It’s been so long since I’ve rooted for a legitimate 1st place baseball team (the O’s teams that have been atop the AL East in April and May only to finish 20 games under 0.500 the past several years don’t count) that it’s easy to forget how much fun it can be. Baseball is a quirky sport, where the better team doesn’t always win day in and day out. In fact, a crappy team has a pretty good shot at beating a great team on any given night, and the best teams in the majors usually win only about 60% of their games (that would be considered slightly better than mediocre in basketball and football).
But the better baseball teams still usually prove themselves out by the end of the season, which might require the ability to dig themselves out of some of the games that are mentioned above. Take this year’s Washington Nationals and their game last night in New York…the Nats had 2 runs on only 4 hits through 9 innings last night. In the 1st inning, Steve Lombardozzi reached on an infield single, and Bryce Harper brought him home with a 2-run blast to center. Those were the 1st 2 batters of the game...Danny Espinosa had a 2 out single later that inning, which means the Mets held Washington to 1 hit over the course of the next 8 innings. Yikes…
The top of the 10th started almost as inauspiciously. Roger Bernadina led off with a single, but it looked like it would be wasted by an ugly at bat by catcher Sandy Leon. Trying to move the runner to 2nd, Leon pitifully bunted 2 pitches foul, then weakly grounded the ball back to the pitcher. Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada bobbled the exchange at 2nd though, and everyone was safe. It still looked like the Nats would try to spoil their own good fortune with another s***ty bunt attempt, this time by Mark DeRosa, who’s bunt went straight back to the pitcher allowing for a force play at 3rd.
However, the normally light hitting Lombardozzi singled again to load the bases…and the kid followed him to deliver the go-ahead RBI single. Then, after not being able to hit their way out of a paper bag for most of the night, the flood gates suddenly opened. Ryan Zimmerman rocketed a bases-clearing double, and Michael Morse brought Zimmerman home with a beer league softball-esque missile beyond the centerfield wall.
It was a fun inning to watch given the previous 8. The Nats looked inept, got a stroke of good luck, looked as if they would squander their luck with more ineptitude, and then had their 3 biggest bats wake up all of the sudden. It was like they were finally able to get out of their own way long enough to let their talent take over…but then again, that’s what happens with a 1st place team I suppose.
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