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.

(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…)

It’s quite possible that finally — five months into the 2011 baseball season — the Nationals have finally found their leadoff hitter. Batting in the first slot in the line-up last night, centerfield veteran Rick Ankiel blasted two home runs in leading the Nationals to a 5-3 victory over the Braves at Nationals Park. Ankiel’s homers allowed Livan Hernandez (six innings, six hits and three strikeouts) to walk away with his sixth win of the season.

Ankiel’s homers were only his fourth and fifth of the year and came in the first and the fifth inning — both off of usually reliable Braves’ starter Jair Jurrjens, who registered his fourth loss. Ankiel, who has been in and out of the line-up all year (and has struggled at the plate) seems finally to be swinging with authority. “You just look for a pitch to drive. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you make it happen, sometimes you don’t,” Ankiel said after the victory. “Lately, I’ve been making good contact and good things are happening.”

It’s too soon to tell whether Ankiel’s Monday night performance means that he will be an every game feature at the leadoff position, but Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson liked what he saw: “Now he [Ankiel] is [playing] and he has cut down on his strikeouts, his swings are better,” Johnson said. “That comes with playing. In the last couple of years, I don’t think he has played much.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: If either Pittsburgh or Cincinnati are to have a chance in the N.L. Central, they’re going to have to beat the teams behind them. Last night they didn’t. Newest Ahoy Derrek Lee celebrated his arrival in Pittsburgh with two home runs, but the Pirates couldn’t beat the no-account Cubs, suffering their fourth loss in a row by a 5-3 score. Catch ‘em while you can; they’re fading, and fast . . .

(more…)

The Washington Nationals are shipping righty starter Jason Marquis west to Arizona in exchange for Diamondbacks minor league shortstop Zach Walters, according to ESPN’s Jim Bowden. Walters, currently in high-A baseball, hits for average, but with apparently little power. The trade of Marquis to Arizona comes as a surprise — as it was thought he was the prime target for the Detroit Tigers, who needed another starter.

Marquis himself is probably not that shocked — for while he clearly stated he wanted to remain in D.C., the Nationals have fallen out of contention for a Wild Card spot and are still in “a building mode.” The Diamondbacks will assume the rest of Marquis’ contract, estimated at 2.47 million. Walters was drafted by the D-Backs in the ninth round of the 2010 player draft.

There’s a reason why the Washington Nationals don’t like the Arizona’s Diamondbacks. Since the days of hotdogging Eric Byrnes, the D-Backs have been known as a showboating franchise with a nasty streak — and they proved it again during the just-concluded four game series with the Nationals.

While the Nationals were able to pull out a win in the 11th inning of the final game of the four game set (an inning that included a Michael Morse grand slam dinger), the series was noted for its HBP scoring notations: two hit batters in game one (Upton and Werth), Upton twice in game two, one  hit batter in game three (Werth, again) and five in game four (Upton, Werth, Morse and Espinosa — twice). By the end of the series detail-oriented scorers had notched nine unemotional HBPs in their books, with Upton being hit four times — and Werth three. Both teams anticipated a bench-clearing brawl (and it certainly would have cleared the air), but it never quite came.

The HBPs took their toll: by the time the final game had ended (nearly four-and-one-half hours after it began), Jason Marquis and D-Backs pitcher Esmerling Vasquez and both managers were ejected — and Justin Upton was being considered for an Oscar for his writhing reaction to a one-that-got-away pitch from Jason Marquis in the 6th.

On Saturday, Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman, who probably saw this coming, rejected any Arizona contention that the Nats were targeting Upton: “I feel terrible that the same guy gets hit three times,” Riggleman said. “But clearly, the first night when he got hit, that put the tying run to the plate. Obviously, we don’t want that to happen.” The Diamondbacks didn’t believe him, so they targeted Werth in game four and, when they couldn’t get him, they went after Danny Espinosa.

The nasty plunking by both teams did little to offset a near-catastrophic Nationals loss in the final set-to: the Anacostia Nine were up 4-0 in the eighth, but the bullpen (with the lone exception of Tyler Clippard) couldn’t hold the lead. The Diamondbacks scored three in the bottom of the 9th (the result of an almost unheard of spate of just-a-little-outside wildness from Drew Storen), but the Nationals held off the Snakes in the 10th before scoring five on reliever Joe Paterson in the 11th.

A near disaster, then, for sure — but reminiscent in its own way (it’s a stretch, but if you could hum the theme for “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” right here, that might help) of any classic “Spaghetti Western,” where the good guy gets the nasty punk and rides off into the sunset: or in the case of the Nationals, onto a charter flight for California.

As it turned out, the Nationals scored runs when they needed them: with Wilson Ramos’ big bat coming through for a homer in the 8th, Roger Bernadina going 3-6, Danny Espinosa at 2-4 and and Morse’s blast in the 11th. The victory gave the Nationals a needed split in Phoenix, and they now head to San Francisco, where they face Timmy and the San Francisco McCoveys.

This was a great game — if you were an Arizona Diamondbacks’ fan: Joe Saunders pitched seven complete shutout innings, middle reliever David Hernandez notched a hold, and J.J. Putz put the game away in the ninth. And the gravy? The 2-0 Arizona win put the D-Backs back in first place in the N.L. West, just half a game ahead of the San Francisco Giants.

But if you were a Nationals’ fan, the Arizona shutout brought back barely suppressed nightmares that the hitting drought that stigmatized the team for the campaign’s first two months had returned: the Nationals accounted for just four hits against Saunders, which wasn’t quite enough to give Livan Hernandez (who pitched seven complete of his own) a win. “To me, it has been more about good pitching in general,” Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the game. “Myself on down to the coaching staff to the players, we feel terrible about the way we have squandered some chances to win ballgames when we have pitched this well.”

The loss cooled off Michael Morse, who struck out twice. In fact, the only Nat who seemed to get to Saunders was Jerry Hairston, who was 2-4. The loss dropped the Nationals to 25-33 — nine games back of the Phillies in the N.L. East, and two games behind the Mets for fourth place.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Craig Stammen has made his way back to the big leagues after the Nationals placed Doug Slaten on the disabled list with an “elbow injury.” Slaten has been struggling: the lefty has a low ERA, but that hardly tells the story. Fifteen of 30 runners he has inherited have scored. The Nationals are running out of patience with him — as are the fans . . .

Before being put on the D.L, Slaten claimed he was healthy, which brought doubts from skipper Riggleman. We can almost hear Riggleman: “I think you’re hurt, Doug — in fact I’m sure of it.” The move on Slaten may well spell the end of his time in Washington, as a lot of Nats’ fans are speculating. The Nationals will use Stammen as a reliever, even though he has a serviceable record as a starter in Syracuse (where he was 5-3). That likely means Yunesky Maya will get yet another shot on the mound before . . . well, you know — before he gets sent down.

It’s always a pleasure listening to MASN analyst Ray Knight, and while he’s no F.P What’s-His-Name, his blunt talk is a welcome tonic to the “here’s what he’s throwing” cliches of most baseball announcers. “I mean, good golly,”  Knight said in the bottom of the 5th inning in Phoenix last night, “you can’t stay in this league if you’re going to walk the pitcher.”

The “good golly” comment followed an inning in which the Diamondbacks scored three runs on Yunesky Maya, leading to his departure from the game — and putting the Snakes in line for a 4-0 victory. Maya later confirmed Knight’s judgment, saying that his fifth inning stint was the key to the game: “When you walk the pitcher, a lot of things are going to happen.” Maya said, a comment that had followed his promise to “do better next time.” Right. If there is a next time.

The key for the Diamondbacks was the pitching of Josh Collmenter, a no-name rookie who has stymied N.L. bats. Last night the Nationals couldn’t touch him, racking up a measly three hits against the righty over seven innings. That was about ten hits fewer than they needed against a soft-touch righty with a ring-the-bell change-up and a knee-bending curve. “Getting back to basics, that’s the key to my game, is being able to spot the fastball and work the off-speed stuff off that — especially against these guys,” Collmenter said after the win. “They’re a pretty aggressive lineup, if you can get them to make outs early on off your pitches. Then you can have success.” Maya should take notes.

Where Have You Gone Ryan Zimmerman, Nats Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You: Ryan Zimmerman will make a rehab start with the Hagerstown Suns on Sunday, teaming up with uber-prospect Bryce Harper. Hitting in the same line-up as Harper should be entertaining, as the Nationals await Zimmerman’s return (scheduled for the next homestand, in mid-June) with anticipation. Harper is dominating in “low” Single-A, hitting .340 with 13 home runs.

Federal Baseball reminds us that Zimmerman started his career in Hagerstown, playing four games there after being selected fourth overall in 2005. Zimmerman was then promoted to Double-A Harrisburg, where he played 63 games before being called up to the big club. Hey, can’t you remember that summer of 2005. When the big club promoted Zimmerman, people screamed: “No, no, no. Don’t rush this kid, we don’t need him.” But the Nats’ front office waved off the complaints, saying that even though he’d only had a half-a-season in the minors, he had mastered the strike zone.

Well, the Nationals have learned their lesson. They’re going to bring Harper along slowly, because you never know: he could turn out just like Zimmerman. So we don’t want to rush Harper: the club is doing just fine without him. And what’s a hit here or there? Then too, Mike Rizzo says that he wants Harper to be “100 percent comfortable” before he brings him to the big league: unlike with Zim, who took at least a couple of weeks before he was “100 percent comfortable” with being the Nationals best hitter.