TOP STORY
You could say that any time the Nats win, it’s the day’s top story. You could say that if you’re a mean, cruel SOB. Which we are, so we do say that. We write it, too. The Nats are no longer the only winless team in baseball. Four homers, led by super-slugger Adam Dunn, led the Nats to an 8-2 stomping of the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies. The 3-run first inning blast was Dunn’s 3rd homer of the season. Elijah Dukes added his 2nd homer and Alberto Gonzalez and Josh Willingham each smashed their first of the season.Twenty-two year old Shairon Martis gave the team its first quality start of the season [and it only took 8 games!] and this one was never a real contest. Also, let’s give it up for the bullpen, which somehow didn’t choke the game away, providing almost 3 scoreless innings to lock it away. The record is now 1-7 and any thoughts that the Nats were trying to lull the rest of the National League into a true state of security must now be put on hold.
CAPITALS
1. Head Coach
Bruce Boudreau isn’t talking about who the goalie will be for game 2 [
read it], but the guess here is that he’ll stick with veteran
Jose Theodore, who cost Washington a win in game one. Theodore himself expects to keep his starting job.
Read it.
2. It’s not a given, though, and some wonder if Theodore be sent to the bench for rookie
Simeon Varlamov.
Read it.
3. Theodore is correctly taking the blame for game 1. He vows to do better.
Read it.
4.
Sergei Federov has seen and done it all before.
Read it.
NATIONALS
2. Everything went right for the Nats yesterday. Dukes looks good in center field,
Nick Johnson proved he belongs in the #2 spot [where I've wanted him all along], and
Lastings Milledge is back where he belongs — the minors.
Read it.
3. Here is the game wrap-up. It’s fun to look at.
Read it.
4. Expect
Josh Willingham to get more time in left field with
Austin Kearns, while Dunn moves to right field.
Read it.
REDSKINS
1. Are the Redskins really stupid enough to trade what is left of their draft to move up in the first round to take a USC QB with only 16 starts under his belt? You bet there are!
Read it.
WIZARDS
1. Who stays and who goes for the 2009-10 season?
Read it.
2. Even Gilbert Arenas admits the Wizards are a “goofball team.” Nice of him to notice that, considering he’s the biggest reason for that. Gil vows things are about to change.
“Everybody was going into the summer glad we had the season over with. I haven’t been in this situation since my time at Golden State and my first year here,” Arenas said. “People were talking about taking two, three months off, and I told them I’m working Monday. [Center] Brendan [Haywood] is working now. It’s going to be serious. We’ve got a new coach coming in, so no one is guaranteed minutes. Everyone’s gonna have to fight for their own.”
All season, Butler and Jamison pushed their younger teammates to approach the game with greater professionalism, but their messages for the most part fell on deaf ears.
Second-year players Dominic McGuire and Javaris Crittenton made significant strides, but Young and forward Andray Blatche both had up-and-down seasons.
Young and Blatche said they plan on spending significant chunks of the offseason training with Arenas, who has designed a program to sharpen his skills and help regain his explosion. Arenas said, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” but he hopes they join him and buy into his approach.
“If the same guys are here, we’re going to have to approach – especially the younger guys – the game seriously,” Arenas said. “Just everybody. This is bad.”
Blatche said he was taken aback by the let’s-get-serious message coming from Arenas, normally one of the ringleaders of the locker room banter and a regular practical jokester.
“He said next year it’s going to be totally different. It’s not gonna be no young group, not gonna be no old group. Not gonna be no playing around,” Blatche said. “I was surprised myself. I was like, ‘This is Gil?’ “
Butler said Arenas joining him and Jamison in the call for professionalism is long overdue.
“I’m happy to see him step up in that light,” Butler said. “He’s the face of the franchise. He’s the guy, and it’s about time that talk be coming out of his mouth. I’m happy to see that.”
DC UNITED
1. Striker
Luciano Emilio is good at scoring. Also soccer. [I kill me!]
Read it.
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