Washington Does the Bullpen Shuffle, Trips Over Two Left Feet

Sure, the Miami Marlins are on top of the world with a dandy record of 11-1, but they couldn't do it without a little help from a friendly Washington Nationals bullpen that ceded three straight ninth inning leads this past weekend. The Marlins won all three games. How bad is the Washington relief corps? Imagine a bullpen full of Farnsworths, and then multiply by a factor of Todd Jones. That doesn't even begin to describe the failures that Manny Acta reluctantly calls in on a nightly basis to protect the rare Nationals lead.

Here's the breakdown from the would-be forgotten weekend:

On Friday, Joel Hanrahan gave up a game-tying solo tater tot to Cody Ross with one down in the ninth. The Nats lost in the tenth. On Saturday, Hanrahan blew a 6-3 lead by giving up two singles and a three run happy jack to Jeremy Hermida. The Nats lost in the 11th. Yesterday, Saúl Rivera came in with a one-run lead and lost it quickly, then recorded two outs, loaded the bases, and gave up the farm on a bases-clearing double to Ross. The Nats hastened their own demise by losing in regulation.

In response, the GM-less team pushed Rivera and two other relievers out to sea on a couple of ice floes and called up Jason Bergmann, Garrett Mock and Kip Wells from Triple-A Syracuse to stop the bleeding. Folks, there isn't a wound big enough that a Kip Wells-size bandage cannot heal. They don't call him Kip "Band Aid McGee" Wells for nothing.

(We owe a Coke to the good Mottrams at Mr. Irrelevant and Flickr user Scott Ableman)