Two games in, and the Nats are tied with the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies! It doesn't get much better than that, does it?
OK, so they're tied for last place in all of Major League Baseball, but it's Philadelphia! They're the champs! The Nats are as good as them, right?
Last night's game -- an 8 to something... did anyone make it to the end? -- loss to the Marlins was basically a repeat of Monday's game: soft-tossing lefty has no command, gets battered around by Fish bats.
Which itself is a repeat of everything we saw last season. It's more game 164 (well, 163 for the pedants among us) of the 2008 season than anything new, fresh or exciting.
The Marlboro Man, Scott Olsen, stunk. He had zero zip on his fastball, looking like a younger Jamie Moyer -- and we're talking late 1980s Moyer, when the Cubs tried to get him to retire and become a pitching coach.
In his three innings, he gave up eight hits (including two long homers) and three walks. Of the 20 batters he faced, only two struck out, which is about as bad as a pitcher can do.
Olsen's underlying stats (like Ks) have been on a pretty steep decline the last few years. He stunk this spring. He stunk in this start. It certainly seems like he could be closer to the end than the beginning.
Maybe he better lay off the cigs for a while?
At the plate, the only fact you need to know is that Lastings Milledge's seventh-inning walk was the team's first of the season -- to go with their 19 strikeouts.
Yay for plate discipline.
Nothing like killing the spirits of Nats fans so early.
Wait 'til next year, indeed.
Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. He turned the TV off at 6-0. He did, however, enjoy the book he read.
