Nuts and Bolts … Stephen Colbert asked self-proclaimed “gaffe machine” Joe Biden, “Are you going nuts?” Smokin’ Joe jabbed back, “Look, the reason I came on the Jimmy Kimmel show is because I’m not.” Rational response forced ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to bolt from his irrational presidential run, which in turn had Bill de Blasio singing “Another one bites the dust.”

We were dealt a couple of bad hands this week. Cards came up aces for us twice last weekend, so we are going back to the well. Soaring Redbirds visit the sinking Pirates. We backed Adam Wainwright and he shut out the Giants for seven innings. Pittsburgh’s Steven Brault was tagged for eight hits over five innings facing Philly, but rebounded, limiting the Rockies to a run over 6 ¹/₃ to pick up the W. Which of these two inconsistent hurlers can string together strong starts? Play 10 units on St. Louis.

Whew! Braves led 4-0 and held on to swat the Nats, 4-3. Dallas Keuchel left nothing but donuts on the scoreboard and exited after six innings. Ozzie Albies and Josh Donaldson hit homers. Win takes us to -541 oberkfells.