Mets Lose To Nats!!!!!

Improbable as it seems the Washington Nationals have now beaten the Atlanta Braves AND the Mets over the course of the last three days. Although hell might have felt as though it had frozen over in Shea on Friday night, this illusion of NL East reality does not mark a change in the NL East hierarchy nor does it provide the opening A of the Apocalypse. Call it beginner's luck, if you like.

Or, El Duque pitching his age.



Duque was not only beaten, not only did he surrender three homers to the woeful Nats lineup BUT he was ejected from the game entirely after he hit Nats winning pitcher Chris Hill.

The decision by umpire Mike Winters was of course, absolute rubbish - did he really believe El Duque would intentionally plunk a fellow pitcher over a trio of homers?

"It wasn't like it was going to graze him," Winters said, squirming through another session of Idiot's Logic. "If it doesn't hit his hand, it hits him right in the chest. And to me, because of the way the inning had been going, and right after the home run, in my judgment, he had to be ejected."

In my opinion, El Duque's ejection should have been immediately followed by a self-ejection from Winters for being such a reactionary twat instead of using common sense but umpires don't have a habit of ejecting themselves otherwise there wouldn't be any left to ump the game.

Not that it really mattered anyway with the performance Duque cashed in yesterday.

Eight hits, six runs and three homers over the course of five innings is not generally the way to win a game, not even if you're pitching against the Nats. The way, the Nats had hit 4 homers in their first 11 games combined before last night's debaucherie. I mean look at what the Mets vaunted bullpen did following the ejection:

Burgos, Schoeneweis and Joe Smith combined to toss 4 innings of no-hit relief which is the kind of pitching you would expect in a game against the Nats' no-hit lineup. Not gift-wrapping a trio of homers and losing the bloody game by a 6-2 margin.

And where does the loss leave us in the NL East?

Sleepwalking, that's where.

A full game behind the bloody Braves and worse still, allowing the Nats to win meant the Phillies were able to stay out of the NL East cellar for another day. Just imagine: the Nats almost ahead of the Phillies in the NL East. Hohoho.

Almost funny enough to make you forget this loss.