Esco-Barring an Injury

I'm done making fun of Alex "Pablo" Escobar. I genuinely feel bad for the guy and it's just not funny any more. Escobar's career track has gone from sad to comic and now settled firmly on pathetic. The man just cannot stay healthy. It's like he's allergic to not being injured.



In case you missed it, Alex separated his right shoulder diving back into first base in the late innings of yesterday's shocking non-loss to Atlanta. After singling up the middle Escobar was leading off first when Brian Schneider hit a rocket directly at Braves RF Jeff Francouer. Francouer threw to first to double off Escobar. Alex lunged awkwardly back and jammed his right arm against the bag, dislocating his shoulder. Premlinary reports put the recovery time at 4-6 weeks, effectively ending Escobar's season.

And Alex was finally having a good season. Despite being only sporadically healthy, he put up a .356/.394/.575 line, far and away the best of his career. He was the Nats de facto starting centerfielder and a real asset in the bottom half of the lineup. He will be missed. Escobar's latest injury means Ryan Church is a starting outfielder again, which is good. It also means that our fourth outfielder is now Marbertyle Anderfickard, which is bad.

The other significant tragi-comic injury news out of last night's game concerns Chad Cordero. The Chief was unable to toe the rubber (pun intended) last night because of a flare-up in his ingrown toenail. I really, really, really don't want to delve into the details of this injury (I rely on NIH for things like that) but given the voluminous amounts of free time that any Nats closer has this season, why can't Chad keep his nails trimmed? Maybe he should have been doing that instead of lighting off fireworks with Tex. The upshot? Rookie Saul Rivera got his first career save, in slightly too dramatic fashion. Talk about having a Road to Damascus experience.

Elsewhere on the Hallelujah! front, the team, probably during one of Trader Jim's binge-drinking blackouts, managed to excise Damian Jackson from the roster. I was no great fan of the Damian Jackson signing, but my complaints focused on the fact that Jackson would inevitably steal a roster spot from Jamey Carroll, Brendan Harris or Rick Short (or all 3, as it turned out.) I could never have predicted he'd go all Snakes on a Plane, both as player and as a person. Good riddance.