NATS (31-21) BETTER THAN PHILLIES YESTERDAY

 the fear of Harper 
 has given Daniel Murphy 
 chance to fucking shine 

 he's literally cleaning 
 up at the plate - winning, bro 

NATS (30-21) BETTER THAN CARDINALS TWO DAYS AGO

 bionic Strasborg 

 now 9-0 this season; 

 Cardinals crushage! 

 which will last longer - Dusty's 

 orders or Strasborg's elbow? 

NATS (29-21) WORSE THAN CARDINALS THREE DAYS AGO

 let's be real - there are 
 too many damned baseball games 
 in normal season 

 ultimately, all this shit 
 is meaningless when you're dead 

NATS (29-20) WORSE THAN CARDINALS TONIGHT

 fuckin' Max Scherzer 
 got waxed in the 3rd inning, 
 pretty much game done 

 dumbass people can turn hats 
 inside out - it don't matter 

NATS (29-19) BETTER THAN CARDINALS

 Harper's been somewhat 
 homerless, but crushed third-deck 
 bomb sans batting gloves 

 youthful precocious swagger 
 helped kill bastard Cardinals 

NATS (28-19) WORSE THAN METS EARLIER TODAY

 early afternoon 
 game early enough could've 
 watched at work online 

 but I forgot plus work was 
 worklike and shit; plus, Nats lost 

NATS (28-18) BETTER THAN METS LAST NIGHT

 interesting stat - 
 since June 23rd last 
 year, when Strasborg starts...

 Nats are 21 and 2; 
 that's solid as fucking fuck 

NATS (27-18) WORSE THAN METS LAST NIGHT

 Bartolo Colon 
 and Metropolitans got 
 measure of revenge 

 hard not to love Bartolo's 
 old abuelo-looking ass 

NATS (27-17) BETTER THAN MARLINS YESTERDAY

 by time Maximum 
 Scherzer gave up two runs in 
 7th, was up 6 

 Harper/Murphy as meat of 
 batting order could get wild 

NATS (26-17) WORSE THAN MARLINS TWO DAYS AGO

 post-finger blister 
 Joe Ross remains a "loss" cause - 
 eating innings though!

 ahh - stupid fucking baseball, 
 having people eat innings 

NATS (26-16) BETTER THAN MARLINS THREE DAYS AGO

 trip to Miami's 
 stadium monstrosity, 
 "psychedelic" place 

 baseball psychedelic's false, 
 always, unless Dock Ellis 

NATS (25-16) BETTER THAN METS LAST NIGHT

 at quarter mark - a 
 dominant performance at 
 division rival 

 these are the games which compose 
 great seasons, but we need more 

NATS (24-16) BETTER THAN METS LAST NIGHT

 Gio Gonzales 
 has grown lustrous shaggy mop - 
 perfect pitcher's hair 

 Bartolo Colon is what... 
 a thousand years old? Nats win! 

NATS (23-16) WORSE THAN METS TWO DAYS AGO

 Maximum Scherzer 
 outdueled in divisional 
 rival pitching duel 

 if I've not mentioned how much 
 I hate the Mets - I hate them 

NATS (23-15) WORSE THAN MARLINS FOUR DAYS AGO

 how the fuck is Nats 
 gonna split home series in 
 half with damn Marlins? 

 I know it's a marathon 
 not a sprint, but I don't know 

NATS (23-14) WORSE THAN MARLINS FIVE DAYS AGO

 Bryce Harper quickly 
 dropped single-game suspension 
 appeal, sat one out 

 night cap throwaway to May 
 double-header, without star 

NATS (23-13) BETTER THAN MARLINS FIVE DAYS AGO

 old-timey day/night 
 double-header - early game 
 with lots of scoring 

 that's the only way to keep 
 people awake for both games 

NATS (22-13) BETTER THAN MARLINS TONIGHT

 seems like Bryce Harper 
 has been quieter, other 
 than that ejection 

 he yanked game-winning homer 
 though, angrily fired back up 

NATS (21-13) BETTER THAN TIGERS TONIGHT

 writing thirty-one 
 syllables times one hundred 
 and sixty-two games 

 that's just over five thousand 
 idiotic syllables 

NATS (20-13) WORSE THAN TIGERS TONIGHT

 WHAT HAS GONE WRONG WITH 
 JOE ROSS, EARLY FAVORITE 
 TO THIS DUMB SEASON? 

 POST-BLISTER, HE HAS REALLY 
 STRUGGLED! (also, Strasborg's rich) 

NATS (20-12) BETTER THAN TIGERS LAST NIGHT

 after 4-game sweep, 

 Clint Robinson's (who?) walk-off 

 homer was needed 

 and yet, the Nats find themselves 

 second in the division 

NATS (19-12) WORSE THAN CUBS 2 DAYS AGO

 13th inning loss 
 completes competitive 
 but painful sweep 

 on the plus though, offense smashed
 ace Arrieta off in 5 

NATS (19-11) WORSE THAN CUBS 3 DAYS AGO

 I was in Maine, tuned 
 out from digital affairs, 
 so *missed* whole series 

 baseball so slow and boring 
 you can easily miss months 

NATS (19-10) WORSE THAN CUBS 4 DAYS AGO

 pitchers duel betwixt 
 Maximum Scherzer and John 
 Lackey was promised 

 Maximum Scherzer shaky 
 as fuck though - should we worry? 

NATS (19-9) WORSE THAN CUBS 5 DAYS AGO

 Joe Ross held these Cubs 

 to only 2 runs over 

 near 7 innings 

 bullpen added 3, offense 

 got 2; Joe Ross's first loss 

NATS (19-8) BETTER THAN ROYALS SIX DAYS AGO

 offense had given 
 13 runs before Strasborg 
 retired to dugout 

 who the fuck ain't gonna win 
 a rubber stamp game like that? 

NATS (18-8) WORSE THAN ROYALS A WEEK AGO

 Jonny Papelbon 
 faced seven batters for save, 
 gave up three runs, lost 

 walk off road losses might hurt, 
 but shitty humans hurt worse 

NATS (18-7) BETTER THAN ROYALS TONIGHT

 Edinson Volquez 
 (of flat brim fame) reunites 
 with Dusty Baker 

 Gio kept it scattered but 
 smothered, two-run 1st - Nats win 

NATS (17-7) BETTER THAN CARDINALS YESTERDAY

 Maximum Scherzer 
 back to maximized effect, 
 plus offense firing 

 after swept by Phillies, 
 Nats sweep godless Cardinals 

NATS (16-7) BETTER THAN CARDINALS TWO DAYS AGO

 Joe Ross's blister 
 seems to have subsided, so 
 Nats dominated 

 has this Joe Ross dude become 
 defacto Nats spinal cord? 

NATS (15-7) BETTER THAN CARDINALS THREE DAYS AGO

 after shakey 1st, 
 Strasborg finagled his way 
 through seven innings 

 scrappy road win powered by 
 4-run 4th to end April 

NATS (14-7) WORSE THAN PHILLIES FOUR DAYS AGO

 not just a sweep by 

 divisional rivals, but 

 painful, ugly sweep 

 last two games - six hits combined 

 for zero runs; still early though 

NATS (14-6) WORSE THAN PHILLIES FIVE DAYS AGO

 offensive goose eggs, 
 two measley ass hits the whole 
 game - the fuck is this? 

 Harper gonna be walking 
 more than prime-time Barry Bonds 

NATS (14-5) WORSE THAN PHILLIES SIX DAYS AGO

 Maximum Scherzer 
 had minimal first inning, 
 never overcame 

 who cares though, since the Flyers 
 caught Stanely Cup piledrivers? 

NATS (14-4) BETTER THAN TWINS TODAY

 Harper batted in 
 tying run, bottom of ninth, 
 then forever came 

 bottom of sixteenth inning, 
 walk-off homer, game over 

NATS (13-4) BETTER THAN TWINS YESTERDAY

 April interleague 
 baseball is as exciting 
 as shit even gets 

 do Twins still have that dumbass 
 catcher Maury Povich dude? 

NATS (12-4) BETTER THAN TWINS TONIGHT

 Gio Gonzalez 
 victories always feel good, 
 he's so lovable 

 sentimentality in 
 baseball fandom leads to fucked 

NATS (11-4) WORSE THAN MARLINS JUST NOW

 Thursday afternoon 
 matinee fly-away game, 
 vacant Miami 

 hard to really give a fuck - 
 let's get to the airport, bros 

NATS (11-3) BETTER THAN MARLINS YESTERDAY

 unexpected ace 
 of early season Joe Ross 
 pulled early - uh oh 

 pitching hand callous became 
 blister but the Nats still won 

NATS (10-3) BETTER THAN MARLINS

 another grand slam 
 by the Ultimate Harper - 
 channeled energies 

 Strasborg (plus bullpen) kept it 
 zero on the other side 

NATS (9-3) WORSE THAN MARLINS YESTERDAY

 honestly sort of 
 halfway happy they're on a 
 two-game losing streak 

 it's only fucking April; 
 don't be peaking too early 

NATS (9-2) WORSE THAN PHILLIES YESTERDAY

 top of tenth inning 
 homer by Bryce Harper should 
 have sealed series sweep 

 but here comes ol' Papelbon 
 who of course fucked it all up 

NATS (9-1) BETTER THAN PHILLIES TWO DAYS AGO

 Maximum Scherzer 
 displayed maximum sport nerd 
 statistic value 

 Ultimate Harper blasted 
 another homer; the Nats romped 

NATS (8-1) WAY BETTER THAN PHILLIES LAST NIGHT

 Harper homered, five 
 top of first inning runs scored, 
 game over quickly 

 Joe Ross the team ace thus far? 
 I didn't see that shit coming 

NATS (7-1) BETTER THAN BRAVES TONIGHT

 this is what we dreamed 
 about - Strasborg went solid 
 8 innings, & won 

 Ultimate Harper smashed his 
 first ever grand slam - MOAR PLZ 

NATS (6-1) BETTER THAN BRAVES TONIGHT

 Strasborg had got sick, 
 so Tanner Roark threw seven 
 scoreless innings, bruh 

 Tanner Roark is only kid 
 from Bad News Bears to make pros 

NATS (5-1) BETTER THAN BRAVES YESTERDAY

 Ultimate Harper 
 knocked in both Nats runs bottom 
 of the 8th inning 

 an amazing player who 
 will look stupid in pinstripes 

NATS (4-1) BETTER THAN BRAVES TONIGHT

 googling the boxscore 
 trying to find out enough 
 shit to write five lines 

 my internet's maxed out though 
 'til data resets next week 

NATS (3-1) BETTER THAN MARLINS YESTERDAY

 Jonny Papelbon, 
 he of the anus mouth face, 
 somehow has three saves 

 at this pace, he will still be 
 cancerous tumor always 

NATS (2-1) WORSE THAN MARLINS JUST NOW

 home opener - didn't 
 catch even a minutiae 
 because soooooo boring 

 but congratulations to 
 pretend Miami Marlins 

NATS (2-0) BETTER THAN BRAVES TODAY

 first week of baseball 
 is staggered bullshit hodgepodge 
 of opening days 

 three-day two-game series wraps 
 up - NATS ARE UNDEFEATED! 

NATS (1-0) BETTER THAN BRAVES TODAY

 another season 
 of Washington Nationals 
 baseball feels begins 

 Ultimate Harper homers 
 in first at-bat; shit is lit 

Well, This is Something Else - Mets Clinch 2015 National League Pennant (Part One)

I just scrolled (and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled) through pages of solid gold work from KS and Raven Mack to see the last time that I've contributed to Baseball Feelings, and I'm not proud to have to say that it was back in July of 2013 when I last wrote some Baseball Feelings about the All Star Game being held at Citi Field.  A shameful absence to be sure, but not nearly as shameful as the timing of the return, even I can admit.  

I hope you'll forgive my 'bandwagoning' of this post.  Rest assured, since July 2013, I have had floods of Baseball Feelings, but not enough to warrant an entire post...usually a Tweet or a text to a friend would sate my craving but this, well, this is something else.  

At that time of my last post, the Mets had put up their customary "better than expected" first half, and all fans were expecting a traditional second-half decline, but there was reason for optimism back then in 2013, in the person of Matt Harvey, who did this to the best hitter in baseball during the aforementioned All-Star Game.  

The future looked bright...for about a month.  In August, word got out that Matt Harvey would need Tommy John surgery and miss all of 2014, and all of the optimism was gone. 2014 had always been targeted as a realistic contention date, with the emergence of all the young pitching in the Mets' pipeline, but after Harvey's injury, it seemed that meaningful games would take a backseat to lining up the young staff again.  

2014 was seen as a placeholder year, walking in place waiting for all the pieces to come together, but then storming out of nowhere came this man: 

Jacob DeGrom's debut didn't even register as a blip on the radar for Mets fans, who had just seen Harvey's two years ago, Zack Wheeler's in 2013, and were anxiously awaiting Noah Syndergaard's, and as debuts go, it was pretty good, but oh so very Mets.  7 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER and the loss in a 1-0 decision to the Yankees.  Start by start, people got more excited for DeGrom, until he was winning Rookie of the Year, Syndergaard was being portrayed as immature and not ready for the bigs, and Mets fans were dreaming big of a rotation of Harvey, DeGrom and Wheeler until, well....

I had joked, when Harvey was shut down for his Tommy John surgery in 2013 that it might not be a bad idea for Wheeler to get his.  If 2014 was going to be a lost season anyway, may as well get it out of the way.  Early in spring training this year, word came out that Wheeler would need the procedure and the dreams of a rotation where Wheeler, once seen as the jewel prospect of the San Francisco Giants - who know a thing or two about pitching prospects - was the third or forth best pitcher had to be put on hold just before the grand plan was set to be put in motion.  

Blue Jays 6, Rangers 3: Righteous Conquest, Like Henry V Riding into The Battle of The Hornburg Atop, Like, Rainbow Dash

José's got a really big team, and they need some really big rings, etc ps think about how Drake must feel 

Like so many of us (arguably most?), I listened to several innings of Game 5 sitting in a car parked in the lot of a church of which I am not now nor have ever been a congregant; around the time José Bautista ripped a double down the line to drive in Ben Revere, I went for chicken. This kept my streak of doing all kinds of other things while these games have been going on very much intact: Thanksgiving weekend, and so pumpkin pies to make (they came out tremendously, and kind of tasted like ginger snaps, thank you for your interest), and many feastings to partake of, and so just lots of checking in, you know? If you follow it on your phone it feels a lot like Baseball Mogul, except you don't have Carlos Delgado and Tony Fernandez both signed to deals that are literally killing you and you have literally died from them in your game. 

I legit felt like the Blue Jays were probably finished after Price pitched not-so-hotly in Game 1, and said as much in this very place of Feelings, and didn't feel a whole lot better about things as Game 2 unfolded over the course of pretty much forever, but actually during what I think all would agree was an impressively unobtrusive and considerate portion of a Thanksgiving dinner conversation, a brother-in-law and I managed to convince each other that the way the pitching lined up, there was every reason for guarded optimism that the Blue Jays could get it back to Toronto for Game 5, and then, coin flip, right? At its heart this line of reasoning was probably at least fairly dumb, a subtle variation of my self-deluding (but handy!) Game Six At Home theory of playoff hockey, which is when the team you like is getting creamed, but you convince yourself that all they need to do is get it to Game Six At Home, win that one, and then anything can happen in a seventh game, right? And usually does, haha! (Note that this never works.) I also have a micro version of this macro argument, which is when the other team scores first (any sport, doesn't matter), you are just like, well, we knew we were going to have to score one, so this is of hardly any import at all, old fruit. (This never works either, and my old friend Matty denounces all of it as "loser talk," which it self-evidently is, yes.) And yet! We had ourselves/each other pretty much sold on it.

There was much discussion, and rightly so, about whether or not John Gibbons was being prudent or in fact a dink when he brought David Price out of the bullpen with a big lead and shut R. A. Dickey down early in Game 4, but given the way Price pitched in Game 1, I wasn't overly eager to see him in Game 5, and felt much better with the idea of Stroman getting the start, so I am without complaint (everyone is without complaint now, of course, but I started that way, and so have felt a greater measure of peace). I was pleased to see on Twitter that Stoeten shared this view; I was displeased to see he got sick and couldn't go to Game 5 and chose to give up his ticket, which is brutal, but I will remind you here that I went to games with food poisoning and scored several innings from the bathroom in the 500s listening on my slim radio with nothing other than my 2003 perfect attendance record on the line, which also meant an autographed Vernon Wells baseball and an on-field presentation on the line, and so kind of everything on the line, actually, and so I now renounce the way this sentence began, and just want us to think about poor Stoeten here (Drunk Jays Fans forever, obviously). 

IN SHORT we were just getting home when E5 hit the home run that tied it in the sixth and Mike Wilner on the radio just started hollering indistinctly. I have watched the clips of everything now, and I think they confirm that, maybe weirdly, the crowd reaction to the E5 home run to tie it was even bigger than José's to go ahead? I know this sounds strange, especially given all that, like, transpired, but go check and see. Perhaps emotional exhaustion and terror are factors here?

About all the stuff that happened: Russell Martin winging it off (Big League) Choo, while insane, should totally have been a live ball, obviously, and Dale Scott blew it when he waved it dead, which made everybody stop, not that they would have had a play anyway, so really who cares,and Dale Scott has since admitted he messed it up, so what do you want? The mere anarchy that was unloosed upon the world, mostly in the 500s, actually made me really anxious as it unfolded, because it can get really bad up there even without blown calls in decisive playoff games. In truth, any time there were like 35k+ people in the SkyDome I disliked the feel up there pretty severely: the angle of the seating is so severe that the one-row-up advantage in blows being visited upon on those below is pronounced, and people get wrecked, and all it takes to get it started is one person to throw something, another person to say hey don't throw things, and then everything becomes terrible for everybody. All of this was uncomfortable. 

The bottom of the seventh is not a thing I am probably even really able to fully dig at present, and who can say when, if ever, I will be able to openly and honestly and truly dig it, but let me just say for now that we should all probably feel as terrible for Elvis Andrus as we do exultant and swept away in José Bautista's apex glory. That reliever, Dyson, just seems like a dick, so who cares that much, except that we have probably all been dicks and so should probably be more charitable than I have just been, but poor Elvis Andrus: that's as bad as that could have gone for him, and given the reviews and stuff, it unfolded over the course of a while, and was just punishing.   

The Bautista home run itself seemed then, and seems now, and will probably continue well into the future to seem to be, Just The Thing To Do. José was asked right after the game about Joe Carter's home run, and you can see why, but right away he was like no, that was the World Series, and it was a walk-off, and that's just a completely and totally other sort of thing, and he's right about that for sure, but given the insane emotional pitch at which that hour-long yeah it was pretty much an hour long seventh inning was played, in a game where the Blue Jays could be eliminated (not so in 1993 Game Six, you will recall), this was more cathartic, although not in the fullest original sense of "cleansing" or "purifying" because it didn't make me feel less gross about people having to physically shield their tiny children from shit hurled down from the 500s (however even before this particular episode I would have strongly advised against bringing tiny kids to games when the place is going to be full: a Junior Jays Saturday where kids line up behind section 129 to run the bases is one thing; this is quite another).

Hey one thing I will say on the subject of the bat flip, which is a thing people are talking about like it was An Issue for Takes (and obviously this is not a forum for Takes but for Feelings, which are radically and crucially different), is that I am super glad I am not part of any conversation where one's position on bat flips stands as a proxy for their politix, particularly in the context of Amerikkka, because that is the most tedious possible thing a person could want to talk about after that home run and yet such talk is rampant. I guess I can understand reporters asking players dumb questions to get dumb answers to write their dumb stories (the only daily beat team sports reporter I ever kind of half-knew was of the view that every reporter hates standing there asking idiotic questions and every player just holds them in complete and unfailingly contempt, and I believe every part of this very strongly), but it is not undumb because it is their job; maybe their job is dumb (many are; I have had some). If that is a thing you do for fun, I don't get it, but that's OK too probably. Anyway, please know that your efforts to corrupt and attaint this by making it emblematic of Whatever Your Shit Is will ultimately fail and all that will remain is the sikkest dinger of the age.      

To conclude, Jerry Howarth was really happy on the radio, and I am pretty sure Joe Siddall (Jerry Howarth's non-Mike-Wilner little buddy) was crying on air after Osuna got the last out. And hey George Bell threw out the first pitch! Remember when he came back to Toronto for the 1991 All-Star Game as a Cub and everybody hated him? I didn't understand why!

OK, Blue Jays,

KS

Rangers 5, Blue Jays 3: R.I.P. 2015 Toronto Blue Jays, Probably

let's remember the good times

So, since we last Felt, the Blue Jays traded for essentially All of The Guys, won pretty much All of The Games, and now return to the postseason for the first time since, like, yore-days, and it has been unusually great. But how much has really changed in those many intervening years? I don't mean broadly, nor do I mean in any particular except my own, when I say: not that much, I guess? As was very much the case in 1992/93, I am reading a lot of Tolkien and playing a lot of metal these days, you know? Of course, all that I do and am now, or whatever, is pretty heavily inflected by an unmistakable DadWave ethos, so that's different, but really on the whole it is not that there is all kinds of new stuff, so much as a lot of the same kinds of things, just DadWaved up significantly. And that carries over into this baseball watching, too, in that I remember very clearly the dads of several of these players. What makes that part of things more striking still is that I don't just remember Prince Fielder's dad as a fat old guy (I mean no disrespect), but I remember Delino DeShields' dad as a young man, like a young man, and here is his son now.  

Glancing through old scorekeeping books,as one does at reflective times such as these, I see that while I have attended something like 215 Blue Jays games, the dome was as full as it was yesterday for only maybe like a half-dozen of them. I really never liked it when it was that full, and indeed I read on Twitter about a fight that broke out in a bathroom yesterday (after one guy kept daring another guy to touch his dick), which is exactly the kind of unlikable thing I unliked about the dome when it was super full, but I bet that on the whole it was pretty killer to be there yesterday, excepting all of the baseball things that happened, like David Price's dreary start, Bautista leaving the game with a hamstring issue of some kind, or Josh Donaldson felled by a(n inadvertent, surely) boma ye knee. This is not, nor it cannot come to good, right? Bautista and Donaldson are both back in the lineup today (unlike poor old Adrian Beltre, who looks to have a million things wrong with him), and Marcus Stroman is on the hill today, so how bad can it be, except what if it's really bad and then the Blue Jays are down two games in a five-game series after their first two postseason games at home in twenty two years? It's Cole Hamels for the Rangers, who, as I recall, can be really good. 

But even if this is pretty much it, and the Blue Jays don't even get out of this round (maybe not this weekend, even), I did see people on their break at Sobey's playing catch outside on the grass yesterday, and just totally firing it in there, so this excellent half-summer of everybody (really, it seems like everybody) enjoying baseball here, at least a little, has been really nice, and I look forward to it being really nice again when it happens when I am 58. None of our current cats will be around then, so let's enjoy their company as much as we are able, and also, to a lesser extent, some baseball games.

KS

As We Had Anticipated, The Blue Jays Have Won Eleven In A Row

ride the lightning, Jose Reyes; you *ride* it

As I got in the car after judo, and put the game on the radio, as is my wont in such circumstances, Jose Reyes was just bringing to a close a six-run, bat-around fourth inning against the (admittedly pretty lowly) Boston Red Sox, and Mike Wilner, relieving an ailing Jerry Howarth (don't worry, it's not serious) on commentary, kind of couldn't believe it. Nor should he have: because, I mean, what is even happening? A team-best (don't say "franchise," just listen to yourself when you say things like that) eleven straight wins, including some pretty choicely massive rallies and walk-offs, to vault the Blue Jays all the way from the AL East basement to . . . ok just to third but still this is really something would you not agree that it is something. Imagine if this had happened once the hockey playoffs had ended! All kinds of extra people would have noticed! And actually the Blackhawks could end it tonight, and Jose Bautista has homered off the Mets' Noah Snydergaard (remember him?), so if these trends continue this could prove to be one HECK of a summer of Blue Jays baseball, friends. 

(Again please note the Blue Jays are only at third still.)

KS

The Toronto Blue Jays Have Gone 7-13 Since I Declared Them To Be "just as .500 as it gets" So Definitely Keep Listening To Things I Think And Say

look how sad Ezequiel Carrera looks here even though he has just scored; it is because he has been blessed/cursed with the second sight and knows the bullpen will fail him

Were I inclined to optimism regarding this 2015 Toronto Blue Jays baseball season, which I extremely am not, I would be sure to point out that although the Blue Jays are bad, so too is the rest of the once-not-even-a-little-bad American League East: see, for example, the division leading Yankees and Rays, who, both at 26-25, are not exactly tearing it up. The Orioles are, like the Blue Jays, below .500, too, and the Red Sox are even worse. So, one could totally be like "it's all still winnable! and they're only like 3.5 out of the wild card!" and that would be mathematically true, but it would not reflect the lived emotional reality of putting games on the radio and knowing nothing but misery and blight. It is remarkable that Jerry Howarth is able to keep his spirits up as much as he does. Or maybe not: I heard Jerry Howarth be a little bit cutting one time, years ago, in an interview on the Sunday morning CBC radio show with Micheal Enright, when he spoke about J.P. Ricciardi (who should probably never be forgiven), but other than that I am not sure he has given voice to a dark thought in decades, at least not publicly. And that certainly continues this season, but rather than be buoyed by his joy, I have felt instead that it only reveals my own utter lack of it (as it relates to baseball, please don't worry, I am very well); indeed, it draws an ever-starker contrast between our baseball Weltanschauungs, which have perhaps never been so far apart. 

Anyway, the Washington Nationals are up next (hey Raven), which should be about enjoying Bryce Harper, but will instead, for me, be about how there aren't Expos and haven't been for years and so while this should be about presence it will inevitably be about absence, as I am baseball forlorn a little bit.  

KS 

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 forty-nine

(the original Charlie Hustle)

Gio Gonzalez was in off-mode on Saturday in his on/off style of pitching. It's hard not to feel like he is psychically attached to Stephen Strasburg somewhat, being they were ONE-TWO there for a spell early on in Nationals franchise hope for the future, so you have to imagine Strasburg getting DL-ed that morning weighed heavily on Gio's psyche. Nonetheless, even after giving up 4 runs and coming out the game in the 6th, Gio was still on track to get the W. But the Reds bombadiered their way to 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th, and secured a victory, which also secured a series win, which also I'm not sure I remember the last time the Nats not winning a series with a team, like seriously it might be since the first month but I'm not gonna go double-check because I'm not Elias Stats Bureau, just some dude sitting at his desk at work BLOGGING about BASEBALL.

Bryce Harper has been homerless in this series thus far, and I think my brain had planned comparisons between Harper and Pete Rose, not because I think Harper will be the greatest hitter in history but ultimately shamed from the game and shunned forever, but because Harper also has that weird super-competitive perhaps slightly-weird Charlie Hustle mentality where he perhaps overdoes certain things most baseball players would be like, "bro, take it easy." Personally, I feel this is a good nonsense mentality to instill on a baseball team, even though vets might be haters, the dudes that come up under such a nonsense Charlie Hustle mentality take to that as to what is right. For example, Michael Taylor gets full-time gig while Caveman Werth is out (on the DL, again), and Taylor busted a HR in this game. Taylor has been busting homers. Taylor has looked solid as fuck at times, like the type of solid you can think, "wow, there's a lot of young dudes who are potentially awesome on this team" and it makes you feel like there's an actual hope for not just now but forever (lolol).

I don't think you could be Pete Rose level Charlie Hustle in today's game though. People are weakened by their over-education of mind, which tells wild heart to "shut the fuck up, you don't *know* what you're suggesting" all too often. Though Bryce Harper probably doesn't read these words, I put it out there as universal intention of words spoken as if they meant something & would be received by subject - STAY WILD YOUNG BRYCE HARPER, MAINTAIN YOUR FEROCITY OF SPIRIT, DON'T LET THESE EGGHEAD BITCHES SLOW YOU DOWN, BE A TRUE DIAMOND KING.

Anyways, Nats were 28-21.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-eight

(remember after last Strasborg start when I said "I bet he goes

another week or two then is put on the DL"?

well I should've wrote "I bet he pitches

19 no-hitters in a row")

Stephon Strasborg only lasted 16 pitches on Friday night's opener of 3-game series in Cincinnati. He left game after walking a dude, shrugging to the dugout, then the trainer came out and ushered him off the field, with "neck tightness". Next morning, Strasborg went on the DL (again), and man, this dude is starting to become a DL master.

The Reds ended up winning the game, even though they'd lost 10 of 11 heading into it, but being it's 48 games, rather than expound upon the game in particular, let's revisit our 10% incremental check-ins with season, as we are now 30% done with this long ass endless perhaps painful even baseball season of Roman calendar year 2015. Nats got hot as fuck this 10% of the season, and hopefully it is a sign of more to come and not just an early season spurt that gives us false hopes for dominance after earlier false worries of failure, which all sort of speaks to just how long and fucking goddamn a baseball season is because you can worry and get excited about a lot of ultimately completely meaningless bullshit along the way. But Nats moved to first in the NL East during this increment of the season, so now it becomes an incremental task of maintaining that position. Slowly. Through humid ass DC summers. Go-go music. Chubby chicks in sundresses, shoulder tattoos faded but suggesting a reckless outlaw personality that just does not give a fuck, which perhaps suggests fuck. I don't know. I am more concerned with the beauty of the feminine than the particulars of the baseballs to be honest. This happens.

Nats were 28-20.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-seven

(Bryce Harper rookie card)

Nats went into the rubber tramp stamp game at Wrigley yesterday flirting with a 2-game losing streak. (lolol that is where we are, where losing two in a row is notable.) [also are you supposed to cap the first "l" in "lolol" if it opens a sentence? what about in the bracketed follow-up questions?] However, Max "Maximum" Scherzer was pitching and you know what? He's pretty fuckin' awesome. 5 hits over 7 innings with no runs allowed awesome. And you know what else? Matt Grace is turning into the pretty solid set-up dude leading into certified closer Matt Storen (who got his 16th save already).

You know what else happened? Bryce Harper totally hit another fucking home run. He's on pace (according to my desktop calculator) for like 62, but he also didn't really hit any at the beginning of the season. Basically he's gonna hit a thousand I bet.

Nats are 28-19.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-six

(actual incident of goat curse initiation, which has

forever doomed Cubs baseball, as it should because

who the fuck doesn't allow goats into baseball

games? assholes, that's who)

PAID ZERO ATTENTION TO THIS TBH, BUT PICTURE ABOVE WILL ALWAYS BE IMPORTANT BECAUSE CHIVOS ARE NATURE'S PRESIDENTS BECAUSE THEY ARE NATURAL LEADERS & MAYBE ALL THAT STUPID IVY WOULDN'T COVER THE OUTFIELD WALL IF THEY HAD ALLOWED GOATS, KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING? JORDAN ZIMMERMANN AKA J-ZIMM HAD SOLID OUTING BUT LOOKS LIKE (according to boxscore) BULLPEN LET US DOWN, ALTHOUGH LOOK BRYCE HARPER HIT ANOTHER DINGER (as did Denard Span) WHICH MEANS HOLY FUCK MAN BRYCE HARPER IS FUCKING CRUSHING IT. AT THIS SPACE HE WILL HIT A THOUSAND HOMERUNS & EVENTUALLY HE WILL COME THE PLATE & RATHER THAN INTENTIONALLY WALK HIM THE OPPOSING PITCHER WILL JUST INTENTIONALLY THROW THE BALL OVER THE OUTFIELD WALL & BRYCE HARPER WILL RUN FULL-SPEED AROUND ALL FOUR BASES THEN THROUGH THE STADIUM HIGH-FIVING EVERY CHILD IN ATTENDANCE CREATING A NEW BREED OF SPIRIT WARRIORS THAT WILL ONE DAY FILL ALL OUR LIVES WITH IMMENSE JOY AND WONDER AND PURE SPIRIT THAT MAKES GETTING OUT OF BED WHEN THE ALARM BLOOP BLOOPS NOT A STRUGGLE AT ALL BUT A MOTHERFUCKIN' WONDER, LIKE A LIFETIME OF VACATION DAYS, FOREVER, AS WE ALL HAVE DREAMED IT COULD BE FROM TIME TO TIME.

Nats are 27-19.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-five

(image searches like this is how we fix our broke shit in 2015)

Saturday morning, rode an hour away w/ 16 year old daughter to do some DMV shit on a new *used* ride we just bought, and to set up bank account for the kid as she's in community college & got mad money from her various hustles. My shitty '94 Toyota truck did fine, despite some strange behavior this past week, but then when we left the bank, nothing - no click, no RUHRUHRUH, nothing. I figured battery, so took it out and walked A FUCKING MILE carrying the battery to the Advance, with my daughter walking along too. It gave us a chance to vibe on Main Street Farmville, Virginia, and in situations like this I usually think to myself, "What would I do if I was in Nigeria?" You walk the fuckin' fucked-up battery and find a new one.

Well, the battery tested fine, so we walked it back, with me figuring, "It has to be the starter." My wife was on her way, and after I partially *jacked* the front end up enough to squeeze underneath with the tire jack resting on a brick I keep in the back of the truck because you never know when you'll need a random brick (like now), I got the starter off, eventually. Years ago I would have cussed and broke things and beaten the vehicle with my boot, but I am proud to say I am in a calm enough place in life that I can, with some finagling, get the starter off a shitty old truck in a small parking lot beside the fucking bank on a Saturday when necessary. The starter tested both good and bad at the store (I don't know man) so I figured it had to be the culprit. Got it back on way quicker than taking it off, but it still didn't start. So I gave up. Wife was there & I left the fuckin' truck there, mad at it, but got it towed later this weekend.

Today in fact, after finding a chill ass tow truck dude who took $20 cash to tow it, and he talked shit about the other tow truck guy in town, who usually would've towed my shit for being left in that bank parking lot overnight, but I got lucky because that dude had to go to Raleigh or some shit. But got the truck to a shop, where I will be American and not Nigerian, and let some other dude figure the shit out (which makes me feel like a cuckold tbh).

Of course you can figure out I am driving the new *used* car to do all this, which is a 2001 Volvo S80, with shitty factory stereo, or at least you have to use a cassette adapter to run the ipod which makes the ipod sound like a thousand mosquitoes are angry at any treble sound. I let my 16 yo daughter do some driving as she has learner's, and she didn't wreck into a thing or go off the road too far, although she gunned it turning into our driveway and got pine needles all in my open window all over me but we had a good laugh. But it was also first local pool day, so the family went up there, and all the hoochie mamas were out overfilling their bikinis, and kids were being kids including dickhead redneck teen boys throwing girls into the deep end, but I did some diving with the little ones so that the dickhead teens wouldn't begrudge the little ones diving instead of the older kids doing their stupid fucking rover game.

And yet I just wanted to come home, as it had been a long weekend full of broken shit trifles and also responsible crap like bank accounts and DMVs, so I just wanted to chill the fuck out. My 16 yo rode home with me, and the treble mosquito ipod adapter was too much. But luckily it was baseball game time, so I flipped it to the FM station and listened the Nats and Cubs on actual radio - a slow, mundane, meandering linguistic experience like codeine molasses but drug-free entirely. My daughter was like "ugh, hashtag boring" because she is 16 and actually says "hashtag" before other things, and I briefly thought about explaining the perfect American-ness of riding slowly down the hill into our town while the radio played a baseball game, windows down, just being people living lives, similar to how I was explaining that type of shit when we were carrying the battery down some shit town's Main Street two days earlier. But you can't explain everything all the time, and sometimes you just have to let shit soak in and maybe it leaves a stain and maybe it doesn't, but you did what you could without forcing it. So I didn't force it.

Apparently I had just missed Wilson Ramos' go-ahead homer, and the Cubs briefly threatened while we were driving home as slow as I could go, so slow the honeysuckle smell made you think it was growing into the car as we crept at 30 mph (20 in these Blue Ridge foothill curves), but the Nats held. I came home and sliced up zucchini and yellow squash for cooking in the oven, along with some asparagus I had forgotten we bought last week, and heard the rest of the game out inside, and of course the Nats won and of course my truck is still broke and of course I go back to work after a three-day weekend tomorrow and of course my kid could give half a fuck about baseball but it is life man, we all are living it, and that's all you can fucking ask from any day because without that, you are dead. Literally, dead.

Nats are 27-18.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-four

(the day before this start, Gio kicked it with

Little Leaguers - Gio's for the childrens)

When Gio is on, it is so fun to be excited about. He is, as they say, the best, the type of guy you hope grows to be an old, kooky fucker in your team's baseball uniform, like a Bartolo Colon. He Gio'd his way thru nearly 7 innings, giving up only a single run. Meanwhile, Bryce Harper got an RBI in the 4th to even back with that allowed run by Gio, then got another RBI in the 7th, plus scored a Ryan Zimmerman doubling right behind him, which put the game away at 4-1. The fact these fucked-up Nats are able to win so many low-scoring games is not lost on me - the casual fan with paranoid worries who expects the worst to eventually take over.

Nats were 26-18.

NATS RISE TO GLORY game forty-three

(I feel like Strasborg's arm should be like this, plz)

Another Stephon Strasborg start ended in a smackering-around of Senor Strasburg, who got waxed for 4 in the 3rd, and gave up another 2 in the 4th before getting yanked before the end of the inning. He's really not looking good at all, and it has the feel of Matt Williams letting him take some knocks to prove to Strasburg himself he's not up-to-par, and then here in a week or two we're gonna see ol' Strasburg hit the DL for something or another - maybe not a season ender, in fact I doubt that's the case at all, but definitely a respite, then maybe a Triple-A rehab start or some shit like that. Pitchers (and baseball players) are so fucked up and psychological that you can't just pull the dude like that without letting him realize to himself he's probably fucked up, but in a soft-gloved way so that he's not overwhelmed with horrible psyche piledrivers of "I'm fucked up, perhaps forever?" I don't know, if you had told me that in a 5-man rotation Strasburg would be - by far - the weakest link, I wouldn't have seen that shit coming. And yet, that's exactly where we are currently.

Nats were 25-18.