Newsflash.

The Nationals are still awful.

Earlier I mentioned the silver lining to the storm cloud in the form of Teddy. Now that we're into ballgames, a second of three silver linings has presented itself (Screech is a story totally unto itself) -- broadcasters finding new and inventive reasons to excuse poor play.

With the visiting Braves batting in the top of the 5th, pitcher Kenshin Kawakami hit a lazy fly to Elijah Dukes. Oops. Someone explain to me what it wasn't Dukes' fault. Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble?

BC: Elijah just...there was something about the way he approached that ball...kind of like in basketball when you see a rhythm shooter. He was just out of rhythm on that thing. Something was not right.
RB: It's plays like that. It's losing your concentration for a split second...very windy.

Later on, following Debbi Taylor's interview of Joel Hanrahan and his experience with Team USA, Rob Dibble said this:

Hopefully he gets a heck of a lot of opportunities and breaks that 62 save record held by a New York Met reliever, K-Rod.

He then segued straight into Adam Dunn's impact without expounding any further on what he had just said. Call me jaded, but what a ridiculous thing to hope for. Might want to keep that an "inside thought." The Nationals had 59 wins last year, nonetheless 28 total saves for the club. The 2009 Nationals are basically the 2008 Nationals plus Adam Dunn. Be reasonable.

Not to keep bashing on Nasty Boy, but he also said "We've hit some bullets today, Bob," during the inning. We? He was just demoted from Fox Sports to the vapid wasteland of MASN (whose ratings were worst in the MLB last year, less than a third of the viewership in next-to-last Kansas City. Wow.) and already he's part of the club? It's not like he could even play the legacy card, having pitched nearly all of his career with Cincinnati. Add a touch of irony with the fact that he interviewed for this very job and obviously didn't make the cut. Dibble's take on it:

Remember, for some of the people in the room that forget that four years ago, before I did “The Best Damn Sports Show” job, I interviewed for this position. At the time, it didn’t feel right.

To spite my point, Elijah Dukes drove in two in the 6th and the Nationals won the game 6-3. I'm okay with that, if for no other reason, because the game didn't represent anything more than a warmup for some new "my dog ate my homework" excuses for '09. I'm looking at you, Dibble.