RESULT: Marlins beat Nats 9-4. Nats stand one shy of 100.
GOOD: Emilio! went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Pete Orr went 2-for-4 with and RBI. Wil Nieves went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
BONUS GOOD: Roger Bernadina's diving catch in left field was as good as you'll ever see, and rightly earned him the Web Gem on ESPN's Baseball Tonight last night.
BAD: Roger Bernadina. He went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and stranded four base-runners.
UGLY: Tim Redding. Here's a guy that really wanted to end the season on a good note, after all the decent pitching he's done this year, and he just got roughed up last night. Only made it through 2.2 IP, allowing 7 runs on 7 hits and 2 BBs, 4 Ks and 1 HR allowed.
BONUS UGLY: The weather for tonight's game, the last home game of the season. Does not look promising. Let's hope they don't wash the whole thing out. I know, what's one more game? But it's the last one!
NEXT GAME: Tonight, weather permitting, at 7:10 pm from Nationals Park. Collin Balestar (3-6, 4.83) faces Anibal Sanchez (2-5, 5.57). Sanchez has a tweaked hammy though, so if they play in the rain it's questionable if Florida will allow him to go out there on the wet field.
FRONT OFFICE UPDATE: In a response to yesterday's Sporting News article about unrest at the top, Nats President Stan Kasten vehemently denied rumors of his demise to Bill Ladson at MLB.com. Reassuring to hear it straight from the horses mouth. Still, can't help but feel Monday will be an interesting day in Nats history.
FUN STUFF: If you haven't seen it yet, here's video shot by BF Staff Photographer Cheryl Nichols (alias: diehardnatsfan) of the radio guys, Charlie, Dave and Jack, dancing to Wil Nieves' batting song. It's fairly hysterical and Charlie couldn't stop laughing when she showed it to him after Tuesday night's game! We'll still trying to track down the song title and artist so you too can add to your iPod.
Game Photos and Video (c) C. Nichols 2008.
Oh, so *that's* where the video came from. After Charlie and Dave mentioned it on the air, I found the video via Google. Well done! :-)
Bernadina's bat wasn't going, but he made a FANTASTIC catch in LF! It was actually the #1 play on ESPN last night. Nice work Roger.
The tribute to Mickey Vernon was very nice last night.
Wish that they had footage of Bernadina's catch on the team site (offensive highlights seem to take priority but I like a good defensive play as well).
Also, MASN has a clip from a prior Phil Wood interview with Vernon:
http://www.masnsports.com/ml/video.php?show_id=25895