The Washington Nationals dipped below .500, dropping a rain rescheduled game to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 on Monday night. The Nats, still struggling at the plate, could not solve Ahoy lefty Paul Maholm, who threw seven innings of four hit baseball. “Maholm shut us down,” Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman said after the game. “We hit a couple balls decent that they made some plays on. We really couldn’t elevate too many balls on him and get anything in the air to carry out in the gap or go over the fence.” Maholm, who has struggled in the early going, notched his first win.

Once again, the Nationals (who were much more worried about their starting pitching at the beginning of the year), were outhit — 6 to 5, with several Nationals (mostly the veteran off-the-bench players) mired in deep slumps. The Nats have been outhit in eight of the last ten games and remain 15th in N.L. team batting average and dead last in hits. The Nationals will open up against the Mets tonight in a three game set, before facing the world champion San Francisco Giants this weekend.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: If you didn’t see Jered Weaver’s complete game shutout of the Oakland A’s last night from Anaheim, you missed a gem. Weaver dominated the A’s, registering his sixth straight win, the most by any major league pitcher before April 25. Every year has it surprises, and this is one of them: Weaver is the best pitcher in the game. Weaver leads the major leagues in wins, ERA and strikeouts, after being 13-12 with an MLB leading 233 strike outs last year . . .

There were less than ideal conditions for playing baseball in Chicago last night — not only was it 43 degrees and wet (miserable, actually), but the North Side Drama Queens were on the field facing the we-can-do-no-wrong Heltons. The Rockies won, 5-3 — but in looking at the box score you have to wonder why. The Cubs rapped out 11 hits, but scored only 3, while the Rockies were held to four hits, and scored five. Kosuke Fukudome went 5-5 and raised his out-of-the-gates average to .478. Down behind the Cubs dugout, fans were razzing him: “Where the hell have you been?”

So why did the Cubs lose? Well, let’s see: the long ball was nowhere to be found (rookie Darwin Barney had a single dinger), Chicago’s heavy hitters (Alfonso Soriano, Giovany Soto and Carlos Pena) were of-fer ten and, oh yeah . . . shortstop wunderkind Starlin Castro committed three errors. The grass was slick, the announcers said. The weather was cold, the announcers said. Well, okay. But the grass was as slick and the weather as cold for Troy Tulowitzki, who was as smooth as silk on the other side of the diamond. “If you’re going to get beat, you at least would not like to gift wrap the damned thing for the opposition,” Cubs manager Mike Quade said after the game.

The Washington Nationals are now 1-4 and have lost three in a row. After a good start on Wednesday night in Florida (the Nats took a 4-0 lead on the solid pitching of Livan Hernandez), the Nationals fell to the Marlins, 7-4. The game was a symbol of what Washington seems to do so well: after innings of good starting pitching, the Nationals bats fell silent, the opposition was let back into the game, and the bullpen was less than stellar. Reason to panic? Not according to Nationals’ players: skipper Jim Riggleman said after the game that the clubhouse was still positive and that it was only a matter of time before the Nats break out. True enough, it’s still early — right? Right?

It’s not a secret, the hole in the Nats team is the starting pitching: the relief core is solid, the team should be able to hit. But in the early going, the bullpen has struggled — and key players bats are silent. Chad Gaudin and Todd Coffey’s ERA is soaring, and even the best arms seem tentative. Adam LaRoche, Michael Morse and Rick Ankiel are looking up at the Mendoza line, hitting .158, 118 and .133 respectively. Of course, or so the argument goes, we can expect that the Nats are going to have trouble getting on track so long as they face the Marlins, Riggleman told Mark Zuckerman. “You have to start feeling that you’ve got to put these guys away when you have an opportunity,” the manager said. “They’ve got a good group there, and they’ve had their way with us for a couple years now. There’s nothing to do but battle your way out of it and bust open a ballgame to where they can’t come back.”

I’d Rather Eat Glass Than Hear Another Word About The Phillies: While baseball is oohing and ahhing about Philadelphia’s Phab Phour, let’s try to remember that the San Francisco Giants are the champions of the world. Last night they showed why: the Giants sent the Padres packing 8-4 behind the pitching of (who else?) Tim Lincecum. Lincecum was at his best, holding the Friars to three hits in seven innings: he struck out 13. He struck out 13. So while there’s all this talk about Halliday, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels (as, I suppose, there should be), Lincecum is still the best pitcher in baseball. Yeah, yeah, yeah — but what about Halliday? Well, what about him?

For all of the sturm and drung about the NL East, it’s still the NL Least — the NL West is the tougher division. By far. Check the facts: the NL West has supplied two World Series teams in the last five years, the Rockies and Giants, the West has provided the NL’s best pitching staffs in three of the last five years (Dodgers, Padres and Giants), and nine of the last 12 Cy Young winners have come from the NL West (that’s unbelievable, when you think about it). Sure, there’s the Phab Phour in Philly (and a tough but, let’s admit, not a great staff in Atlanta), but the NL West has a top-flight rotation in San Fran and nothing to sneeze at in Los Angeles, Colorado and San Diego. Name one Atlanta starter who’s as good as Ubaldo Jimenez. Yeah, okay: Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe are savvy, but that’s because they have to be — their fastballs are Ubaldo’s change-up.

That’s just a part of it. While anyone and their mother can pick the Phillies to win the NL East, you have to flip a coin when it comes to the West. “No more division has been more hotly contest over the past five years,” Sport Illustrated noted in its baseball preview issue. No one would be totally shocked if the Padres came close again this year — a reminder to those who thought they’d be the worst team in baseball in ’10. No division in baseball has had tighter races (since ’06 no one has won the West by more than two games), and the West has more one run games than anyone else. So . . . so, Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez and Bumgarner don’t sound like Halliday, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels, but they were good enough last year to win it all — and the Giants have Brian Wilson. And the Phillies have . . . well, they’ll let us know. The Giants are slow out of the gate, but last night’s ho-hummer in Friarland is a reminder that San Francisco remains the team to beat.

We couldn’t have an off-season without a blockbuster — and the Angels have accommodated us. In a swap of a contract for talent, the Belinskys sent underrated outfielder Juan Rivera and rock solid first sacker Mike Napoli to that-place-north-of-the-border for outfielder Vernon Wells. Angels fans have to be happy. After wiffing on the likes of Jayson Werth, Adrian Beltre and Carl Crawford the Halo’s front office has finally come through, providing the team with what MLB Trade Rumors calls “a dream outfield.” There’s only one problem: Wells arrives in Anaheim with a mega-contract that had all of baseball atwitter back in 2006 — when Wells was re-upped for $126 million over seven years. The Angels give up two solid regulars for the honor of shifting Torii Hunter to right, slotting Bobby Abreu as the team’s DH and gambling that can’t miss youngster Peter Bourjos can’t miss.

While baseball focuses on what this does for Los Angeles, Toronto’s trade for Rivera and Napoli not only gets the Jays out from under a suffocating contract, it adds two pretty good bats to an already homer-heavy line-up. Toronto might not be able to compete with New York and Boston in the A.L. East, but they’re a powerhouse — and with a little more pitching they might surprise. The Blue Jays now have Juan Rivera (15 home runs last year, ten more the year before) in the middle of their line-up, to go along with recently acquired Rajai Davis (50 stolen bases last year) and big bat (54 home runs in 2010) Jose Bautista. And Mike Napoli is nothing to sneeze at — he hit for power last year (a surprising 26 home runs) and he’s a solid presence behind the plate. Rivera and Napoli could easily combine for 40 homers to go along with their solid OBPs. What’s not to like?

So . . . Angels fans are happy. Right? Well, not exactly. Halos Heaven slams the deal: “This trade doesn’t even deserve the dignity of a formal analysis. The Angels voluntarily vacated about three or four wins next season while simultaneously boosting their payroll by nearly $10 million.” Angels Win disagrees, saying that the deal “improves the defense, improves the offense, and will result in more wins.” Well, maybe. But even AW is forced to admit that picking up the Wells’ salary could cause problems: “Subtracting the $11 million that the Blue Jays will pay Napoli and Rivera in 2011 from the $89 million owed to Wells, the deal amounts to a $78 million/4 year deal—or about $19.5 million/year.” That’s a lot of money, or — as Halo Heaven says, bringing in Wells is like releasing Napoli and signing Rivera to an $86 million extension. “They’re popping corks and smoking Cubans in Toronto tonight,” HH says. “Alex Anthopoulos [the Toronto GM] has done the impossible.”

All is forgiven in Boston: late on Wednesday night, the Boston Globe reported that “the Nation” had inked a contract with Tampa Bay Rays’ uber-star Carl Crawford. The Globe says that Crawford will become a Red Sox for seven years and $142 million. Outside of Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth, Crawford was the class of the 2010 free agent class, hitting .307 with 19 home runs and 47 stolen bases. The Red Sox and Crawford haven’t exactly had the best relationship; back in May of 2009 (Red Sox fans will surely remember), Crawford stole six bases on the Red Sox — in what one baseball site headlined as “Grand Theft Boston.” The Red Sox were not pleased, whining (note: the Nationals complain, the Tiants whine) that Crawford stole his sixth base unnecessarily. The one palliative that Red Sox fans can point to (now that Crawford is in the fold) is that the loudest complaint came from former Red Sox hurler Brad “Bad” Penny, a veteran of the Massachusetts Penal League. Penny, who some people describe as “a southern gentleman,” wasn’t so much ripped at Crawford’s sixth steel, as he was at his fifth — when Crawford stole third, off of . . . Penny. After the game, however, Red Sox skipper Terry Francona dampened the complaints, explaining that Crawford is really fast.

What’s really juicy about the Crawford signing is that the reporter who broke it, Peter Abraham, wrote back at the beginning of the season that if he were the Red Sox — and was given a choice between Jayson Werth and Crawford — he’d take Werth. While this doesn’t exactly relegate “the Nation” to the status of province, it sheds light on all those nasty comments made about Mike Rizzo for signing the former Phillie. The signing of Crawford should not be unexpected: it reflects Boston’s yen for getting in on the action, particularly if they feel that the dreaded pinstripers are somehow gaining on them (or are extending their furlongs, as the case may be). After all, Soxologist Peter Gammons was saying on MLB Network, just hours before the deal was reported, that the Yankees (being the Yankees) were going hard after Cliff Lee. With C.C. already in the fold, the Yanks would have to be the odds-on favorites to take the A.L. East. The Red Sox deal also eliminates the Belinskis from the Crawford sweepstakes, despite the fact that Crawford was considered a natural fit for L.A., and despite the fact that the Angels’ front office was leveraging their front-runner status by telling everyone that a Crawford-to-the-Angels deal was nearly a lock.

But for all the talk about Werth and Crawford and the Red Sox and Lee, there’s a bit of suck-in-your-stomach bad news here. The loss of Crawford, and the probable trade of starter Matt Garza, probably puts Tampa out of the running for any late season berth. And the deal highlights the struggles of mid-size and small market teams (like the Rays), who (while they might catch lightning, maybe once or twice) are eventually relegated to being development squads for the likes of Hal and Theo. Just ask Kansas City, which monopolized the other headline today: for signing all-world-average, but really cheap, Jeff Francoeur. You have to wonder: will that be tomorrow’s headline in The Kansas City Star? Here’s the latest: according to MLB Trade Rumors, Boston’s deal for Crawford won’t become official until Friday, after Crawford passes his physical.

Who are these guys anyway? Over in Minnesota (they have a team — and it plays in a division called the A.L. Central), the Twinkies have been pounding the snot out of anyone who shows up in Target Field. After the Nats win on MASN (that oughta up their Arbitron ratings), I switched over just in time to hear the Twinkies’ announcers talk about “that kid Valencia” — a rookie third baseman who recently stroked four homes runs in four at bats. The pride of Boca Raton was picked in the 19th round (the 19th round) of the 2006 draft. Valencia moved effortlessly through the Twins system, until he showed up this year in June, and commenced putting on a hitting display. The Twins have just about everything else, so why not a little hitting? And — oh yes: the Twins won tonight, so they are almost (but not quite) the division champs, depending on how the Pale Hose fare. It doesn’t matter, stick a fork in the White Sox. They’re done . . .

Speaking of new guys: The Angels are taking a look at a catcher by the name of Hank Conger, who was drafted ahead of Valencia in 2006 (25th overall). Conger isn’t like most catchers, he’s fast. He smacked a hard triple tonight against the Rangers and by the time that Dwayne Murphy retrieved it, Conger was rounding second. It was a little strange watching Conger, because he reminded me of (okay, this is a little . . . well . . . remote) former Cub, Marlin and Dodger first bagger Hee-Seop Choi, who had a wicked quick bat — albeit not one that gave him a long career in the majors. Choi played only four seasons in the bigs, and will no doubt be remembered as the guy the Marlins got for Derrick Lee (what the hell was Miami thinking). Sure enough, Conger (it turns out) is Hyun Choi Conger, a California native who (despite the obvious resemblance) might be Hee-Seop’s younger brother: a straight-up stance and an out-of-the-batter’s box speed that makes infielders hurry their throw. Conger’s numbers in the minors are outstanding, his defense is reportedly first-rate and he’s moved through the system quickly. The Belinskis are auditioning Conger for their number two (behind former Gold Glover Mike Napoli), which isn’t a surprise — Jeff Mathis is hitting Willie Harris numbers (actually, a little better –  at .193). Hee-Seop Choi, by the way, now plays professionally in Korea . . .

Nats fans will be saddened to note that Felipe Lopez, the former slick fielding second sacker for our very own Half Street Nine, was released today by the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals weren’t going to keep the struggling Lopez in any event, but his official release struck me as oddly timed, coming two weeks before the end of the season. A slap, really, at an MLB veteran who has (from time to time — including this year) played well. Sure enough: the Cardinals said they were fed up with Lopez’s attitude. Hmmm. Imagine that. The ten year veteran (he started in Toronto in 2001 before moving on to Cincinnati), had an okay career that could have been a lot better. His years with the Nats were fairly typical: he played with fire in his first months, then tailed off, then got lazy. It would be a surprise to see any team give him another shot . . .

The New Twinkie: Danny Valencia

Once upon a time there was a pitcher who was nearly as celebrated as Stephen Strasburg — a phenom, a whiz, an over-the-top fastballer whose mid-90s down-in-the-zone pitches defeated even the best hitters. But Dean Chance will not go down in baseball history as Hall of Famer or even as one of baseball’s near greats, but rather as a one-time memorable figure whose talent and savvy brought him from the small Ohio hamlet of Wooster to the hallowed streets of Hollywood. Those were the days: when Hollywood legends packed the stands of the Dodger Stadium (which the expansion Angels shared with the N.L. legends), to oggle the young and brash stalwarts of “the singing cowboy’s” newest entrants into the Yankee-dominated American League. The most celebrated Angel of all was Robert Boris “Bo” Belinsky, the lefty throwing pool hustling playboy-athlete whose 1962 no-hit, no-run feat against Baltimore’s Orioles launched him into the headlines — and into the arms of (among others) Mamie Van Dorn, Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret.

In spite of their attraction to L.A. celebrity-wood, the 1961 expansion Angels were predictably poor. But the 1962 Angels were a fairytale, matching the Yankees in win for win as Hollywood oohed and ahhed and celebrated — prematurely. The Angels went through a late-season swoon and finished third. But with the storied, oh-so-handsome and charismatic Belinsky (a former “street rat” from New York by way of Trenton), on the mound, everyone thought the future was bright. The Angels would conquer both the Yankees and the American League  — and Bo Belinsky (handsome and blessed with a flash-bang smile), would lead the way. It was not to be: after his meteoric rise, Belinsky’s fame undid him, drowning a  promising career in years of dissipation — until (in later life), he became a reformed alcoholic and born again Christian living in Las Vegas (of all places). And as Belinsky fell, so too did the Angels, reverting to their losing ways and finishing 9th in 1963. Thus, Bo Belinsky.

Not Dean Chance. Like Belinsky, Chance was young and handsome. And, like Belinsky, Chance could pitch — could pitch so well, in fact, that he left hitters shaking their heads and walking back to the dugout. But that’s where the similarity ended. Unlike Belinsky, who dreamed of stardom and Hollywood and beautiful women, Chance dreamed of baseball. And unlike Belinsky, street smart and tough, Chance was a small town boy who grew up on a farm. Then too, Chance was dedicated to the game and, while he “ran” with Belinsky (and became his lifelong friend), he was never awed by flashing cameras, beautiful women — or the glitter of Hollywood. While the young Belinsky spent his New York childhood dodging the cops and tossing nickels on street corners, the 6-3 Chance spent his Ohio childhood listening to the Indians on the radio . . . and dreamed of becoming a ballplayer. And when the Indians weren’t playing (when the  midwest winds wickered across Ohio’s cornfields), Chance spent his time dreaming about being a boxer. “When I was growing up I always wanted to be a ballplayer,” Chance recently told a baseball reporter. “But I always loved boxing, too. I grew up listening to and watching Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. Boy, were they exciting.”

Chance was a “puncher.” He styled his mound tactics in the same way that ’60s boxers styled their straight-ahead heavyweight tilts — he bored in on hitters, ratcheting up his fastball into the mid-90s, before dropping it (unpredictably) onto the outside corner. In high school Chance was not only unhittable, he became the most talked about young hurler in Ohio baseball history. His high school records remain unequaled: he threw 17 no hitters at Wooster high school — the closest contender is another Ohioan, Tom Engle, who threw six straight back in 1989. In 1962, as Belinsky was making headlines (though he was only 10-11) and dating the stars, Chance began his own career with the Angels, forging a workmanlike 14-10 campaign. In 1963, both of them struggled: Belinsky was 2-9 and Chance was 13-18. But, just as Belinsky was fading, Chance was becoming a premier pitcher. In 1964, as the Angels struggled to finish just two games over .500, Chance compiled a breathtaking 20-9 record and became (at 23) the youngest player to that point to win a Cy Young award. His 1964 campaign remains among the most memorable in A.L. history, in large part because Chance pitched better against the Yankees than he did against any other team: “It’s Chance, not CBS, who owns the Yankees. Lock, stock and barrel,” Angel’s center fielder Albie Pierson said during the season. “When Dean pitched, the Yankees became a bunch of guys in pantyhose . . . they had no chance.”

Belinsky couldn’t keep up. As Chance was making baseball history, Belinsky was struggling with his control (he would go 9-8 in 1964), and with his personal life. Flitting from date-to-date, and being photographed with the glitterati, Belinsky’s lifestyle (his constant fist fights, most notoriously, with an L.A. Times beat reporter) and his interminable scrapes with the Beverly Hills constabulary — was wearing thin with Angel’s owner Gene Autry. After the end of the ’64 campaign, Autry decided he’d had enough and traded Belinsky to the Philadelphia Phillies. But Belinsky’s fame preceded him, as Phillies fans viewed the new duo of Bunning and Belinsky as Philadelphia’s salvation; the two even appeared together on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Back in L.A., farmboy Chance continued to labor; and while the Wooster native would never equal the near perfection of his Cy Young year, his ten-year career remains a talisman of consistency — he won 20 games for the Twins in 1967, an astonishing 18 of them were complete. His career nosedived after 1968 (when he was 16-16), and, in 1971, he retired to Wooster, where he became a boxing promoter and manager and formed a respected sanctioning organization — the International Boxing Association.

Now, at age 68, Chance will talk baseball (and boxing) with anyone who will sit and listen. “The greatest defensive player I ever faced was Brooks Robinson,” Chance told one reporter several years ago. “The greatest relief pitcher was Dick Radatz of the Red Sox. The toughest hitters I ever faced were Tony Oliva of the Twins and Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox. They always hit me the other way. If I had a runner on third and no outs, those were the last guys I’d want to see at the plate.” Chance says his biggest thrill as a major leaguer was winning the 1964 Cy Young award. That may well be. But for fans of baseball, the most memorable event in the life of the Ohio farmboy-made-good, came on this date in 1967, when Chance threw the best game of his career — a no hitter against the Cleveland Indians. That in itself might not be historic, except that Chance’s no-hitter was the second he threw that month. The first had come on August 15 — when he no-hit the Red Sox.

(above: Dean Chance as a rookie; below: Bo Belinsky in the Angel’s clubhouse.)