One day after playing one of their best games of the year, the Washington Nationals committed three errors and John Lannan walked five — and the Nationals went on to lose to the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-3. Lannan lasted only three innings, as Philadelphia starter Roy Oswalt scattered six hits in seven innings, holding Washington to just three earned runs. The Nationals were never in it.

The Phillies’ victory was sparked by a five run third inning in which an Ian Desmond error and walks to Hunter Pence, Carlos Ruiz (intentionally) and pitcher Oswalt (unintentionally) gave the Phillies a lead they would never relinquish. The Phillies tacked on three runs in the eighth (two singles and a sacrifice fly), while reliever Michael Stutes held the Nationals scoreless.

Lannan’s poor showing put him at 8-8, but his struggles were matched by a solid relief effort from Collin Balester, who pitched three innings of one hit ball, complemented by three strikes outs. Balester’s relief effort lowered his ERA to 4.12, and helped reinforce his role as a long option out of the bullpen. Balester’s solid outing was offset by that of Henry Rodriguez, who continued to struggle with his control.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: It hasn’t exactly been a free-fall, but the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants have got to be concerned. The McCoveys have struggled in August, going 4-8 (and 11-14 in their last 25) in trying to retain a hold on the lead in the N.L. West. They haven’t been able to do it, and now trail the Diamondbacks by two games on the left coast.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way: slugger Carlos Beltran was brought in from the New York Madoffs to give the Giants a needed shot of offense for their playoff run — but the only shot the Giants’ have been getting is the cortisone shot Beltran has needed to ease the pain in his strained right hand. The slugger was sidelined again last night as the Giants faced the Marlins in Florida.

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Tom Gorzelanny should have been the news on Saturday, but it was Jake Peavy instead. While Gorzelanny threw seven stellar innings of seven hit baseball, Jake Peavy was the pitcher who captured the headlines. Peavy, who has been battling shoulder problems since his arrival in Chicago from San Diego in 2009, tamed the Nationals with four innings of one hit baseball, picking up the win in a 3-0 White Sox victory over the Nationals.

The single run victory was enough for Peavy, who threw 55 pitches, 38 of them for strikes. Washington hitters could do little so solve him. Peavy, who was once one of the National League’s premier starters, entered the game as a reliever — the first time that has happened in his major league career. “Peavy was unreal,” Nats’ interim manager John McLaren said after the Nationals’ loss. “I was with him during the World Baseball Classic. He had some pitches that were unhittable. He just had really good stuff.”

But Peavy’s four inning gem was more a matter of circumstance than solid strategy. The big righty entered the game in the fourth inning after starter John Danks left the game with a strained right oblique and reliever Brian Bruney appeared to run out of gas. The White Sox were forced to use Peavy after Friday’s fourteen inning marathon burned out the Pale Hose bullpen. “I don’t want to make a big deal of it,” Peavy said. “I needed to do it for my team. That’s the bottom line. We had to find a way to win the game, and give us a chance to win the series tomorrow.”

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In the third inning of Wednesday night’s contest vs. Seattle the in-game interview with the manager commenced and revealed, in hind sight, how swiftly things must have disintegrated between Jim Riggleman and Mike Rizzo. Responding to a question by Johnny Holiday regarding where Jason Werth would be batting in the line-up, the then-Skipper said that Werth would remain in the lead-off spot during the Seattle series but that “when we get to Chicago” they may revisit the situation. What that means is that as of about 8:15 Wednesday evening Riggleman had every intention of going to Chicago 24 hours later.

No doubt the pressures on Riggleman were great. Werth’s veiled outburst in Milwaukee on May 24 (“it’s pretty obvious what’s going on around here”), Marquis’ open defection in Baltimore, and Rizzo’s public comment that he had to come back to Washington in early June “to put out some fires,” all probably weighed heavily on the manager. Rizzo was basically saying that Riggleman couldn’t handle the team. No doubt too — Riggleman mishandled things at times. Thomas Boswell’s piece in today’s Post about Riggleman going after Marquis in the clubhouse in Baltimore was downright wince-inducing (Rule #1 of managing anyone: praise in public, scold in private – even if everyone has a good idea of what’s going on behind that closed door). If the Boswell version of events is right, Riggleman broke Rule #1.

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It’s a trademark phrase in Washington — throwing someone “under the bus” means that you intentionally sacrifice them to make yourself look better, or save your job. It’s being used now by partisans of Jim Riggleman to describe what was going to happen to the just-resigned manager of the Washington Nationals in September: Riggleman was expected to manage the team for the season and do well with it. But come September all of that would be forgotten, and Nats’ G.M. Mike Rizzo would throw Riggleman “under the bus.”

Jim Riggleman doesn’t have many friends in Washington this morning — most of the blogs have weighed in against him (for abandoning the team in mid-season) and the Washington Post’s Tom Boswell scorched Riggleman for failing to make his case on the field. “The GM felt he had proved himself the hard way,” Boswell writes. “Why shouldn’t Riggleman, with the worst record in baseball history of any 12-year manager, have to do the same?”

Okay, but there’s another side to this story. There was a palpable sense, even among fans who don’t have Boswell’s access, that there wasn’t anything (zero, zip, zilch) that Riggleman could do to get re-upped. Everyone in this city who follows baseball closely knew, just knew, that come October (and no matter how well he did) Riggleman was going to be told that he wasn’t coming back next year. And the turnstiles would turn: the Nats would hire a big-name veteran like (say) Bobby Valentine, or (God forbid) Larry Bowa to “take the team to the next level.” Thanks Jim, but Larry will take it from here.

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In the wake of a sweep of the Seattle Mariners at home — and in the middle of a winning streak that has made the Nationals the hottest team in baseball — Jim Riggleman announced that he is resigning as the manager of the Washington Nationals. Nationals’ commentator Phil Wood put it best: “He just felt that his commitment to the club was greater than their commitment to him,” he said. Had he heard Wood, Riggleman would have agreed: “This is more about feeling like this is not the way you want to run your ballclub and keep your manager on a one year deal,” Riggleman said.

The surprise announcement has stunned Nationals’ fans, who have consistently praised Riggleman for his handling of Washington’s young team. And it is clearly a blow to the team front office — who have kept Riggleman uncertain about his future. It’s hard to blame the skipper, and it will be difficult for the team to replace him: the Nationals have played exceptionally over the last two weeks, lifting themselves into third place in the N.L. East. Rizzo responded to the news by telling MASN that he and Riggleman had had a talk before the Thursday game and that Riggleman had “expressed his displeasure” at the Nationals not picking up his option. The two then had a discussion after the game, Rizzo added, and Riggleman submitted his resignation.

“I am disappointed for the guys in the clubhouse, for the team, for the fans and yeah, sure, it’s disappointing.” Rizzo said, but added that the team would have a manager in place by the time they arrived in Chicago and that “we will put this distraction behind us.” Once it is game time in Chicago tomorrow, Rizzo said, “it will be business as usual.” Rizzo added that while the clubhouse was jubilant after the win against the Mariners, the clubhouse was “subdued.” It was “kind of a shocking situation here today,” he said. “The fan base in Washington is a great fan base,” he said, “this is just a small bump in the road [but] We’re going in the right direction.” Phil Wood was more realistic. “They can call it a bump in the road all they want,” he said, “but to me it sounds like a death in the family.”

The Nationals came up with one run in the 9th inning to beat the Mariners 1-0 at Nationals Park — and sweep Seattle in their three game series. Jason Marquis, who had to settle for a no-decision, pitched beautifully, outmatching Seattle fireballer Michael Pineda. Marquis held the Mariners to three hits through eight innings of work, inducing fourteen ground ball outs. Marquis was superb and while he did not get the win, he has established himself as the Nationals’ pitching ace — and put himself in contention for an All Star berth. Marquis threw 108 pitches, 70 of them for strikes.

The Nationals sealed the victory in the 9th inning: Michael Morse singled, Danny Espinosa reached first on a bunt, and Ivan Rodriguez got on base on a sacrifice bunt. Jerry Hairston came to the plate with the bases jammed, but hit a grounder that allowed the Mariners to get a force out of Morse at home. The next batter, Laynce Nix, on an 0-1 count, hit a short sacrifice fly into left field that scored Danny Espinosa from third. The Nationals finished the homestand at 8-1 and have won 11 of their last twelve starts. The Nationals now head to the south side of Chicago to take on the White Sox.

The Washington Nationals showed that they can win tough one-run games on Friday — with Jason Marquis providing an epic one man stand in the 6th inning to lift the Nationals to a 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres. The pitching heroics took place after a double, a single and a walk loaded the bases with one out. Marquis then walked in a run.

But just as the Nationals were expected to collapse, Marquis showed what a veteran pitcher can do, striking out uber phenom Anthony Rizzo and inducing veteran Jorge Cantu to ground out. The tough sixth inning proved enough to lift the Nationals, as Tyler Clippard came in to throw two get-em-out innings and Drew Storen provided the save. The victory was badly needed — giving the Nationals a possibility of splitting (or winning) the series. (more…)