OK Lineup, poor pitching. Even with Pedro.

"He was the Diamondbacks' pitcher of the year in '04 with Webb and all those guys in the system"

I think I'm the reason why Gonzalez beat out Brandon for Arizona minor league pitcher of the year.

Another sure sign that Kasten and The Plan are for real.

Can you imagine bowden being allowed to make moves like the Zack Day or Tomo Ocha trades? No freakin' way, though they did trade Fruto, but WMP is a world of difference away from Spivey or what's his name.

Anyone else think DJ should've bunted for a squeeze with Nook on 3rd and lefty Schoeneweis (sp?) already frazzled on the hill after throwing that ridiculous throw to 1st?

DJ goes up FIRST BALL HACKING then weakly pops up. Not a good at bat.

What a great job baserunning, however, as Nook gets to the plate. Do you think te Mets took the Nats lightly tonight?

Well, they're regretting it now, aren't they? With the Phillies 3.5 games back, this is not the time for the Mets to be choking. Mahahaha.

Barry-

According to Bill Ladson over at Nationals.com Charlie and Dave will be back for next year! Please say it's so! Any details?! Thanks, and you're the best.

Watching this game - albeit on Gameday - makes me think about how bad the NL is this year. There may not be a 90 win team in the bunch. When is the last time that happened? I love the way the Nats have scrapped all year, but I'm afraid that the 70-73 wins will be somewhat of an illusion because of the overall quality of the league.

E Gonzalez is a good pick up. Barry talked about his year at High A in '04, but his stats the next year in AA were even more interesting. He averaged almost a K an inning over about 150 innings. I agree with others who've said that having a live arm - someone who can throw 95+ - is something this organization desperately needs.

Something tells me if Sand Diego isn't the NL representative in the WS it might get ugly. If the Mets are the class of the NL we are in trouble.

Suggestions for off-season drills:

1. Baserunning (e.g., Fick picked off third, many such mindless baserunning errors throughout the year by the team);

2. Learn how to do a rundown (it takes but one throw, Zim, per Earl Weaver). What was tonight's? Four or five throws chasing a slow runner (LoDuca) while the batter gets to go to second.

Of course, few if any ML teams teach these fundamentals these days.

The NL may be weak, as some have said earlier, but take a look at the NFC East. I'd say there's more interesting competition in the Marlins, Braves, Mets and Nats than in the Skins, Eagles, and Giants (Cowboys' jury still out).

Well, I was right about needing some offense tonight in view of the subpar pitching matchup, but in the words of the immortal Harry Caray, Holy Cow! Nats really brought the lumber tonight. Of course the Mets ineptitude helped quite a bit (not unlike the historic ineptitude of Harry's Cubs). How great would it be to knock the Mets down a few notches, and then to have Philly come to town and do the same to them? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2007 playoffs, Nats style.

What a great night for Washington sports!

Bob L. Head, was I right about starting Nook or what?

Even ol' Charlie Brown got it done.

But if Hendo is immortalizing anyone tonight, I propose old Al, with his first major league win.

I was at the game last night. Whoo Boy, those Mets did not look good at all. Well. At least after the 4th they didn't.

I could never, EVER, so much as think a positive thought, much less wish anything well for the Mets. (My Braves fan family forgave my abandoning their team, but they'd never forgive that). But I really don't want the Phillies to catch them either. I'm very conflicted here.

Al-ba-la-de-jo, we love some Albaladejo...

Enjoyed the gamer (once I'd found it) in today's paper. I had a side of Schadenfreude with *my* donuts and coffee. Gotta love that Manny Acta and his motivational skills! One thing, though -- the caption writers need to review the Mets roster, as that's not Lo Duca in the photo.

For those who were at the game last night, what's with the race's three-president pileup that was mentioned on the radio broadcast? Evidently it changed the momentum of the game. :-)

Sect. 506, thanks for the Sunday GB/A info as always. One interesting wrinkle down the stretch might be to add stats on what the Nats need to do to clinch the coveted MASN Cup for this year (i.e., to finish with a better record than the other team that's just a bit north of them on the map).

Any update on Guzman?

The Presidents Race last night was indeed the turning point of the game. You mean Barry didn't mention that in his gamer today? And he calls himself a journalist...

As they say on Fox5 News, here's how it all went down. With the Nationals down 4-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Rushmore Four come bounding out of the right field tunnel in a tight pack, running hard, with Teddy in the lead. About halfway down the line, you know something has to happen and sure enough Teddy takes a tumble. Tom is right behind him and trips over Teddy, falling flat on his face. Abe, right behind these two, has nowhere else to go but to fall down on top of the pile, creating a new Mount Rushmore of presidents right there in RFK. The canny George, who was lagging slightly behind, scoots around the pile to the left and tears down the line to win the race. Teddy, Abe and Tom, with the help of the RFK ushers, all get up and manage to finish the race, but way behind George.

Following this, in the bottom of the fourth, the Nats post four runs to tie the game. The Mets, obviously having paid attention to the example of Teddy, Tom and Abe, are models of grace in the field the rest of the game and hand the Nats another eight runs and the game before the bang zoom of the fireworks finally and mercifully sends them to the showers in shame.

I mean, it's obvious. George, Tom, Abe and Teddy won that game for the Nationals last night. Was the Post even paying attention, or were they too busy sorting their Orioles baseball card collection up in the Tom Boswell Memorial RFK Media Center last night?

419, you left out the hilarious replay showing the pileup in slow motion, accompanied by the theme from "Chariots of Fire."

506, Nook's bunting and speed, and the bonehead play by the pitcher, certainly helped last night.

Great recap of race 419. Does anyone think Teddy leaves RFK shutout or will he win Sunday?
I sympathise with NATsNut. I want the Mets to take the Division (though I think Philly is the better team) but I want the NATS to get 72-73 wins and I don't care from whom we get them, so lets go for a sweep!

Did anyone else notice the water (I hope it was water) coming out of the Mets' dugout as the Rushmore Four sped by? Several people in there were trying to soak the Racing Presidents as they ran past.

Considering what happened to their team after that deliberate desecration of the Presidents' Race, you could say the Mets got what they deserved.

You could. If you're not laughing too hard.

Old tired subject Barry, but again - where's the love from WaPo.com? I do read the paper (.50 outside the metro area) edition, but rely on the website for the gamers usually due to early dead tree deadlines. Now in the website gamer there is no longer a link to the journal, but also no link to the box score? For those of us with dialup (primitives) having to go back to the graphics-heavy Nats page to navigate among the features is a time waster. I guess my demographic, rural geezer Nats fans who like Barry and box scores, is too small to be of interest to the powers that be.

Thanks for the hilarious race recap, Sect. 419. Felt like I was there!

I think Teddy's gotta go for the win on Sunday, Sect. 417 (row 8, seat 9). Our NJ tailgate contingent will surely inspire him!

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Does anyone think Teddy leaves RFK shutout or will he win Sunday?

The Chariots of Fire thing last night would have been funny - indeed inspired - except that they have been showing the Presidents Race replay with the Chariots of Fire music for at least the last month, if not longer.

I forgot to mention that the group of Mets fans sitting around me in 419 was betting among themselves on the Presidents Race. The guy who laid five on George to win was smiling, but little did he know that would be the last score he'd be seeing for the rest of the night.

I'm of the opinion that Teddy will not win on Sunday. He'll lose in some creative fashion, but after the Teddy Bobblehead Night race it's becoming pretty clear that the Nats are setting this up as a Lucy pulls the football out from under Charlie Brown thing, and we all know how that one turned out, don't we?

DOH! Missed the previous Chariots. One of the hazards of watching games alongside 3 and 6 year old daughters I guess. Well, I enjoyed it anyway.

Observations from last nights game. Not much about the game - I think that kinda spoke for itself last night.

1. Jeezus the field looks terrible. I get the whole splitting time with the United and all but WTF is up with the half-moon dead strip of replacement sod that stretches from left to center?

2. Sorry to my wife for ruining her afternoon trip to the Bodies exhibit by sticking her with daycare pickup duties in my zeal to get to the game.

3. Dumbest PNC Bank PIN contestant ever tonight. It's the dice game from The Price is Right for the love of gravy. How do you not get that by now? Good ol Clint let her have it anyway. I wonder if he gets the .35 edition? He's gotta be scanning the help wanted section at this point. Maybe the United will hook him up.

4. Good night to wander in the stands. Tried the 300 level for 2 outs. Ugh. Way too many Mets fans. Much prefer the relative peace of the Sherpa seats.

5. Tee shirt cannon guy took a huge chunk out of the CF Out of Town scoreboard. Broken chunks of plastic and glass in CF. Yellow Jacket wouldn't throw the tee shirt in the stands and was resoundingly booed.

6. Why do the yellow jackets come out during a mound visit? Is the MGRs walk to the mound a matter of national security? Never noticed that before and found it odd.

7. Why in the world can't they hang the count down numbers straight? I saw them drop the 5 going from 16 - 15 and the 0 has been crooked since it was hung. For that matter the entire outfield beyond the fence is in embarrassing shape. I rarely sit out here so I don't get to see it that close but it's a wreck. I get that it's an old stadium and all but with a little attention to detail it could have looked a lot better while they were there.

8. Why wouldn't you have the MNF score on the Out of Town Scoreboard? I mean I know it's not baseball but come on. The hometown team is playing on MNF. The Caps have been putting other sports up on their scrolling scoreboard for years.

9. Top 8 after Church HR. This game is officially awesome. Remaining Mets fans have apparently stayed only to hurl obscenities at their own players. Class acts I tell you.

10. I've always wanted to see stats on merch sales on games the Nats win vs. The games they lose. I for one sunk $18 on a softee bat and ball for my daughter tonight. I want the New Era mesh stretch blue and red DC cap but they had a million in M/L but none in L/XL. Gotta check online I guess. Its a tight looking lid and I need an alternate to my '07 spring training cap.

11. Orange line home I'm sitting behind a Mets fan wearing a Nats cap over top of his Mets cap. Has his Mets tee shirt on inside out. Curiosity peaked I had to ask. Turns out he lost a bet to his brother who's sitting next to him and quite obviously a Nats fan. Classic.

New post is up.