The Washington Nationals slugger slammed two homers and fell a triple short of the cycle. Ryan Zimmerman enjoyed a night for the ages.
Ryan Zimmerman, the Washington Nationals first baseman, had one of the better nights of his career Wednesday.
As the Nats pounded the Miami Marlins 10-1, Zimmerman slammed two home runs, a double, single and a walk. Hopefully, this will break him out of a prolonged slump and propel him back into the National League MVP race.
This performance came mere hours after some writer on District on Deck, FanSided’s home for Washington Nationals coverage, essentially calling for Zimmerman to be benched. Rested, if you will. Who would write such a thing?
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Oh wait, that was me. Oops.
Over the last 11 months, I have written 289 pieces for this site. None, however, missed their mark so fast as yesterday’s. Every time Zimmerman crushed a ball, I laughed. Only one of you took to Facebook to call me out on it and that rebuke was polite.
“Um…apparently not.” He said.
Yeah, apparently not.
In mid-March halfway through the Grapefruit League, I did a piece detailing a similar slump and wondered how long into the regular season before Dusty Baker benched the popular Zimmerman for newcomer Adam Lind. The response from a certain player was three months of incredible baseball at the plate.
It happens.
In coming up with story idea for yesterday, a quick check of Zimmerman’s statistics merited a piece. Going into Wednesday night, he was 2-for-23 in August. So, I wrote it and he responded at the plate.
Sorry, Miami pitchers. Zimmerman was overdue.
Now, I know Zimmerman is not a reader of the site. We try to keep the place positive, but fair. If issues warrant a critical story, we do it. You could not go over half a season sugarcoating the bullpen issues and be honest with you our readers. Sometimes, the truth is not pretty.
And that is where we are here. A mea culpa if you will.
Any reader of a sports blog or website knows the stories they read have a limited shelf life. What we write about Monday may not make sense by Wednesday. Other pieces can be valid for years such as the history stories.
We are all not only baseball fans, but attached to how well the Nats play. Over the course of the last year, it is hard for this newbie not to fall for how well they play and act as a team. Writing pieces suggesting players getting benched or extended rest are not ones I like writing. But, honesty is important.
This story looked dumb in seven hours. Again, it happens. Here, I am delighted to be wrong.