What is St. Barry Trying to Tell Us?

Barry Svrugla, the Nats beat writer who has been consistently excellent this year, has a very good story today about a very bad game for the Nats, and he tells us a lot about particular players in a very subtle way. Notice, for example, how the mere juxtaposition of two descriptions conveys a lot:

Afterward, in the clubhouse, outfielder Brad Wilkerson was asked about the mood of the team.
"I think it's getting a little ridiculous, to tell you the truth," Wilkerson said. "Hopefully -- I keep saying 'hopefully' -- we can get some momentum, get some confidence. But I think we got to want it. We got to realize what we're playing for. We're playing [teams] we're going to be going up against in the wild card.

"But now's the time. Now's the time to want it more than anything. And if we give it all we have and come up short, I can go home this offseason and work on next year. But if I had to go home right now, I wouldn't feel that way."

In the back of a nearly empty locker room, as Wilkerson spoke, Castilla joked with pitcher Esteban Loaiza, laughing loudly. Castilla was asked if he thought the team could still contend.

"How many games are left?" he asked. Twenty-seven, he was told. "Yeah, we're still in it," he responded. "We still got a chance."

Also interesting is that in my hardcopy version of the paper, the quote from Vinny Castilla is not in the story, just the description of his joking with Loaiza. One gets the feeling that Barry or his editor thought, "Maybe it would be best if we get a response from Vinny." Which makes pretty clear what Barry was trying to tell us.