Two Nationals continued to struggle with arm injuries yesterday while one sat out and one fought through it. Ryan Zimmerman was again on the bench as the Nats opened up a three game series with the Padres. He’s continuing to rest a sore shoulder. Zimmerman maintained that if this game was played in September in the middle of a pennant race, he would be out there. However, right now, Zim, the Nats, and I’m sure most of the fans feel it’s best to let the shoulder heal without rushing it.

Shawn Hill, on the other hand, is a different story. He’s been battling injuries and pain for years now and had decided to fight through and continue to pitch. It’s obvious that Hill is tired of being forced into a spectator role and desperately wants to contribute to helping his team succeed. Hill’s had a rough night and had trouble getting into a rhythm. Despite throwing 54 balls in five innings, Hill gave up just 2 runs. In my mind, that’s not too bad for a guy who has barely been able to practice all season. Hill left the game in a 2-2 tie, but the bullpen just couldn’t hold the Padres. After Colome’s strong sixth inning, Charlie Manning came in to pitch the seventh. Manning recorded two quick outs before allowing a home run to Gonzalez. Hanrahan was then called to the mound and gave up another solo shot. It was all the offense the Padres would need to beat the Nats 4-2.

The one thing that does make Zimmerman’s time on the bench a little easier to swallow, is Aaron Boone’s current level of play. He’s been a versatile guy for the Nats by playing both first and third base and he’s hitting relatively well. Last night, Boone hit a homer in the first inning which also scored Guzman. Unfortunately that was the only scoring we would see from the boys all night.

Tonight Odalis Perez (1-4) will go for his second win of the season against Shawn Estes (1-0).

Jason Bergmann continued to show that he deserves to be a major league pitcher. We all know the story of Bergmann’s troubled April and I was wondering what we could expect out of him when he came back to the Majors. However, in two starts since being recalled from AAA Columbus, Bergmann has yet to give up a run. He seems more confident on the mound than he did in early April. I’m sure that with his stint in Columbus fresh on his mind, Jason has a little extra motivation and determination to prove just what kind of pitcher he can be.

Once again, Guz got the Nats on base early in the game with a single in the first inning. He ended up going 2-4 last night with a stolen base. If I had to decide today, I would absolutely chose Cristian Guzman to be on the All-Star team. He has been extremely reliable this season. Whenever he comes up to bat, I feel like I can relax because I know he’ll put together a great at-bat and find a way to get on base. He has been a consistent bright spot in an up and down season.

The game remained scoreless through eight innings, and it wasn’t until Jon Rauch gave up an RBI single to Greg Dobbs that the Phillies finally scored. Dobbs’ RBI ended Rauch’s 12 scoreless inning streak. Unfortunately, it was just one run too many for the Nationals. Although both teams left 10 men on base, our boys just couldn’t get guys home when they reached third. Elijah Dukes did a great job in the 9th to keep the Nats in the game. With two outs, Dukes drew a walk and stole second and third to put himself in scoring position, but Lopez grounded out to end the game.

Matt Chico (0-5, 6.07) makes his return to the starting rotation tonight as he takes on Jamie Moyer (3-3, 4.89).

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.

The Nationals battled through another close game with the Astros only to lose it in the bottom of the ninth. Odalis Perez remains winless and the Nats struggled as they lost their eighth one-run game. En route to another tough loss, the Nationals also gave up 4 stolen bases. Ray Knight explained the timing involved in getting a runner out and that it all comes down to fractions of a second, with a stolen base taking around 3.5 seconds. This highlights how critical it is for the pitcher to get the ball to the catcher so he can have a shot at getting the out. While I’m encouraged to see our boys keep the game close enough to win, it’s getting hard to watch these close ones slip away.

Odalis Perez lasted five innings and in the post-game press conference, Manny Acta reported that Perez was really sick. With that in mind, I appreciate his determination and am impressed he escaped with just 5 hits and 3 earned runs. Hanrahan came in for the seventh and pitched 2.1 innings, without giving up a hit. Colome came in to finish out the ninth, but unfortunately gave up the game winning hit to Carlos Lee.

Ryan Zimmerman had a great night for the Nats. He is finally looking comfortable with his swing and he looks calmer during his at bats. After Guzman got on base in the first,  Zimmerman got himself off to a quick start by hitting a two run homer.  He followed that up with an opposite field home run in the sixth inning. Zimmerman was responsible for driving in all three runs tonight. Unfortunately the rest of the offense struggled tonight. The top of the order combined for 6 of the 7 Nationals hits.

Paul Lo Duca was injured during the seventh inning tonight. He was taken out of the game, and Wil Nieves came in to inherit Lo Duca’s at bat. Right now, we don’t know the extent of the injury or if Paul will be taking another trip to the DL.

Hopefully tonight, the Nats get their spark back and can come out on top!

Welcome to the Majors boys! The Washington Nationals are on a streak - a winning streak! After a rough start in April, the boys have finally seemed to settle down and get in the groove of the season. There are plenty of reasons to be excited after tonight’s great win. We are on our longest winning streak of the season at 4 games and we’ve now won 7 of 9. We’re also sitting just 2 game below .500!

Odalis Perez got the Nationals off to a great start by absolutely dominating the Pirates through much of the game. He gave up just 3 hits, two of which were solo home runs. Coming into the season, I wasn’t expecting much from Perez, but he has slowly grown on me with his consistent pitching. It’s great to finally see our starters last more than 5 innings and give the bullpen a bit of a break. Unfortunately, Odalis had a no decision tonight and remains winless.

Wil Nieves continued to impress by not only calling a great game for Perez, but he also drove in the first two runs of the night. In the bottom of the second, Nieves drove in Kearns and Milledge to give Odalis some breathing room and the Nats a 2-0 lead. Austin Kearns also looks like he’s getting more comfortable at the plate. He had two hits and an RBI tonight. With the pitching starting to look more consistent, it’s great to see the offense pick up a bit too.

Ray Knight talked a little bit about attitude tonight, saying that the Nats and their fans have been far more optimistic these past few days and the team finally believes they can win. I can’t help but think some of that attitude has come from the addition of Wil Nieves to the roster. He is extremely positive in his outlook of the game and does a great job behind the plate. It’s obvious that he’s having fun and enjoying every minute of his time in the big leagues. With Paul Lo Duca ready to be called up and Cordero heading to the DL, it’s completely possible for the Nationals to keep Wil on the roster and carry three catchers. Personally, I have enjoyed watching Lannan’s success with Nieves and don’t think we should break it up if it isn’t necessary.

The Nationals won their 9th game today, their 3rd win on a Sunday. They also earned their second series win of the season.  Lefty pitcher John Lannan continued to impress by pitching seven scoreless innings and gave up just four hits. Lately, Lannan has pitched more like the ace than a 23 year old who was called up from the minors to work as the fifth starter.

Wily Mo Pena, who has struggled since coming off of the DL, looks like he is getting back into the groove of things. He hit an RBI single in the second inning that drove in Nick Johnson. Catcher Wil Nieves came up to bat next and drove in Pena to put the Nats ahead 2-0. Those were all the runs that we would need to keep the Cubs tame all afternoon. Our pitching staff had a great day with Ayala coming in to pitch a hitless 8th inning, and Rauch did the same to earn his fourth save of the year.

The Nationals have now won four of their last six, which is certainly a move in the right direction. Throughout these last six games, we’ve seen some great offensive performances and we’ve some real disasters, like last night. It’s obvious they are frustrated by these offensive ups and downs. Kearns, who is usually so even keeled, slammed his bat and helmet to the ground after a bad at bat last night. Unfortunately, his frustrations continued today as he didn’t get a hit and left four men stranded on base. Hopefully these guys can get some consistency in their at-bats and stop hacking away at every pitch.

Wil Nieves was called on again to catch for Lannan. The two worked together during Tuesday’s win against the Braves. Lannan has now thrown 19 scoreless innings. They clearly work well together and Lannan’s roughest outing of the year occurred with Lo Duca behind the plate. With Wil doing so well behind the plate and working with one of our strongest pitchers, it’s going to be hard to see him go back to Columbus when Lo Duca comes back.

The boys are off tomorrow, but will take on the Braves Tuesday night at Nationals Park.

Every season  fans engage in the debate of which game is better - the AL or the NL. While both have their perks, it’s nights like tonight that I really appreciate the NL game. It can literally turn into a one man show when the pitcher is required to bat instead of having a DH. I love that the pitcher has the power to strike out hitters and score runs for his team during his at bats. It adds a special something to game compared to the DH.

For five innings tonight, fans were treated to a pitchers duel, both on the mound and at the plate. Tim Redding allowed just 2 earned runs in five innings. Even though he gave up some walks in the fifth that came back to hurt him, many of the balls just missed being called strikes. Johan Santana looked sharp through 7 innings, limiting the Nats to 7 hits. In the top of the 3rd, Santana hit a double off of Redding. Not wanting to be outdone, Redding hit a double of his own in the bottom of the 4th, scoring the only 2 runs for the Nats. The ball was close to the 400ft mark and I almost thought it was out of the park.

Redding was taken out in the 6th after the lead off hitter, Beltran, got a single. I somewhat disagree with the decision to take him out at that point in the game. As the Nationals are working through their “plan,” shouldn’t there be a point where we expect our starters to work themselves out of mid-late inning jams? I can’t help but think that perhaps some of the issues with the bullpen this season, stem from their over-use last season. We have seen Lannan, Chico and Redding all work late into a few games this season, but seeing a starter in the 7th is much more of an exception than a rule in the Nationals organization.

The bullpen continued to struggle tonight. King was on the mound for 3 of the runs scored, although one was charged to Redding. Saul Rivera was the bright spot by shutting out the Mets for 1.1 innings. Colome continued to show some inconsistency and was charged with 2 runs in the 9th, which basically put the nail in the coffin for the Nats tonight.

I’m hopeful that the Nats can put everything together tomorrow and finally win one against the Mets. With each game, it’s getting harder to watch Schneider and Church doing so well.

Nats Xtra reported quite a bit of positives from the game tonight. They talked about Zim’s great defense and the increased offense. As a fan, there were some things to get excited about, but it’s really hard to get too pumped when we still lose the game and we have a 5-15 record. We’re currently sitting 7.5 games out of first place, heck, we’re even 4.5 games out of 4th in the division. There was a lot of promise and optimism this off season, but it seems our new reality is that we are going to have to get excited about the little things this year and not base our excitement on wins…or else we are all bound for depression.

The game started off great for the Nats - they got on base with a chance to score! Calm down folks, they didn’t. Guzman got things started with a single and Nick Johnson drew a walk. Kearns came to the plate with 2 men on base and 2 outs. I honestly expected to see him ground into a fielders choice, but instead he hit a hard ball into right field. Unfortunately, Guzman was waved home and easily thrown out at the plate. Later in the game, Lopez would also be thrown out at home. Also, Aaron Boone was tossed out at second base on a single that he tried to turn into a double after Chipper Jones made an error.

Personally, I am so over having to sit back and watch these base running errors that are costing us valuable outs. Last time I checked, this is not the first year these guys have had to run the bases. I’m pretty sure base running has always been part of the game. Johnny and Ray discussed these issues and stated that the Nationals really have to be aggressive in their decision to send guys home because we haven’t had much of an offense. I can understand their point, but it doesn’t make watching these outs any easier. On the bright side,  I didn’t feel the need to throw anything at Lastings tonight due to base running issues. My TV is certainly appreciative of that.

On a seriously positive note, the Nationals got 10 hits off of Tim Hudson. Even though they weren’t able to produce many runs off of those hits, it is encouraging to see the offense pick up. Maybe those cries to fire Lenny Harris sparked a little fire in the guys and they realized someone could lose their job. Also, Matt Chico looked, well, he looked bad, but the bullpen finally started to look like the bullpen of ‘07. They gave up just one run in 4 innings of work and Chief looked better than he did against the Mets last week. John Lannan will get the ball tomorrow for the last game of this road trip. We’re certainly hoping that he has an outing similar to last Thursday!

The lineup looked different, but the result was the same as usual. The Nationals fell to 4-11 after being unable to hold an early lead. Manny moved Belliard up to the #2 spot, while Milledge went down to the 5th spot, dropping Kearns to 6th.

Guzman got things started by drawing a walk and was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Zimmerman. Then Austin Kearns hit a solo home run in the 5th inning to give the Nats a one run lead. I heard Bob call the play on TV and I actually had to check the replay to make sure it was Austin. While it was great to see him finally hit, I have to wonder how many at bats will go by before we see another RBI from Kearns.

With Chico coming off such a fantastic outing against the Braves, I had high hopes that he would be able to hold the Mets. After giving up an early homer to Ryan Church, he kept the Mets scoreless until he was hit hard in the 5th inning. I’m not sure what the problem is this year, but the Nationals starters have continued to show a strong start, only to give it up with a huge inning for the opposition. This particular inning resulted in 4 earned runs for the Mets.

Chief came in during the 8th inning and had a questionable warm up with the pitch going in the dirt. The trainers and coaches came out, but he said he was okay to pitch. With the Nats down by 3, it seemed like a good decision to allow Chad to get some time on the field in a non-save situation. He got through the inning with just one hit, but his speed seemed to be suffering as he was consistently in the mid to upper 70s.

Even though Paul Lo Duca is too injured to swing a bat, the Nats are keeping him on the roster. The team chose to send reliever Chris Schroeder down to AAA to make room for a second, healthy, catcher on the roster. I was surprised to see the team called up Wil Nieves instead of Jesus Flores. However, the rules state that unless Flores would be replacing a disabled player, he has to remain in Columbus for 10 days. If Lo Duca goes on the DL, the Nats could really use the offensive spark that Flores can provide.

If things don’t pick up soon, I think that it’s really only a matter of time before we see some changes to this team. With all of the off season moves and promises that were made to fans about a stronger offense, it’s getting more difficult to sit back and watch these losses. To add salt to the wounds, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider are playing great baseball so far this season.

Seven is considered a lucky number by some. Too bad it’s also the number of losses the Nats have had in the last seven games. There were some highlights tonight, just not enough of them. Ronnie Belliard got the offense moving with a solo shot in the bottom of the 3rd and Odalis Perez looked much better tonight than he did against the Cardinals. Tonight Perez pitched 5 scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the 6th.

Saul Rivera came in during the 6th inning and while I was watching him struggle with his pitches, I started to wonder what happened to our rock solid bullpen from just one year ago. Fortunately, Saul got out of the inning and threw a solid 7th inning to keep the Nats in the game. Ayala entered the game in the 8th, but couldn’t hold Marlins. Helms scored the only 8th inning run for the Marlins on a Jorge Cantu single.

Rauch came out to pitch the 9th, but like Ayala, he too gave up a run. The boys came out fighting in the 9th though. Milledge got things started with a double. Johnson came up after Zims fly out. He hit a monsterous ball that almost surely was a home run, but Willingham made a spectacular play and knocked the ball back into play. Luckily he couldn’t make the catch and Lastings scored to bring the Nationals within one. However, Lo Duca couldn’t deliver and grounded into a double play.

Maybe I’m confused, but I thought that part of reason for signing Lo Duca was for his offensive power. Schneider is currently batting .296, while Lo Duca is hitting .233.  In the bottom of the 8th, Paul Lo Duca got lucky again by a lack of communication with Florida’s outfielders. What should have been a routine fly ball, turned into a double for Lo Duca when the Marlins dropped the ball. The same thing happened Tuesday night. Yes, he did get to second base, but in my mind I can’t consider those hits legitimate doubles. Unfortunately, Lo Duca wasn’t so lucky in the 9th and he hit into the game ending double play, leaving Johnson, the tying run, on second. It was a tough end to what seemed like a promising rally.

The attendance was again noticeably low. Unlike previous nights, there weren’t any NCAA championships to keep fans at home, and none of the other DC teams were playing. I’m interested to see what the Nationals have to say about the lack of attendance. Also it was an absolutely gorgeous night to spend at the ballpark. With a game time temperature of 70, it was great baseball weather. Given the fact that the Nats are playing in a beautiful, brand new park, there is really no reason the stadium should be so empty…winning record or not.