Light-hitting Donnie Murphy took a Collin Balester offering deep into the bullpen in the 13th inning on Saturday, leading the Florida Marlins to a 4-1 victory over the Nationals at Nationals Park. The Murphy homer ended a solid string of relief innings for the Nats’ bullpen, accounting for the second straight loss to the Marlins in as many nights.

Once again, the Nationals could not seem to find a way to hit Marlins’ pitching — scattering six hits over 13, and scoring just once. The lone piece of good news at the plate came when Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos connected in the fifth inning off of Chris Volstad for his thirteenth home run of the year.

Of course, the big news of the night was the start of Stephen Strasburg, who pitched brilliantly through six innings, giving up four hits, striking out three, and walking none. Strasburg’s outing provided further evidence that the young righty is on track for a solid 2012, and is continuing his successful rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Phillies clinched their fifth straight N.L. East title with a 9-2 laugher over the St. Louis Cardinals. That the Phillies captured the flag is hardly a surprise, as their victory on Saturday showed. Roy Oswalt threw seven and struck out seven, with Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez homering . . .

While everyone is tuned into the Rays-Red Sox match-up in Boston, the San Francisco Giants have been quietly sneaking up on the Diamondbacks. Last night, the McCoveys held off the Rockies for their seventh straight, while Arizona fell to the Friars. But Arizona’s lead might be too big to overcome: they lead the Giants by five games with ten to play . . .

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Veteran righty Javier Vazquez, who has done much to retrieve an otherwise poor season, pitched the Florida Marlins to a 3-0 victory over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Friday night. Vazquez held the anemic Nationals to just five hits, notching a win over Washington lefty John Lannan.

The Marlins’ victory ended a five game winning streak from the home town nine, quieting a line-up that had scored ten runs in its last outing against the New York Mets. “You have to tip your hat — Vazquez pitched a heck of a ballgame,” said Nationals manager Davey Johnson. “I thought we had a chance to get to him. He was coming right after us. He threw a lot of fastballs. We hit a couple of balls hard but couldn’t mount anything.”

Nationals starter Lannan was not sharp, but seemed to get stronger as the game went on. He ended up pitching six innings of eight hit baseball, but took the loss — which brought his record to 9-13. Lannan’s ERA, meanwhile, remains more than just respectable — at 3.68 for the year. Craig Stammen pitched well in relief, thus putting himself in the running for a slot out of the bullpen in 2012. Stammen’s ERA now stands at a wizard-like 1.35.

The Marlins seem to have the Nats’ number. They are 25-8 against the Nationals over the last four seasons, and always play them tough. “We didn’t play badly,” shortstop Ian Desmond said of the loss. “Vazquez just pitched well. They were ready to go, and we were a little less.”

You Want To Hear Intenseness? You Can’t Handle Intenseness: Mets manager Terry Collins blew up at his team in front of the press on Thursday — following the Madoff’s 10-1 loss to the Nationals in New York. “Perception is reality in our game and the perception I have right now is we’ve folded it up,” Collins said. “You want to see intenseness? You want to see me be intense? You guys are going to see it . . . Our fans should be upset. I don’t blame them one bit.”

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John Lannan threw 5.1 innings of five hit ball and the Nationals stroked four home runs to down the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 at Nationals Park on Monday. Ian Desmond led off the game with a home run, Michael Morse hit two and Jayson Werth hit one to lead the Nationals’ attack. The Nationals assault was in stark contrast to the problems they’ve been having at the plate over the last two weeks.

All of the Nationals’ homers except for one came in the first inning, and off of Trolley righty Hiroki Kuroda. John Lannan, meanwhile, threw 94 pitches in registering his ninth win against 11 losses. Lannan later said that he was anxious to go deeper into the game, but couldn’t convince Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson to keep him in. “I felt good and I wanted to keep battling,” Lannan said after the win. “But my pitch count was high. It was a hot day. Our bullpen was fresh. I understood why.”

Michael Morse’s two home runs gave him 26 for the year — to go along with 82 RBIs. The first baseman/left fielder is clearly the team’s MVP for 2011, having put together his best season of his late blooming career. Jayson Werth took time to compliment Morse after the win on Monday. “I’m really happy for him,” Werth said. “This game is not easy. We had similar parts of our career as far as the age. I can appreciate it. I think he always had it in him.” Werth’s game is also improving, after a tough 2011 and what has accounted for nearly a year-long slump. Werth hit his 18th home run of the year in the first inning, and notched his 52nd RBI.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: There’s been a changing of the guard in Florida, where the Marlins have struggled not only to put fans into the seats, but to put a good ball club on the field. The Marlins started to unravel after 6-7 fireballer Josh Johnson went out with a shoulder injury and the team cratered during a mid-June losing streak (they lost 18 of 19, and eleven in a row) that saw the rehiring of steady-as-she-goes Jack McKeon . . .

The return of Johnson will help next year, but it’s not likely to be enough. Last night on MLB Network, the irascible Larry Bowa said there had been a “changing of the guard” in Florida. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez “is no longer the face of the franchise,” Bowa said — “it’s Mike Stanton.” That sounds right. Yesterday, Ramirez was told that he will need surgery on his left shoulder . . .

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It’s unfair, really, to use a picture of Jayson Werth below a headline describing the lack of hitting of the Washington Nationals. The right fielder, caught in a year-long slump, seems finally to be snapping out of it — but, with the exception of Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, you can’t say that for the rest of the team.

The Nationals lack of hitting was on full display on Thursday at Nationals Park, as the Florida Marlins completed a three game sweep of the Nationals, plunging the Anacostia Nine further into last place in the N.L. East, and sparking increased talk of what the Nationals might now do as the trade deadline ticks down. And it’s clear: they’re going to do something.

The Marlins’ 5-2 pasting of the Nationals had a little of everything: an indifferent outing from lefty John Lannan (5.2 innings pitched, four earned runs), a missed sign from third base coach Bo Porter (Ian Desmond was thrown out at third for the third out in the fourth), and (outside of Werth and Zimmerman, who accounted for six of Washington’s seven hits) an offense that just didn’t show up.

John Lannan pitched poorly — a bad sign for a staff that is already struggling. “He was all over the place,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of Lannan. “It looked like he was strong coming out. I took him as far as he has been this year, just to save my bullpen. We are all stretched way out right now. Normally, he would have seven or eight innings with those numbers of pitches. It was a struggle.”

The big bats for the Marlins were Mike Stanton (who smacked his 24th home run) and Emilio Bonifacio (who was 2-4 and extended his hitting streak to 26 games). “Realistically, we have to play better baseball,” Jayson Werth said after the loss. “We still have to hit and drive in runs, and we haven’t done that all year. If you want to win, you have to score.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: How ’bout them Mets? The New Yorkers waltzed into Cincinnati on Monday with rumors of trades swirling through the clubhouse and promptly took four games from the Reds — who are suddenly stuck in reverse. Forget New York’s pitching, the team scored ten yesterday on 14 hits, downing the Sparkys 10-9. The Madoffs are now surging, and remaking their roster at the same time . . .

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The Nationals mounted a furious rally against the visiting Florida Marlins during the ninth inning last night at Nationals Park — but it wasn’t furious enough to top the Hanleys, who snagged the Nats, 7-5. As in his previous most recent starts, Nats’ righty Livan Hernandez was inconsistent — as opposed to the normally shaky Javier Vazquez, who was able to hold down Nationals hitters through seven innings of competent, if not brilliant, work.

The Nationals’ bottom-of-the-ninth rally came on a triple from Ian Desmond, a Jerry Hairston single, an Alex Cora walk, a Ryan Zimmerman triple, a Michael Morse single — and a Laynce Nix fly ball to the warning track in right field that was just feet away from being a game-tying home run.

The Nationals have reached the dog days of the season in the doldrums: Livan Hernandez pitched only four complete innings, reliever Todd Coffey gave up three hits and a run in 1.1 innings, and Drew Storen gave up a two run home run in the ninth inning to newly arrived Marlin Mike Cameron. “The bats just woke up too late,” Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said after the loss.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Carlos Beltran is going to the Giants, in exchange for wunderkind-to-be Zach Wheeler. While everyone is talking about how Beltran is going to help the McCoveys (providing a big bat in the middle of their anemic hitting line-up), the Mets were able to get a young and formidable arm. This was a good trade for the Metropolitans.

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It’s now official: the Washington Nationals are in one of the worst funks of their 2011 campaign, having lost seven of ten games coming out of the All-Star break. The latest exercise in futility came on Tuesday night, as all aspects of the Nationals’ game came up short against the division rival Florida Marlins, who tamed the flopping Nats by a decisive 11-2 score.

The game got out of hand early, as the normally sparkling Jordan Zimmermann suffered through his second consecutive mediocre start. The young righty gave up six earned runs in 6.2 innings, struggling with his command. But the game was put out of reach by the Marlins, who smacked thirteen hits to back the three hit pitching of Ricky Nolasco and three relievers. Henry Rodriguez, who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, pitched poorly in relief (three hits and five runs in just one-third of an inning), though Sean Burnett, Todd Coffey and Ryan Mattheus remained steady.

Zimmermann admitted to his subpar outing: “It’s one of those games where I need to put it behind me and turn the page,” Zimmermann said following the loss. “The last two innings, I really picked up the tempo. I felt a lot better. I just feel I have to pick up the tempo from the start and do a lot better.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Nationals swapped two minor league prospects for Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes, in an apparent effort to meet Davey Johnson’s requirement for a right handed bat off the bench. Gomes is a solid hitter who is struggling with a .211 BA and eleven home runs in 256 plate appearances this year. The club game up outfielder Bill Rhinehart and left hander Chris Manno . . .

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With the MLB trade deadline looming, rumors of what the Washington Nationals will — and won’t — do are now beginning to circulate. This morning, commenter and analyst Buster Olney, wrote that “the dam is about ready to burst on the trade market,” with teams looking for a way to help themselves (or wave the white flag), before the end of July. The Tigers are looking for pitching, the Philllies are looking for a bat, and Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez is on everyone’s radar screen.

What will the Nationals do? G.M. Mike Rizzo isn’t exactly saying, though he notes that the team could be “both buyers and sellers” at the trade deadline. We have no clue what that means, which was obviously Rizzo’s intent. Still, the Nationals have been actively talking about acquiring a lead-off hitter (Michael Bourn’s name has been mentioned), and they have apparently inquired about Tampa’s B.J. Upton. There was even talk that the Nationals are willing to trade All-Star reliever Tyler Clippard in an attempt to answer some of their outfield problems.

There’s no question, a B.J. Upton trade would be intriguing: back in mid-June, Ken Rosenthal said that Upton could be had for the right price — with the Nationals ponying up a hot young infield prospect in a package with Clippard that would bring the then-struggling Upton to Washington. Rosenthal’s thinking was compelling: if the Rays fall out of contention, they could off-load Upton, and save themselves some future bucks. Hmmmmm. And, as Rosenthal noted then: Todd Coffey is being eyed by a number of teams who need a good righty out of the bullpen.

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