Jayson Werth’s 13th inning single past a diving Zack Cozart scored Danny Espinosa and gave the Nationals a 2-1 victory at Nationals’ Park on Friday night — extending the team’s early season winning streak to four games. Werth’s single came after Jordan Zimmermann pitched seven innings of three hit baseball, and the Nationals’ bullpen held the Reds to two hits in six innings.

“That was good,” Werth said, following the victory. “We were out there for a long time. You play that long and not get a win, that would hurt. We are lucky to get the win. We have another game tomorrow, the next day and the day after that. Hopefully, we’ll keep winning.” The victory brought the Nationals to 6-2 on the year, their best start since coming to Washington.

The game featured a tough pitchers’ duel between Washington starter Zimmermann, and Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo. Arroyo pitched into the eighth inning, holding the Nationals to just three hits while striking out four, and aiding his own cause by going 1-2 and hitting in Cincinnati’s lone run. D.C. starter Zimmermann matched him on the mound, throwing 100 pitches, 71 for strikes.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Major League Baseball is starting to take note of the Nationals, particularly considering the early season struggles of their main competitors. The Phillies are 3-4 on the young season, and lost last night to R.A. Dickey’s Mets, 5-2 . . . The Philllies are without slugger Ryan Howard and spark plug Chase Utley, both sidelined with injuries . . .

Atlanta also sits at 3-4, though they won last night against Milwaukee in a slugfest, 10-8 . . . Unlike the Phillies, the Braves are healthy, except for Chipper Jones (battling a rehabbing knee) and Tim Hudson, who’s pitching through a bad back with rehab starts in the minors . . .

Then there are the Florida Miami Marlins, who beat the Astros last night in a thrilling walk-off. The Marlins are 3-5, fighting their way through off-field distractions, and now battling their way through a new ballpark. There were at least four long fly balls into left field during last night’s game that would have been home runs nearly everywhere else. The betting is that, at some point, the team will be forced to move in the fences, as the Mets did at CitiField . . .

After dropping two of three to the Nationals, the Mets have tuned out baseball pundits who picked them for last place in the N.L East. While Jason Bay is hitting an anemic .174, he seems to play better outside of New York, where the boos rain down every time he steps to the plate . . .

Bay “boiled over” during the recent Nationals’ 4-0 scrubbing of the Mets in New York, arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Larry Vanover. Mets’ manager Terry Collins defended his left fielder, got tossed from the game for supporting him, but has no regrets. “Jason Bay doesn’t say anything to anybody . . . So when he’s arguing, there’s an issue.”

After interminable months (and months) of anything-other-than-baseball, you can almost feel the rust peeling away, the snow melting (well, what there was of it), and the sun cracking through. It helps that, in the off-season, the Nationals have traded for a top-flight hurler (Gio Gonzalez), are considering playing Bryce “the kid” Harper right out of the blocks, and signed under-the-radar innings eater Edwin Jackson for the back of the rotation.

Which is not to mention the latest, perhaps most important news: that Ryan Zimmerman will stay with the Nationals until 2020, the result of agreeing to a contract extension that will pay him $100 million over six years. The extension became a reality after days of intense negotiation. Nationals fans are ecstatic — Zimmerman is not only “the face of the franchise,” but certainly the most popular player in a Nationals’ uniform. The downside, and there is one, is that Zim has had his share of injuries, having failed to play full seasons in the last two. But even when he struggles he doesn’t really struggle: the game changes when he’s on the field, the signature quality of “a franchise player.”

Baseball’s brainiacs give this deal a thumbs-up. Over at FanGraphs (our primary source for judging these kinds of things), Dave Cameron compares Zim with a set of third basemen (who were or are) at a similar age and with a similar “skill set” — that would be Adrian Beltre, Scott Rolen (with eight gold gloves), Eric Chavez, Robin Ventura, Travis Fryman and Troy Glaus. He concludes: Zimmerman compares well in terms of raw numbers with any of them and should “earn the money over the life of the deal.” And he beats the pants off of guys like Chavez and Fryman, “the downside risks.” The key for Zimmerman (and for all of them, as Cameron points out), is (and was) to stay healthy and play longer. Then too, as Cameron notes, Zimmerman is “one of the game’s most underrated players.”

That’s a fairly laconic statement. And while it’s hard to argue with Cameron’s numbers, there are other variables. The number comparisons do not take into account the “intangible” value of a guy like Zim — Beltre (a powerhouse in Texas, but not the same since) has not aged well, Rolen (even with a great glove) was always a malcontent, Chavez has been more often injured, Travis Fryman had a short career and (likewise) Troy Glaus lasted to 33.

Comparing Zimmerman to Robin Ventura, on the other hand, makes sense. The new manager of the White Sox didn’t work the leather nearly as well as Zimmerman, but he hit for power and showed flashes of RBI brilliance. Like Zimmerman, Ventura was good enough to come to the majors with little time in the minors, and was an immediate presence in the clubhouse — which accounts, we suppose, for the Pale Hose decision to hire him as their skipper. He has a Zim-like personality: steady-as-she-goes and incredibly competent. Like Zimmerman, Ventura was drafted in the first round, wanted to stay with the team that drafted him and was regularly underrated.

And there’s this: it’s hard to think of another third baseman in the NL East who compares with Zim. Chipper Jones is scraping bone-on-bone in Atlanta, Philadelphia’s Placido Polanco can’t hit for power, David Wright remains a puzzle in New York and no one would be surprised if we wake up someday to find that Florida’s Hanley Ramirez just robbed a 7-Eleven. In truth, Zimmerman is our odds-on favorite as the National League’s premier third sacker. He could easily start the All Star game, with competition from Aramis Ramirez (new to Milwaukee), slow-around-the-sack Pablo Sandoval and running-out-of-gas Scott Rolen.

Okay, okay, okay — the National League is a little light on third basemen, Milwaukee’s Ramirez and San Francisco’s Sandoval can really hit, and when it comes to Zimmerman we’re absolute homers, but when Zimmerman is healthy he’s an elite player. He certainly was in 2009, when the Nationals were going nowhere, but Zimmerman was at the top of his game — 33 home runs, 106 RBIs, and a Gold Glove. That was the year that was, with Zim showing the power of Beltre, the glove of Rolen, the presence of Ventura. Nationals fans would love to see another year like that — or (given the life of this extension) eight of them.

For Phillies Phans this is the apocalypse. Chris Carpenter held the “can’t miss” Ashburns to just three hits, and the upstart Cardinals went on to take the NLDS three games to two in a sparkling 1-0 win in Philadelphia, ending the Phillies post-season dream of another October World Series appearance. Phillies fans were so disappointed, they didn’t even boo.

The Philadelphia loss was as surprising as the poor performance of Charlie Manuel’s team, which couldn’t put together enough hits to cage the Redbirds. “Actually, I don’t know what to say,” Manuel said, following the loss. “I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games, and definitely we had the best record in baseball.”

But the best record (and the best pitching staff), wasn’t enough to carry the Phillies into the NLCS — with Phillies’ fans describing their team’s elimination as “a crushing disappointment.” The depth of the loss is reflected in the Philadelphia blogosphere: “Thud” was the headline of The Good Phight, while Beerleaguer led its coverage with “Failure In Philly.”

But while baseball’s blogworld focuses on “the Phailure in Philadelphia,” Friday’s loss was more the result of Chris Carpenter’s pitching performance than the poor hitting of Ryan Howard & Company. Carpenter walked none and struck out three, taming Halladay in what Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa called “a dream match-up” of Cy Young winners. Carpenter threw 110 pitches, 70 of them for strikes. It was a Phorgettable night in Philly, but not in St. Louis.

Of course, there are teams in baseball that would love to have bragging rights to a 102 win season — including the one right here in Washington. But expectations were so high in Philadelphia that what will follow now is an off-season of recriminations, and an effort to find that one missing piece that Phillies’ fans think they need. It might be ugly. “There are no two ways around it: 2011 is a failure for the Phillies,” Crashburn Alley said. Oh, boo-hoo . . .

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The Washington Nationals will not be able to finish the 2011 season at .500 — and you can thank the bottom feeding Florida Marlins for that. Bryan Petersen sent the Nationals home a loser last night, stroking a walk off two out home run to make the Marlins winners, 3-2. The loss put the Nationals at 79-81, with one game to play.

The home run, off of lefty Doug Slaten, clouded an otherwise successful night for starter John Lannan, who pitched six innings while giving up only three hits. But the story of the night was on the side of the Marlins, whose starter — Javier Vazquez — might well have pitched his last game before retiring. Vazquez went nine innings while giving up only five hits to the Nationals, an exclamation point for what the team needs to find this off-season.

Despite the loss, the Nationals were able to contribute a highlight: Michael Morse hit his 31st home run of the year. Though it’s hardly a surprise, the dinger means that Morse will finish the season as the Nationals’ top slugger, leading the team in batting average (.303), home runs (31) and RBIs (95). “I put in a lot of hard work, and I’m glad that it paid off,” Morse said following the loss.

The Mess in Atlanta: Last night’s starting pitchers for the Red Sox and Braves — Erik Bedard and Derek Lowe — oughta tell us something about where those teams are. And they didn’t disappoint: Bedard lasted just 3.1 in the Red Sox win in Baltimore, while Lowe lasted just four in the Braves’ 7-1 loss against the Phillies in Atlanta . . .

We’re no fans of the Cardinals, but it’s hard to take the Braves seriously. Atlanta’s rotation is badly hobbled: Tommy Hanson has a tear in his shoulder, Jair Jurrjens has a sore knee, and Lowe (who looks like he should be on the DL) is shot-putting the ball in the hope that it ends up somewhere near the plate. You can’t go into the playoffs like that — well, you can, but you won’t win . . .

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An early morning email to CFG seemed to say it all: “What a series. It makes me proud to be a Nats fan.” Indeed, Nationals fans have a right to be buoyant after sweeping a four game series from the Phillies. And in Philadelphia. Phillies fans felt the disappointment after dropping their sixth loss in a row (by a score of 6-1) — when it became clear that the Nats were on their way to a victory, they streamed from “the Bank,” issuing boos to their team.

“Our pitching is great. Our defense is great and we have timely hitting,” the Nationals Michale Morse said following the victory. “We had a lot of big hits. We had timely hitting this whole series. It shows you that we could play. We could be a big contender in this division coming up.”

The story of the game, once again, was what was happening to the resurgent Nationals on the mound. Indeed, the Nationals were only able to bang out seven hits against an effective Roy Oswalt. But it was Nationals’ pitching that won the game: rookie auditioner Brad Peacock threw 5.2 innings of one hit baseball — an extraordinary performance from a former Triple-A star who is now in the running as a potential fourth (or even third) starter in 2012.

“I had a lot of good pitches tonight,” Peacock said following his outing. “Everything was working. I just let them put the ball in play. My defense was great tonight. [Catcher Jesus Flores] called a great game. That’s all you can ask for. I didn’t shake him off one time — not once — because I trust him back there.”

The victory was not only the culmination of a four game series: it marked the tenth victory for the Nationals in eighteen meetings between the teams this year. And while the Phillies said they weren’t panicking, they were clear disturbed by the reaction of their fans.

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. . . because, while the Nationals keep winning in Philly, they still have seven games to play and, no matter what they do, will finish no better than third. We’re not just being killjoys: while it’s wonderful to see our Anacostia Nine play so well (especially at “Nats Park North”), there are some among us who (in the middle of the 7th inning last night — and then again in the 8th) stood up and screamed — “that’s just great, but where were you in June?”

The answer oughta be obvious: trying to find a pitching staff. That the Nats have now won consistently, when it counts the least, is evidence that (finally), that seems to have been done. John Lannan didn’t pitch brilliantly last night, but he fought hard and well (he’s not the same pitcher we saw last year), and a whole handful of other arms have now emerged: Milone and Peacock, and Wang and Detwiler — not to mention Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg (and, just maybe, Livan Hernandez). And those are just the starters.

Then too, the bats have nearly ended their slumber: the Nationals pounded out ten hits last night, which included home runs from Danny Espinosa (his 21st, setting a Nationals rookie record), and the vastly underrated Wilson Ramos (who hit his 14th, which is none too shabby). More importantly, the Nats shook off their disturbing habit of serving tea to men on base — eight were left on base last night, but that number is going down, and they’ve damned near returned to the league mean.

As important (we think) is that the Nationals are now 9-8 against their in-division rivals — with the bonus that Nats fans have started to stream north. That an indication (perhaps), that Nats fans are anticipating what might (might) happen next year. “It’s a fun time,” Danny Espinosa said of his visit to the not-so-friendly confines of The Bank. “It’s a fun game to play against them. I want to play them hard because I know we can beat them. We are showing that. For myself, personally, I enjoy playing against the team.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’ve decided to change the description of the New York Mets — they’re no longer “the chokes.” That description more aptly fits the Atlanta Braves, who barely showed up to play the Marlins last night in Miami, and lost to the stinking Fish. It wasn’t even close. Now they know how it feels. The Braves now lead the Cardinals (who woulda thought — and certainly not us), by a single game and some spit. The Cardinals surprised everyone (including their own fans) and rallied to beat the Mets in St. Louis, 6-5 . . .

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“Tommy was real impressive,” Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said of Tom Milone after the Nats dealt the Phillies a 4-3 defeat in ten innings on Tuesday afternoon. “He showed me a lot.” Milone pitched a solid six innings of shutout ball against the Phillies, giving up just four hits and striking out two.

But Milone’s probable win was erased by the Philllies in the bottom of the seventh, when Doug Slaten and Tyler Clippard couldn’t hold the heavy hitting Phillies, who tied the game on a Nats’ killer Raul Ibanez home run. Ibanez’s soaring dinger came off Tyler Clippard with two on base, and erased the heroics of Roger Bernadina, who had put one into the right field seats in the top of the frame.

It wasn’t until the 10th inning that the Nationals could strike back: with two out, Michael Morse walked (and went to second on a passed ball), Danny Espinosa was intentionally walked and pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman singled to bring in Espinosa with the go-ahead run. Drew Storen came on in the bottom of the tenth (it was another nail biter) and recorded his 39th save.