Sunday Smorgasbord 8-13

• The Nats dropped the last two of three to the Mets and there is tension in the locker room. On a brighter note, Alfonso Soriano hit his 200th home run today. Now at 51-66 with 45 games remaining, the Nats are 20.5 games back of first place in the NL East. Their elimination number from the division title (Mets) is 26. The Nats are 9.5 games out of the Wild Card and their elimination number from the playoffs (Reds) is 36. Cleveland moved past the Nats, but the fast sinking B.O.'s dropped under them, so only the Royals, Pirates, Devil Rays, Cubs, and B.O.'s have a worse record than the Nationals.
• I admit to doing laundry instead of watching the Redskins lose to the Cincinnati Bengals 19-3. The results of a pre-season game are largely unimportant so I won't be sounding any alarm bells. But injuries do count, and the injuries to starters Clinton Portis and Chris Clemons are something to worry about. Portis' injury does not seem to be too serious but the Skins need to be careful going forward. The NFL is a 17 week war of attrition and losing players for the season in games that don't count unnecessarily handicaps yourself.
• From what I did see of the game, I was highly disappointed that NBC employs the self-proclaimed (and self-important) "Dean of the NFL Journalists" Peter King from Sports Illustrated. His single-minded obsession with keeping Art Monk out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in my mind disqualifies him from being a serious NFL journalist. For NBC to give him a bigger microphone is unconsciousable.
• Your daily obligatory Evgeni Malkin link comes straight from the "Duh!" file. Next we're likely to learn that the Pope is Catholic. Otherwise, the real question, just where is Malkin, has yet to be answered. Yesterday, Rumor Boy said he was heading to Canada. And speaking of Rumor Boy, is there anybody that the Caps aren't interested in?
• On the off-chance you didn't know by now, D.C. United battled to draw with Real Madrid on Wednesday night in Seattle. United played well in the first half and started to fade in the second. They were able to launch some nice counter-attacks late in the second half but were still lucky to hold on for a tie. The defense did about as well as you could expect absorbing wave after wave of world-class attacking players. The offense though was very, v e r y s l o w t o d e v e l o p. Of course, D.C. still needs to take care of business in the MLS. Games like this should give them confidence that they can handle anything the league throws at them. With this week's results in the books, D.C. United is still 13-2-6 with 45 points with 11 games remaining. Their magic number for a playoff spot is 13 points, their magic number for the Eastern Conference title is 15 points. Their magic number for the Supporter's Shield is 27 points.
• This week; the Nats will host Atlanta for four game series before heading out on the road and spending next weekend in the City of Brotherly love. D.C. United resumes their MLS schedule and starts off Wednesday night in East Rutherford, New Jersey to face the New York Red Bulls and welcome back former D.C. United and U.S. National Team Head Coach, Bruce Arena, to the MLS. D.C. United then comes home to RFK on Saturday afternoon for the first time in over a month to seek revenge on one of the two teams to actually defeat them this year, the Colorado Rapids. The Redskins will seek to avoid further injuries (and turnovers) when they host the New York Jets at FedEx field on Saturday night.
• And once again, you can send all comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, and shout-outs to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com. I might eventually read anything you send and if the moment moves me, you might just get a response.