The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hello there, fellow baseball fans!  What's happenin'?  Well I'll tell you what's happening - Chris Heston, a 27-year-old rookie pitcher making just his 13th start for the San Francisco Giants, threw a no-hitter last night against the New York Mets at Citi Field.  I tuned in during the ninth innings with two outs, so I was able to enjoy the thrill of the no-hitter without the stress of sitting through a whole game wondering if the no-hitter was going to be broken.  Watching a no-hitter never gets old, and what made it interesting is that Heston actually hit three batters during the game!  Another interesting fact is that the Giants' catcher, Buster Posey, has now caught three no-hitters, which puts him in second place after the Red Sox's Jason Varitek, who caught four in his career.  You know me - I have to take a story and turn it so that the catcher looks good! (And if you read this blog regularly, you already knew that Iván Rodriguez caught 2 no-hitters in his career)

That was the "good."  The "bad" is that the Washington Nationals have lost 9 of their last 11 games.  They're still only half a game out of first place (because no one else in the NL East seems to want to win), but they're playing some terrible baseball.  Bryce Harper and Yunel Escobar seem to be the only ones hitting, 2 of their starting pitchers (Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister) are on the Disabled List, and their bullpen just plain old sucks (except for their closer, Drew Storen, who hasn't seen much action lately).  It's very disappointing, though the season isn't even half over yet, and us "glass-half-full" people are trying to stay positive.  Luckily the Nationals don't play against the Mets until July, so they have some time to get their stuff together.

And now for the "ugly."  Staying with the Nationals for a minute... Shortstop Ian Desmond has committed FOURTEEN errors this season.  Who DOES that?  Do you think I would still have my job if I made 14 errors in 9 weeks?  And Desmond makes WAY more money than I do!  The thing is, they keep putting him in the lineup every day, and I think he just needs to sit out a game or two - a "mental health day" of sorts.  They have several guys (Escobar, Espinosa, Rendón) who can play shortstop while Desmond clears his head - and they probably wouldn't commit any errors!  It is so frustrating, because he's missing some pretty basic little-league-type plays; maybe he needs to get his eyes checked?  Seriously - how often do baseball players get eye exams?  I hope that's part of a routine physical at the beginning of each season; in Desmond's case, I would send him to an eye doctor right away.

Now in order to not end this blog post on a negative note, let me also mention that the Angels' Albert Pujols tied Mickey Mantle for 16th on the all-time home runs list with number 536.  That's pretty cool - anyone who has the potential to cleanly pass Barry Bonds on the list is a cool dude in my book.  Also hitting a home run on the same day was the Houston Astros' Carlos Correa.  This was his first homer (a long way from Pujol's 536) - but any time a kid makes his Major League debut and hit his first homer in the same week, that's pretty special.  And Correa is Puerto Rican (not a catcher), so there's that coolness factor as well.

So there you have it - highlights (and lowlights) from this week's baseball action so far.  See how I write more often when there's actually stuff about which to write?  Let's hope the next few weeks bring more excitement - I need to have things to write about once school is out and I'm done with work for the summer!