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 thirty-two

Seems strange to say, but Nats win was secondary in this post. They won again, fulfilling the sweep of the Braves, moving to two games above .500 as they hit the skies to begin a seven-game west coast road trip against the D-backs and Padres. Bryce Harper hit no HRs yesterday (meaning only 6 in his past 4 games) but he did get another RBI, and he's smashed his way up to .300, despite being walked as often as possible (which I'm sure will only get worse now after this past week). But we get to another 16-game increment of the season, which means we are now 20% done with this 2015 affair of baseball. Where is this team? Can we evaluate them fairly?
Surely the first 20% of the season is the most meaningless, and yet, it establishes direction. But perhaps you don't want too much direction too early on, ya know? Through 32 games, this Nats team has been shaky as fuck, but then solid as fuck. They've struggled to score more than a single run, but they've also smashed like Little League teams at times. Pitching staff has not seemed to find its collective rhythm just yet, but it hasn't betrayed its promise either. In fact, that's pretty much the analysis of this entire team at this point - not necessarily in their rhythm, but they haven't betrayed the preseason promise yet. There's 80% of the season left to fulfill or fail. This team is above .500, which - and this is ridiculous to say at this point - means if the season ended today, they'd be a wild card play-off team.
The National League at this point is broken into three-tiers, with a trio at the top well above .500, a trio at the bottom well below .500, and with the majority in the middle-tier of being within 3 games of .500. This is nine teams, including the Nats, who at this point sit on the high end of the middle-tier, but one series sweep puts you at the bottom of that middle-tier again. Both the Diamondbacks and Padres are also in this middle-pack, so the next week of west coast games for the Nats is going to test their direction, and their ability to fulfill promise by moving from middle to upper-tier. They can seize this motherfuckin' destiny by the dick and throw it to the ground and fuck it silly, or they can piddle around middle-of-the-pack, like most teams always do. That is the nature of baseball. But I am hopeful the virile young emotions of a Bryce Harper will give the rest of the team a hard-on to fulfill their destiny and fuck this baseball season up like it wants to be fucked.
Nats are 17-15.