Nationals vs Cardinals, Game 1

[DPMOmaha]

April counts just as much as September.

Bad starts can ruin seasons. They better turn it around and fast.

Sure, but we're not off to a bad start, at least not one that will sink our season.  This is their toughest stretch of the season by far.  They just need to get through it and they'll be in a great spot to go a big time run in the middle of the season.

[HalfSmokes]

I'd be more worried if the braves were expanding their lead,  we're not even four games back that's a hot week or two.  At this point all I want to see is a lineup shake up (no batting in the top four until you're hitting at least .200 doesn't seem like too much to ask)

[pazzo83]

Some of y'all need to calm down!!  Wow!

Let's look at a few things:

1. In THREE games, our bullpen has given up 1 run.  ONE.  Our much maligned, ultra-high ERA bullpen.
2. Tonight, the pen had basically 3 1-2-3 outings: Stammen in the 6th when he came out with 0 outs and the bases loaded, minus the int'l walk.  Mattheus in the 8th. And Drew FREAKING Storen in the 9th.
3. Rendon got his first hit, a double with an RBI.
4. We hit the crap out of several balls, but with a temp of 50F they just wouldn't leave the field.
5. No errors, finally.
6. Even Haren's outing wasn't terrible until the very end.  We just have to learn when he gets gassed and take him out.  He also needs to lower the amount of pitches he throws per inning.
7. For a team hitting sky high with RISP, they went 2-9 (.222) tonight.  Yea, I'll take that.

The bats will come, especially as temps warm (70s on Wed).  The pitching was my chief concern right now and that, HOPEFULLY, appears to be improving.

[imref]

we played about as well as any team can play, and still lost.

it's as if someone broke into the game and reprogrammed it to give themselves a victory......

[Coladar]

Another loss, another depressing game. One made all the more bitter by our opponent and an apparent deja vu all over again. Kozma again kicks our ass. The Cardinals return for the first time since that unspeakable night, and... this. Bah! Bah, I say.

There are two things to allow me to retain optimism - We're not a zillion games back, still hovering above .500, the Braves are thankfully in a rut and not running away from us.

And this has been a stretch of tough opponents, excellent teams. When we're being swept at home by the Marlins or Astro type teams with records below .400, then we should all be screaming the sky is falling. But it's not... not yet. I do think that this month is showing us that, should we return to October this year, we should probably temper our expectations. Still a good team, but other good teams seem to have our number... That's a long way off though.

Still... God. Circling this date since Game 5 and hoping for revenge, this was of no help removing the stain of that Friday night from our collective palates.

[sportsfan882]

Sure, but we're not off to a bad start, at least not one that will sink our season.  This is their toughest stretch of the season by far.  They just need to get through it and they'll be in a great spot to go a big time run in the middle of the season.

If this isn't a bad start for this team than I don't know what is. I can't imagine that things could have gone much worse for this team through 19 games.

Who's to say that this will be their toughest stretch of the season? How do we know this will not be the norm?

[sportsfan882]

At least we have a gimme tomorrow night. Oh wait. Adam Wainwright is on the mound. He's won 3 starts in a row and has struck out 28 batters while walking NONE so far this season.

Going to be another frustrating night offensively. No more Morse or Zimmerman in the lineup who hit homers in Game 5 vs him.

[DPMOmaha]

If this isn't a bad start for this team than I don't know what is. I can't imagine that things could have gone much worse for this team through 19 games.

Who's to say that this will be their toughest stretch of the season? How do we know this will not be the norm?

You base that on the opponents, not yourself.  There's a lot that could have gone worse.  We could have, you know, lost more games or had someone significant go down for the season or a whole bunch of other things.  We're in a whole lot better shape than a team like LA (either team) or Cincy or the Blue Jays.  We're actually in pretty decent shape.

[BerakosVA]

At least we have a gimme tomorrow night. Oh wait. Adam Wainwright is on the mound. He's won 3 starts in a row and has struck out 28 batters while walking NONE so far this season.

Going to be another frustrating night offensively. No more Morse or Zimmerman in the lineup who hit homers in Game 5 vs him.

What happened to Wainwright the last time he came here red hot?

[spidernat]

At least we have a gimme tomorrow night. Oh wait. Adam Wainwright is on the mound. He's won 3 starts in a row and has struck out 28 batters while walking NONE so far this season.

He's due for a pounding.

[Kevrock]

I thought we played pretty well last night. Just didn't get the big hit.

[Copecwby20]

I've calmed down a bit. It was nice to see Storen pitch well last night. Like I said earlier, when I meet players and have a chance to BS with them, I tend to be a bigger fan and Storen was hilarious when I got to talk to him so I hope he does well and we get to keep him around.

[OldChelsea]

ATTENDANCE at this match: 27,263  



Closest guess in YNOT Guessing Game, Edition 4:
   danjros with 27,582, only off by 320

Doesn't sound like that big a turn-out (naturally the weather depressed walk-up sales) but on Thursday 30th April 2009 we only drew 18,007 (on a cloudy 63-degree day with 5mph winds to watch a 9-4 Nats loss), lowest Nats Park turn-out ever for a Cardinals visit. Yesterday's attendance also still runs some 3k ahead of each match in the White Sox series.