Oh, these West Coast games are tough…especially with tomorrow’s midnight Sex and the City premiere looming over us, but we love this right? Most days.

Anyways, Odalis Perez has pitched better than his record shows.  He hung in there tonight by pitching well to contact and recording ground outs.  Did anyone else notice Perez’s facial expressions early in the game? Especially on those fly balls hit to Milledge and Pena?  After the plays were made, Odalis looked almost angry.  Maybe he was just showing relief that Lastings and Wily Mo made the plays?  Regardless, Perez’s emotions were evident throughout the whole game on his face.  Perez’s cutter was breaking the Padres’ bats all over the place.  Odalis pitched solidly into the 7th inning, allowing the bullpen to rest a bit.  

Perez was given a big cushion to work with when catcher Jesus Flores hit his first career grand slam in the fourth inning.   Aaron Boone started the inning off with a single.  Padres starter Shawn Estes had issues finding the strike zone and walked Dmitri Young.  Then, after a wild pitch, he hit Milledge who walked to first.  With the bases loaded, Flores shot one to left centerfield to score all four.  It was an impressive at bat and further proof that Flores has been one of the team’s best clutch hitters.  At the rate Flores is going, he should be hitting even higher in the line up.

The Nats added more insurance in the 6th inning.  Lastings Milledge hit a monster solo shot, his third of the season, to left field putting the Nats up by 4.  Lastings seems to be getting more comfortable at the plate; he has been hitting well during the past week.  The boys got a little something going again in the 7th when Felipe hit a double, and Guzman followed with a shallow single. Lopez scored on a sac fly by Boone.

Things got close in the 7th with Sanchez on the mound.  He gave up a two run homer to make the score 6-4.  Elijah Dukes tried to make a long running grab on a ball, but lost it when he dove hard into the ground.  It appeared the wind got knocked out of him.  He stayed in the game though and hopefully it’s nothing serious. Ayala relieved Sanches in the 7th with one out and he finished the inning without an issue. Additionally, Ayala laid down a nice bunt and pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning. Jon Rauch pitched a scoreless 9th and the Nats won 6-4.

Overall, we probably couldn’t be more critical of Paul Lo Duca’s presence on our team. However, he’s not so bad in the booth. He seems to have a lot of insight - if only because he’s a catcher and he’s played for so long. It wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be and at least it was a fresh perspective. Surprisingly, he’s more modest than Sutton. Now, if he could just stay up there and leave Flores to develop behind the plate, I think we’d all be happy.

In other news, Humberto Cota - a catcher who signed with the Nationals last winter and stayed in spring training for only a few weeks before being released was suspended today for violating MLB’s performance drugs policy. Cota, who supposedly received the drugs from a doctor in Mexico, faces a 50 game suspension.

(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.