The Night So Far, In A Few Sentences

The ballgirl needs to go, if the Marlins had been in the field the umps would have called that an out.

Phew - Hinckley dodges a bases-loaded mess of his own making to end the top of the 7th.

go deep in the count; someone of these four will get their pitch. i like our patience; even lannan.

Not sure I liked pulling Tavarez there. Manny seems determined to use his entire bullpen every night.

Bernadina run for Nick? Guess not.

elijah hurt his hand?

Good point, nova_g_man. I think this will be a good hitting club all year because of their discipline and power. I still feel queasy about watching Olsen and Cabrera all year, and worry about putting this much pressure on three young starters, but I'll take all the positive signs I can find.

Joe Beimel was a GREAT signing

JOE BEIMEL.... He's a baaaaaaaaad man!

Possible weekend moves - If Guzman is OK, fill the empty spot on the 40-man with JZMM for Monday. If Guzman's hammy is still causing problems, send D.Young to the 60-day DL & re-claim Cintron, send Guzman to the 14-DL & bring up Bergmann.

Lastings Who?

shoot...Lannan's good outing is all for nothing now.

Beimel will be the closer by July 1.

yuck, who's left in the Nat's bullpen?

Damn. Still love how the team has looked the last 2 days, and have faith in the bottom 9 rally. Just tuned in via XM. What was the deal with the ballgirl?

Good job pulling out Dunnannu. Now we go to the 9th and possibly extra innings with oir biggest bat on the bench.

Stupid ballgirl nearly interfered with Willingham, trying to make a catch along LF line.

Time for Zimm to end it. Right here and right now.

Meant to say good job pulling Dunn .....

Zim is not yet a gold glover. He's not at Knoblauch level yet as far as his mental throwing block, but he's not getting any smoother. Won't be the last time this year Slick Nick saves him an E5. Whatever, hit one out and all's forgiven.

End it now, Kearns. I see Saul Rivera warming up, which is not a good thing based on his performance from Monday.

Kearns is nothing if not predictable.

Someone please tell Hanrahan that a closer doesn't throw slow curve balls—ever. What was he thinking?

I HATE the Marlins

wow. how hard did Dukes hit that?

Dukes is the man. Kearns, and Bonifacio for that matter, are who we thought they were.

Hope Jesus can get Dukes home...

Jesus has failed us.

I REALLY HATE the Marlins

I'm having a hard time swallowing this one. How will I ever get to sleep.

They have no one to blame but themselves they left too many men on base,and i know hindsight is always.........well hindsight but why not leave Beimel in he had no trouble in the eigth why not let him start the ninth and who had the book on Cody Ross 2-2 and you throw him a hanging breaking ball WTF!

Can somebody please tell me what Flores was looking for? Christ, a fastball RIGHT down the middle! And the guy had not thrown a breaking ball the whole inning. You CAN NOT leave the bat on your shoulder in that situation. Just unbelievable - or maybe completely believable for the Nats.

"Meant to say good job pulling Dunn .....

Posted by: raymitten | April 17, 2009 10:12 PM"

Did you also mean to say, nice job of hitting a double and getting into scoring position for what could have been the winning run, by Dunn's replacement, Bernadina?

Loveable losers!That's what they have been and will be for the forseeable future.Too many guys that would rather walk than drive a run in.Soft tossing pitchers with no command and scatter-armed infielders who can't make a play when needed.

Should have put Bernadina in for Willingham instead of Dunn. Not a big defensive difference between the two, and Willingham had just made the final out of the prior inning, so the pitcher's spot (Kearns pinch-htting) wouldn't have come up in the 9th.

goozie to the DL. Cintron coming up.

This team is a total joke. A lead off double 1 run behind nothing to show for it. Send them back to Canada, At least up there no one will notice they suck, oh wait a second thats happing in D.C.

This team is a total joke. A lead off double 1 run behind nothing to show for it. Send them back to Canada, At least up there no one will notice they suck, oh wait a second thats happing in D.C.

"who had the book on Cody Ross 2-2 and you throw him a hanging breaking ball WTF"

Oh? What count should you throw a hanging breaking ball on?

Thoughts:

1. Did the balls and strikes look as terrible on TV as they did at the game? Apparently, Acta thought so.

2. Hanrahan's first pitch, I turned to my red-headed Cubs-fan fiance (yep, on Easter) and said "nerves." The man needs to find a way to control his nerves. After he blew the save he was fine.

3. The Marlins also stranded 10 men. It was a miserable night for get 'em in, though get 'em on and get 'em over worked pretty well.

Here is what I'm not sure I understand. Dukes doubles to lead-off in the bottom of the ninth. With the latter part of our order following Elijah, why not play a little small ball, at least tie the game, and play on?

Had Willingham bunted Dukes to third (if you can hit, you can sac bunt, right? pitchers sac bunt all the time with relative success), we would have had a chance to tie the game with a mere fly ball. Instead, we saw Willingham fly out, Flores strike out, and Gonzalez get the third out. I thought I had a basic understanding of baseball strategy, but after tonight, I am perplexed.

>Had Willingham bunted Dukes to third (if you can hit, you can sac bunt, right? pitchers sac bunt all the time with relative success), we would have had a chance to tie the game with a mere fly ball. Instead, we saw Willingham fly out, Flores strike out, and Gonzalez get the third out. I thought I had a basic understanding of baseball strategy, but after tonight, I am perplexed.

You and everyone else. They should have played for the tie, because they had the bottom of the order coming up, and nobody but Kearns available to pinch hit on the bench. But instead, they got macho and played for the win. Stupid by-the-book arrogance that the home team should play for a win instead of a tie. They just seem to do enough to lose. They always break down in at least one phase, and it's usually a different one every night. You can talk about the improved lineup, but until these guys produce with two outs, they're just average at best. Below-average at worst.