BAD BRAD

I hate Brad Wilkerson. He's getting to be right up there with Chipper. Too bad he doesn't have a juvenile nickname so I could taunt him by yelling out his real name in an elongated fashion. "BRAAA--AAADDDD" just doesn't work.

Yes, the Phillies lost to the Nationals last night, 3-1. One lousy run! It was scored before I started watching, by Placido Polanco on a Thome single, in the first. Bud's boys got the run right back in the bottom of the first, of course, when Larry Bowa's nephew Nick Johnson hit a solo jack. Bowa will be haunting us all year that way, I think. Lieber and John Patterson settled down after that, until BRAAAA--AAADDD hit a two run shot in the fifth to put the game hopelessly out of reach for these impotent Phillie bats. The Phillies had two on with one out in the 8th, but Mike Lieberthal continued his sucktastic ways by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. God are we terrible. Start hitting, you losers! We're now at .252/.340/.369 as a team. A .369 team slugging percentage? Just terrible. We're being outhomered by double, not to mention out-doubled and out-tripled. If it wasn't for the league-leading 90 walks, we'd be 6 or 8 games out at least. Actually, that last stat is encouraging. You don't tend to suddenly stop drawing walks, but it's a lot easier to stop hitting extra base hits. If we can start hitting for power, which we've done in the past, and keep up the plate discipline, the wins should follow. Soon, I hope.

It's a 4:35 PM start in DC this afternoon. Myers is taking on former Yankee washout Esteban Loaiza. This is as good a time as any to get the bats going before we head home.