Offensive outage
Submitted by Jeff on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 4:44am.
- The Nats looked to be off to a good start last night, with Felipe Lopez, Ryan Zimmerman, and Dmitri Young hitting consecutive singles. However, Lopez tried to go home from second on Young's hit and was thrown out at the plate; the Braves then turned a double play by throwing out Zimmerman at third to end the inning. And, it turns out, all but end the Nats' offense: the team managed only two more hits in the remainder of Buddy Carlyle's seven-inning outing, and a brief offensive flurry in the ninth was too little, too late. Nats lose again in Atlanta, 6-2. (Box score)
- Robert Fick returned to the team yesterday after going on bereavement leave to attend his mother's funeral. Fick was glad to be back: "Like I said before, this is where I get my peace, talking [trash] to you guys and to all my teammates." (We're guessing he said something a little more pungent than "trash".) To make room for Fick the team sent Brandon Watson back to Triple-A despite a decent, but brief, performance for the Nats: unlike struggling outfielder Nook Logan, Watson still had options.
- The Nats made a minor-league trade yesterday, shipping Triple-A reliever Jermaine Van Buren to Oakland for a player to be named, but Jim Bowden denied rumors that the player in question was Milton Bradley, who the A's tried to trade to the Royals only to have the deal voided by an oblique injury.
- ESPN's Tim Kurkjian sings the praises of Dmitri Young, who went 2-for-3 last night to raise his average to .342, third in the NL, more than bouncing back from his annus horribilis. "Thankfully, Jim Bowden believed in second chances," said Young.
- Speaking of second chances, Doug McKinney of NatsFanatics.com goes against conventional wisdom and urges Bowden to take a chance on troubled Devil Rays outfielder Elijah Dukes. "Dukes is the perfect fit: young, cheap, talented and available."
- Time Warner Cable has fired back against MASN's latest push to get its channel on cable systems in North Carolina. While MASN wants carriage on a basic tier, Time Warner said that the channel is better suited to a digital tier (which would give MASN less money) because MASN, "which focuses on the Orioles and Nationals games, is of little interest to our customers in North Carolina."
- The stands in Pittsburgh, where the Nats play this weekend, could be emptier than usual Saturday as fans plan a walkout after the third inning of the Pirates-Nationals game, protesting the sorry state of the Pirates.