The Washington Nationals have become the 134th team to chalk up back-to-back 100+ loss seasons:
Two years in a row now, the Nationals have lost at least 100 games, redefining the old maxim regarding Washington’s place in war, peace and the baseball standings.
With their latest loss, a 7-6 defeat against the Dodgers Thursday night, the Nationals fell to 52-100, a mark nearly as ugly as the game itself. Eleven pitches into the night, they trailed 4-0. Their starter was pulled after three innings. This being a cheap knockoff version of clean baseball, even when the Nationals battled back to tie, everything promptly unraveled at the worst possible moment.
Not many teams manage to lose 100 or more games in back-to-back seasons. In the last 25 years, before Thursday, only the Tigers, Rays and Royals had done it. Months ago, conventional wisdom suggested that this year’s Washington team couldn’t possibly be worse than the 2008 Nationals (59-102). But the 2009 Nationals defeated almost nobody, except conventional wisdom. They showed the first signs of 100-loss potential even in those brief, beautiful moments as a zero-loss team. They started the season with a two-error, blowout defeat. They were 0-7, then 1-10, then 14-36.
For the players and the coaching staff, the 100th loss of their season piqued no special curiosity. “If it’s 99 or 101 or 104 or 96, you know, none of that is good,” interim manager Jim Riggleman said.
The 100th loss, though, has always been baseball’s formal certificate for futility, accompanied even by a fitting visual element — those gaping zeroes, through which even Daniel Cabrera could aim his fastball. With their 100th loss, the 2009 Nationals joined a fraternity that includes, since 1903, 134 other teams. Among them: the 1905 Boston Beaneaters (51-103), the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), the 1969 Montreal Expos (52-110) and 10 previous Washington-based teams, including the 1904 Senators (38-113).
And, honestly, I would not be at all surprised to see them end up in the 100 loss column again next season.
