Tonight, our hearts are with the fans of St. Louis as they cope with the terrible loss of reliever Josh Hancock.

…of a baseball player.Ryan Zimmerman chronicled his typical day in the Washington Examiner this past week.He says, “A player’s day begins earlier than you probably think.” It might surprise readers to learn that Zim arrives at RFK five hours before a 7pm game. In that time, he might be getting a massage, reading the paper, eating lunch, lifting, watching game tapes and taking batting practice - all well in advance of game time.The struggling star says that he occasionally even lifts after games.Here’s hoping all that work starts paying off soon!Photo Credit: Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Despite a huge win on Friday, the Nats lost the weekend series with the NY Mets.

Saturday Highlights:
Manny Acta (and Micah Bowie) signed our baseballs.
Ryan Wagner got more lollipops.
We sat with K’s friend from Barnes and Noble (and her husband).
We then wow-ed her husband with our extensive baseball/Nats knowledge.
We took a friend to celebrate her birthday.
12 INNINGS!!
Jerome Williams pitched VERY WELL.
Willie Randolph was tossed out.
Tough Moments:
Chief’s Slump, Offense, and Zim’s costly error

Sunday Highlights:
Taking our picture with Tom and Abe
Two obnoxious Mets fans were tossed from our section
Ray King is back (and signed our baseballs)!
A beautiful, sunny day in Washington
Bergmann had a great outing!

Tough Moments:
Strike Outs and Stranding Runners
Sunburns!

Five Days till we take on Chicago and Alfonso Soriano!

Holy Cow! I’m not sure where to even start with this one. Last night I had a heck of a time getting to the stadium in time for the game. Keep in mind the one thing that kept me going this week was knowing that I had a weekend full of baseball coming up. Friday seemed to drag on very slowly, but I was on the metro by 5:30 to make it to the game in plenty of time. I had a bit of a rough ride, made it exactly one stop before the train sat on the tracks for 30 minutes! Boy was I a nervous wreck. Finally, the train pulled back into the station and I decided to forgo public transportation and drive myself to RFK at the tail end of rush hour. I drove like a maniac and only missed the first inning. Someone was smiling down on me! Of course leave it to the Nats to score for the first time this season in the first inning when I’m not there. However, for like the fourth time this season, the girls got great free tickets, and I was welcomed by an already excited crowd. Its a great feeling to walk up the stadium and hear cheers from almost a mile away.

On that note, let me just send out a big thank you to all Nats fans in attendance last night. The cheering was fantastic, the girls and I were very proud of the way the crowd supported the home team. What an exciting game and a great win for the Nationals. For a great write up of the game check out Miss Chatter’s post.

After the game the girls and I were excited for the win, and decided to head out to celebrate. We went out in the district for a few drinks to unwind, just the three of us. After about an hour in the bar I went up to grab our last round. When the bartender moved aside I spotted Chad Coredero sitting at a table by himself! Being a big Chief fan, and not wanting to miss such a great opportunity, I went over and said hello. I congratulated him on his third save of the season and told him I was glad to see him back in action. He was very generous and talked to me for about five minutes. I left thinking what a nice guy! What a great way to end a night after a great win! We are very excited for two more days of baseball this weekend.

We certainly were hot facing off against Hamels today. Shawn Hill had an impressive outing — lowering his ERA to 2.48, while giving up only 4 hits & 2 runs in eight innings.

Hill kept the game moving, keeping his defensive team awake and alert behind him. Notably, no Nat had an error today. Josh Wilson started instead of Lopez, but Zimmerman and Wilson seemed to be switching at Short Stop and Third. Insight into why is welcome. We got it now; Manny Acta was moving the whole infield to the right. Kearns also had a stellar catch out in right field.
Photo Credit: Nationals.com

As if that wasn’t enough (and it is for a Nats fan), offense was hot too! Zimmerman’s big hit turned into an out at 2nd. Young followed with a HR to take the lead over scoreless Philly in the 4th.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/H. Rumph Jr

In the 6th, the Nats batted through the line-up for the first time this season. Belliard and Zimmerman had base-hits.

Kearns, whose bat is definately hot, was intentionally walked and Church brought in Belliard and Zim on a base-hit to left field. Schneider’s walk brought Kearns in for the 4th run.

Cordero struggled a bit, then closed the game with a nice strike-out.

The Nats are back in town tomorrow night to face the Mets!

Thomas Boswell wrote for the Washington Post on Friday,

This Nationals team does not have the dismal attitude, the dreary clubhouse atmosphere, the palpable cloud of depression that follows a breathtakingly awful team. An upbeat club, even if it lacks talent, can only be so bad. Knowing that you can’t be a good team doesn’t curse you. Hating your situation, rather than working realistically to improve, is what blights a season.

Boswell is refuting comparisons made between the ‘07 Nats with the ‘62 Mets and the ‘88 Orioles. The difference? A positive attitude.

I don’t want to dwell on all the negatives today. Sure, pitching wasn’t so great and having four errors in a single game is atrocious. But, the Ryan Church incident speaks to - or contradicts - Boswell’s praise. It’s still a bit fresh and without knowing much about Acta’s reasoning, I’m hesitant to be too critical of Church. Church has been a powerhouse on the team, currently batting .299 with 8 RBIs. But, the reality, Acta realizes, is that this season will be abysmal without a positive attitude. If he saw a problem with attitude, it’s better to deal with it now. Hopefully, Church - and others - take Acta’s lesson into Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Enough with the gloomy. Let’s focus instead on the notable positive moments of today’s game. FickFabulous, a take off of the hit ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy’s creative Mc-nicknames, can run! How impressive it was to see Robert Fick fly around the bases, almost beating Snelling home to score the 2nd run.

Robert Fick
Photo Credit: Doug McKinney, FeaturePresentations.com

It was also nice to see backup catcher Jesus Flores have some big hits, driving in Snelling and FickFabulous.

Last, but certainly not least, was Zimmerman’s grand slam in the top of the ninth. We knew it was only a matter of time before Zim would start to produce at the plate again. How sweet it was to be in front of last year’s NL ROY winner and the third-place contender, Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla, both of whom started the 2007 season off much stronger than Zimmerman. With the grand slam, his career first, Ryan’s average is back up to .241, with 8 RBIs. This should be a great confidence builder for the young star, given all the recent talk about a potential sophomore slump.

Ryan Zimmerman
Photo Credit: The Washington Post

Boswell closed his article with this thought:

With luck, we’ll never know how ugly this season might have been. Troops are on the way. Soon, Zimmerman will start to hit again. Logan and Guzman will return and a thin bench will start to look decently deep. By early May, reliever Luis Ayala and starter Jason Simontacchi will be back. With each outing, Patterson will probably prod the radar gun a bit higher. Some fine day in midseason when his leg is well, Nick Johnson, the team’s best hitter, will be back at cleanup, too.

Eliminate the tragic defensive errors and this team will start to be quite solid. It can only get better from here.

For the second time this week the Nationals win a game in extra innings. The Nats faced the Marlins tonight in Miami. The Marlins, facing a 5-0 loosing streak wanted the win tonight. Early on it looked like the Nats had the game in the bag, with some fantastic pitching from Shawn Hill. Hill carried a no hitter until the fifth inning but gave up two runs on a home run in the sixth. The Nats batting line up was strong tonight, with Lopez, Church, Restovich, Zimmerman, Kearns, and Snelling all hitting well. Congratulations to Ronnie Balliard for his first home run of the season!

The Nats lost their cushion in the eighth inning when John Rauch gave up a two run homer. Closer Chad Cordero sadly had another rough night. He gave up a home run which tied the game in the ninth inning. I hope the Chief gets his magic back soon, we need him! I was suffering some serious deja vu at this point, it seemed just like Wednesday’s 13 inning game! The boys held strong for five more innings until Snelling’s single allowed Ryan Church to score the game winning run. Church had a fantastic game, with a double, some awesome fielding plays, and the winning run. Way to go Church! We were also pleased to see Lopez back on track. He seems to have gained the pep we had hoped for. Thanks to the Nationals for another exciting game. I can’t wait until next weekends home game stretch.

Congrats to the Nats on a big win in extra innings! We want to wish a quick, but happy welcome to outfielder Michael Restovich, whose double in the bottom of the 13th put the winning run (Snelling) on third base. Also, excellent work by the Nats bullpen tonight. Colome, Wagner and Speigner all helped to hold the Phillies in those final innings.

Congrats also to Mark Buehrle and the Chicago White Sox on a historic no-hitter.

Don’t forget to vote for third-baseman Ryan Zimmerman and all of your favorite Nats in the All-Star voting ballots released today. Voting continues through June 28.

Well we braved the cold and wind for the second time this April, and watched the Nationals take on the Braves in the last game of the series tonight. We found ourselves in familiar territory tonight as pitcher Jerome Williams gave up three runs in the first inning. The girls and I joked that the Nats just like to have a little cushion, it makes their victory that much stronger. Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to have enough momentum to pull out a win tonight.

We were pleased to see the player’s tribute to the many victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. Starting in the second inning the boys donned Hokies ball caps. The game was exciting up until the very end, as the Nationals were able to keep the score close for a number of innings. We were surprised to see Robert Fick starting in right field. He turned in a solid fielding performance but was less impressive at bat, causing Manny Acta to put Austin Kearns back in as pinch-hitter in the seventh inning. The best performance of the night goes to Chris Snelling. He turned out a triple, and allowed two runs in. He was named game MVP. We are definitely glad to see the Aussie from spring training back in action. While Snelling had a great game, we were disappointed with short stop Felipe Lopez’s fielding tonight. From the start of the first inning Lopez seemed to be asleep on the field. He was slow to make catches and missing line drives within his reach. Lopez was also the cause of the two errors for the Nationals this evening. He did make up for some fielding mistakes with a solid at bat, but we are eager to see Lopez gain some much needed pep before the next game.

While watching the game tonight we came up with a few questions, so we solicit the help of the readers.
1) When is it appropriate to bring out the rally cap? Is there a story behind this tradition?
2) In tonight’s game, from our section it looked like two batters were hit with the ball by the pitcher, yet neither one took first base. Can players forgo walking to first base after being hit and finish batting as their choice?
3) Each National’s player has a song played while they step up to the plate to bat. The songs are new this year and so far we have only been able to make out the words to Austin Kearns, Ryan Church, and Ryan Zimmerman. If you know any of the other players songs please let us know!

Ok that’s all for tonight. We remain hopeful for a win tomorrow against the Phillies!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the familes of students, faculty and administrators of Virginia Tech during this painful and difficult time.Our own dear friends and family members attending Virginia Tech are safe, but in shock today. It is difficult to imagine that as families and students prepared for new beginnings and commencement, they must now deal with this horrid tragedy. You are certainly in our thoughts here in Washington, DC tonight.