GB&U: 1-0-0

RESULT: Nats lose to Phillies 8-4, loss #100 for the season.

GOOD: Cristian Guzman. 2-for-4, RBI. Kory Casto hits his second big league home run. Bonifacio, Montz with RBIs.

BAD: Lastings Milledge. 0-for-4, three left on base.

UGLY: Collin Balestar. One and two-thirds innings, 7 earned runs on seven hits and a walk. Ryan Howard took him deep in the first inning, Utley cleared the bases with a double in the second.

INJURY UPDATE: No real update, but the team placed Young, Belliard and Flores on the disabled list today. Young went onthe 60-day. Not really sure what the official moves accomplished, and haven't really seen an explanation.

NEXT GAME: Tomorrow at 3:55 pm. John Lannan (9-14) versus Jamie Moyer (15-7). Would be real nice to get Lannan into double digits.

GB&U: Wow. What Else Can You Say?

RESULT: Nats lose 8-7 to Marlins. Losing streak at 5 games.

GOOD: Collin Balestar. The rookie starter took a no-hitter into the sixth, and his line was impressive: 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks.

BAD: The Line-up. Manny decided to go with an almost completely rookie line-up, save for Zim, Langerhans and I guess Milledge doesn't count anymore either. The rooks built a lead that should have held up though, leading 6-1 entering the bottom of the 8th inning.

UGLY: The Aforementioned Eighth Inning. The Nats have had some ugly innings this year to be sure, but tonight probably took the cake. Four different pitchers gave up 7 runs (6 earned) on 7 hits and 4 walks, including back-to-back walks to start the inning by Saul Rivera and Manning's walk of Paul LoDuca on 5 pitches. Then, Hanrahan threw one away when no one covered first base on a bunt hit. The very definition of ugly.

NEXT GAME: Tomorrow night the Nats host the Mets at 7:10 pm. John Lannan (8-13) faces Pedro Martinez (5-4). Come out and boo the Mets with me. Seriously, I know it's football season, but if you're reading this, make the effort to come out tomorrow night. I'll be in Section 131, Row SS right on the aisle with three empty seats. First round's on me.

GB&U: Extra Innings, Extra Effort Over the Weekend

RESULT: Nats take two from Braves over weekend; Saturday 8-5 in 10 innings, Sunday 7-4 in 14 innings.

GOOD: Saturday -- Elijah Dukes! 4-for-5, 2 HRs, 3 RBIs, 2 runs. Ryan Zimmerman. 2-for-5, HR, 2 RBIs, 2 runs. Guz! Ho-hum, two more hits. Ryan Langerhans! Pinch-hit homer in the 10th. Wee Willie also hit his 13th homer of the season.

Sunday -- Dukes! 1-for-7 (ouch), but three-run double in top of the 14th. Boy, Oh Boy Alberto Gonzalez. 3-for-4 with a walk, his first home run and 3 RBIs! THE BULLPEN!!! 8 innings of shut out ball, including five in extra innings. Very solid.

BAD: Saturday -- Joel Hanrahan. The dreaded "blown-save-win". 3 hits and 2 walks in one inning allowing two earned runs. He got bailed out by Langerhans, et al.

Sunday -- Collin Balestar. There will be days like these. 11 hits and 2 BBs in just six innings. Pretty amazing he only gave up four earned with that many base runners.

UGLY: Saturday -- Emilio! 0-for-5. Haven't had too many of those lately though, as his average is up to .254 including the O-fer.

Sunday -- Luke Montz. Sorry kid. 0-for-7, five runners stranded. There's an underlying reason he wasn't a prospect entering the season.

NEXT GAME: Off on Monday, the guys can probably use the rest. Tuesday it's up to New York to face the suddenly struggling Mets. Opening Day Odalis Perez (6-10, 4.14) faces some guy named Jonathon Niese (0-0, 15.00 in 3 IP).

GB&U: Taking Back Nats Park

RESULT: Nats beat dirty Phillies 9-7.

GOOD: Odalis Perez. Way to stick up for your teammate. Cristian Guzman! 8 multi-hit games in a row, three-run double to break the game open. ZIM! Third homer in 8 games, that's more like it.

BAD: Marco Estrada. Couldn't get anyone out in the sixth, allowing Howard's second two-run bomb.

UGLY: Joe Blanton. Usually I don't give out awards to the other team, but Blanton looked lousy last night. 4 earned in 4 inning son 6 hits and 3 walks. Pew. Hope he's not listening to sports talk in Philly this morning. BIG series for the Fightin's this weekend in Gotham.

INJURY UPDATE: Collin Balestar has a sore glut. He'll be pushed back to next Tuesday, prompting Martis to get the ball tonight and pushing another Bergmann shelling off until tomorrow.

NEXT GAME: Tonight in Hot-lanta. Shairon Martis makes his ML debut against Jo-Jo Reyes (3-10, 5.49).

Nats Walk High Wire, Beat L.A. 2-1

Washington -- The Washington Nationals newly-appointed closer, Joel Hanrahan, had a rare one-run lead to protect in the ninth inning Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And though he struggled with his control and put two runners on base with only one out, he managed to wiggle free of his self-induced predicament to record the final two outs without incident to hold on to that precarious lead, earn his fifth save of the season, and deliver a victory for the home crowd, the first win at home for the Nationals in 23 days. The 2-1 win was shared with 26,110 faithful at Nationals Park.

Hanrahan was throwing gas all inning, but had very little control over where the ball would end up. His fastball routinely touched 97 MPH, and a closer with a heater like that can get away with a few things on occasion. Luckily for the Nats, this was one of those occasions. Hanrahan got SS Nomar Garicaparra to ground to third to start the inning, but gave up a single to 3B Casey Blake before walking pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney on five pitches to set up the dramatics. Despite running the count to three balls on each of the final two batters, Hanrahan managed to induce CF Matt Kemp into flying out to center and RF Andre Ethier to ground out to 3B Ryan Zimmerman, who had a very busy night himself, to end this contest.

The Nats really had little business being in a game this close, much less with the lead after eight innings. Los Angeles seemed to keep the bases clogged all night long against starter Collin Balestar, who gave up five hits, two walks and two hit batters in five innings. But Balestar came up with the outs when he needed them most, and limited L.A. to one earned run among all those base runners. Balestar earned his third win of the season against six losses, and his ERA stood at 4.70 following the game.

Ryan Zimmerman deserves much of the credit for playing Houdini last night, as the third baseman turned four double plays, including two with the bases loaded to end rallies. But it may have been the one double-play that got away that was the most important play of the night. In the fifth, Balestar hit Garciaparra and Blake before walking pitcher Derek Lowe to load the bases --all with no outs. Lead-off hitter Kemp then smacked a sharp grounder down the third base line. In one motion, Zimmerman backhanded the ball, stepped on third and threw home for what should have been a double play.

However, catcher Jesus Flores thought Zimmerman missed the bag and the play at home was a force-out, so he tagged the base instead of Garciaparra, who scored without a play. Flores then fumbled the ball as he tried to transfer from glove to throwing hand, and he never got the throw off to first to try to get Kemp. But with one out and runners on first and second, Balestar got Ethier to fly out to center and 2B Jeff Kent to ground to third to end the threat.

"Any ball that comes at that guy [Zimmerman] is an out, so you don't have to worry about that," Balestar said. "I was able to throw a couple of two-seams in to get them to hit the ball over there, and that's where you want them to hit it."

Washington's hitters had difficulty with Dodgers veteran starter Derek Lowe all night long. He pitched an eight inning complete game, allowing just six hits and one walk, but made two mistakes and the Nats made him pay. In the second inning, Lowe (L, 10-11) left a cutter to high in the strike zone and CF Lastings Milledge got enough of it, sending it just over the left-center field fence into the flower garden that lines the Dodgers bullpen area. It was Milledge's 13th home run of the season, and sixth in August. He has raised his batting average and on-base percentage about 20 points over that time period as well, up to .260 and .325 respectively. The Nats played small-ball to get their second run. 2B Emilio Bonifacio dumped a single into shallow center field, took second on Balestar's successful sacrifice, advanced to third on a Willie Harris ground out, and scored on all-star SS Cristian Guzman's fisted liner to left center. Guzman had three of the Nats six hits, and raised his average back up to .296.

Los Angeles -- active at the trade deadline, adding Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake -- have lost five in a row, seven of eight, and are 0-5 midway through a ten-game road trip that could very well end their playoff chase. They are now two games below .500 and three games behind the Arizona Diamondback in the N.L. West. Only Arizona's three-game losing streak gives the Dodgers hope that the D-Backs aren't going to run away in the season's final four weeks.

The Nats wish they had a pennant chase to occupy themselves with, but must take solace that their efforts in the season's remaining 30 games could help shape how the National League seeds for the playoffs.

Wednesday, the Nats host the Dodgers in the second of the three-game series. Tim Redding (8-8, 4.54) faces 353-game winner Greg Maddux (6-10, 4.25) for L.A.

NATS NOTES: The win runs Washington's record to 47-85. They are 26 games behind division leading New York.

Before the game, the Nats placed struggling RF Austin Kearns on the 15-day disabled list with a stress fracture in his left foot. The injury was believed to have occurred August 3, and Kearns is expected to miss two-to-four weeks.

Following the game, the team announced that they reinstated OF Elijah Dukes from the DL. Dukes missed the last 19 games with a right calf strain. He went 1-for-11 with a solo home run and three walks in six games during his rehab assignment with Triple-A Columbus. The 24-year-old is batting .264 with nine doubles, two triples, six home runs and 23 RBI in 54 games with the Nationals. He owns a .364 on-base percentage and has recorded 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts. He has missed a combined 72 games during three DL stints this season.

GB&U: Swept Away Again (and goodbye Mets fans!)

RESULT: Nats lose to Mets 9-3. Sweep. Seven-game losing streak.

GOOD: Pete Orr. Pinch-hittin' Pete comes through with a triple to make things interesting for a little while. Good for you, Pete. It's nice to see him have a little reward for sacrificing his shot at playing for the Canadian Olympic team to stay with this terrible, almost historically bad last place team.

BAD: Collin Balestar. Mama said there'd be days like these. 6 IP, 5 ERs, 4 hits, 5! BBs, 3 Ks, 2 HRs. For the season he's 2-5, 5.06. He looked good first time through, but lost something the second time through the line-up. Granted, the Mets can hit. But you can't expect to have success walking Argenis Reyes (.239) and Fernando Tatis three times!

UGLY: Mets fans. They apparently invaded the Ladies' Night tent pre-game last night, then committed a fan interference taking a David Wright foul ball from in front of Austin Kearns in the RF corner. And I don't know about the upper deck, but the lower bowl was crawling with them. I know it's an inherent problem in DC, but it still sucks.

INJURY: Guzman sat with lingering soreness in the bad thumb. Flores had a tummy ache. Gonzo finally put on the DL, with Boone returning from injury purgatory.

NEXT GAME: Tonight against the Rocks. Tim Redding (8-7, 4.61) hosts Jorge de la Rosa (5-6, 6.28) in game one at 7:35 pm from Nationals Park. See you there. Not too many Rockies fans in DC.

Photo (c) C. Nichols 2008.

Schneider, Mets Continue Pounding Nats, 9-3

Washington -- Brian Schneider and Carlos Delgado each hit home runs off Washington Nationals starter Collin Balestar, and the New York Mets took a one-game lead in the N.L. East over the Philadelphia Phillies as a result of their 9-3 victory over Washington Thursday night before 31,058 patrons at Nationals Park. Washington managed only six hits against Mets starter Oliver Perez and a trio of relievers. It was Washington's seventh straight loss.

Balestar was not sharp at all last night, as he allowed five earned runs on four hits and five walks in six innings. This is the second night in a row that walks have really hurt the Nationals' starters, as Jason Bergmann allowed six walks in Wednesday's start. Balestar took the loss, lowering his record to 2-5 and raising his ERA to 5.06. Balestar has yet to reach the seventh inning in any of his eight starts for the Nats. Last night was a season high for him in walks, and tied a season high in earned runs allowed. He also allowed five earned runs against Cincinnati on July 6, his second start.

The Washington rookie cruised through he first three innings, allowing no hits and just one walk, but the wheels came off in the fourth and things just got worse in the fifth. Mets OF Argenis Reyes led off the fourth inning with a single to left center field, and David Wright followed with a double to left that moved Reyes up to third. Carlos Delgado grounded to SS Ronnie Belliard, starting in place of Cristian Guzman, who was a late scratch with lingering soreness in his left thumb, and Reyes scored. Carlos Beltran drove a sacrifice fly to center that scored Wright on the next play, and the Mets took a 2-0 lead. In the fifth, OF Fernando Tatis walked on four straight balls, and Schneider drilled a 1-0 fastball to left center for his third home run of the season.

"This is the big leagues and guys make adjustments," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "That second time through the lineup, it looked like they made adjustments."

The Mets picked up another run in the sixth, as Delgado hit his 26th home run to straight-away left field, and the Mets held a 5-0 cushion.

Washington attempted to make a fight of it though. In the bottom of the seventh they finally got to New York starter Oliver Perez (W, 9-7, 3.91). Austin Kearns led off with a soft liner to center, but was erased on Aaron Boone's force out. C Wil Nieves walked, moving Boone up to second. Willie Harris fouled out for the second out, and Acta called for Pete Orr to pinch-hit for reliever Garrett Mock. Orr has been making the most of his time with Nats recently, and he has every right to relish his time with the team as he sacrificed a spot on Canada's Olympic team to remain with the last-place Nationals. Orr came though again last night, as he tripled to right field, driving in Boone and the slow-footed Nieves all the way from first base. Orr then scored on Emilio Bonifacio's bunt single -- not quite a suicide squeeze, but close enough -- and the Nats had cut the lead to 5-3. Unfortunately, that's as close as they could get.

"We had momentum for a little bit," Orr said. "But they did a good job of shutting us down the next three innings."

The Nats got two walks from Lastings Milledge and Austin Kearns in the bottom of the eighth, but Boone struck out and Nieves grounded out to end the inning without further incident. Milledge went hitless, ending his career-best 14-game hitting streak.

New York added four runs in the top of the ninth against closer Joel Hanrahan on a Damion Easley RBI single and errors on ground balls by Belliard and Bonifacio. Only two of the four runs charged to Hanrahan were earned.

Friday night Washington hosts the Colorado Rockies for the start of a three-game set. Tim Redding (8-7, 4.61) squares off with Jorge de la Rosa (5-6, 6.28) in game one at 7:35 pm from Nationals Park.

NATS NOTES: The loss drops Washington to 44-78 and are 21.5 games behind now division-leading New York, who move to 65-56 with the win. The Nats are now two games ahead of the Seattle Mariners and three ahead of the San Diego Padres for the worst record in the Major Leagues.

As of this post, the Nats have still not signed their first round selection from this year's Amateur Draft, RHP Aaron Crow from University of Missouri. Crow's agent, Randy Hendricks, issued a statement yesterday that Crow had signed a contract with the Independent League Fort Worth (TX) Rock Cats and will play there this season if their demands for an over-slot bonus and a Major League contract are not met. It is believed that Crow and Hendricks are looking for a bonus in the $5MM - $8MM range. MLB recommended slot bonus for the #9 pick is $2.15MM.

SS Cristian Guzman (thumb) and C Jesus Flores (stomach virus) were scratched from Washington's lineup. Guzman was originally listed with the starters but was a late scratch.

The Nationals activated INF Aaron Boone from the disabled list and placed SS Alberto Gonzalez on the DL. Gonzalez had lingered on the Nats bench for eleven games with his glut injury before finally being relegated to the DL.

Photo of Balestar (c) C. Nichols 2008.

GB&U: Housecleaning Ends With Sweep

RESULT: Nats finish sweep of Reds 4-2.

GOOD: Collin Balestar. He looked very sharp against a struggling team. He went 5.1, allowing one earned (Votto's 14th homer) , six hits and two walks with five Ks. He moves his record to 2-3, 4.55. Lastings Milledge homered for the second day in a row. Austin Kearns was 3-for-4. Emilio Bonifacio was 2-for-4. Can we just call him Emilio, you know, like the soccer stars how they go by one name? Wouldn't that be cool?

BAD: Kory Casto. 1-for-4, three left on base. He's scuffling right now with full-time play.

UGLY: Cincy's Defense. They made just the one error today, but it was a big one: the ball that hopped over Dunn and went to the wall for two runs. The bloop by Nieves in the first should have been caught too, although Bob and Don on the TV thought it was a great piece of situational hitting, strategically hitting a weak pop fly 20 feet past the second baseman into the sun to make it an indefensible play. Ugh. No wonder only 9000 people watch on TV. And we get two more years of this?

INJURY UPDATE: Dukes, Zim and Guz all sit. Nothing like a two-man bench, eh Manny?

NEXT GAME: Tonight in Colorado against the Rockies. Tim Redding (7-6, 4.34) takes the mound against all-star Aaron Cook (14-6, 3.53).

Nats Finish Sweep; Beat Reds 4-2

Washington--In a duel of rookie starting pitchers, Washington's Collin Balestar was sharper, more focused and most importantly, got more help from his teammates than his oppponent Johnny Cueto, and the Nationals completed a three-game sweep of the visiting Cincinnati Reds Sunday 4-2, before 32,939 rejuvenated fans at Nationals Park.

Balestar, 22, making his sixth career start, held the Reds to one earned run over five and one-third innings, allowing six hits and two walks, striking out five. He raised his record to 2-3 and lowered his ERA to 4.55. He allowed a solo home run to Reds 1B Joey Votto (14th of the season) in the sixth inning and then turned the game over to the bullpen. Fellow rookies Steven Shell and Charlie Manning held the Reds down for two and two-thirds innings, and newly-appointed closer Joel Hanrahan earned his first save of his career, despite allowing a solo home run to OF Corey Patterson in the ninth inning, his seventh of the year. Hanrahan struck out the final two batters for emphasis after Patterson took him deep.

"I've been waiting on the opportunity," Hanrahan said. "I finished it up the way I wanted to -- with a strikeout. That's how I envisioned it. I didn't picture the home run in there, but that's all right."

Washington's offense did all their work in the first inning, scoring four runs -- three earned -- against Reds rookie Johnny Cueto (L, 7-11, 5.00) after two were out in the frame. Cueto started out dominant, striking out 2B Emilio Bonifacio and LF Willie Harris, both swinging weakly at breaking pitches. But Cueto left a fastball in the middle of the plate to OF Lastings Milledge, and he turned it around with a no-doubt-about-it swing to left that started the rally. It was Milledge's ninth of the season, and second in as many days. Austin Kearns then reached on a ground ball that 2B Brandon Phillips knocked down behind second base but couldn't make the throw on, and Kory Casto followed with a single to left that moved Kearns up 90 feet. Pete Orr, with a rare start on Sunday, singled cleanly to left field, but the ball took a funny hop on LF Adam Dunn, and the ball bounced over Dunn's head and went all the way to wall, plating Kearns and Casto, allowing Orr to slide safely into third on the play. It was ruled a single, one RBI and a two-base error on Dunn.

The Reds have been victimized by poor fielding the entire series, and the error in the bottom of the first just re-emphasized the point. "It's very frustrating because we're making stupid mistakes," Dunn said. "We're beating ourselves. We're obviously not getting hits. They're making every single play in the field -- and we're making none."

Wil Nieves followed Orr's big play with a bloop single to right field that Phillips couldn't track in the bright sunshine, and Orr walked home to make the lead 4-0. All that was left for the Nats was to play good defense and let the pitchers take care of the rest.

Added Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker: "With that shortstop and second baseman [SS Alberto Gonzalez and 2B Emilio Bonifacio], they're a different club -- much different club than we saw last time. They have lots more energy, more life, more creativity."

The Nationals start an eight game road trip to Colorado and Milwaukee Monday night at 9:05 Eastern. Tim Redding (7-6, 4.34) takes the mound against Rockies all-star Aaron Cook (14-6, 3.53).

NATS NOTES: The win raises Washington's record to 41-70, last in the NL East and 20 games behind division-leading Philadelphia.

Washington INF Aaron Boone, on the disabled list with a strained left calf, will travel to Florida to continue his rehabilitation with no timetable for his return.

OF Elijah Dukes (leg), 3B Ryan Zimmerman (hand) and SS Cristian Guzman (thumb) were unavailable. It was Zimmerman's third missed game and Guzman's eighth that he has not batted.

Photos (c) C. Nichols 2008.

Nats Bats Can't Dent Phils Myers; Lose 2-1

Washington--Right now, the Washington Nationals are the perfect team for a struggling pitcher to regain his confidence. Philadelphia's opening day starter Brett Myers has been ineffective most of the year -- including a much-publicized trip to the minor leagues. But on Tuesday night at Nationals Park before 34,039 fans split between the home and visiting teams, Myers (W, 4-9, 5.46) dominated the Nationals allowing one unearned run on just four hits and one walk and the Phillies bullpen held on to secure the 2-1 victory. The Nationals scored that unearned run in the eighth inning after being shut out in their last 25 innings, going back to Friday night's game in Los Angeles.

The Phils could not muster much more than that though against Nationals rookie starter Collin Balestar. Balestar went six full innings allowing just two earned runs --via Chase Utley's 26th home run of the season. He gave up six hits and no walks, striking out five. "One mistake," was all Balestar had to say about his performance. Balestar's record falls to 1-3, 5.13 ERA.

With a line-up that's last in the NL in average, runs, home runs, on base percentage and slugging percentage, however, one mistake is all it takes. Philadelphia did not get a runner past second base in any other inning against the rookie right-hander, but in the end did not need to.

Utley's homer was his first since July 7, snapping a fourteen game drought.

Washington has now lost seven straight games, eight of ten and have scored a total of three runs in their last five games. "The offense -- it's been a struggle the whole season," Washington manager Manny Acta said. The first four hitters in Acta's line-up Tuesday -- Willie Harris, Ronnie Belliard, Ryan Zimmerman, Austin Kearns -- combined to go 0-for-14 with one walk.

Ineffectiveness was again coupled with base running mistakes, as 1B Paul LoDuca and Zimmerman both were thrown out in run-downs on the base paths. "A dumb mistake," Zimmerman acknowledged. "You can't let that kind of stuff happen there. Learn from it and move on."

Garrett Mock, Charlie Manning and Joel Hanrahan all pitched one inning of shutout baseball to finish things up for Balestar. Brad Lidge pitched a perfect ninth inning for the Phils, recording his 25th save.

Wednesday night Tim Redding (7-5, 3.98) takes on Jamie Moyer (9-6, 3.76) in a 7:10 pm showdown at Nationals Park.

NATS NOTES: The loss moves the Nats record to 38-68, 19.5 games behind the division-leading Phillies.

All-star shortstop Cristian Guzman pinch-ran but was still not in the starting line-up, unable to grip the bat with both hands. The precautionary MRI performed Wednesday morning on his left thumb returned negative and confirmed the original diagnosis of a soft-tissue contusion at the base of the thumb. He is considered day-to-day.

Willie Harris drove in the Nats only run, set up by a single from LoDuca, Utley's fielding error and a sacrifice bunt by pinch-hitter Ryan Langerhans.

GB&U: A Win and Solid Debut

RESULT: Nats beat Marlins (finally) 9-6.

GOOD: Colin Balestar! Five innings of one-hit, three walk goodness. One earned run to go along with three strikeouts. Ronnie Belliard!!! Grand slam to back the rookie. Elijah Dukes with another home run and three more hits!

BAD: Steven Shell. One inning, three earned runs, two hits and a walk. He's getting hit every time up.

UGLY: Wily Mo Pena. 0-for-3. .215. One more time, with feeling.

NEXT GAME: Wednesday, get away day in Florida. Odalis Perez (2-5, 3.87) versus Ricky Nolasco (8-4, 4.05). Look at those ERAs and records and tell me again what's wrong with the Nats right now.