I’ve already covered Opening Day and the day after the day after opening day which was known as game 2 of the 2011 Washington Nationals season. Sort of, the latter there was mostly an anecdote about Larry King at embarrassing himself during an intermission of a Washington Capitals game before I was old enough to drive. There was also reference to that well-played game 2, baseball and hockey on the radio and a Alex Ovechkin dance that I am going to emulate this morning when I see my Buffalo Sabres fan co-worker. I’m already rambling.

Game 3, the rubber game (as Harry Caray would say), of the first series of the year went to the Atlanta Braves. The Nats fell to 1-2 as they closed out their first homestand. After playing really well on Saturday, they stunk up the joint on Sunday. The defense, which was strong in the first two games, failed the team much more than one charged error. Danny Espinosa blew a sure double-play in the first that would have ended Jordan Zimmermann’s inning — instead it got extended and Atlanta scored. The rookie second baseman later made an official error. Additionally, poor communication in the outfield between Rick Ankiel, Saturday’s hero, and Jayson Werth allowed what might have been a long out go for extra bases. Ankiel may the centerfielder and thus in charge out there, but Werth is better. Awkward! That followed up the bullpen allowing 8 runs to cross the plate and Brian Broderick having a dreadful MLB debut in front of his family. Hopefully, it was first night/day jitters for the young Rule 5 pick. Todd Coffey and Doug Slaten also failed to put out the fires. Final score Hotlanta 11 D.C. 2

Back to Ankiel, it turns out he hit the 5,000 home run in D.C. major league history on Saturday, according to Mark Henderson of Nationals Daily News. Great stat. Even better is the Distinguished Senators comparison of Ankiel to the herbivorous dinosaur Ankylosaurus. This brilliant observation will prove DS an excellent reason to resume hiding again, because that is the kind of thing that can’t be topped so why bother trying, right?

I am not drawing too much from this first series against the possible division winner, but feel my 73 wins prediction was probably pretty good. Also, I finally got to watch a game with new analyst F.P. Santangelo and I saw, so far, not bad. He’s not Rob Dibble and that is probably enough for me right now.