Noted baseball writer and Internet blogger Blaise Pascal memorably noted in one of his recaps “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.” As you all know, I have the opposite problem. Apologies in advance for my keeping this brief. Personal issues have intervened.

The Braves faced the Nationals in the second game of the series on the Anacostia River. a few blocks northeast of its confluence with the Potomac. (It always bothers me that the baseball usage of the word confluence is only used in Pittsburgh.) The Natinals (which is what the City Connect jerseys would have had on the front if anybody in DC had a sense of humor [not counting AAR]} were held hitless by Chris Sale through 3 innings, but then scored two in the fourth aided by a throwing error from Sean Murphy on a double steal. That was Sale’s only blemish through seven innings. 10 strikouts and one walk. Boy, is he fun to watch. As is Fried. As is Lopez,

Eight of the nine guys in the top of the inning, however, are not fun to watch. We still assume there’s going to be some offensive fun this season, but so far the Braves offense requires the following trigger warning: “The scenes you are about to see may be extremely disturbing to those who understand the point of baseball.” The one run that did score was by virtue of a fly ball that, like most fly balls, went into the sky, but, unlike most fly balls, was not seen by the outfielders. I shouldn’t complain. It was a lot more hits than they got in Fenway on Thursday.

Not Really Politics

Seeing the Nats in their City Connect uniforms with the cherry blossoms always makes me think of the Tidal Basin, which then causes me to think of Fanne Foxe, the Argentinian stripper (unrelated to Jimmie Foxx) who tried to escape being caught in a car with the very drunk Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee by the Park Police by means of fecklessly diving into said body of water. Politicians dabbling with porn stars and strippers will always be with us, but it makes me nostalgic to think that there were once powerful members of the House of Representatives. I miss it.

Update: This will serve as the game thread

(This part is by AAR.)

In the spirit of putting forward roughly the same effort as our heroic boys did last night, I’m getting up the update to this thread to make it today’s game thread a half hour late and a dollar short. Will today be Bad Charlie or Good Charlie? Will the offense make it a distinction with a difference?

Let’s find out!