, therefore no loss. (Too soon?)
Tonight marks the beginning of a three-game series against the hapless Orioles. Here's hoping The Nationals find out which end of the bat does the hitting this weekend; the O's are on track to match the 1962 Mets, and it seems a shame to interrupt their rendezvous with destiny. Yes, I do carry grudges; why do you ask?

Moving right along, Hagerstown and Potomac were back in action last night, both posting wins; Syracuse and Harrisburg didn't. Details from Brian at NFA; also, the Nationals are making good progress signing their draftees.

The Nats blogosphere's been talking a lot about the Nationals' offensive woes. Natsstats over at Federal Baseball goes a little deeper.

The Bears avoided a sweep last night in St. Charles, pummeling Blue Crabs starter (and former Royal) Dan Reichert for six runs in the first inning on their way to an 11-3 win. Tonight's game is the start of a three-game set against the Somerset Patriots (33-26), managed by former Yankees closer Sparky Lyle. The Patriots have a one-game lead in the season series so far. Tonight's game is also Redskins Night, featuring Chief Zee and the Hogettes and Redskins-themed jerseys that will be auctioned off during the game.

Over in the O's farm system, the Baysox avoided a sweep as well, downing the Reading Phillies 6-3; they'll continue their road trip tonight in the first of three games at Altoona. The Keys, on the other hand, fell to Winston-Salem 7-4.

Elsewhere in baseball, there's a good interview with Craig Wright at Seamheads.com . (h/t Rob Neyer)

The Grinch That Stole Strasmas

Yup, that was Brian Bannister of the Royals doing his Zack Greinke imitation against the Nationals yesterday, blanking them 1-0 with the help of reliever Robinson Tejeda and closer Joakim Soria. Steven Strasburg pitched an okay game himself, going six innings with 9 K's and no walks but giving up nine hits to the light-hitting Royals for a game score of 59-  a quality start, but not much better than Luis Atilano's start yesterday.
Yes, Hunter Wendelstedt clearly blew the call on Roger Bernadina, but it shouldn't have come down to one damn run. Patrick Reddington has all the ugly details at Federal Baseball. Mark Zuckerman says there's plenty of offensive blame to spread around. In any case, who would have thought Strasburg's first defeat would come at the hands of the lowly Royals? Meanwhile, in the Poorly Timed Posts department, Mike Henderson argues that Strasburg ought to go to the All-Star Game.

Both the Class A farm teams were off last night, but there was action in Syracuse, Harrisburg and Vermont, (not to mention the GCL) last night. Brian Oliver puts us some knowledge.

Down in St. Charles, the Blue Crabs took the second game in the series against Newark 4-0 and go for the sweep tonight at 7:05.

On the other hand, the Baysox got thumped again by the Reading Phillies, 8-3; Frederick is still on the Carolina League All-Star break.

Meanwhile, Rob Dibble deploys his mad analytical skillz:

Almost certainly inspired by this. Kinda makes me glad I was in class last night and not actually watching that, and I like Rob. :facepalm:
(h/t Fire Jim Bowden)

Hump Day Dump Day

Luis Atilano pitched...adequately...last night, giving up six hits and one earned run in 5.1 innings for a game score of 57, which is sorta kinda a quality start. With the offense chipping in for four runs (including Josh Willingham's 100th career dinger), and the bullpen holding the lead (pay no attention to the shaky Matt Capps performance in the ninth!) it was good enough for a second Curly W against the Royals, and with Strasburg taking the mound tonight, a lot of folks are no doubt thinking sweep. Mark Zuckerman certainly is. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, Patrick Reddington does his usual excellent job on the recap over at Federal Baseball. Jorge Castillo at the WaPo also notes that last night was another milestone, this time for Pudge Rodriguez, who marked his 2434th game last night, making him the Puerto Rican with the most games played in the major leagues, ahead of legendary outfielder Roberto Clemente. Pudge already has the record for most games played at catcher, having passed Carlton Fisk last June.


Harper at Nationals Baseball is unhappy with Ian Desmond, whose offense for the season has slipped to .254/.289/.386 for an OPS of .675, worst of the starters except for Nyjer Morgan. On the other hand, he's still fielding better than the league average, so I don't think he needs to worry about being sent down any time soon. Steven at FJB isn't too happy either, but he's annoyed with Riggleman for bringing in Capps when Tyler Walker would have done just as well.

Brian at Nationals Farm Authority has the farm team roundup and a quick summary of the California/Carolina Leagues' All-Star Game.

Meanwhile, over in the O's farm system, the Baysox lost to Reading 7-5; in the Atlantic League, the Blue Crabs held on to beat the Newark Bears 3-2.

Back in the land of the Metrodome, Aaron Gleeman serves up some notes on the Twins.

And that's it for Wednesday.