Spring Training Day Seven: Walking For a Cause, Rookie Pitcher and the New Guy

Today started with a walk in the park with the DC's First Ladies, the Nats' wives, at the Space Coast Memory Walk for Alzheimer's.

Shari Langerhans (first row, left) spearheaded the event, which you can tell by the picture below was well attended.




Next, we headed out to the ballpark for the Nats and Cardinals which can only be described as a wild affair. The Cards got up 12-1 before the Nats started doing some damage and made a game of it, finally falling 12-11. Ryan Ludwick and Austin Kearns both hit grand slams. Nick Johnson and Josh Willingham also homered for the Nats in the wind-blown affair. Colby Rasmus went five-for-five for the Cards.

Spring phenom Jordan Zimmermann started for the Nats and roughed up, but he was pitching with the flu that send him home from practice the previous day, so I'm not going to read too much into it until his next outing.

The big play to take away today was Elijah Dukes' poor effort in his double he hit in the middle innings. He crushed a ball down the line in left right into the teeth of a 25 mph wind. He must have assumed a home run, because he watched for a second, then trotted to first, only to realize that the wind knocked the ball down short of the warning track and that he was about to be throw out at second. Only his god-given natural athletic ability allowed him to beat the throw and tag to avoid further embarrassment.

Saul Rivera looked real good getting a 1-2-3 eighth in his first appearance back from the WBC.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Lastly, the Nats signed free agent catcher Josh Bard to an already crowded competition for the backup catcher spot. Here's "Bardo", so it says on his box of stuff, entering the complex.



Acting GM Mike Rizzo told the media that Bard would be in open competition the next two weeks with incumbent Wil Nieves and fellow NRI Javier Valentin for the #2 spot behind Jesus Flores. Oh, by the way, Flores hasn't played in weeks due to his sore right elbow.

He took BP on a practice field today (with Nick Johnson) and caught in the bullpen for the parade of relievers today, but he isn't scheduled to play for another week and a half. The move for Bard has the feel of Flores going on the DL, but we'll take Rizzo at his word for now.

Tomorrow's schedule: Nats at Astros at Kissimmee, then a long and sad plane ride home.