Not much to report on the actual game. R.A. baffled Nats’ hitters with his flutterball, as usual.

The Nats are 9-8 for the tough part of their schedule and lead the Bravos by a game. The really good stuff now begins — NL East vs. AL East. The Phillies ruined the symmetry by dropping under .500; everyone else is over .500 and no worse than 3 games behind. The Nats are in Boston; Red Sox Nation, meet Mr. Strasburg and Mr. Zimmermann. Mr. Gonzalez, you’ve already met..

What happened to the Rangers was the confluence of their thoroughly average pitching staff having a couple of below average games, coupled with the A’s pitcher”s being “on” and executing, especially to Josh. How many fastballs in the zone did Josh see? In the 3 games I saw, the count was two, both hit for doubles.Otherwise there were none. Did that stop him from swinging? No. He swung at every curve ball outside and low. He looked like Cespedes, and Cespedes is a rookie.

(hat-tip recognition to the true ‘Rainbow Warrior’ that was attacked and sunk by cowardly French aqua-men)

Get it? Seasoning. Nawlins….

Okay, never mind….

Black Hole Buck sat out for scrubeenie Brett Hayes, but Tweeter took another collar and the Hot Tub Herod is now batting .216. His ticket to Nawlins, if not designation, would have been punched weeks ago if Gaby Sanchez wasn’t swinging a whiffle bat of his own in the Easy too, leaving the Feesh with no real options at first base. The Hanster has been on a schneid lately too, his average falling back into the .260s, and despite his seeing-eye dinger to the opposite field last night the Iron Giant has been getting peetched around like a plague zone so that opposing hurlers can feast on his somnambulistic lineup mates. Chris Coghlan….well, never mind. He’s Soylent Yellow and I suspect that the jaws of designation were being pried open for him at last night’s meeting.

A few weeks ago, in the early phases of the Feesh’s May hot streak, I predicted regardless that they were going to nosedive soon and that it was already time to blow this team up, and I’ve gone right on being pessimistic all through the local euphoria of the past month. Well. The Braves played them like a cat with a half-killed rat – “Rainbow Warriors, come out and play-ye-ay,” clink clink clink – and the Feelies pretty much beat themselves for one of the two games the Feesh won in that series. So with the Razed coming in for the interleague rivalry sock-stuffer this weekend, my guys are 2-4 for the month so far and listing like the Costa Concordia in the shallow standings of the NL East.

Well, it should be a fun weekend at Macondo Banana Massacre Field, anyway. I’m sitting in the Clevelander seats for the first time for this series and, at least, if the Feesh don’t show up, I know all the blue-feathered poontang on the disco stages will.

* May represent sarcasm