Remember when Van Morrison sung about days like this? He probably wasn’t thinking about baseball, however you had to think that a bunch of blowouts were a possibility when looking at the pitching matchups in Philadelphia. The first three games for the Washington Nationals could go sideways, and the first one did with poor defense combined with poor pitching. Keibert Ruiz‘s two home runs were all that kept this from being a total laugher that felt like the varsity beating up on the JV.
“This one I’m going to flush. Come back tomorrow and be ready to play tomorrow.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
So all you have to do is turn the page and hope Patrick Corbin can pitch the best game of his season tonight in Citizens Bank Park, and MacKenzie Gore on Saturday. Some say that you are only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher. That is generally true unless you have a prolific offense that can outslug the other side.
The difference between the Phillies and Nationals are the Phillies are a bunch of 30-somethings who are hoping that this is their year, and the Nats are the 20-somethings knowing that this isn’t their year.
As mentioned before, this is really a tryout roster for the Nationals. A bunch of guys like Alex Call, Jose Tena, Andres Chaparro, Travis Blankenhorn, and Orlando Ribalta are players hoping to impress. Time will tell.
Then you have top prospects Dylan Crews, Brady House and Yohandy Morales who have hit over 10 home runs combined in their last 7 games. While Morales won’t get a callup this year, there is “Hope Row” yearning from fans to get Crews and House up for their MLB debuts to join James Wood.
We are just 15-days from turning the calendar to September when rosters expand to 28. At that point teams can call up an additional pitcher and position player. But certainly there could be roster shuffling before that point.
Crews and House callups could change the mood to optimism, and certainly the “Well my mama told me there’ll be days like this” could have a positive sound to it with an inflection, modulation and a tonality to give a feeling of something great is happening. Sing it with me!
