Time for more self-reflection on the mistreatment of Ryan Church.  Check out this story by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.

Behind closed doors, far away from the ballpark, Ryan Church and his Nationals buddies would gather and wonder. They knew that Church had talent, that he had ability and promise — all those ingredients that a would-be slugger might need.

What he didn’t have was a forum to prove it. So day after day, Church would check out the lineup card to see if he might be on it. Sometimes — oftentimes — his name was not there, and, as teammate Brian Schneider said, “we were all wondering why.”

The article describes Church’s hot start this season, his friendship with Schneider, his frustration in Washington and how he’ll handle an inevitable slump down the road. 

We were looking forward to the start of Inter-league Play and the Beltway Series this weekend.  Having only made it to Camden Yards once last season, I was excited to spend the weekend exploring a new ballpark.  With the Nats coming off a series win against the Mets, I figured we might have a chance to take a few wins from Baltimore.  The Nats ended up losing games on Friday and Saturday, but they escaped with a Sunday win. 

Friday’s game got off to an exciting start, with both Lopez and Guzman reaching base in the first inning.  Zimmerman drove them in with a single and the Nats got to an early 2-0 lead.   However after that early offensive spark, the game went downhill and the Nats lost 3-5.  

Shawn Hill struggled through five innings; he gave up four earned runs on eight hits. Hill looked tired and not himself.  Early reports were that he was sick, but after the game the team announced that Hill has elbow pain (not in the place where he had surgery) and will probably miss his next start.  Disappointing news for the rotation.  Shawn has appeared to struggle since coming back from his injury.  I think it’s time to let him fully recover before pushing him to perform on a regular basis.

The outfield struggled again, and Baltimore capitalized on it.  In the 5th inning, Dukes misplayed a ball off the wall in right field allowing Brian Roberts a triple.  Then Mora hit a ball to right-center field and neither Dukes or Milledge had a read on it. Milledge eventually dove for the ball, but it dropped in for a double, and the O’s added two runs.  The outfield is a mess. Milledge consistently looks unsure of himself in center.  I get a kick out of watching Jerry Morales direct the outfield from the dugout for every batter. 

Unfortunately for the Nats, Saturday’s game wasn’t an improvement. Wily Mo Pena struggled all night in left field, misreading a number of balls which would have been easy outs.  Odalis Perez struggled also giving up six runs on ten hits in five innings.  Ryan Zimmerman hit his eight home run of the season and put the Nats up briefly in the second inning. 

The O’s lead by four for most the game.  Joel Hanrahan relieved Perez in the sixth. After throwing three balls, Nick Markakis walked when the next pitch was called a ball. Catcher Jesus Flores immediently asked umpire Tim McClelland about the call.  Flores appeared to ask him more than once and was eventually ejected from the game.  Manny came out to question the ejection.  The ball in question looked like a strike to me; it was about knee high and on the outside of the plate.  Wil Nieves replaced Flores behind the plate.

The Nats attempted a rally in the 8th.  With the bases loaded and two outs, Aaron Boone hit a single to left and scored both Guzman and Zimmerman. Baltimore changed pitchers, and walked Wil Nieves to load the bases again. Lastings Milledge got hit with a pitch in dramatic fashion and Dmitri Young trudged home.  The score was a close 6-5 with the bases still loaded, and Austin Kearns up.  It was a perfect opportunity for the struggling Kearns to perform. He worked the count to 3-2, and fouled off a few, but he eventually swung at a sinking fast ball and struck out to end any chance of a comeback victory.  Kearns is really struggling, maybe some time on the bench will be a good thing?

Saul Rivera pitched a scoreless 9th, but the Nats couldn’t answer the O’s and lost 6-5.

Sunday we picked up the win, but it was certainly the most miserable of our three trips to Camden Yards this weekend.  We knew and planned for rain, but what do you do for a 2 hour delay on a day game after a night game?  If only there had been a place to take a nap.  After the rain finally died down, we watched John Lannan’s beautiful performance against the Orioles line-up.  He kept the O’s at 2 hits for most of the game, surrendering two more in the 8th to end his fine outing.  When he left the 8th inning, there was one out and 2 men on base.  The Nats were up by 2.  Ayala jogged out from the bullpen but a second heavy downpour forced everyone off the field. 

When the game resumed, Brian Roberts hit a sacrifice fly that scored Adam Jones.  With a one run lead and a runner at third, Ayala got Melvin Mora to line out to right field for a crucial 3rd out.  It’s great to see him getting back to form.  Rauch got 2 quick outs before giving up a hit to Huff.  A pop-up to Zimmerman by Payton ended the game.  Lannan got his much deserved victory and the Nats escaped Baltimore without being swept.

The Nats carried the lead for the whole game on Cristian Guzman’s home run in the 3rd inning.  They picked up a run in the 8th with Lopez and Zimmerman both doubling down the first base line off of Chad Bradford.  Guzman was 2 for 3, Lopez went 2 for 5 and Nieves was 2 for 4.  Dukes continued his struggle at the plate, but also had a tough time on the base paths.  Markakis made 2 outfield assists on Dukes, once at home in a play that ended the 7th inning and again in the 9th inning at second base.

This next series is going to be tough, especially with Hill missing his start on Thursday.  Redding (5-3) takes on Brett Myers tonight at 7:10.  Myers is 2-4 with a 5.91 ERA.  In about 20 at bats each, Zimmerman, Lopez and Guzman have hit real well against Myers.  Kearns also has done well against Myers in the past, but he may be resting that sore right elbow tonight.

After a rough start in April and an abrupt demotion to AAA Columbus, Jason Bergmann had a lot to prove over the past few weeks. He spent the time working out the kinks that plagued him early in the season. He came back today and dominated the Mets line-up over 7 strong innings of work. He gave up only 3 hits while collecting 9 strike outs. Congrats to Jason. Welcome back to the rotation!

Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey matched Bergmann almost pitch for pitch. He took a no hitter into the 7th inning, where it was promptly broken up by Aaron Boone. Pelfrey hardly deserved the loss, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits, but his team couldn’t break through Bergmann or the Nats bullpen. Along the way, some bad base running wiped away most of their scoring opportunities.

The Nats run came in the top of the 8th off of Pelfrey. Jesus Flores doubled to lead off, followed by a Harris sacrifice bunt. Lopez’s sacrifice fly brought Flores home for the only Nats run of the day.

The Nats bullpen delivered the win to Bergmann with the help of spectacular defense. In the 8th, Jose Reyes, the tying run, was aboard first base on a short grounder to Ayala with no outs. Castillo bunted and was out at first, but Aaron Boone saw Reyes flying for third base. He threw to Guzman for the tag and caught the speedy Reyes for the 2nd out. Ayala easily worked Wright for a pop up for the third out.

In the 9th, with closer Jon Rauch on the mound, Beltran led off with a single. It looked dangerous when Ryan Church hit a fly ball near the foul line in left field. Willie Harris sped to the line and grabbed the ball inches from the ground before landing on the warning track. It was a beautiful play. Beltran stole second and advanced to third on an error by Jesus Flores. With the tying run at third, Delgado hit a line drive to Aaron Boone. Boone quickly saw that Beltran was off the bag and threw to Zimmerman for another crazy double play.

Jason Bergmann got the win and Jon Rauch collected his 8th 9th save. The Nats took 3 of four from the Mets and return home (sort of) on a great note. The team faces the Baltimore Orioles in inter-league play for the weekend. It sure would be nice to see some red and blue up there! Screech and the Presidents have already invaded the inner harbor. Tickets are cheap, parking is cheaper and the weather is going to be nice (on Saturday night). Shawn Hill is looking for his first win tomorrow night against Garrett Olson (2-0).

Also, congrats to Jason Bergmann and his wife Jarah on the birth of their baby girl Alexandra.

The team has announced that Nick Johnson will be out for 4-6 weeks with a torn tendon sheath in his right wrist.  This is a sad day for Nick, who worked so hard to get back into shape and showed up at spring training ready to go.

The club has activated Dmitri Young from his rehab assignment in AA Harrisburg to play DH over the weekend and 1st base for the forseeable future.  He will share the 1st base responsibilities with Aaron Boone, who has also been a pleasant surprise.

Nick’s .415 OBP really helped the Nationals, who rank 27th as a team with their on base percentage of .315.  His 33 walks this season trail only Albert Pujols.

As much as I’ve regretted losing Brian Schneider and Ryan Church, I’m beginning to wonder how much Mets fans are really starting to regret the fact that their team let Jesus Flores go in the Rule 5 draft. Flores, who is in his second year in the majors, has been doing a great job showing the Mets what they lost. Despite struggling in Columbus earlier this season, Flores has come back to the Majors and is playing with the determination to stay here.

The game got off to a quiet start with both pitchers putting up zero’s through the fourth inning. Tim Redding, who has been excellent this year, gave up just one run in six innings of work. His former teammate, Brian Schneider hit a solo shot in the fifth to give his team a one run lead. Ryan Zimmerman answered by hitting his own solo shot the next inning. The teams stayed tied at one until Jesus Flores got the team going in the seventh. Flores hit a single to left, which drove in Elijah Dukes and sparked a four run inning. Felipe Lopez and Guzman also got big hits to drive in one and two runs respectively.

The bullpen, which has been a concern this season, was again a little shaky. Workhorse, Saul Rivera, gave up two earned runs on three hits in just 1.1 innings of work. Luckily, Ayala was able to get an out without any damage and Rauch came in to finish the eighth and earn a save in the ninth.

Jason Bergmann will rejoin the team tonight as he gets the start. The Nats decided to option Chris Schroder to Columbus. I’m really starting to feel bad for Schroder because it’s like he’s stuck in the revolving door between AAA and the Majors. It would be great if he got a real chance this year to work out of the pen. Coming up for a week or two, or even a few days, doesn’t seem to be the most productive way to develop a pitcher.

Next Tuesday, Lastings Milledge will make an appearance for a special question-and-answer session at ESPN Zone downtown.  Charlie Slowes will host the event.  It begins at 12 noon.

I was hesitant to even mention it given a handful of terrible experiences at ESPN Zone in Washington DC, including one where we had to beg management to put the Nats game on one of the many televisions.  If you decide to go, be there early.   Lastings will probably keep you waiting, but the tables do fill up fast.

It sounds like a little rivalry is brewing between the Mets and Nationals. With both teams fielding former players, it seems only natural.  After the Nationals win on Monday, now-former Mets pitcher Figueroa was rattled by the Nats cheering on their teammates in the third inning, and made some questionable comments to the media.  The Mets responded to the Nats last night when starter John Maine’s first pitch hit Felipe Lopez.  After the game, Maine said the ball slipped and that it was probably a little too inside.  It was definitely a message to the Nats that the Mets didn’t appreciate their cheers from the night before. Felipe was noticeably angry, but took first base without a retaliation. The Nationals couldn’t answer back with a victory though, they lost 6-3.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of this series in NY plays out. 
 
Nats starter John Lannan was nowhere near as lights out as he was for his last outing at Shea in April.  Lannan pitched six innings, giving up four runs on 12 hits.  He was able to work himself out of jams in a couple innings, but really struggled with the Mets left handers, most noticeably Ryan Church. Church seemed to dominate Lannan last night. He hit a solo home run in the 3rd inning to tie the game, and got a two run double after Kearns misjudged a fly ball.  Church is quickly becoming a favorite for the Mets.  He leads the team in home runs and is second behind David Wright in RBI’s.  Funny what playing everyday does for him — if only he had been given that shot while with the Nationals. (We got Wily Mo Pena instead?!) Speaking of former Nats, Brian Schneider also had a good night; he had three hits and an RBI. 
 
Shaky outfield defense was a problem again last night.  Both Milledge and Kearns made costly mistakes.  Kearns who is having serious offensive issues this season (hitting just .201) went 1-4 last night and left three more runners on base.  Austin’s defense and work ethic are apparently good enough to excuse his lack of hitting. However, last night he misjudged a routine fly ball from Ryan Church, that allowed two runs to score.  The reality is Kearns has never played up to his “potential” while in DC, for whatever reason.  Jim Bowden recently said that a trade involving Kearns wouldn’t be unlikely.  It’s clear things aren’t working for him this year, a trade might be better for both him and the team. 
 
Lastings Milledge made two more fielding errors last night. His costly error in the eighth allowed Marlon Anderson to advance to third base.  Anderson eventually scored on Church’s sac fly.  Lastings did have a great catch up against the wall earlier in the game, but it’s almost always a gamble with  him catching balls in center-field.  I’m never completely confident that he will make the play.  I think it is definitely time for an outfield shake up. Bring up the young guys and see what a little healthy competition does for the current starters. 
 
Eighth inning guy Luis Ayala struggled a bit again last night.  He faced seven batters and gave up two hits including a costly RBI single to Jose Reyes.  I thought a day off would help him regain focus and come back strong.  Wonder what’s going on with our set up man?
 
Ryan Zimmerman’s two run homer in the third inning off Maine was his sixth of the season, and also the highlight of the Nats offense last night.  It’s good to see Zim climbing out of his early season slump.
 
Tim Redding (4-3) faces the Mets recent call up Claudio Vargas tonight at Shea.

SNY TV interviewed Jesus Flores after last night’s game.  Flores talks about his call-up, what he learned from his year in the majors and his big 2 RBI double.  It’s definately worth your time.

Immediately after Sunday’s defeat, we hopped on a bus and headed for New York.  We knew it would be rainy and cold, but we hoped it would pass before Monday night’s game.  We spent Monday morning attempting to take in some tourist activites but the weather really prevented this from being enjoyable.  Thankfully, the rain seemed to die off mid-day. 

Though we knew batting practice would be unlikely, we still headed to the park early.   The Mets pitching staff was busy with conditioning.  Loyalty aside, I was a little defeated after almost securing a Santana autograph before he had to head back inside.  On our side, it was good to see Schroder back with the bullpen crew and the Mets fans were just as pleased to collect an autograph from Jesus Colome.

Directly in the outfield, you can see the Mets new home, Citi Field, rising up literally on top of Shea Stadium.  It looks like it will be pretty unbelievable.  The Ebbets Field inspired brick arches around the Jackie Robinson Rotunda really give the stadium a unique, classic look.  I can’t wait to see the finished product. 

The game was cold, but the rain held off.  It was a great game through the first few innings as the lead bounced back and forth.  In the 5th inning, the Nats came alive and produced 3 runs.  Johnson’s single was followed by 2 quick outs by Milledge and Kearns.  Mackowiak drew a walk before Jesus Flores came through with a huge 2-out 2-RBI double.  Odalis Perez had his second hit of the night, an RBI line drive to Ryan Church. 

The Nats came back again to do damage in the 6th inning, this time off of Jorge Sosa.  Zimmerman doubled and Johnson walked.  Milledge’s double scored them both.  Sosa intentionally walked Flores to pitch to Perez, who collected his third hit of the night and another RBI.  In total, Perez went 3 for 3 with 2 RBI and a run.  He did so while pitching a decent game - 4 runs in 6.1 innings.  He did allow 11 hits and 2 home runs, but he made up for them with clutch hitting.  Yes, I love the National League.

Early in the game, Flores actually caught Jose Reyes stealing second.  It was a great ‘welcome back to the big leagues’ moment for Flores given Reyes lightening fast speed.  Also, the bullpen got a bit of a rest last night.  Schroder finished the 7th and started the 8th.  He was pulled after giving up a hit to Brian Schneider and a walk to Jose Reyes.  Rivera entered and prompty walked Ryan Church.  But with the bases loaded and Mets fans on their feet, Rivera got Wright to ground out ending the inning and any threat of a comeback.  Saul pitched a nice 1-2-3 9th inning to end the game and deliver a first win to Odalis Perez.

It was fun to watch Ryan Church and Brian Schneider, of course.  We really do wish them both the best.  Lastings - on the other hand - came to the plate each time with a loud chorus of boos.  We’ve obviously heard reports of the chanting and taunting by our team and we’re not sure what to think, given competing characterizations by the media.  Brian Schneider said, “it sounded like the College World Series…I guess they’re trying anything now.”  We really needed a win, so happiness is fine.  If it was as immature as it’s being portrayed, we’re surprised Manny would have let it slide. 

Here’s some photos.  More to come later.

Impressive young John Lannan (3-3) takes on John Maine (4-2) tonight at 7:10.