Attendance will improve as more front-runners realize that Nats Park is the place to be. This requires the team to continue winning. That, and the schools let out for summer.

Last night in Anaheim (is there better weather anywhere than Orange County? Only in Hawaii) the A’s got shutout work from Tyson Ross. Surprisingly, with Torrii Hunter absent, Albert in a continuous funk, and nobody but Trumbo hitting really well, the A’s slapped is-that-really-Dan-Haren around for 4 earned runs and vaulted past the Angels to 11th in the AL in runs scored.

While Cespedes provided the gawk factor early on, the guys doing actual damage are Reddick .289/.340/.549 and Seth Smith, who has raised his totals lately to nearly .800 OPS. The other guys collectively are worshiping at the Altar of Mendoza, but at least they can catch the ball from average to much better than average.

No Ingesanity last night either. His groin injury has recurred, and in true MLB fashion we don’t know how serious it is.

He’s amassed quite a little supply of those dried out potato-chip treaties, some with fur on them, some with feathers, so I don’t need to spend any money at PetSmart on rawhide chews. On the other hand, we still can’t get him to eat his Science Diet, even with that tasty coat oil on it – we really need to do something about his shedding; we’re getting tired of tweezing his hairs out of our palms every time we pet him.

Ah, I see it’s going to rain this afternoon – finally (Stephanie Abrams hasn’t given me an accurate forecast since the Weather Channel moved her to New York) – so I guess I gotta go out now and coax Fido down from his favorite spot on the back wall under the awning. And then it’s off to the parched grasses of Macondo Banana Massacre Field to watch the Feesh take on the Pyrites.

We knew he’d wake up if he stayed healthy – but the Feesh’s problem isn’t going to be getting guys on base; it’s going to be driving them in, just as it was last season. They need a reliable RBI guy. Hanley has been too streaky, and the Iron Giant is awesome when he connects but he still strikes out too much. Gabby Sanchez just isn’t finding his way home from his wanderings in the offensive wilderness, and Tweeter has always been overrated (aside from being a mediocre outfielder); the Feesh blew their chance to trade him for something substantial last weenter when GMs kept asking for him as part of any number of deals.

Ah well. I expect the Mutts to sink to the bottom on their own by season’s end, and if the Gnats’ boolpen doesn’t right itself and the Feelies deconstruct themselves at the trade deadline, the Feesh have a golden opportunity, if not for the division, then certainly for the wild card slot. The question is whether they’ll implode again for lack of run production like they did last season.

I’ll be curious to see what the crowd will be like Wednesday if the T-storms can stay away, this will be the first time I’ve been to the park this year when it’s not a weekend.

This is still almost certainly going to be a lost season for the Red Sox, but hopefully they can at least save face and regain a bit of lost dignity and self-respect.

Horrible break for Leon. A 23-year old kid gets an unexpected callup from AA, plays his first MLB game, gets hurt halfway through, goes on the 60-day DL with a high ankle sprain.

Then again, you have to give Jason Grilli (I had no idea he was still around, but then who knows what goes on in Peetsburgh, buckle on the rust belt hidden in its mountainous keep) credit for working the edges of the plate as well as he did in the eighth last night, and then buzzing 95-mph fastballs right by the clueless Feesh batters while Reyes and the Hanster died on base.

I haven’t checked the team RISP after last night – the Feesh went their usual dazzling 1-for-8 – but it had inched up a hair the night before on the strength of the Iron Giant’s grand slam moonshot. They came into the weekend with the worst RISP in the majors and I figure if they’re not still at the bottom of the barrel, they’re ready to drop back into it tonight.

Gabby Sanchez got a hit, boosting his average to an incomprehensible .198. He’s been just awful since midway through last season and at this point you have to start wondering if this is really as good as he’s ever going to be again. If the Feesh want to make any noise in this division – and they certainly have opportunities – they have to start thinking hard about unloading some of their overpaid dead weight like Buck and Sanchez, and hoping they can hide Tweeter’s situational ineptitude so that they can move him for some contact hitters if his knee shows signs of coming around. Otherwise, though their peetching will allow them to embark on some hot streaks like last week’s, they’re going to have too many enervated nights at the plate like last night to be serious contenders this season.