First off we apologize for being a little tardy with this post. We were cut off from the internet this weekend, a scary feeling for us bloggers! We had a jammed packed weekend in Atlanta. We managed to see all three games of the series, tour CNN, the Coke Factory, and see MLK Jr.’s grave site. The purpose of the trip was baseball though, and after Friday’s mess we were worried our trip might be a waste. Thankfully, the Nationals proved us wrong and managed to put on quite a show for Saturday and Sunday’s games.

John Lannan took the mound on Saturday. Lannan, who has the lowest amount of run support in the majors, was actually given a cushion early in the game. It’s a good thing John had some help from the offense because it wasn’t one of his best outings. We headed to the visitors bullpen about 6:45 to watch Lannan and Estrada warm up. We were surprised to not see Lannan on the field yet, as he is usually out there pretty early. John came out about 15 minutes before the game and immediately started throwing. He looked a little flustered and rushed. Turns out he has a ruben instead of his usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich before the game. Maybe that had something to do with him seeming rushed. Regardless, Lannan pitched effectively working out of bases loaded situations twice.

We complained about the triple A lineup on Friday night and were admittedly surprised by the offense generated on Saturday. The former Braves tore up their old team this weekend. Willie Harris, and Ryan Langerhans had great series. Langerhans hit a double and Willie Harris went 3-5 with two RBI. Big hits also came from Guzman, Lo Duca and Kearns.

After working with Randy St. Claire on Friday and with a four run lead, Manny allowed Ayala to pitch the 8th. He escaped the inning without many problems, giving up only one base hit. Rauch was back with the team and pitched the 9th. He gave up a solo shot to Norton, but the Nationals won the game 8-2.

We are still annoyed with the four catcher roster situation and a little unsure of seeing Lo Duca at first base everyday. Estrada didn’t prove his worth this series, he went 1-4 on Saturday. We were thinking, that with four catchers on the roster, maybe the Nationals can get rid of one of the bullpen catchers and put Estrada out there for a while. It might cut back on some expenses which would please the ownership and really how important are the bullpen catchers anyway? The seem to just take up space to me.

Sunday’s game was a regular hit parade. The Nationals run count reached a season high, hitting really was contagious. In fact, the only National that didn’t have a hit ironically was Cristian Guzman. Odalis Perez wasn’t lights out at all, but he had enough run support to last five innings. Perez gave up five runs off of nine hits. Austin Kearns, who is looking great after coming off his rehab stint, hit his 100th career home run. Jesus Flores is steadily climbing out of his “slump” too. He went 5-6 with all singles. The Nationals loaded the bases a couple of times thanks to walks and infield hits.

Willie Harris had a heck of a series. He closed out the series against the Braves going 2-3 with three walks, a home run and five RBI. Willie also looked like a natural in center field. His performance this weekend lead the MLB to name him NL Player of the Week.

It was pretty cool to see Bobby Cox get ejected in the 3rd inning. With the bases loaded, Carlyle threw a border line pitch to Harris, the umpire called it a ball, forcing Carlyle to walk in a run. Buddy turned his back on the umpire but didn’t show any emotion. Cox came out to argue and was actually thrown out of the game even before he made it all the way out of the dugout. We thought his ejection was a little uncalled for, but it really did wake up the mellow Braves fans.

The Nationals belted out an incredible 15 runs on 17 hits and won the game 15-6. We chose seats by the visitors bullpen on Sunday to try to catch the shade. Let me just say, it’s a good thing the offense gave the team such a big lead because the bullpen was pretty distracted during the game. I bet only a couple of relievers could have told you the actual score before they read the report after the game.

It was great to see some big wins at Turner Field, it made our trip worth it. Hopefully the Nats can build on their last two performances, or at least keep up the momentum. Good news is that Zimmerman should be back. We can’t wait to see the third baseman back on the field. We took a bunch of pictures this weekend, check them out here!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Game Recaps, Road Trips. 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.