FanHouse JesusColome

WASHINGTON -- If you've tuned into a Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre this year, chances are you've seen Tim Williams and Joe Farrell. If those two names aren't ringing a bell -- and there's really no reason they should -- how about a description.

Williams and Farrell, both Jays season-ticket holders, often take their seats in the first row behind home plate dressed from head to toe as umpires. Their impersonation of the men in blue doesn't end there. For the entire game, Williams and Farrell mimic the calls of the umpires, raising their arms and bellowing out strike calls, sticking up their fingers to let fans behind them know the count and brushing one hand over the other emphatically to signal foul tips.

"There are 7 billion people on the planet. Do you know how many of them travel to another city to fake umpire a game? You're looking at 'em," Williams tells FanHouse Friday night at Nationals Park.

Professional athletes get the strangest injuries, especially big league pitchers. Jesus Colome is no exception: he's currently hospitalized with an infection ... in his right buttock. OK, maybe we shouldn't be laughing at an infection which leads to a hospital visit, but it's hard not to when it leads to Professional athletes tend to get the strangest injuries, especially big league pitchers. quotes like this:

"It's a serious situation," [GM Jim] Bowden said. "We pray for his buttocks and his family."

I really have to hand it to Jim Bowden. Most guys in his position would have settled for a general "we pray for his health," but that wasn't specific enough for him. Nope, that's the difference between him and most GMs; he's a details guy, someone who pays attention to the little things. And that's why his teams are always the class of baseball the NL East Washington D.C. I'm just curious what exactly he said about Nook Logan's groin injury earlier in the year ...

(big hat-tip to Lion in Oil)

I've got to hand it to Manny Acta. The job he's done with the Nationals, a team that was supposed to lose 125 games, has been nothing short of phenomenal ... especially with the multiple injuries suffered by his pitching staff.

Acta's reward for his patience? Why more injuries, of course. Shortstop Cristian Guzman is out for four to six weeks with a busted thumb (busted on Josh Barfield's helmet, that is), which is note worthy as this has been Guzman's best season as a National by a country mile with a .329 batting average.

But the saddest injury may be the recurring one that put reliever Jesus Colome back on the DL, soft-tissue infection in the right buttocks.

"I don't feel good. I can't talk," Colome said. "I have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going straight to the doctor."

Hey, when does soft tissue infection in your butt cause you not to talk? I guess when you regularly talk out of your ...

Seriously folks, that hurts. When it hurts to sit, go straight to the doctor. Colome has been an important part of the Nats' bullpen at 4-0 and a 2.76 ERA, so these injuries will be most painful for Acta, who will now have to fill more holes and keep the Nats' afloat. That he's kept them respectable this far is an incredible achievement.

Update: Scratch that four to six weeks for Guzman as the news gets worse ... Guzman is out for the season.

Previously on The Fanhouse:
Nationals Starters are Dropping like Flies

It all seemed so unlikely. And really, so unnecessary. The Nationals were cruising with a 5-0 lead over the Marlins after five innings.

Then the comeback began. First, it was a two run home run by Aaron Boone, which was undoubtedly the most important home run he's ever hit (all right, maybe not). Then it was another two run jack by Joe Borchard. And finally, a dramatic pinch hit game tying home run by Cody Ross off of closer Chad Cordero to send the game to five extra innings.

"I'm concerned because he's my closer and he knows and we know what the problem is. He's still pitching behind in the count," Washington manager Manny Acta said.

So add Chad Cordero to the "he's my closer" club, the club for closers who have gotten that vote of confidence (which means he's in trouble).

But Cordero was bailed out by Jesus Colome (pictured) who pitched three scoreless innings while escaping a bases loaded two outs jam in the 13th by striking out Matt Treanor. That set up the winning run in the top of the 14th when Chris Snelling drove in Ryan Church with the eventual winning run.

The Marlins bullpen gets credit for keeping the team in the game to set up the comeback, pitching eight shutout innings from the sixth through the thirteenth and bailing out Scott Olsen, who had a second straight shaky outing giving up ten hits and five runs in five innings.