The Washington Nationals defeated the Florida Marlins 6-4 Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Adam Dunn hit the big blow in the six run eighth inning. The win was the Nats third in a row. Florida’s right-handed ace, Josh Johnson, dominated the Nats for seven innings, but the Nats’ half of the eighth opened with three straight hits. Willie Harris, Alberto Gonzalez and Wil Nieves led off the eighth with three straight singles. Pinch hitter Ronnie Belliard followed with a double, driving in two. Nyjer Morgan followed with a grounder to the right side, which scored Nieves. Cristian Guzman followed with a single that scored Nieves to tie the game. That’s when Dunn stepped to the plate and stroked an opposite field ball into the left field stands. Mike MacDougal closed out the game.

AD's two run HR wins it for Nats (AP/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Down On Half Street: “Droog” D. Willy writes that he is blown away by Nats’ relief star Tyler Clippard. Clippard is emerging as the Nat’s stopper out of the bullpen. In Pittsburgh on Monday, Clippard worked out of a no-outs bases loaded jam, then turned in another two innings of no-hit two strikeout ball to give the Nats enough to sink the Ahoys, 8-4 . . . the Nats win tonight is not only their third in a row, each of them have been come-from behind wins . . . How good is the Nats bullpen? The change-over from the beginning of the season seems complete, and the results show it. The biggest change has come recently, with the addition of Sean Burnett and the new confidence shown by Logan Kensing.  Dave Sheinin writes: “The Nationals’ bullpen is a combined 5-1 with a 3.23 ERA and a .224 opponents’ batting average since the all-star break . . .”

Tomorrow afternoon NL East Chatter will feature CFG’s take on the trade deadline, the outlook for our Anacostia Boys, and what scares us about the Marlins. It took a couple of hours of thinking to find an answer that last question . . . Ryan Zimmerman sat out Tuesday’s game with a sore left shoulder, the result of being HBP by Jolly Roger pitcher Charlie Morton on Monday. Zim says he’ll be back, perhaps as early as tomorrow. That’s okay, if he doesn’t play third we can always use Belliard over there . . .  

Austin Kearns is headed to the DL with a sore right thumb. That’s too bad, we’ll miss his defense in right field. The Nats have called up Jorge Padilla from Syracuse to take his place. Originally a third round draft pick of the Phillies in 1998, Padilla is a veteran of the minor leagues, having ping-ponged his way from low single-A to Syracuse, while at the same time changing organizations. He was with the Phillies, Mets and Royals before coming to the Nats, in early 2008 . . . Our friend at Curse of Bonds writes to say that he believes that “Chester Cheese” (a Pierogi), could outrace any “racing president” — with the possible exception of Teddy. I will leave that to the experts over at Let Teddy Win . . . In the wake of our article on all of those moving parts the Neal “The Deal” Huntington has shipped away from the steel city, the disenchantment has only grown worse in the land of Lastings Milledge. This from Curse of Bonds:

Frank Rizzo pulled the trigger on a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates that has brought fleet-footed outfielder Nyjer Morgan and left-handed reliever Sean Burnett to Washington. Morgan is hitting .277 in 71 games for the Ahoys, while Burnett, a former first round draft choice sports a nifty 3.06 ERA out of the bullpen. Washington sent minor league outfielder Lastings Milledge and hard throwing late-inning reliever Joel Hanrahan to the Pirates in the swap. A handful of baseball analysts, including the New York Post’s Joel Sherman and Baseball Prospectus writer John Perrotto, adjudged the Pirate clear winners in the trade: “Still trying to comprehend how Pirates got two such high-end guys for, nothing personal, two spare parts type players. Wow. Wow. Wow,” Perrotto wrote.

But Pirate veteran shortstop Jack Wilson — already disheartened by the trade of centerfielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta –disagreed, taking aim at Pittsburgh’s ownership: “The bottom line is, even if this trade does work out, it’s not going to matter to 80 percent of the people here,” Wilson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “And over the years, these trades haven’t worked. Show me the ones that have worked.” Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen was also critical: “Yeah, man, you almost want to cry. This [stinks] man. You know it’s a business. It’s a great loss to lose someone like this. Not just on the field, but off the field as well. It’s great to have someone like that beside you. There’s nobody who can replace what he can do off the field.” MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds was shocked by the Wilson tirade: “I would say that Jack is gone,” Reynolds opined. That’s probably right — along with second baseman Freddy Sanchez.

While analysts focused on the straight-up Milledge-for-Morgan swap, the key to the deal may turn out to be Sean Burnett. The former first round draft pick has impressive numbers: 1-2, 3.06 ERA, 1 save, 6 holds and 23 Ks in 32 1/3 innings. Burnett has held leftie hitters to under .200 and righties to under .220 — which would stand as the best numbers in the Nats’ bullpen. Pittsburgh tended to use Burnett almost exclusively against lefthanded hitters, but that  won’t be the case in Washington, where the Nats hard-pressed underachievers sport the worst bullpen numbers in the majors. Bleacher Report has this to say about Burnett: “He has excelled so far this season as a leftie out of the pen. In 38 appearance, covering 34.1 innings pitched, his splits have been very good (.189/.254/.396 vs. LHB; .211/.357/.298 vs. RHB) and has a 3/1 K/BB rating against lefties.”

Put another way, as soon as Burnett shows up in Washington he’ll be the best reliever we have.

Nyjer Morgan is a flat-brimmed, floppy pants, slap hitting, good glove, base stealing Juan Pierre type, with the added attraction that he is good in the clubhouse — which could never be said of Milledge. Morgan will be put in centerfield and bat leadoff and the Nats expect him to add spark to the team. He is a top-notch defender, leading the majors in total chances and he has good range. This has been his best season: he has taken a career high number of walks (29), and hits well to the gaps (he’s third in the majors in triples, with five). He hits the hell out of righties (.322) and has an accurate arm. But he’s not the second coming. Despite his speed, Morgan has been caught stealing 10 of 28 times.

It’s hard to see the downside of this trade. After a slow April start and two missed meetings, Milledge was sent to triple-A where, in mid-May, he underwent surgery resulting from a broken finger on his right hand. He has been rehabbing since. But there were no plans to recall Milledge and put him back in the line-up and clearly the Nats front office had tired of him, ever as much as Nats fans tired of Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan was given a chance to succeed and couldn’t. A portion of the blames goes to the Nats coaching staff — who could never figure out how to give Hanrahan’s  fastball some movement. Steve McCatty won’t have the same problem with Burnett, who is not a work in progress, while the job of straightening out Hanrahan is now the task of Pirates pitching coach Joe Kerrigan. Good luck.

The central symbol of the trade, though, is Milledge. The bad-boy former Met was “Exhibit A” of the Jim Bowden era — when Washington readily traded for plus-potential in the hope that second chances would yield winning results. The shift in trade philosophy is now palpable. Mike Rizzo is starting to remake the team, favoring (to use Chico Harlan’s phrase) ”reliability over high-yield potential.” In essence, Washington sacrificed Milledge’s unknown upside for Morgan’s known maturity and Hanrahan’s breathtaking but inconsistent fastball for Burnett’s steady presence. The trade shoves “Kentucky” further down the depth chart, sends a signal to the fanbase that change is on the way, puts production pressure on Elijah Dukes, and might just shove another reliever (Julian Tavarez?) out the door.

This was a good trade:  the Nats off-loaded two problems, inherited none and gained immediate help. The gamble here was taken by Pittsburgh, not Washington.

Rob Dibble went on a bit about Ricky Nalasco’s “stuff” last night during the MASN broadcast, as if that could explain the sudden fall-off in Nationals hit and run production. Dib’s was right of course — Nalasco’s “stuff” tamed the Anacostia Boys, allowing the Marlins to squeeze out a 4-2 win — but Nalasco’s stuff wasn’t that good. In fact, Nalasco’s lack of “stuff” got him sent to triple-A  New Orleans at the end of May after he posted a 9.07 ERA in nine starts. Sure, he’s been a lot better since being recalled, but Nalasco is not Tom Seaver and never will be. The Nats bats being what they are, the Anacostia Boys should have found a way to beat him.

Then too, a little too much is being made of how the Nats bullpen collapsed (yet again), when in truth good hitting teams consistently find ways to overcome occasional bullpen woes. The bright spot of the evening was Scott Olsen, who pitched a solid seven innings and seemed more in command on the mound than he had all year. I’m still not sold. The only other bright spot is Josh Willingham, a CFG favorite, who went 2-4 and made a stellar play in right field. “The Hammer” is settling in as one of the team’s most consistent producers. Willingham was rightly irritated at the beginning of the year when he was relegated to a bench role behind Austin Kearns. 

Down On Half Street: There’s a lot of chatter about the Nats search for a centerfielder. The straight-up swap of Lastings Milledge for Nyjer Morgan was apparently short-circuited when the Ahoys asked for Craig Stammen, but you’ve got to believe that Frank Rizzo is considering other solutions. There are a couple out there if the Nats are willing to part with one of their young pitchers. The Rockies are likely shopping Ryan Spilborghs, the perenially second-tier Rockies outfielder who gets played only when the Rocks get tired of other options. The Red Sox and Tigers were once said to be interested. Spilborghs is one of those guys who gets lost in the shuffle, but who can play . . . The Nats are loathe to trade pitching but the truth is that (suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere) the Nats have young arms to give. True, you “can never have enough pitching,” but you can’t win without an outfield and just now the hole in center looks like a yawning chasm. So pick one: Mock, Balester, Clippard, Stammen or Estrada. The rest are probably untouchable . . . With everyone looking for pitching, you’ve got to believe that contenders are salivating over Garrett Mock, who won the International League’s “Pitcher of the Week” award last week . . .

I keep hearing all the reasons why Shairon Martis was sent down (“he needs to pound the strike zone“), but you have to wonder how he feels sitting in Syracuse while Joel Hanrahan, Jesus Colome and Julian Tavarez eat buttered corn in D.C. (What is it that Tavarez adds that we haven’t seen before?) Pitchers’ egos are fragile things and they, like hitters, sometimes go through slumps. So let him work out his problems in the bigs. What’re we afraid of — that the Nats might lose? Martis was the only starter worth anything in this town for two months. Why does this feel like a soul-killing and ungrateful demotion? . . .  Kudos to Mike Henderson at NationalsPride for unpacking Shairon’s recent woes and to Jeff Bergin for weighing in on Lastings. Bergin lazers in on Rizzo’s attempt to change the Nats culture as one of the reasons Milledge is being shopped . . .

This baseball card just sold for $28,000:

Pssst! Don’t tell anyone, but I want it. I would be willing to trade my wife for it — whaddaya think? Here she is:

I went to the Nats game on Tuesday. They were sloppy, uninterested, forgettable and disappointing. Felipe Lopez failed to cover second and Ryan Langerhans (he’s hitting .188), let a ball slide past him in left. The scorer called it an error and later changed it to a double. It was an error. I was embarrassed for them — I was embarrassed for Manny. Don Sutton is forever praising Manny for his patience, but I think it’s about time he started throwing something around the clubhouse. I understand they’re injured, I understand they’re building, but there’s no excuse for looking like they’ve arrived not ready to play. The crowd around me was sullen, critical, disgusted. In my book, they had every right. The Nats have the lowest batting average in the Majors — it’s time for someone to get upset about it.

The Emerging 8s

It struck me the other night that we’re seeing the blossoming of a new era of great centerfielders — triple-crown contender Josh Hamilton in Texas, rookie phenom Jay Bruce in Cincinnati, heavy-hitting Chris Young in Arizona, the Wahoo’s Grady Sizemore (he’s a veteran, but only 26), and the under-the-radar Adam Jones.

Jones is going to be a terrific player. I saw him clear the bases against the Bosox the other night — and it was a sight. He was the big name in the trade for Eric Bedard, and I wondered at the time whether the O’s got enough, but have since decided they got more than enough. Once Jones starts hitting for average (and he will), the Orioles will put him in the fourth spot for the next fifteen years and just watch him — unless Angelos interferes and does something stupid. Jones will have competition from this guy:

who just gets better and better and better. They talk about his base stealing and his speed (and it’s damned good, no doubt), but it’s his brain and not his legs that need to kick in. I saw him try to steal third twice this year, once for the third out. He hasn’t tried it since, and has been steady at the plate. With Jones in Baltimore and Milledge here … well, it will make the I-95 worth seeing.