Taken out to the ball game

For Father’s Day, I got taken out to a Washington Nationals’ game.

The Nationals are one of the league leaders in run scored and batting average. Their first three batters are hitting over .300, and the cleanup hitter is one of the leading home run hitters. And yet, the Nationals have the worst record in baseball. How is that possible? The team has no defense, leading everybody in errors but also failing to catch balls that average fielders would catch but that get scored as hits, and tossing slow throws that yield safe calls. Also, the team has no bull pen. The starting pitchers are pretty much all rookies; considering everything, they are doing remarkably well, though they can’t go too deep in a ball game. When the bullpen takes over, no lead is safe. Time after time during the season, the Nationals get a big lead early on, and then fritter away the game in the late innings. So the team is kind of interesting to watch. There is usually a lot of scoring, the thrill of anticipated victory, the agony of defeat.