I can Appreciate it without Liking it

As a baseball fan I appreciated seeing something that hadn’t happened in fifty-five years, but as a Nationals fan I didn’t like that it was happening to the team. This will be one of those games I remember for a long time. I don’t think there were any from last year and the few instances of good games from 2008 makes it that much more memorable. I have been to a couple games already this year where I left with a feeling of excitement in the pit of my stomach. Baseball is a wonderful game and watching people play it at the level and skill of major leaguers makes it that much better.

There is a certain simple pleasure in watching a grown man speed around the bases and score an inside the park homerun. For one they don’t happen that often, and secondly it isn’t like a majestic towering fly ball hit into the dark of night.  This is a ball that hits some odd corner off the outfield wall and rattles around while an outfielder races for it. All this time that the ball is laying on the ground a man is running at full speed around the bases. You know it is going to end with a play at the plate. Most triples end with a play at third. It is inevitable that the man and ball will reach home plate at somewhat the same time, and when the tag is late something has been witnessed. It just would have been nice if it wasn’t a Met.

So many times this year people have said how the Nationals would have lost this game last year. That may be the truth. This team is no longer so devoid of talent that they have to play a perfect game to win. They have guys willing to do the little things and help teammates out. The perfect example came in the bottom of the seventh inning. With Roger Bernadina at third base and Adam Kennedy at the plate with one out the Mets sniffed out the squeeze play and pitched out. Last season something similar happened when Alberto Gonzalez was at the plate and a ball was thrown high. In that instance Alberto ducked and didn’t even try and foul the ball off leaving the player on third hung out to dry and he was tagged out at the plate. When they pitched out last night Adam Kennedy reached his bat out over the plate and fouled the ball off. It was a thing of beauty, and then he hit a sac fly to get the run home.

Similar circumstances just aren’t working out the same as they did last season. The bullpen has made an entire world of difference, and instead of trying their luck with Saul Rivera, Kip Wells, and Joel Hanrahan the Nationals turned to Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard, and Matt Capps to shut down the Mets. The Nationals bullpen is no longer the island of castoffs and rejects. There are real pitchers out there.

All I wanted after watching the opening day debacle was to see watchable baseball. Forty-one games into the season I have gotten that and so much more. Now I just want the more part to continue.