The Anacostia Nine notched their seventh straight win on Friday night, bunching their runs in the game’s middle frames to beat the Orioles 8-4. Starter Jason Marquis got a no-decision as he scattered 12 hits and four runs over five-and-a-third. Sean Burnett ultimately got the “W” after pitching just two-thirds of an inning. His record on the year now stands at 3-3.

Baltimore was first to get on the scoreboard in the 4th, as they were able to sneak three hits in between three strikeouts. After Luke Scott led off with a strikeout, first baseman Derek Lee doubled. Mark Reynolds followed with a strikeout and Robert Andino singled scoring Lee. Then, in just his second career at-bat 23-year-old rookie lefty Zach Britton doubled to left (driving in Andino), and suddenly the Birds were up by a deuce.

The Nationals waited until the 5th to score, as they batted through the order. Singles by Wilson Ramos, Jerry Hairston, and Ian Desmond plus an error and a Ryan Zimmerman double pushed the hometown nine ahead by two. Marquis got chased in the Orioles’ 6th after the O’s strung together five hits and scored two. Two hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly in the Nats’ half of the 6th plated three — and the hometown crew never looked back. Roger Bernadina added an exclamation point homer in the 8th, his third of the year.

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It is a hallmark of a struggling team that they will defeat themselves — and despite their win against the Birds on Saturday, the Nats came close to doing so, rallying to win a messy 7-6 contest. Included in the win was the second inside-the-park home run at Nats Park in four days — the result of a Nyjer Morgan gaffe in center field that brought jeers from the hometown folks — and the ejection of Washington first base coach Dan Radison. But while it might be that a struggling team defeats itself, the opposite is also true: that a good team that is struggling will find a way to win. It was the hitters that did that for the Nats on Saturday, relying on Roger Bernadina, the under-utilized Alberto Gonzalez, Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham to build a solid mid-game surge as they went on to defeat an Orioles team that seems to play well against their I-95 competitors.

The Nats won for only the second time in nine games — bringing the team back to .500 at 22-22. While the Nats win was less a headline than Nyjer Morgan’s tirade in center field, the team’s outburst of hitting put the Anacostia Nine back on track as they face the heart of the season. The Nationals exploded for fifteen hits, including 3-4 days from Ryan Zimmerman and Cristian Guzman — who is hitting a torrid .343. And for the first time in more than a week, the bullpen was nearly perfect, giving up a single hit in 3.2 innings of work.

If it wasn’t for the surprising steadiness of Nats pitching (and the success of the Clippard-Capps late-innings combination), the continued solid hitting of veteran Cristian Guzman might well be the talk of baseball. The former regular shortstop (his position in the middle infield now taken by rising rookie Ian Desmond), began the season as a spot-starter, having been relegated by the Nats brain trust to sometime-play while Desmond and a series of failed platoons in right field kept him out of the starting line-up. But Nats skipper Jim Riggleman has had a difficult time keeping Guzman off the field: his hot bat at the top of the order has sparked innumerable Nats rallies, and Guzman is also devoid of the regular in-game errors that plagued him in the ’09 campaign. There continues to be talk of using Guzman as mid-season bait for a contending team, but that could well change — especially if Guzman continues to show that the Nats will need him for their own late-season push.

Garrett Mock and Adam Wainwright threw a classic pitchers’ duel at Busch Stadium on Sunday, but the Nats fell to the Redbirds, 2-1 to drop the third game of a three game set. Mock and Wainwright traded pitch-for-pitch through six complete, until Mock left a 3-2 pitch up in the strike zone against Albert Pujols, which turned out to be the difference in the game. Pujols stroked the mistake into centerfield, ending the deadlock and giving the Cards the win. Both bullpens closed out the game in near-perfection, as Nats’ bats could not provide an answer against a trio of Cards’ pitchers. The Nats accounted for only four hits in the game: one each by Willingham, Dukes, Orr and Bard. It was a tough series for D.C. hitters — but a particularly tough last game, as they faced one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, and arguably one of the contenders for the Cy Young Award. The masterful Wainwright had only one shaky inning and is now 16-7 on the year. 

Garrett Mock dueled Adam Wainwright in St. Louis (AP/Tom Gannam)

Sunday’s game was one of the best of the year by Mock, who was spotting his breaking stuff nearly perfectly. But the pitch to Pujols, Mock said, will probably keep him awake: ”The pitch that’s going to cost me some sleep tonight is the one that he got a hit on that scored the second run,” Mock said. “I wasn’t trying to throw the ball there, obviously — not trying to throw the ball anywhere where he could hit it. I feel like I did do a good job of executing my pitches today, but that particular pitch, I’ve got to be better than that.” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had praise for Washington’s starter. ”I just called Jim Riggleman and said, ‘Whoever decided to put Mock in the rotation, it was a good decision,’” La Russa said. “Boy, he was very good.”

After the game, the franchise announced the departure of Ronnie Belliard for the sunny climes of L.A., where he will find service with the Trolleys. Ronnie’s gotta be as pleased as punch to be headed to a contender, after riding the pines for most of the season behind Anderson Hernandez, now riding the pines for the Chokes, and Adrian Gonzalez. Not surprisingly, Belliard was of two minds on the trade: “I’m happy because I’m going to L.A. and that team is in first place,” he said. “But I’m sad because I am going to leave a lot of friends. I’ve been here for the last three years and I made a lot of friends.” Belliard had been playing well since the All Star break, hitting .325 with five home runs and 22 RBIs. He’d been getting more playing time. The Nats received minor league righthander Luis Garcia and a player to be named in the swap.

 

The Orioles might, truly, be one of the forgotten teams of baseball. Fated to play in the A.L. East, the little orange birds are mired in last place, 28 games behind the Yankees — and only eight wins better than the Nats. But there’s hope in Birdland, and not simply because the O’s have won six of their last 11. The team arguably now has one of the best outfields in all of baseball, a clear contender for the rookier of the year award, and perhaps one of the league’s premier young pitchers. All of this was on display on Sunday, when the O’s took on the Naps in Baltimore and coasted to an easy win behind the power arm of rookie Brian Matusz. All of 22, the former first round (fourth overall) pick in the 2008 draft, is the thinking man’s pitcher, who studies game-day videos of himself to determine how best to spot his killer curve, then adjusts his arm slot accordingly. Matusz threw 97 pitches yesterday, 67 of them for strikes. He held the Indians to four hits over seven innings.

Matusz isn’t a surprise: he’s a can’t miss pitcher who won’t miss. The surprise is Felix Pie — a former Cubbie who has now, shockingly, set down roots in left field after going through nearly three years of trying to figure out how to hit major league pitching. Pie has been on a tear, raising his average over the last two months to a respectable .272 and showing some power; he now has seven home runs (a laughable total, we suppose, except that the punch-and-judy Dominican wasn’t supposed to have any at all). Pie weighed in to help Matusz on Sunday, jacking a two run homer in the third. He’s hitting .383 since August 14.

Pie is a nice addition in the outfield, completing a trio that includes Adam Jones in center and Nick Markakis in right. If Jones was playing in New York or Boston, we venture to guess, people would be describing him for what he is: the best young outfielder in all of baseball. The Pie-Jones-Markakis trio has kicked Noland Reimold, a contender for rookie of the year, into the D.H. spot. Reimold’s hot bat has been a surprise for the MacPhail’s this year: the 25-year-old climbed his way, hand-over-hand through the Baltimore system, before the front office gave him a grudging look. He was a prospect that was once ranked near the bottom in the O’s system. But he’s produced and it looks like he’s in Baltimore to stay.

Okay: things aren’t all that great in Baltimore and the fans are restless. How can they be otherwise. The team is in last place. They’re certainly not going to win a pennant next year, or maybe even the year after. But the MacPhail plan is on track — and if the outfield of Pie, Jones and Markakis ever hit together, the Baltimore Orioles could become one of the most formidable teams in all of baseball and a challenger to “the nation” and the evil empire. With Matusz they have the beginnings of a young staff, the only other ingredient they need. And so, after an era of irrational interference from a know-it-all owner, the Orioles are finally on the right track. If they only had a little more pitching.

Felix Pie (left) is congratulated by Melvin Mora after homering against the Indians

The most recent Nats effort featured a forgettable “Birdland” blowout. In fact, there’s not much to add to that. Except of course to say that these things happen, and they have happened all too often to the Baltimore Bads. Just last year, as I recall, the O’s went into Arlington, Texas (of all places) and lost 30-3. Texas scored the most runs of any team in the majors in 110 years. For nearly a week following, the baseball press was filled with reports of what the O’s could or would do (and, really, what could they do) and everyone was atwitter with talk of how Baltimore had fallen in the years since dominating the summer game.

I recently came across the Rangers-O’s tilt on ESPN’s list of “100 Greatest Beatdowns” in sports history. The Rangers-Os game came in at number eight, vaulting over such well-known nolo-contenderes as the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston bout in which Ali is famously standing over the dazed “champ.” The Ali-Liston Tsumani was not nearly as good as the one given the B-Birds by the Rangers, which (to my mind) stands unmatched in baseball history. I do not mean to pick on the Os: they were a lousy team last year and are remade this.

While the O’s cannot and will not catch the Yankees or Sox, they have the best young centerfielder in the game (better than Ellsbury, for sure) one of the best young developing catchers in the game, and a well-stocked farm system. They are filled with young (albeit, untried) arms. They are two years ahead of the Nats. In Birdland, the Nats’ problems were on full display: the starting pitching could have been better, the middle relief was deplorable, and the team lacked the kind of timely hitting that marks a winner. Ross Detwiler is now 0-4.

I would only add this as a kind of not-so-sly comment on the Rangers-Orioles tilt of 2008: the starter and loser was Danny Cabrera. Perhaps it was at that point that Jimmy decided that he needed to make him a Nat.

From Our Mailbag: A reader writes to ask whether we here at CFG will decide to blog about Michael Jackson. Seriously. At first, our board of trustees, dismissed the idea as too bizarre, but then reconsidered their position, and came back with this resounding and surprising position — “No” . . . As CFG’s international reporter and Nats scout in Turkey I wanted to take more time away from the game to see whether I could find any good shortstops in Cappadocia, but have been recalled, just in time to see our beloved Anacostia Boys finish off the O’s of “Birdland” in what remains of this series . . .

Oh Danny Boy. Apparently Manny Acta feels that he has defend Daniel Cabrera, whose unraveling earlier this week included an embarrassing four wild pitches. “He knows that it’s a long season and he feels like he’s just going through a rough stretch,” Acta said after his most recent post-game therapy session with the pitcher. “It’s not like he has pitched great, but he has only allowed 19 earned runs out of the 30 [he has given up]. It’s weird, but a lot of bad things have happened for him.” The sad truth, of course, is that Cabrera is not going to improve: unless, of course, the leagues’ umps hold a national confab and decide to move the plate over about six inches, so his pitches can be called strikes. This guy would have walked Casey. When he retires he can call his autobiography “Ball Eight.”

Cabrera’s mental state was on full display against the Giants — in the fourth inning he collapsed after an error by Josh Willingham, walking the next four batters. He was, reporters noted, “visibly distraught” on the mound (they should have been in my living room). The Nats brain trust met with Cabrera after the game to talk about the walk-fest and Cabrera’s “mental state.” I can hear Manny now: “We’d send you to the bullpen Danny, but we don’t have one.” Acta noted that, in addition to his inability to deal with tough situations, the Nats have been working with Cabrera on straightening out his mechanics. That is to say, they have been trying to figure out how to get him to pitch strikes. I have an idea: let’s threaten him with his job.

So, let’s sum this up. Daniel Cabrera is having trouble with his mechanics, with the mental aspects of his game and can’t keep his composure in tough situations. Other than that, he’s doing a pretty good job. Mechanics? I remember that famous line from Bill Lee. What’s your best pitch, Bill? he was asked. He looked at the camera: “my best pitch is a strike.” Forget the mechanics, throw the damned ball across the plate.  

Nats commentator Rob Dibble has this right. During Cabrera’s last start, Dibble ripped into him — and into the Nationals’ decision to bring him the 45 miles from Baltimore. Dibble said during one broadcast that he had followed Cabrera for six years and it was obvious he couldn’t throw strikes. “Now we see why Baltimore got rid of Cabrera and the Marlins got rid of Kensing,” he said. It’s hard to argue the point: last year Cabrera led the American League in walks and wild pitches. The Orioles let him walk (so to speak) and the Nats picked him up for $2.6 million. With another three million they could have signed Jon Garland. Look at it this way; if they had signed Garland they would have actually saved themselves the 2.6 they will have spent in giving Cabrera a try-out he should have have never had. Garland, I hear, dealt with the “mental aspects” of his game while he was in Little League.

Where that kind of thing is usually done.

And now for our annual take from our favorite guest columnist, “The Opposition Party”  – a Baltimore Birdland fan whose long-suffering fanaticism for the O’s is matched only by his disgust at their current status. His proposal: that the Nats and O’s combine their records in the hopes that the “Battle of the Beltways” should not be a battle for last place.

Percheesi: It’s baseball season in Washington and Baltimore and – as the opposition party — it is my duty to bring some enlightenment to our common plight. Here’s what I propose:

Major League Baseball should allow the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals to create a political blog — just as you have with any parliamentary system in a democracy. The teams should be able to combine their wins at the end of the season; that way, we can ensure that they will be able to finish at least in third place in their respective divisions.

The truth of the matter is that these two teams are among the worst team to ever take the field in baseball history. The Nationals should not even show up for games and should propose alternatives to actually playing baseball to the visitors: they could play darts instead. Or maybe parcheesi — anything to level the playing field. Perhaps they could challenge the Cards and Astros to a drinking competition (based on the weight of their players, that’s probably already happening).

Now to the Orioles. Of course I am an Orioles’ fan, a guest columnist for a clearly right wing blog that supports a team whose emblem is a giant “W” (as if that is not bad enough mojo) that also make me wonder if “the Nats” are intentionally trying to jinx themselves from ever winning a pennant.

The Orioles are not in much better shape, truth be told. They finally have a man in charge who is actually worth paying, assuming the paychecks are clearing the bank. But they also sadded with an owner whose head is so far up his own you-know-what, he can use to nose to clear his throat. So … so, at the end of the day, in the humble opinion of this writer, I propose two options: a political alliance that allows the two teams to combine their wins (which would allow them a third place finish, but no better) and — and send both teams to Mexico, where the swine flu would presumably wean the weak from the strong, and produce line-ups that have at least half-a-chance at winning.

Assessing The National Pastime: Forbes is out with their annual list of “Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams.” The top five are predictable: the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs. Forbes concludes that “the national pastime has never been stronger.” That said, the Tigers, Giants, Indians and Rangers are suffering, their values slipping over the past year. The Nats are ranked 14th, just behind the Mariners, but ahead of the Orioles (at 17th) as well as the D-backs, Blue Jays, and Brewers. The Marlins are dead last.

The Nats are valued at $406 million and, while their value will increase, don’t let anyone tell you that D.C. is recession proof. Barring a near-miracle, the Anacostia Boys are sure to draw fewer patrons this year, and the Washington Post reports that development around Nationals Park is at a standstill. While the team is still viewed as a Major League stepchild and needs to establish a clear local identity, the idea that the Nats are poorly run and that the city didn’t shell out enough for the ballpark is a crock.

Nationals Park is unfairly stigmatized: the result of all the oohing and ahhing over Camden Yards, a weird comparison with “the cathedral” in New York and the belief (repeated in Baseball Prospectus) that the new stadium is a “$693 million boondoggle.” But the real boondoggle is 225 miles north of here and is priced at $1.5 billion. It’s a monument to excess. It’s amazing to me that we have yet to hear from baseball’s gurus about how embarrassing Yankee Stadium is — and that has nothing to do with the wind.

I talked with a fan of the Trolleys last week who advised me on finding a nickname for the Nats’ home for use in the blog. I told him that I was playing with “the blossom” (for Cherry Blossom). He smiled and suggested “the Happy Meal.” Nats Park, he went on to say, “lacked the grit of Dodger Stadium” and “the feel of a real baseball park,” implying that all those Dodger fans out there in L.A. were not as fey as I might suppose.  That’s right: L.A. is known for its blue collar ethic, its toughness, its “grit” — which it lacked, apparently, in Brooklyn. That Athens of America.

Nationals Park is a good ballpark: it plays well, it’s easy to get to, it has great sight lines and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. The Nats are in last place, but the franchise is solid. Don’t complain about Mark Lerner, we could have this guy. The one thing the franchise could use is better radio coverage and less dependence on guys like this who, frankly, just don’t like baseball. Apart from that, there isn’t anything wrong here that winning can’t solve.

MLB Extra Innings: I signed up in April, just as the season started. It’s been worth it. There’s nothing to hate and the local feeds give viewers a chance to assess booth talent (D-backs color man Mark Grace is overrated and the Red Birds Mike Shannon is deplorable). If you’re interested in seeing west coast games, EI is an alternative to the endless blathering about “the nation,” ”the evil empire” or the New York Chokes. 

My first week I had access to over 100 games, which means you have to set limits. My rule is that I cannot watch a game during the day, unless it’s the Nats or Cubs or a game that features Lincecum, Haren, Greinke, Meche, Webb, Lowe, Lester, Buehrle, Oswalt, Harden, Lilly, Cook, Francis, Lackey, Braden, Hamels, or Maholm. Other than that …

On Friday night I watched the Nats attempt to master Johan Santana; during commercials I checked ”the nation’s” game against the Yankees. I settled on the Red Sox and Yankees before switching over to D-backs-Giants game, catching a part of the Bucs-Padres tilt during commercials. I finished by watching the “Showboats” lose to the McCovey’s in Arizona, just so I could see Lincecum pitch. You can see why he won the Cy Young.

 

The problem with “Extra Innings” (if it is a problem) is that there’s almost too much to watch. So, after my first week, I decided that (barring reports of a no-hitter in progress) it’s better to watch one game at a time. Like having one cigarette at a time, it doesn’t end the addiction. I couldn’t pass up the Nats-Mets broadcast on Saturday, but then watched the Red Sox-Yanks before finishing with the Rangers-Orioles. Extra Innings is great, so long as you don’t have to make a living.

Just A Few Words: about the O’s … who are in the process of getting crushed by the Rangers, whose pitching staff is being carried by their bats.  Ian Kinsler is hitting over .500 against the birds and is on his way to an MVP season … it appears that the “great left field hope” Felix Pie might never master big league pitching. The Cubs gave up on him and shipped him to Baltimore. He’s two for his last 26 … he’s likely to be replaced by Lou Montanez, another Cubs prospect, drafted third overall in 2000. It’s been a long road to the majors for Montanez, but people say he can hit. That’s what they said about Pie … the O’s are filled with former Cubs, the result of having Cub front office guy Andy McPhail as the team’s president of baseball operations … Pie and Montanez are just two of the Cubbies that McPhail brought over: the one other worth mentioning is lefty Rich Hill who, after one good year in Chicago, slipped badly. He’s currently on the DL.