The game on April 17 was the Nats worst since before they got hot in August 2013.  I could see from their body language that by the fifth inning they had given up.  Starting pitching was supposed to be a team strong point, but it certainly hasn’t been this year. The starters’ ERA is near the bottom in all of baseball.  The Nats are losing the first two innings by a huge margin as their pitchers try to get comfortable with their pitches and feel for the release-point.  Manager Matt Williams stressed defense during Spring Training, but the team has more errors than any team in baseball right now.  He also emphasized aggressive base-running, and the Nats have only stolen one base thus far and their star third-baseman Ryan Zimmerman ran himself right onto the DL with a broken finger.  Adam Laroche has been thrown out at home three times already.  One wonders what the third-base coach is smoking when he keeps waving the slowest guy on the team towards home!  In 17 games I have stopped counting the base-running miscues.

After the game, knowing the manager had called a team meeting right after the last out, he was then asked by a sportswriter what they had discussed.  “That’s for me and my team to know” was his red-faced response.

I rest my case.