Following his shutout performance against the Nationals on Tuesday, it’s easy to understand why Arizona righty Ian Kennedy (16-4, with a sparkling 3.09 ERA), is being mentioned so prominently as a candidate for the N.L. Cy Young Award. Kennedy threw seven innings of six hit ball while striking out eight, to lead the Diamondbacks in a 2-0 skunking of the Nationals. While facing a revived Washington line-up known for stunning last minute wins, Kennedy was never really in danger — and added a single and a double of his own to the victory.

While the D-Backs win was hardly seizmic, the Snakes are suffering through the aftershocks of a six game losing streak — and we can hardly fault them for being concerned about losing their fragile lead in the N.L. West to the San Francisco Giants. Kennedy’s performance outshone that of Nationals’ lefty Jordan Zimmermann, who was nearly as good — giving up a home run to Sean Burroughs (with a man on) that proved the difference.

Zimmermann — who must be accounted as the Nationals most effective pitcher this season — lasted into the seventh, but could not complete the inning, taking his eleventh loss against eight wins. It is likely that Washington fans have seen the last of Zimmermann for the year, as he will probably be making only one more start for the season, and that one will probably come on the road.

For a time on Tuesday, it appeared that the Nationals and D-Backs would pick up where they left off in Arizona, the last time the two teams met, back in early June. That knock-down contest came close to sparking a donnybrook, and the same thing nearly happened on Tuesday — when Justin Upton (knocked down in Arizona) was hit by Zimmermann in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of that frame, Ian Kennedy seemed to retaliate, hitting Morse. Both benches were warned.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Speaking of earthquakes, the ground is opening up under the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis fans rarely boo their hometown boys, but they did last night when the Redbirds gave up two runs to the Trolleys in the top of the ninth, losing 2-1. The catcalls came down as the Cardinals then went quietly in their half of the inning . . .

(more…)

Chien-Ming Wang still isn’t ready for prime time. The former Yankee and new Nationals’ righthander struggled through five innings against the Braves yesterday, giving up seven hits and two runs through five innings — and the Nationals fell to Atlanta in the final game of their three game set, 6-4.

While Wang recovered from a shaky first inning (in which he gave up two runs), he had trouble in the fifth, which proved the key to the game. Wang threw wildly on a Brandon Beachy bleeder for a two base error, Jose “George” Constanza followed with a single and, after a force play and an out at the plate, Dan Uggla plated the two stranded runners (and himself) with a three run homer.

The Nats fought back, rapping out a four run sixth inning, with a walk by Danny Espinos, singles by Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, a Beachy wild pitch and a Jayson Werth home run. But four runs weren’t enough to secure the victory. Despite the loss, pitching coach Steve McCatty was upbeat on Wang. “He had better sink,” McCatty said after the game. “The offspeed pitches were a little flat. He got hurt on that. If he makes a play in the fifth inning — no damage.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Jason Marquis debuted for the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, and it didn’t go well. The former Nats’ righty gave up ten hits and seven runs over four innings, as the Snakes fell to the McCoveys, 8-1. Marquis wasn’t the only thing traded to Arizona; so too was the explanation for why he does poorly: his sinker wasn’t sinking . . .

(more…)

The Washington Nationals authored one of the great walk-off wins in the majors this season — coming from a four run deficit in the 9th inning to score five and beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-5. The rally was capped by a three run walk-off home run from Wilson Ramos on a change-up from Mariners’ relief pitcher David Pauley. “I was waiting on that pitch in that situation,” Ramos said following the victory. “I hit that ball pretty good. … I was very excited after I hit that ball for a home run. That was my first walk-off home run. So when I saw my teammates waiting for me at home plate, I was very excited.”

The victory came after a brilliant pitching performance from Mariners’ starter Doug Fister, who shut down the Anacostia Nine through eight innings. Fister was at the top of his form, allowing Washington just three hits through eight complete innings — with three strikeouts and just one walk. The Mariners, meanwhile, beat up on Washington starter Livan Hernandez, who couldn’t make it out of the 5th. But the Nationals’ bullpen did great work in keeping the Nats in the game, with Ryan Mattheus, Collin Balester and Todd Coffey holding the Mariners to no runs through five innings of work.

But the 9th inning will long be remembered by Nationals’ fans. The inning started with Jayson Werth reaching base on a Justin Smoak error, which was followed by a Roger Bernadina walk. With nobody out, Ryan Zimmerman grounded into a double play (his third of the game), putting Werth on third. With two outs, Jerry Hairston and Michael Morse singled, which put the Nats down 5-2.

(more…)

Think of the irony: a team that simply doesn’t commit errors and has one of the best bullpens in the game, committed an error on Thursday (a puzzlingly poor throw from second), and saw its best relievers (Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen) give up two key home runs. In any other game, either event would have been fatal for the Nationals, but on Thursday night at National’s Park, Danny Espinosa’s walk-off 10th inning three run home run erased the mistakes, and sent the Nationals to a sweep of the Cardinals. It was their sixth win in a row.

Espinosa’s heroics came in a game of home runs: there were seven in all, three from the Cardinals and four (Werth, Bernadina, Nix and Espinosa) from the Nationals. The first two came back-to-back, with Jayson Werth leading off the game with a shot into center field and Roger Bernadina following with one into the seats in right. That Werth-Bernadina homers set the tone for the game, with the Cardinals storming back in the same way — a home run by Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols (off of Tyler Clippard) and Yadier Molina nearly matched the Nationals, and Molina’s sent the game into an extra frame.

If it hadn’t been for the home runs by Pujols and Molina, the story of this game would have been John Lannan, whose seven inning stint has led to the use of un-Lannan like adjectives: “dominant” and “unhittable.” Of course Lannan wasn’t either, but almost; he tamed the Cardinals order through seven innings, giving up just six hits. Yet, for one of the few times this season (it’s still a rarity), the Nationals hit their way out of trouble. In the 10th inning, Ryan Zimmerman singled and Michael Morse was hit by a pitch to put two men on for Espinosa. His walk-off homer into right field not only swept the Cardinals, it sent the Nationals into fourth place.

(more…)

Under a cloudless June sky the Nationals hammered the Redbirds of St. Louis 10-0 Wednesday night behind a masterful three-hit outing by Livan Hernandez. The Nats bats came alive once again as they pounded out 15 hits including four home runs (two by Michael Morse) as they beat the Cards for the second night in a row.

Picking a player of the game might have been difficult given all the heavy lumber displayed — but Hernandez took top honors as he faced just two batters above the minimum. Livan punched out six and walked none in a very tidy 105-pitch performance that sent the crowd home happy after just two hours and twenty-three minutes. The bullpen-saving outing put Hernandez at 4 -8 on the year and earned him a shaving cream face wash from teammates during his post-game interview.

But the wrecking crew formally known as the Negligible Nine (ranked 24th in runs, 28th in BA, 27th in on-base percentage and 25th in slugging) provided plenty of fireworks too. All of the starting nine had hits except for Hernandez who (it should be said), laid down two very serviceable sacrifice bunts for his night’s work at the dish. Michael Morse was the offensive star, going three for four with two home runs and three RBIs. His second shot came in the seventh inning and traveled halfway up section 101 past the visitor’s bullpen — close to 420 feet. Not to be outdone, Danny Espinosa followed Morse and delivered his own tape-measure job that hit the facing of the second deck in front of section 238.  Impressive to say the least.

(more…)

Here’s a sentence Nationals’ fans haven’t heard in awhile: “I can’t even remember all of the at-bats,” Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman said following tonight’s 8-6 victory, “there were so many good ones.” That kind of description is so rare as to be almost non-existent. But tonight’s victory over the Cardinals — the result of a furious onslaught in the Nats half of the seventh inning — saw the team’s bats come alive in a way that they haven’t since the Nationals downed the Orioles on May 20. That was more than three weeks ago.

While the Cardinals-Nationals match-up followed a familiar script for the game’s first half — the Nationals couldn’t hold the Redbirds, and couldn’t touch starter Jaime Garcia — the game’s last three innings provided a glimpse of what the team can do when it gets timely hitting. In fact, the win seemed a reversal of a typical Nats’ game: just when the team needed starting pitching (something they’ve been able to count on), they couldn’t get it, and just when they couldn’t get hits (which is standard), they did. In truth, through the game’s first six innings, the Nationals looked outgunned. Starter Yunesky Maya allowed six earned in just 4.2, while Garcia went six complete, giving up only two earned.

But the game turned around in the bottom of the seventh. With the Nationals trailing 6-2, the Anacostia Nine sent twelve hitters to the plate and scored six runs. The Cardinals looked shell-shocked: their bullpen collapsed and Garcia’s follow-ons couldn’t seem to keep the Nationals off the bases. The 7th inning told the story — after Jerry Hairston flied out, Jayson Werth walked, Ian Desmond singled, and Ryan Zimmerman doubled.

(more…)

Fans of the Cardinals should have known something was wrong the minute they showed up in Milwaukee last Friday: before taking the field, the Cardinals learned that the Brewers would be wearing the same uniforms they had in 1982 — when they faced off against the Cardinals in the first game of the World Series. In that 1982 first game match-up, “Harvey’s Wallbangers” stunned the Cardinals 10-0. And so (as justice would have it), the 2011 Brewers (in their “throwbacks”) reprised the heroics of the Milwaukee Younts, scorching Cardinal pitching for eight unanswered runs.

It was downhill from there: the Brewers swept the Cardinals in three games and vaulted past them into first place in the N.L. Central. In truth, the series wasn’t even that close. The Brewers out-hit, out-fielded, outran and out and out outplayed the Cardinals, victimizing them with roundhouse howitzers from Prince Fielder (two in three games), Rickie Weeks, Ryan Brown and Corey Hart. That is to say — the Cardinals were shelled.

The series was (as Viva El Birdos notes), “Deja Vu all over again” — the second time in the 2011 campaign that the Cardinals showed up in a rival city in first place, and left the city in second. That had happened before, when St. Louis made an ill-advised trip to Cincinnati. Deja Vu? Maybe: but as “El Birdos” notes, the Cardinals “limped” into Milwaukee without the services of uber-slugger Matt Holliday, third baseman David Freese, second base wunderkind Allen Craig, or fifth starter Kyle McClellan. Still, it’s hard to feel sorry for the Gibsons: their bullpen stinks, Lance Berkman has no business hitting .317 and Kyle Lohse hasn’t had an ERA lower the 3.50 in his life (and probably never will again).

(more…)