Washington Does the Bullpen Shuffle, Trips Over Two Left Feet  |
| Comments (3)  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 t