We're Sorry Boz!

We never should've doubted the Dean of Washington Baseball Writers (Post-Povich edition). Tom Boswell, in his typically grumpy, sometimes-coherent weekly chat ripped Nats fans recently for booing the execrable Cristian Guzman.

Our friends at OMG! took a few deserved hacks at Boz with the all style and humor this blog isn't known for.

In short, Boz said that Guzman would come around; booing was bush league; and Guzman was a good hitter for a shortstop.

OMG took those point-by-point and dismantled Boz. Or so I thought.

Cristian Guzman ruined OMG!'s thesis and is definitely having the last laugh. Tonight, he wins his first Majority Whip -- Two hits, a double and a triple; two runs; two RBI. Throw in two double plays, and he had a solid all-around game.

Over the last few weeks, I've repeatedly mentioned how Guzman was finally starting to hit the ball hard. Even though he was still making outs, he was at least lining out, instead of hitting his patented first-pitch groundout.

Well, those hits are starting to drop in -- or in the case of the last week, hit the wall or fall over it.

Cristian Guzman is now hitting .212/ ~.243 / .303.

While that still sucks, Guzman had bottomed out with a .451 OPS on May 31. Since the calendar flipped to June, he's been on a tear, raising his OPS nearly 100 points.

For the month, he's hitting .288/ .302/ .481, which is about the best-case we would've expected at the beginning of the year. It's a shame it took him so long to show that kind of promise.

He's working on a 6-game hitting streak and failed to get a hit in just six games this month. He's still not walking (just once this month), but he's taking a few pitches, showing a little more patience, and slapping the occasional extra-base hit.

While he's not going to get his seasonal numbers up to where they should be, if he can continue to hit at roughly the same pace he has, he won't be the complete offensive drain he was the first two months of the season.

So, Boz, you were right. We were wrong. We'll never doubt you again.

(At least until you write your next homercentric statistically blind, fanboy-baiting pablum.)

On a normal night, Jose Guillen would've been the whip. He ripped two homers --solo, as usual as he's only hit 4 non-solo homers. But Guzman was not to be denied, and Guillen grounded into a DP in the 9th, with a chance to put the game completely out of reach.

¡Livan! won his 10th game with another of his non-descript outing. Were it not for another bad throw by the Dorian Gray of the infield, Vinny Castilla, Livan would've escaped with just two runs. Vinny's error yielded two more runs and turned a laugher into, well, it wasn't quite a nail-biter, but it wasn't a complete yawner either. [ed. Call Boz and get more -er game description cliches]

Road Trip Record:
4-3
Road Trip Goal:
5-4

All we need is one more.

There are two games left and we're in first place by three games.

The Nats'll be coming home with the lead regardless.

They'll have six games at home against the Jays and Pirates before running a 10-game gauntlet heading into the All-Star break against three wannabe contenders: NYM, PHI, CHI.

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's enjoy the moment.

And enjoy another Nats win.

BANG! ZOOM! Indeed!