PHILADELPHIA 7 Washington 5 (14 innings) (CBS Sportsline Boxscore)
LF Ryan Church and CF Ryan Langerhans have been playing baseball for a long time, but it didn’t show last night. The two outfielders snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in stunning fashion last night by not calling a deep fly ball and nearly running into each other. The ball hit Church’s glove and then the ground, allowing Jimmy Rollins to score on a triple and a throwing error when the Phillies were down to their last strike. Had this happened in a playoff game, the Nats would have had to change their uniforms and probably gut the team, if not move to another city — it was that awful.
When your team comes back with three runs in the ninth on the to take a one run lead you need to make sure that you call fly balls with two outs. Duh! How the hell can they blow a fly ball like that? I’m fed up with these two, I want them off the team on August 1 at the very latest. Either that or a force choke. In the meantime, they need to publicly apologize to their teammates, especially Chad Cordero, the Lerner family, the fans, the mayor, Frank Howard, the president, Butterstick, those retarded food stand employees and even Jim Bowden. Oh and me of course.
Not only did their dreadful fielding cost the Nats a win last night, it cost me some serious bragging rights over Cliff (The Ombudsman when the Nats and Fleas aren’t playing each other), who was uncharacteristically bold in an email yesterday.
Ryan Howard won it with a two run homer in the 14th. Chris Booker is credited with the loss, but the blame goes to Church and Langerhans.
Nats Drop The Ball – The Post
Tough game to drop for Nats – The Wash. Times
P John Lannan makes his MLB debut (The Post) this afternoon in Philly. He started the season in A ball. His arrival (The Wash. Times) shows both a rapid rise and a desperate need for starting pitching. The Nats have five starters on the DL and Jason Bergmann may join them. Lannan will be the fifth National to make his MLB debut (The Wash. Times) this season. The Times-Union (Albany, N.Y.) has more too. Lanahan pitched at Sienna College.
Bowden is talking about the future and reviewing the progress of several prospects in The Wash. Examiner today.
Cliff is now up 5-2 in the series and inching ever closer to a half smoke.