It was an extra bases night for the Nats, even though there weren’t enough of them to win.  Jesus Flores hit his first career triple and Willie Harris, who continues his hot streak, went 2 for 5 with a home run.  Lopez, Kearns and Lo Duca all hit doubles.  Lo Duca drove in 2 of the Nats 3 runs.  Newly extended Guzman went 0 for 4 with a walk. 

After a day full of other news, wasn’t it great to see Zimmerman back on the field? (and he already blogged about it!)  Ryan went 1 for 3 with 2 walks but somehow, someway, it seems like the universe is back in order with him on the field.

Bergmann struggled early giving up three runs in the first inning.  Homers to Lewis and Molina gave the Nats an early deficit. The Giants would add 2 more runs in the 4th off of Molina’s second home run of the night and an RBI double to Vizquel.  They added the final run in the 8th off of Saul Rivera.  Aaron Rowand collected the RBI single to bring the final score to 6-3 and hand the Nats their 62nd loss, albeit one overshadowed by much more important news.

It was hard to stay focused on the late West coast game when all the big news broke earlier in the evening.  Rauch gone, Guzman extended, Mock back up and a new second baseman announced for next season. We’re still trying to figure out where we stand on all of that.  Look around the blogosphere for some great research and analysis about the big moves.  One thing we did expect was Joel Hanrahan to get the opportunity to close, and it looks like that will in fact be the case.  Ayala and Rivera will continue to share the 7th and the 8th inning roles.  Ryan Wagner continues to rehab, but will likely join the bullpen soon.  The call-up of Mock is curious too.  Does Jim have a trade in the works for Redding or Perez that will offer Mock a rotation spot?   

Nats 320 celebrates the news about the Weekender Promotion - which is good for you non-season ticket holders.  Half Street Blues echoes the complaints we’ve heard from a lot of season ticket holders who have already spent a lot of money watching this not-so-great team.

Chico Harlan’s chatting at 2pm.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 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.