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Well that f-ing sucked. What a wonderful way to cap a weekend of utterly deflating, heartbreaking baseball for the Nationals. I haven't gotten actively angry because of a baseball game in a long time - congratulations to the Nationals' bullpen on riling me up in a way even my hometown team, the maddening San Francisco Giants, rarely do.
Three straight games, three straight blown saves from the 'pen, three relievers axed. (Actually, I don't know if "blown" is a strong enough word for what the Nats did with those saves. Can a save be mutilated? Dismembered? Obliterated?) It's actually somewhat of a shame that Steven Shell had to catch the heat for what's happened with the bullpen, when really Wil Ledezma, Saul Rivera and Joel Hanrahan have been the main culprits. And Rivera has been strong enough over the last three years that perhaps he should have been given more time to sort things out. But while I'm not crazy about how the whole thing played out, I have to respect the Nats' feeling that something needed to happen to change this team's fortune.
Now, on a day that should have been a harbinger of future success, with the contract extension for Ryan Zimmerman and the promotion of Jordan Zimmerman for his first major league start, the Nats are plagued with an array of unpleasant issues. With the majors' worst record at 1-10, nine and a half games out of first and losing games in the most gut-wrenching ways possible, it's safe to say things could not be worse right now. When the offense clicks, the starting pitching gives up eight runs. When the starters put together a solid outing, the bullpen blows it. When the bullpen holds strong, the offense can't come through with one lousy f-ing run out of three bases-loaded situations. It's just a disaster out there right now.
Garrett Mock, Jason Bergmann and Kip Freakin' Wells were called up to makeover the bullpen. Mock and Bergmann should have been here all along. Combined with J. Zimmerman's call-up and Justin Maxwell taking the spot of the injured Roger Bernadina, the Nats now have five players on their roster who weren't there as of Saturday. I'd like to say we'll see how things go tonight against Derek Lowe and the Braves, but it's been raining all morning and shows no signs of stopping, so we could be headed for a second rainout in six days.
Actually, that might not be a bad thing - if tonight is rained out and J. Zimmerman's debut gets pushed back to tomorrow, I'll get to see him in person. That might make up for having my first game of the year rained out.
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