NATS (37-24) BETTER THAN PHILLIES THREE DAYS AGO

 though he gave up four 
 runs early, Strasborg battled 
 and scrapped out a win 

 retired the last 14 he 
 faced, in fact - dominated 

NATS RISE TO GLORY game fifty

(lolol look at this fucking thing, it is an anthropomorphic

baseball with a weird hipster mustache, wtf?)

Tanner Roark did well enough in spot start which I guess may become more regular with Strasburg out, but left the game after 6 innings to hand it off to the bullpen as game was 2-2, and Matt Williams was like, "Bullpen's been good, so fuck it, let's do this." Here is where things perhaps went wrong though:

Aaron Barrett faced 3 batters. gave up 2 hits, and was eventually charged with 2 runs. He was pulled.

Matt Grace (remember like last week when I was like, "hey, Grace is doing okay"?) faced 5 batters, gave up 3 hits plus 2 walks, and was eventually charged with 4 runs.

Taylor Hill stopped the bleeding at that point and took this shit home at least, but all the Nats could muster in terms of offense was the 2 runs at top 7th, which gave Williams the hope to pull Roark in the first place. (Those 2 runs knocked in by Michael Taylor single - stepping into his new daily role nicely.)

Thus, the Nats - who had been the hottest thing in baseball - were sweeped by the Cincinnati Reds. But today is a new day, and Nationals have come home to open June against the most un-American team in all of Major League Baseball - the Blue Jays of Canadia. I am hopeful that there is a rebound, and also that Yunel Escobar makes Blue Jays fans cry.

Nats are 28-22.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game twenty-eight

So Strasborg left the game very early due to fucked upness in his pitching arm (again). Pitchers of today's standards are put through body motions probably not sustainable so ultimately it becomes a battle of attrition. Luckily the Nats are loaded (on paper at least) at P, but the fact The Guy who was going to change the game forever has not really changed the game forever is always a bummer. At this point (still early in his career? idk) it'd be nice to see Strasborg remain healthy enough to be that wily ass guy towards the upper middle of the rotation, who eats up six innings every fuckin' time, and leaves the team in position to not lose - maybe not win, but at least not lose. I worry about that guy, although Nats are sending him to chiropractor not legit "let's do expensive shit" doctor so who knows? Maybe this is much ado about nothing.
I did catch the highlights on the 10 o'clock news sports, and holy shit I had no idea Ichiro Suzuki still played baseball, nor that he played for the Marlins. A massive thing like BASEBALL is full of so many fuckin' crazy life stories like that - weird little Pete Rose of Japan comes to America, becomes star, and now is playing in Miami? What the fuck does Ichiro Suzuki do in his free time in Miami? Does he like the beach? Go to art galleries? Perhaps he does coke with big-assed whores? WHO KNOWS?
Oh, the Nats lost because Strasborg's chinked armor arm gave up two runs in his three innings, and offense has gone back to OFF switch, so 2-1 was the final.
Nats are 13-15.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game twenty-six

Jayson Werth, batting a solid .159 thus far, somehow finagled himself on base and was knocked in by Ryan Zimmerman in the top of the 1st yesterday. This was the only run the Nationals scored ALL FUCKING LONG ASS SUNDAY LAST OF SERIES GAME. Luckily, Doug Fister (& the bullpen) scattered 5 hits for 0 runs, and for the second day in a row, the Nationals pulled off a 1-0 victory on the road against division leading team. (I don't know that for sure, I'm just making assumptions to be honest. I've yet to even look at standings this season. It just turned May. Looking at standings is at the very least a June thing, and not really something you fret over until halfway through July at the earliest.) So we start the week (lol "we") with a home series against the Marlins. DARE THIS TEAM GET BACK TO .500, WHERE THEY'VE ONLY BEEN ONE DAY OTHER THAN OPENING DAY ALL SEASON?
Nats are 12-14.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game twenty-four

I guess Friday night was supposed to be a masterful pitching showdown between Maximum Scherzer and Matt Harvey (rematch of opening day actually). Together, they each went 7 innings, "scattering" (lol) 5 hits, except the Mets got a single run thanks to Michael Cuddyer's solo HR in the 4th. Nats bullpen gave up three more runs in the 8th, and offense was gone after 34 runs in three days, so Nats lost 4-0 (or 0-4 if we do this like soccer).
Nats were 10-14.

On Offense

There's a lot of baseball teams that I find very exciting this season. I'm really into the Pirates and their young, speedy contact guys and solid pitching. If everything does well, they're going to have a simply exhilarating team in a couple of seasons.

I like almost everything about the Brewers. I love their stadium. I love Bob Uecker. Their Friday throwback uniforms are probably the best-looking uniform in baseball and it's a real shame it's not their everyday outfit. They have a player named Nyjer Morgan whose "on-field name" is Tony Plush, and he's the best interview in baseball. I have trouble reconciling Prince Fielder's dickish and outright cheating antics with my love of massive-armed fat vegan dudes who crush deep home runs. I have trouble reconciling my hatred of Mark Teixiera facial expressions on Elijah Wood's face with the awesome baseball that Dave Braun plays. But most of all, I love that the Brewers are not the Cardinals.

There are a lot of teams that are fun or interesting to watch for a ton of very different reasons. The 2011 Mariners, Mets, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, and Indians are fascinating thus far. It's been a spectacular baseball season, and we're only just into June.

But the truth is, since I got back into baseball full-bore in about 1999 after a really unfortunate few-year absence (the departure of Will Clark in the pre-internet, pre-MLB.tv era coincided with my abrupt cessation from playing organized baseball during my adolescence), my second-favorite team has been the Boston Red Sox. It made a lot more sense at the time. The Giants were the West Coast Red Sox, so why not root for another set of talented, hard-luck losers?

Having your favorite team play in a separate league from your second-favorite team is essentially like having two favorite teams. Also, watching these two maligned teams win historic World Series within six years of one another is...well, it's still sort of hard to believe. Especially considering the collapses of the seemingly-unstoppable Giants teams of 1987, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2002, and basically every Red Sox season before 2004.

The Giants have a rich history of fearsome mashers. Will the Thrill, Stretch, the Say-Hey Kid, the Hackman, Matt "no nickname" Williams, Kevin Mitchell, Ellis Burks, Jeff Kent, and some guy named Barry. Since Number 25 departed, however, the Giants have had pitchers. Boy, have they ever had pitchers! On offense, they've had Randy Winn, Brian Bocock, Manny Burriss, John Bowker, Dave Roberts, Edgar Renteria, the old and fat version of Bengie Molina, and [see today's lineup].

The American League and the National league are fundamentally different. You watch the two different leagues and it's clear that they're two different leagues. But you watch a Giants game and then watch a Red Sox game...and it's two different solar systems. When a Giants starter gives up a run, you can honestly feel the Giants fan hivemind wail in despair. How can they possibly overcome this deficit? You run through the options. Who's up next inning? Huff? He'll roll one to the right side. Schierholtz and Ross might get a base hit or walk between them, but...oh, no. Rowand! God forbid the one good hitter in that day's lineup is leadoff off the next inning. Getting stranded after a leadoff double is even worse than three slow rollers to second base. Watching a Giants game in 2011 is slow and agonizing. How can they overcome a two-run deficit? It's just not possible! Evey Giants run scored is a tiny miracle, an anomaly. A Bret Hart loogie in the eye of God/Vince McMahon. Every Giants pitcher takes the field knowing they're going to have to be essentially perfect or that's the ballgame. Every Giants hitter stands at the plate knowing they're going to mess this one up. Those of us watching at home can't believe that Barry was here as recently as 2007. That can't be right, we think. That was a million years ago. Two million.

Watching a Red Sox game after a 2-0 Giants loss or a 2-1 Giants win is like the feeling you must get immediately following a complete mental break. So this is insanity. Huh. It's pretty crazy! The Red Sox go out and wallop the ball. Just absolutely abuse the thing. Ellsbury and Crawford hit triples. Pedroia and Youkilis bring them home. Gonzalez and Ortiz launch taters to every field. The runs just pile up and up, a seemingly inexhaustible supply. John Lackey might give up five runs in an inning, and you can see the Sox players look at one another and shrug. "Gee, I guess we'll just have to hit more home runs next inning. No big deal. It's what we do."

It's ridiculous that the Red Sox can have such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to putting up crooked numbers. Sure, you can point to their payroll and to the difference in play in the DH league. But the Red Sox team philosophy that Theo Epstein scrawled on the whiteboard in his office are the letters "OBP" crossed out, and below that, the words "HOME RUNZ" two feet high.

It's going to be very interesting for the rest of the 2011 season. The Giants have a phenomenal pitching staff, and no offense. None available, and none forthcoming. The Red Sox have a lineup of fearsome cave trolls that hit baseballs so hard the baseballs evaporate, and the umpires are forced to award the batters "super-homers" which count for twice the normal runs. I've always wanted to see a Giants-Red Sox World Series, and this might be the craziest year for that to happen. I don't believe it will, though. I don't believe the Giants can make it this far.

Pitching wins ballgames, sure. The Giants proved that last year. But you have to put a number on the board first. The Giants can't do that consistently. Sometimes they can't do it at all. The Red Sox have nothing but numbers. Sometimes they let their opponents score 4 or 5 or 7 runs, because they feel bad there's no mercy rule. "Sorry about the 16 runs, fellas. We're gonna just throw underhand for a while. No hard feelings, yeah?"

I like watching fantastic pitching that makes great hitters look like fools. I also like watching 500-foot home runs and three-run doubles off the wall. With my two favorite teams I get the best of both worlds.

Still about 100 games left. It's going to be one hell of a season.

- Bill