Yesterday was a glorious sunny afternoon in the mid-70s with a gentle breeze, and the perfect day for me and a couple friends to go down to RFK Stadium for the Nationals' season opener. Of course, it was pretty much all downhill from there, as the Florida Marlins embarassed us 9-2 in a game that saw plenty of insult and injury.
Two players, CF Nook Logan and SS Cristian Guzman, left with injuries. Our only supposedly "good" starting pitcher, John Patterson, didn't finish the 4th inning and had 6 earned runs. Meanwhile, Florida's reigning Rookie of the Year, Hanley Ramirez, had 4 hits and scored 4 times. Fellow stud sophomore Dan Uggla jacked a monster HR, and star Miguel Cabrera had a HR and 4 RBIs.
There were a couple bright spots, such as Dmitri "Meat Hook" Young hitting a pair of doubles. (As opposed to his usual, say, hitting a pair of buffets.) A much better symbol of hope was the play of our hero Ryan Zimmerman. The Post's Tom Boswell, while shaking his head at yesterday's carnage, stops to admire Zimm:
Ryan Zimmerman continued to play in his own tiny, uncontaminated universe. He tripled, singled, was robbed of another hit and, finally, with his team seven runs behind, refused to give up on a wind-blown foul pop that appeared headed several rows into the stands until he suddenly snagged it backhanded out of the photographers' bay.You gotta love that guy.
"You want to win and show the crowd how it's going to be all year or make them think that's how it's going to be," Zimmerman said. "But we can still win the series."
But if the Nationals' play in the opener is any indication of what the season is going to be like (and nothing says it will be different), we're looking at 100+ losses for sure. Zimm aside, there's not going to be all that much to love this year.
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