Nats win series, Utley upended.

Nationals win, big time. This offense is rock solid, top to bottom, and so much damn fun to watch. Some HUGE hits last night in the pivotal 8th inning. Casto and Bernadina with singles to start, and then Belliard with a pinch hit single to score Orr (who pinch ran for Casto). Boni walks to make it bases loaded. At that point, I was debating with myself who I would want walking up to the plate if I could choose anyone. I had it down to Guzman and Zim. As luck would have it, it was Goozie's turn in the lineup. He cranked a bases clearing double (with Boni right on the heels of Belliard as they approached home plate) to bust the game open. See you later, Philthies. Have fun missing the playoffs and beating your wives!

The underlying storyline from the previous night didn't die, though. With Chase Utley up for his first plate appearance, Rental plunked him square in the hip with a 90 mph heater. It appears Perez was using vigilante justice, as all signs from the Nationals management pointed towards the Utley/Flores play as being clean. Much love to Rental from this guy!

It didn't end there, though. In the bottom of the fifth, the Nats had the bases loaded with Milledge up. He grounded into a fielders choice, to make it runners at first and third, one out. DOOKS! was at the plate, and grounded to the third baseman. Seemed like a tailor-made inning and rally ending double play. Except Milledge was running from first. And Utley was the pivot man. What happened next made me scream, "Fuck, yeah!" at the TV in the bar. "I wanna have your children, Mills" may have came next. Some screen caps here to show Lastings burying his shins into Utley to break up the double play, and allow a run to score.


My apologies to all wrestling fans I may offend with this statement, but that was some SWEET SHIN MUSIC by Blastings. Hey, Chase Utley: Have a seat, lunch meat. To top it all off, I got goosebumps as the Washington fans gave Mills a standing fucking ovation as he walked back to the dugout. Who says Nats fans don't "know" baseball? Who ever it was, fuck them in the ear. If you want to watch the recap, click here and skip to the 1:18 mark for the takeout. Be sure to watch Zim's 2nd homerun in three days at the 1:44 mark. He is just RAKING the ball, and is loving dead center. I mean, he's KILLING balls.

The boys are in Atlanta tonight to start a 4 game series there. Pitching note: Balester has a sore left bum, so he'll miss his next start, scheduled for Friday. Bergmann, who was due to throw tonight, will instead throw Friday. That means a spot start for a gentleman I wrote about earlier in the year. Mr. Shairon Martis will get his first ever MLB start tonight. Also, in case you guys want to pronounce his name right, it's Shy-ron Mar-tis. Go get him, junior.

What to say?

Ya know? It's the half way point, so I should probably do a mid-point retrospective, right? But...I can't. I can't allow myself to overlook last night's performance by Balester coupled with another BELLY! dinger.
(Full disclosure: I umpired last night, so I didn't see the game live. I heard Charlie's wrap up on the way back so I knew the outcome. Did this make me view the game differently when I watched it this morning? I'm not sure.)
Out of all three kids that have gotten Nats debuts as a starter this year, Collin is head and shoulders above Clippard and Mock (IMO). His control was absolutely, positively, emphatically, undoubtedly phenomenal. PHE-FUCKIN-NOMENAL. His is, indeed, a super sensational diaper dandy. He didn't throw his change too often, and he doesn't have a devastating curve ball, but with the way he locates his fastball he doesn't need to. It has late movement, and just paints the corners. True, his pitch count was up there (95 in 5 innings), and he went to long counts on quite a few batters (damn close to a 60/40 ratio of strikes to balls) but the laid back kid from Huntington Beach didn't seem to panic. He would just locate another fastball right were he needed too, and either jammed the guy for a pop up, or went down and away for a ground ball. Bottom line? Color me impressed.
Now, to be realistic... the kid's gonna have a few bad games. Maybe more than a few. Scouts will see him more, and more and there will be a gameplan for him. He might be off some nights and lose his location. That could get him in a lil' bit o' hot water if he doesn't have a sharp curve or the change-up to fall back on, but I think he'll stick in the rotation the rest of the year (seriously).

Instead of looking back (where, let's face it, I would just be saying "Guzman" and "Lannan/Redding") let's say fuck it to the '08 season, and look at what we have set in stone for the Nationals of '09 and beyond, shall we?

SP: John Lannan (23), Collin Balester (turned 22 last month), Mock/Clippard (24/23). (Detweiler? (22))
C: Jesus Flores (23)
1B: Unknown. (Marrero, the #1 prospect in the orginization, is only 19. Not sure we'll see him that soon.)
2B: Unknown
SS: Goozie, once he signs the two year extension.
3B: Zim (Still just 23!)
LF: Unknown
CF: Milledge (23)
RF: Dukes (24)

I left out the bullpen, cause that's always a crap shoot, and the young guys are hard to project. (I'm lying, I'm too fucking lazy and I like all the guys so I didn't wanna play favorites since, you know, they read this blog and all.) That leaves us with an average age of 24/25 in 2009/10. It's gonna be good, folks. I suggest you put a deposit down for season tickets now.

Awesome dude of the day to Balester (of course), but with a slight tip of my braided hair to Belly (Grand Salamai), and my goatee to mi hermano (striking out Hermida with a SICK slider in the bottom of the 8th with the tying run on 2nd). Enjoy, Collin.

(Did I write enough? Jesus, I thought Tolstoy was a long read. He ain't got shit on me, that dead pacifist bastard)

Walk-offs becoming too common?

Nah. I could live with those every day. Here's a good shot of Belliard jumping torpedo style into the mob at the plate. Clickie here, and click on the video at the bottom for the Belly goodness.


Looks to me like a stage dive about to go wrong, but he's still cool. Did anyone catch the Debbi Taylor interview right after the game? Dude was born in New York, NY, but has a thicker accent than Fidel Castro.
I can't wait to trade Flop so Belly can go back to playing short right field and he can bat everyday. He's the best 8 hitter I've seen in a while. Of course, we need Zim back for that to happen. Wanna get your hopes up?

As for Zimmerman, good news on that front. Looks like he'll begin to swing a bat next week. The team is encouraged by his progress, and is counting on his return this season. (Which means surgery is looking unlikely.)

Yeah, sure. I've already counted him out for the year. I swear we'll have the complete AA Harrisburg roster up here once Goozie, Boone, Jesus, W Harris, and Wil go on the DL. (Seriously, that's all the position players that have yet to go on the DL, right? Besides the late late call ups like Orr and Casto. And hoping Flop gets traded.)

Oh, yeah..there's that whole matter of Roger Bernadina starting in CF yesterday. Turns out Blastings did something to his groin (No sarcastic remarks from the peanut gallery, dammit.) while tracking down a fly ball on Saturday. He'll be out 2-4 weeks (read: at least 4 weeks). Bernadina takes his place on the active roster, while the Thrilledge ices his man region.

Also getting a call up? Collin, mother f'ing Balester. That's right, the number three prospect in the Nats system will get a good look at the bigs. I hear he'll be up for a while, as they didn't want to disrupt him with a quick trip up and back. The kid's 22 years old and a 6'5" 190 lb right hander. I know nothing else. The Doctor will hopefully leave some nuggets of goodness in the comments. I wonder whose getting dropped from the 25 man, though. It looks to me like someone from the bullpen has gotta go, but we'll see. Balester throws tomorrow night, btw.

Our heroes are back down in Florida, taking on the fish again. On the bump tonight is Capt. Redd vs. Ryan Tucker (WHO?). Tucker is a rookie (Know your roll, ROOK!) who has gone 2-2 with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.80 WHIP. He also likes Barry Manilow, wears pink polo shirts with his collar up, and hates the U.S.A. Jon Rauch might kill him.

One last point, I promise. After the Nats game I switched it to Baseball Tonight to catch up on all the other action that happened around the league. I saw highlights for every single game except the Texas/Philly contest (which started at 5, and did have an 'in game' update) the Cubs/Sox game (The Cubs and Sox did get a good 10 minute preview, however, since ESPN was showing it at 8.), and ......wait for it...... The Washington Nationals/Crackmore Blowrioles.
Again, note to ESPN: Fuck. You. You showed me 15 minutes of REO fucking Speedwagon and other wonderful acts including Punch Brothers (who?), The Cab (who?), and Lloyd (who are these people???) playing 'Take me out to the ballgame' but had the balls to not show a 12th inning walk-off? Karl Ravech, you may be dead to me

BELLY!

Two words, folks.

FUCK. YEAH.

What is it with walk off wins and this team? Fuck if I know, but fuck if I care. They're damn fun to watch.