Be honest

Following his home run leading off the bottom of the eight, how many of you started rooting for Ramon Ortiz to get his no-hitter?

Don’t lie.

Obviously, it was not meant to be as Aaron Miles broke it up in the top of the ninth (with Albert Pujols ruining the shuttie with a gargantuan shot into the upper deck at RFK). But isn’t witnessing such an occurence always fun, even if it’s against your team?

Ortiz certainly was an unlikely candidate for a no-no, as he had gone 0-3 with an 11.42 ERA in his past four starts. He certainly lived up to his “Little Pedro” nickname on Sunday.

Going into Sunday’s tilt, Ortiz seemed the rough equivalent of Jason Marquis, having accumulated a 9-12 record with a 5.34 ERA, 88/55 K/BB ratio and 24 dingers given up in 158.1 innings. Marquis was 14-12 with a 5.86 ERA, 83/63 K/BB and 31 homers allowed in 172 innings.

So it certainly wasn’t crazy to expect a score akin to a Rams-Redskins tilt rather than the well-pitched duel we got Sunday. Hats off to both starters; do it again in five days, Jason.

Other reaction in the blogosphere:

• Near Nats Labor Day No-No (Mr. Irrelevant)
• If Ifs and Buts Were Candy and Nuts (The Curly W)
• A Labor Day to Remember (Just A Nats Fan)
• OOOOH!!! SO CLOSE!!! (Nats320)
• Oh no, no no-no! (The Beltway Boys)
• Ramon Ortiz almost did what? (Fungoes)
• High sock mojo (College of Cardinals)

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As long as we’re talking about the Nationals blogosphere, be sure to check out The Curly W’s five questions that were pitched to fellow Cardinals bloggers/writers Scott at Cardnilly, Matthew Leach of stlcardinals.com and OYNAG fame and new Viva El Birdos correspondent Erik “The Rev” Manning. Among the questions:

One of the Nats bloggers has an obsession with former Nats and current Cards backup catcher Gary Bennett. Does he get this level of esteem in the Cards’ blogosphere?

He certainly did last week.