DC boys show-offense

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There's something different about the Nats' lineup this shiny new season.
What the heck is it? Oh yeah ... they have one.

Guzman
Milledge
Zimmerman
Johnson
Kearns
Lo Duca
Belliard
Harris
Pitcher

Ain't that purty? Looky looky - Guzman is a real live leadoff hitter. Milledge is paying off like JimBo always said he would.

Now feast your peepers on the power plant, Zim, Johnson, and Kearns.
Whatever Zimmerman did in the off-season to transform his pop-fly swing into a homer run smack, I hope it's legal.

Follow the wiz kid with a cleanup guy with the strength of an ox and the patience of a crocodile. If Nick Johnson doesn't run them in, he'll at least get himself on.

Then there's The Quiet One. Austin Kearns doesn't do a lot of interviews. His picture doesn't make the papers. They don't show the drive train in car commercials, either. It's not as sexy as the shiny paint. All it does is make the car move.

The middle of the order will be much celebrated this year, and rightly so. As long as they stay healthy, they're going to steal a lot of sleep from NL pitchers.

The real secret to this lineup is at the bottom. This year's bottom of the lineup looks a lot like last year's middle. If you're pitching against this Nats lineup, you don't get to relax much after the meat. In 2007, late in games, Manny would turn to his bench and deploy Ryan Langerhans, D'Angelo Jimenez, and Tony Batista. That now seems like a bad dream when you consider that last night Lo Duca, Belliard, and Young tacked on 3 of tonight's 11 runs.

Don't forget, this is all happening without Willy Mo Peña and Elijah Dukes. Oh, and no closer. Those guys will likely breeze back in just as the weak spots start showing.

Last year, runs were hard to come by for the Nationals. The Lerner group would be wise to set aside some extra cash for the 2008 fireworks budget.



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Washington
0 0 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 (11 12 0)
Philadelphia
1 0 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 (6 8 2)

More numerical wonkiness




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