Nothing new

Nothing new to Nats fans, as they get off to a 0-7 start.

When I first looked at the Opening day lineup for the Marlins, I smiled seeing a easy out in Emilio Bonifacio, Florida's leadoff hitter. I was wrong when he went 4-5 with a inside the park Homer and 3 stolen bases. John Lannan struggled to get ahead of hitters, throwing only 5 first pitch strikes to the 17 batters he faced. By the third inning, it was 6-0 Marlins. In the top of the 4th, Guzman was on second, and Adam Dunn up. He took a outside out of the zone slider and crushed it to right field. I thought it had a chance of leaving, but it was off of that huge Florda left field wall for a RBI double. He later crushed a three run Homer to make it a 8-5 game. The nats lost, 12-6.

Scott Olsen looked even more pathetic the next day, giving up 5 runs in 5 innings as he got clobbered by his former team. The nats lost, 8-3.

The next day was the hugest killer ever. Daniel Cabrera had a bad start as expected( 6 IP, 5 ER), and the nats had bases loaded, 1 out and they couldn't score. In the top of the ninth with the nats down by two, the bases were loaded with one out for Josh Willingham (.345 last year with RISP), who got a start against his former team, and he struck out. Next was Austin Kearns,
who looked for a game tieing or game winning hit. He hit a sinking line drive to left field that looked like the game tieing hit off the bat, but the Left Fielder Jeremy Hermida got a great jump, and an even better catch to win the game for the fish.

The next day was also a killer for the nats, as the Braves made their home opener. Shairon Martis as the starter for the nats who only made it through 3 innings (Because of the rain delay) The nats had bases loaded, nobody out one time and failed to score. The Braves won the game in the tenth inning on a walk-off single by Kelly Johnson off of Joe Beimel to end the game.

The nats lost the next game 5-3. John Lannan had another bad outing going 6IP,4ER. They lost the next one, 8-5, while Scott Olsen has yet to learn how to pitch in a Nats uniform.

Then came the nats opener, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The game was played shortly after the death of Harry Kalas, the Phillies play-by-play announcer since 1971. They even thought about not playing the game, even when they had a Nationals Park record 40,676 people at the game. It was an offensive game, even though Daniel Cabrera lasted through 5 innings while only giving up one earned run. Although an error by Adam Dunn and two by Anderson Hernandez (he got off the DL because of a injury to Willie Harris) Left the Phils with a 4-3 lead. But then a homer by Dukes and Dunn got the game tied 4-4. But then in the seventh Saul Rivera let the first two baserunners, with powerful Ryan Howard up, and Joe Beimel, a lefty, was warming up. Rivera, a righty, clearly didn't have it at all and Howard crushed a 3 run Homer to right field. Then in the ninth Brad Lidge came on to the mound. Down 9-6, Zimm hit a 2 run HR down the right field line, and the nats were down 9-8 with nobody out, but then Dunn and 'Lijah tried to be heros, taking huge uppercut swings, resulting in a strikeout and the Nats lost, 9-8. Obviously I couldn't watch the game being in 'Zona, but I had my eyes glued to the scoreboard on ESPN.

The Wednesday night game against the Phillies was rained out, but Shairon Martis will pitch against Joe Blanton, as the nats look to achieve their first W in the columns. The projected lineup for the nats:
1. Anderson Hernandez 2B
2. Elijah Dukes CF
3. Ryan Zimmerman 3B
4. Adam Dunn LF
5. Nick Johnson 1B
6. Austin Kearns/Josh Willingham RF
7. Jesus Flores C
8. Alberto Gonzalez SS
9. Shairon Martis P
Notice how Lastings Milledge isn't playing? Belive it or not, new acting GM Mike Rizzo sent him down to the minors. Lastings is really struggling at everything so far this year, Hitting .167 with no walks, missing a team meeting, and making routine fly balls look like a comedy show. Roger Bernadina will be called up from AAA.

While I was in Arizona, I decided I needed Some baseball so I went to a D'Backs game against the LA Dodgers. Even though the D'Backs lost, Chase Field is a pretty good Stadium, uglier than Nats Park but some things were better like No Clint (That annoying contest guy that fans hate).