Battle of the Beltway

Well it’s that time of year again.

The Battle of the Beltway. Too bad the beltway is at a standstill because everyone is rubbernecking to get a look at the train wreck that are the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals (or Natinals, if you go by their uniform).

The O’s are 16-25 and have the third most losses in the MLB. The Nationals are 12-28 and have the most losses in the MLB.

It’s safe to say the Baltimore/DC area did something to piss off the baseball gods because no metropolitan area deserves baseball this bad.

Way back in 1997, when interleague baseball started out, I was opposed to it. I was a baseball traditionalist, and liked that the leagues were separated save for the All Star Game and the World Series.

But I can see the “cool” factor of interleague play... O’s in funky NL Stadiums... watching the pitchers bat. Well at least until Daniel Cabrera left (BTW, since Cabrera joined the Nationals, he’s 0-11 and 0-25 for his career).

The O’s and Nats are vertically identical. Both teams have pretty good offenses (O’s 8th in the AL, Nat’s 3rd in NL) and both teams are last in their respective leagues in pitching.

So even though the Nats come into the series with the worst record in the majors, the Orioles shouldn’t be licking their chops yet. They’ve got to try and get these guys out.

And so far they haven’t been able to get anyone out.