"Pitching, pitching, pitching"

Those were the immortal words of Jim Bowden weeks before the July 31 trade deadline. At the time the Nationals were one of the best pitching teams and one of the worst hitting teams in baseball. So, any rational person would say let's build on our strength and ignore our weakness, right? Well, maybe not a rational person, but Jim Bowden definitely would. And, in fact, he did. Those words are among the strongest reasons why the first act of the new ownership should be to fire Jim Bowden.

We are seeing now the consequences of Bowden's inability to improve the Nationals' offense. It should come as no surprise that it's hard for one of the worst hitting teams in baseball to get into the playoffs. When your hitting is that bad you lose games like the Nationals lost tonight. Behind another brilliant pitching performance by John Patterson, the Nationals lost 1-0. They were once again completely incapable of mustering any offense in a game that was critical for their playoff chances. And the Nationals once again could not score a runner (Cristian Guzman this time) from third with only one out. Brad Wilkerson, whose continuing decline is one of the most troubling aspects of the Nationals' offense, struck out, and Jose Vidro flied out to center as Guzman watched helplessly from third. A team that can't score runners from third with less than two outs doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs.

Jae Seo pitched well tonight for the Mets, allowing no runs over eight innings. But this game was more about the Nationals' bad bats than Seo's good arm. The Nationals can make a lot of pitchers look good, many of whom are average or journeyman players. Until the Nationals improve their offense, pitchers like Seo will relish the opportunity to pitch against them.

If this post sounds depressing, that's because we're depressed. Only teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, and a few others can assume each year that they'll either be in or challenging to be in the playoffs every year. Opportunities to make the playoffs don't come around very often, and we find it deeply disappointing that the team's management hasn't done more to capitalize on this opportunity. Instead, management is wasting great pitching performances like we saw from John Patterson tonight. He is arguably the eighth best pitcher in baseball, and yet all he has to show for it is a record of 7-4. That's bad news for Patterson, but it's a tragedy for the Nationals, who need more than seven wins from their best pitcher to make the playoffs.