Hard To Watch

Nats320
I found watching last nights 7-6 Nationals loss to Pittsburgh hard to watch. Everytime the Nats got the lead, I just had this feeling that the Pirates were going to come back. The Nats played with little life. Except for Soriano, Zimmerman and Johnson, no ones shows any sense of excitement. There no sense of urgency. The Nats DO NOT LOOK LIKE A TEAM ANYMORE. Felipe Lopez looks totally lost on the field. Trades can be devastating for players, especially when you go from a winning team to a losing one, but Lopez looks feable at the plate. After leaving 6 runners on base in his first game friday night, he left another 7 on base last night. 13 in 2 days, that's pretty awful. I didn't like him before the trade, didn't think much of him on trade day, and Felipe has done little yet to change my mind. And, our bullpen, once the backbone of the team is hurting badly and leads Frank Robinson, to once again, make some strange moves that are questionable. Knowing that Jon Rauch is unavailable due to a family emergency, Frank brings in Mike Stanton in the sixth to face just one hitter, Nate McLouth, then immediately takes Stanton out and on comes Kevin Gryboski, who on his first pitch in the Majors in nearly one year, sees Jack Wilson lay down a beautiful suicide squeeze to give the Pirates a 6-5 lead. When Gryboski is pinch hit for by Alex Escobar in the top of the 7th, Frank then has to bring on Micah Bowie to try to get the Nats to the 9th, but he gets himself in trouble and Roy Corcoran gets the call and gives up the game tying sacrifice fly. Then, Frank makes a maddening move, when, with one out, HE LETS CORCORAN BAT FOR HIMSELF in a tie game, in the 9th. Frank said he was forced to, because Rauch was unavailable. Well Frank, that's your own fault for overmanaging!! You used 2 pitchers to get 2 outs in the 6th. That was unnecessary. Saul Rivera and Chad Cordero were still available. I am sure there is also some starter that's hasn't pitched all week, that might be available. There are plenty of choices. Bowden can always make a roster move the next day. The Nats had a chance to win and Frank, again, did not give them the best chance to do so. I couldn't watch the bottom of the 9th, and I am glad I didn't. It was not pretty. The Nationals are not a good team, can not hit in the clutch, poor starting pitching, and now a bullpen that depends on pitchers that were never in the teams plan at the beginning of 2006. And, it hurt to see Bill Bray get a win for Cincinnati last night. He is going to be good. Its very hard to watch.