All the time waiting for the season to start. All the anticipation. And suddenly, we’re 14 games into it. Very quickly. And equally quickly, the dream and the promise threaten to fade. Four miserable losses I’m the last five games. It’s early. It’s early. I keep telling myself it’s early. Caught some of Dan Haran’s second disappointment (new guy distrust troupe) and Ryan Zimmerman’s deteriorating defense (last year’s flavor troupe) from the phone at the office. Those are the times I can watch the game and chat with twitter Nats fans (no real friends troupe) at the same time. Zim error cost a run, then Haran gave up a few more, so by the time SMHRod gave up another run (power v accuracy troupe), I didn’t care that mlbtv stopped working. I caught the last play from Charlie and Dave as I pulled out of the Trader Joe’s parking lot after stocking up on the night’s forget-me juice, coming up with a story to explain my daughter’s recent dip in grades.

“Tomorrow’s always another day”, is one of the things baseball teaches us, as the Nats bounced back from their shellacking over the weekend.

It was also the Boston Marathon bombing.

And tax day. I learned of one while doing the other.

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Shutouts out of the dead land.
Mixing memory [painful memory of 2008] and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring training.
Winter kept us hopeful, covering
ah… screw it…

We got our butts handed to us by the Barves this series.

I caught most of it on the phone from Pacifica. 9-0. I took Austin down to the beach and watched Gio struggle in the first few innings while tossing the tennis ball to the little Q-tip.

As we advanced farther into the game, it brought back memories of July 20, last year, when the Nats blew a 9-0 lead, to end up losing the game (I watched that one from a bar).

That didn’t happen today.

It’s April, and that’s the take away today. It’s April, and we don’t get upset about bad stuff that happens this early in the season.

Still.

Hate this.

Today’s game was broadcast by Fox Sports instead Midatlantic Sports Network. Every Saturday, Fox pays for the rights to show a handful of games regionally. The agreement with mlbtv is to black these games out. For no good reason. I don’t have a television. And even if I did, my local, San Francisco, Fox affiliate would be showing a different game. So the life troupe playing out today is helplessness ground in stupidity. I did my part in attempting to publicly shame Fox Sports for their myopia via Twitter, but no explanation forthcame. Why not show me the fox broadcast? Why not show me the same commercials I would have seen had I been watching on a TV? Fox Sports AND mlb could have been making money off me, but instead I got my feed from Charlie, Dave, and my Twitter friends (at times, the only good friends I have, but more on that later).

Wouldn’t you know it, we walk into a bar and the game is on the TV. Mlb network was showing it, which is why an SF bar had it on. Sometimes, I’ll find a place that has the package, but I’ve yet to enter such an establishment where somebody other than I has requested a Nationals game. Unfortunately, the game being on was the only positive thing about the night, except, of course, for Angel’s dance. She was awesome. The rest of the night sucked. Including the game itself, wherein the Nats bullpen blew a two run lead in the top of the 9th and the game in the tenth. I spent innings three through six being told how badly my car smelled. Seven walking from the Palace of Fine Arts being berated for something else, and eight and nine in the bar being reminded how much pain my enjoyment of the Nationals causes her. Today sucked donkey dong.

Tonight it’s Angel’s dress rehearsal for her hip hop dance performance tomorrow. So, I’m trying to catch what I can the road.  I’m hoping for an hour once the doors open.

Presently it’s 1-1 t3.  New kid on the block potential new weak link Dan Haran is on the mound.  I’m nervous about this guy.

I got used to last year’s rotation, and I was sorry to see John Lannan go.

And the to of the fourth ends with Haran giving up two runs on four hits. The final out being made by Adam Dunn, who just went 0-3. Bad feelings all around.

Meanwhile my battery threatens to drain while the toddlers dance to supercalifragalisticexpialidocio

Two of my favorite things. A pitcher hits Double, and

Life calls, making it tough to watch this game all the way through.  Caught the tail innings on my phone while eating dinner with the family. 
It’s always nice to see Werth contribute.  He holds a special place in my consciousness because of the sheer magnitude of his ridiculous contract.  So I’m harsher on him when he doesn’t perform. Even if his off days are statistically valid.  
Speaking of statistics, super human Ian Desmond hit two doubles and a triple tonight. This is his fifth game with multiple base hits. The statistical probability that it happens again weakens exponentially each day.
Baseball is a game of statistics, and like life, when a string of good things happen, you calculate that it’s only a matter of time before the bad stuff starts up again.
Tell me I’m wrong.
Please.

First Nats series of this whole daily interleague thingy.

Gio’s on the mound, and the question is, can I expect two career years in a row outta this guy?  That is the guy who balked in the first run of the game.  Getting close to 100 pitches after four innings?

But then, it all comes together in the 6th. Adam LaRoche, who had come up goose eggs through his first 15 ABs of the season, knocks one out off a weary Jake Peavey (#44, BTW).  Then hits another one in the bottom if the 8th. Good on him.

The White Sox is Adam Dunn’s team. Adam Dunn used to be our clean up hitter. He went to the Sox three years ago and sucked eggs.  Nobody gave up on him and, the following year, he had a stellar year.  Good on him.

Party. Home. Fight. Make up. Wake up. Make up again. Pancakes. Nats.

Strasburg back on the mound. What’s to worry. Automatic win.

Not so fast as the boy gives up 3 runs in the bottom of the first.

Good news is, this is turning into a game worth watching.

“Zim being Zim” twitter

Funny that I don’t tend to view the slugging video highlights the next day. I’m much more interested in the defense. Yet, I’ve not posted any defense photos yet.  Here ya go. Zimmerman, while handing over his “baby face of the Nats” title to Harper is insanely powerful with that glove, and a joy to watch.

Gonna have to watch/discuss/enjoy the Nats in front of her eventually, and today I came close.

Driving to Sacramento for in-laws’ step grandson’s first birthday. I casually switched in the Gameday Audio over the radio, cutting out the 90s country Pandora station.  It didn’t last long, as claims of “torture” led to switching back to Martina McBride and George Strait. I only got to hear account of two batters. Fortunately, they were these two at-bats:

Werth’s double in the third. I heard it.

Not this time!

…then back to our regularly scheduled programming.

We arrived at the party early, so we could have brunch with her dad and his wife (mother of the steps). My battery was dying so I had to live with gamday in the parking lot watching our new darling closer blow a save in his third appearance.  Nothing to panic about statistically this early in the season, but the “new guys” occupy a symbolic place in my consciousness.

The benefit of extras is that I was able to catch the tenth and eleventh inning on my phone once back at the party. Thanks to all for not giving me shit for watching a baseball game at a party.

Homers by Desmond and Ramos in the top of the 11th were enough to keep the Nats ahead of a Cincy run in the bottom of the inning. Back to the party.