i dont think im being too upbeat. the offense has been terrible, last night was a brutal loss, and tomorrow will be insanely tough. but the pitching has been good. obviously not as good as the miserable offense requires them to be, but theyve done their part. the offense just needs to give them more margin for error.
with fister on the mound tomorrow i have hope. not a lot of it, but some. seems like he was always the guy that came through in the must win games this season. even if they win monday its still a tough road ahead (and would require a top notch gio start, and a better strasburg start) but crazier things have happened. the 2012 bats came alive after a poor start to the playoffs (though of course we know how that ended) so who knows. scratch out a win however possible tomorrow and go from there.
i didnt say harper (or cabrera) had a great game yesterday (its clear only one nats hitter did) but with such slim pickings from the offense so far, their home runs on friday stand out so i wouldnt bench them. probably all a moot point since if zim's hamstring was up for playing the field hed have done so by now but its a shame to only get one at bat a night out of him when hes one of the only guys that still looks like himself at the plate.
of course with all the talk of desmonds kid he might miss a game in san fran and force ryan to start, and i cant say im too upset about that. desmond looks especially lost
agree on harper yelling at the ump btw. never do that in the middle of an at bat. im very surprised he wasnt tossed. cabrera also shouldnt have gotten himself tossed (yell all you want but when you slam the bat you give the ump no choice), and williams DEFINITELY shouldnt have. that stand up for your players idea is nice in the regular season but you cannot force your team to go into extra innings in the playoffs with no manager.
but again, all of the manager/pitching talk is avoiding the real issue. idk what these guys all did betwen sunday and friday but that roll they were on came to a grinding halt
