No Shark, No Center Fielder, No Victory (Game 3 Recap)

The Nationals appeared lost as they lost today during the rubber match of the Atlanta Braves series.  Their 11-2 demolition had few highlights.  RicK AnKiel followed up his 3 RBI game with an 0 for 3 game.  (He did have the same number of Ks in the game as the number of Ks in his name...) The rest of the team didn't fair much better, however, managing only 4 hits total.  Atlanta scored 8 of their runs in the 7th and 8th inning, which I suppose makes sense... because according to the Yahoo box score of the game (also seen below), no one replaced RicK AnKiel in center field.

I suppose having only 2 outfielders is a good excuse for giving up 8 runs.  (Surprisingly, Jerry Hairston Jr. had an RBI, without having played...)

But honestly, if the Nationals are going to go with a 2 person outfield, one needs to be the Shark.  Roger Bernadina would never allow the opposing team to score 11 runs.  If it meant saving a few runs, I'd rather have 8 men in the infield and the Shark alone in the outfield. (For example, Alex Gonzalez's triple would have just been a long out) We all know he could handle it.

In addition, AnKiel and Werth looked completely lost on a couple of plays.  As they ran for fly balls hit to right center, they both could be heard shouting "The Shark's got it!" When it fell between them they just stared at each other bewildered and threw their gloves down Nyjer-style in anger, simultaneously remembering The Shark was sent to Syracuse.  Also, Epsinosa's "error" was entirely the result of a bad throw by AnKiel.  A Sharkless outfield is a sloppy outfield.

While the Sharkadina Duo could not attend the game, I want to leave you with this Shark Family Photo taken at NatsFest 2011. (thank you @tracytran)

"We are a non-traditional family of two male sharks raising two girl sharks in the big ocean of life.  I smell a sitcom."

More to come.