I Love It, Now Make Me Hate It

And so it goes, with the bullpen blowing yet another lead, as the Nats came back to beat the Braves 5-4. Hampton was pulled, apparently as a precaution, after four shutout innings, Cox thus forcing himself to use the scraggly, frayed end of the bullpen to protect a 3-0 lead.

Bernero pitched two innings and gave up 2 runs in the sixth -- he's been struggling lately, but obviously Cox needed two innings from somebody. Then came the incongruous sight of Roman Colon attempting to protect a lead in the seventh, and the carousel of futility began. He gave up two singles (one was a bloop) while getting one out, and Groundball Gryboski was summoned with runners on first and third. As has been his wont of late, he gave up a hit to Guillen, which drove in the tying run. Foster then came in and gave up a two-run double to Nick "The Unquick" Johnson. Then, finally, entered Jorge Sosa to clean up the mess, which he did with alacrity.

Why did it take so long to get Sosa in the game? He's been much more effective than Colon, and would have seemed the obvious choice to start the inning. I suppose Cox was playing a hunch, because it's not like he usually trusts Colon with a late lead -- Colon's only "hold" occurred on April 8, and this was the first time since then that he's pitched with a lead of 3 runs or less (he did enter a tie game vs. Boston, but that was in the fifth inning and he gave up the winning runs). Every team has a garbage-time pitcher, but that guy is not helping the team if he can't hold the occasional lead. The departure of Mondesi might presage a gradual purge of all non-contributors -- if so, Colon is next on the chopping block.