Morning Round Up

--John Patterson is staying in the rotation. Shocking.

--St. Barry's gamer gets to the bottom of why this team stinks lately.

"Say it any way you want to say it," Robinson said. "It comes down to, in baseball terminology, we're not having good at-bats, for one reason or another. We're swinging at pitchers' pitches. We're not swinging at our pitch. We don't work the count. A pitcher gets in a rhythm, we just do nothing to disrupt that rhythm." ...

"We basically went out there and swung at everything they threw at us," second baseman Jose Vidro said. "We didn't make an approach."

It's a complete lack of hitting discipline. Instead of controlling the strikezone, they flail at anything that's a strike -- Especially in pressure situations with men on base. (Like Guzman's AB in the 8th inning last night)

That works if you're Vlad Guerrero. But there's not one of those in the lot.



--I just love this note from the Times!

The Nationals' 11 days either tied for on in sole possession of first place is already more time than the expansion Senators spent atop the American League in their 10 seasons. That franchise was in first place for only a total of nine days (six in 1962, two in 1969 and one in 1971).

--Today's game is at 1:10.

Tomo Ohka tries to rebound from a string of scheise starts, where he's walked everyone that came near the plate, including the batboy.

Kaz Ishii was scheduled to start, but he's on the DL. They'll be starting Jae Wong Seo, although the Post has Manny Aybar listed. Who knows? Maybe Ron Darling'll get the surprise start. Hell, the rate they're going Mel Proctor could probably throw a 3-hitter against them.