Lannan pitched 6 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits.  He collected 6 strike outs.  You think one day, just maybe, his teamates will help him get a win?  He’s 4-8 with a 3.34 ERA.  In his last 5 games, he’s given up 2 runs per game, all in 6 or 7 innings of work.  Two no decisions, three losses and no wins to show for it.

At least after this typical Lannan outing someone else took the loss. Luis Ayala has had an up and down season, but he continues to struggle. In one inning of work he gave up two runs and two walks.  Hanrahan too had a tough time today.  A few days ago we mentioned that people don’t really care when the bullpen does well.  When they blow it late in the game, there’s really not much you can do to get the lead back.  Today, the bullpen indeed failed us.  They were widely expected to be the strongest component of this 2008 team, yet they continue to perform inconsistently.  They aren’t young or injury-plagued like the other struggling parts of the team, so their plight concerns us.

One bright spot out of the bullpen today was the major league debut of Steven Shell.  He recorded three outs on eight pitches.

The Nats didn’t show a ton of offense, but a few good swings put some runs on the board.   Willie Harris had a pinch hit solo shot on his 30th birthday.  Belliard followed it up with a 2 run homer in the 7th to tie the game before Ayala and Hanrahan would handover the win to the Rangers.

Elijah Dukes had some dedicated fans in the crowd.  Those boys sat just above right field and received a wave from Dukes.  Unfortunately, their hero went 0-3 with 2 strike outs.

We had the pleasure of meeting quite a few dedicated baseball fans this weekend.  Last night, we met three Cubs fans who had traveled to Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Camden Yards and Nationals Park within the past week, all on their own.  Maybe we’ll be seeing them when the Nats head to Chicago in August.

Today, we met John from ESPN Radio 1050 in New York.  He was taking in a few games on vacation and checking out our park.  His blog is called The View from the Suite Seats.  You can check it out here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm 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.