The Nats have spent the last two months urging other teams not to pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, but at long last we’ve taken a peek, and here’s what we see: good starting pitching, a shaky bullpen, very little offensive punch, terrible team defense, and a heaping helping of Cristian Guzman. My God, he is bad.
Last night he capped another 0-fer by single-handedly giving the Braves the winning run in the eighth, just after his mates had tied the game. After two outs, Chipper singled up the middle. Then, because his manhood was challenged by the decision not to hold him on first, Chipper decided to steal second against the best active defensive catcher in the league, Brian Schneider, who proceeded to throw him out easily to end the inning. Or, rather, he would have, had Guzman been able to hold on to a perfect throw. Instead, he dropped it, then insured lasting ignominity by turning a Francoeur popup into a run-scoring double by running away from it. I don’t know how Robinson can keep writing his name on the lineup card, but let’s not discourage him.
It was Francoeur’s third hit of the evening, and he’s now hitting a cool .433. Cox gave him the start over Langerhans, but it’s KJ who really needs a day off (or more). Hudson pitched well after a shaky first inning, and it won’t surprise you to learn that Kolb was prominently involved in the Nats’ comeback.
Today’s game is at 1:05 — Sosa vs. Drese. Still waiting to hear more about a possible trade for Brian Giles (oh please oh please oh please).
Brave-O-Matic 