John Lannan pitched into the sixth inning and contributed two hits, and catcher Wilson Ramos hit his ninth home run, as the Washington Nationals defeated the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field, 5-2 on Saturday night. The victory, sparked (oddly) by Lannan’s bat, brought the Nats back to .500 — one-half game behind the New York Mets in the N.L. East.

Lannan provided another solid start to what has to now be considered a very successful 2011 campaign by the savvy lefty. But Lannan’s hits were the surprise of the game. He had two in all, his first two of the year, and his first two in 32 at bats. “We have been taking a lot of BP. I have been struggling out there,” Lannan said after the victory. “I never was a really good hitter. Some days, I get good pitches to hit and I was able to hit it back up the middle. Every starter up here is difficult to hit.”

The Nationals were able to tack on runs in the otherwise tight ballgame when Ramos homered with one on in the sixth. The Ramos dinger landed well back in the left field bleachers. “We are used to one-run leads, but that was big. That made us all feel a lot easier,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of the Ramos home run. “He is a great young catcher. He is looking good.”

Lannan was helped by his bullpen, which held the Braves scoreless in the game’s last innings. Ryan Mattheus, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen combined for 3.1 innings of work, giving up no hits and no runs. Drew Storen pitched the ninth inning, notching his 24th save. It was Clippard’s 24th hold.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: John Lackey’s in-game antics are starting to get old, according to the commenters on “Baseball Tonight.” Lackey threw up his arms during Boston’s 9-5 win against Tampa Bay yesterday when Marco Scutaro boofed a grounder and Adrian Gonzalez followed suit. Then Lackey let manager Terry Francona have it when he was lifted with two outs in the sixth, mouthing guttural out loud condemnations that anyone with eyes could lip-read.

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Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams, who led three teams to the World Series, died this week at the age of 82. Perhaps most remembered for leading Charlie Finley’s Oakland A’s to World Championships in 1972 and 1973, he cut his managing teeth as the skipper for the 1967 Red Sox. Just two years retired as a player (the last two with the Sox after stints with several teams) Sox owner Tom Yawkey tapped Williams to try to do something, anything, with the ninth place boys from Boston.

Williams, always known for his pugnacity, showed it early after being named manager. Giving his thoughts on the upcoming 1967 season Williams was confident in his squad saying, “We’ll win more than we lose.” The Boston press corps was incredulous. The Sox hadn’t done much in the way of winning since the ’46 campaign when they lost the Series to the Cards in seven games. And in 1966 they finished 72-90, 26 games out of the running. They were, in a word, bad.

A 10-game turn-around wasn’t impossible of course. But the Sox would field essentially the same team as the year before, Williams had never managed in the Bigs and, after all, this was Boston. Who did he think he was? A Depression-era kid, all Williams knew was hard work and the “kids” (as the Sox were affectionately known given that the vast majority of them were in their 20s) were in for a lot of it. A no-bull type of guy, all Williams expected from his team was their best. He got it.

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John Lannan seemed sharp on Friday, retiring the first ten Rockies he faced before two straight singles in the fourth inning from Jonathan Herrera and Todd Helton put two runners on and brought Ty Wigginton to the plate. Unfortuntely for Lannan — and for the Nationals — Wigginton hit a screamer off of Lannan’s left cheek, sending the young lefty to the clubhouse with a nasal contusion (it could’ve been worse) and the Nationals into a funk.

Wigginton’s single scored Herrera and eventually Helton and Wigginton also scored, which is all the Colorado Rockies’ would need for a three run lead, and a 3-2 win against the Nationals before nearly 20,000 at Nationals Park. With Lannan out of the game, Davey Johnson was forced into his bullpen — long before he wanted to use any of his relievers.

As Washington has done most recently, Colorado won ugly. Relieving Lannan, Ryan Mattheus balked Helton home and then gave up a single to rookie Cole Garner. “I was put in a big spot there, and those are the spots I want to be in,” Mattheus said. “It got away from me tonight.” The good news for the Nats was that Lannan appeared to be none the worse for taking the Wigginton rifle shot off his face, and Wilson Ramos continued his hot hitting: notching a solo home run in the fourth.

Fight Night In Boston: The big secret (or not) at Center Field Gate is that the majority of our contributors (and here they are, all bundled up for that wicked cold Boston weather) are fans of “The Nation” (gag), and are inclined to side with their Beantown Boys if given even half a chance. That’s true, but with this caveat: they’re Boston fans in their spare time — when they’re not absolutely head-over-heels monkey nuts over their (and your) Washington Nationals.

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Jordan Zimmermann notched a complete game against the Angels on Wednesday night, but the young righthander’s brilliance wasn’t enough. The Halos were able to beat Zimmermann and the Nationals, 1-0, in a classic (God, this game went fast) pitchers’ duel. The Nationals were simply unable to solve Los Angeles righty Dan Haren, who pitched 7.1 innings of two hit baseball. Haren took the win, Zimmermann took the loss.

The Nationals finished out what had promised to be a successful road trip by being swept in Anaheim. The Nationals were outscored in the series, 16-8. The loss on Wednesday dropped the team to a single game under .500. “I ran into a pretty good pitcher today,” Zimmermann said after the loss. “He had our hitters off balance all day. It was a battle for both teams to score some runs.”

Once again, the Nationals’ bats have gone silent. Haren and two Angels’ relievers held the Anacostia Nine to three hits on the afternoon — with Haren throwing 120 pitches, 77 of them for strikes. Haren’s high pitch count was a sign of Nationals’ patience at the plate, as Anaheim’s righty went to multiple 3-2 counts. But Haren was always able to make a good pitch when he had to. In truth, Zimmermann was much sharper, but without the run support that didn’t matter. The Nationals return home to face the Pirates and then, for the July 4 holiday, the visiting (and semi-revived) Chicago Cubs.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Red Sox are struggling against National League teams. They play a rubber game in Philadelphia today against the Phillies, but have dropped two series in a row against teams in the senior circuit. They recently lost two of three to the Padres, and then two of three to the Pirates. They were dumped 5-0 on Tuesday at the hands of Cliff Lee, and then 2-1 last night when Raul Ibanez went deep on John Lackey . . .

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You have to give Cubs’ fans this: they travel well. The city of Boston was filled with Cubs fans, great crowds of them, who came in on flights from the Windy City all of Friday, donned their Grace and Sandberg and Soriano uniforms and mostly waddled their way towards Fenway. The faithful of Red Sox nation were puzzled by their appearance, almost indulgent (this would never happen in Philadelphia): in the midst of Friday’s 15-5 pasting, a Red Sox fan behind the Cubs’ dugout turned on one of them and shook his head — “You root for these guys.”

In truth, Red Sox Nation has a lot in common with Wrigleyville. Both fans are obsessively loyal, both ladle their love of their team with just a tad of cynicism. When the Cubbies finally broke out for eight runs in the 8th inning of the second game, a hefty Boston fan allowed that the problem was the decision making of Red Sox manager Terry Francona: “The man is retaaahded,” he said. It was the best inning of the series for the Cubs — a single, a single, a walk, a double, an error, a double, a strike out, a walk, a fly out, a double, an error and a pop-up. Cubs fans felt vindicated and their chants filled the bleachers. By that point, Red Sox nation had had enough of the let’s-be-polite-to-our-guests routine: “They can stick it up their aaaaas, far as I’m concerned.”

But the obsessive loyalty, tinged with cynicism — and the long history of losing (a fading memory for the Sox) — is about where the comparison ends. Adrian Gonzalez was 4-6 on Friday (and drove in four), had a “just average” 2-5 on Saturday, and a mindless 4-4 on Sunday. The Cubs don’t have anyone who even remotely compares with him: or spark plug Kevin Youklis, or Carl Crawford, or Jon Lester, or “our lord and savior” Dustin Pedroia. “We call him Pedroia the destroyah,” a Sox fan volunteers. There was faint disagreement: “Oh yeah? Well I call him layza show.”

Still . . . still, the Fenway bleachers were a carbon copy of what Cubs fans get in the bleachers in Chicago. A Cubs fan with a Boston accent stood up between innings in the middle of the second game (the loudspeaker was blaring “it’s the end of the world as we know it“) and turned to face the crowd: “Who here likes naked girls?” he asked, in a shout. It seemed like a legitimate question — and some hands went up. But the query brought a tepid response from Fenway security, and a wince from the fan, who turned around and reclaimed his seat. “The problem,” a Red Sox rooter allowed, “is that in this city some of the girls raise their hands.”

By Sunday night, most of the Cubs fans had left the city and Fenway was again filled with the Red Sox faithful. They were a lot less patient with the out-of-towners and in full throat for “waitago Timmy” Wakefield, who baffled the Cubs line-up, then tipped his hat for the faithful as he walked from the mound. The Cubs left town, having lost two of three, and returned to their quest for .500. And the Red Sox? The Red Sox headed to Cleveland, to resume their quest for another World Series.

After Friday’s 17-5 runaway victory in Baltimore, the Washington Nationals were confident that their season-long slump was at an end — and that with their bats finally loosened (and their defense and pitching solid), the close wins that had eluded them for so long would start coming their way. There was nothing in Saturday’s 8-3 loss that dissuaded them from that, despite the team’s paltry seven hits.

But with Sunday’s disappointing 2-1 defeat, the result of a single shaky Jordan Zimmermann inning, the Nats might begin to think that even hitting well won’t help. The Nationals outhit the O’s in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon (8-4), and arguably outpitched them (Zimmermann was superb, actually), but the Nationals could not respond to a Vlad Guerrero dinger — which proved the difference in the game. While the Nationals came out of their interleague games versus the O’s with two losses, they weren’t outplayed by them; but it was a frustrating experience that has put the team four games under .500.

Aside from the 17 runs scored on Friday, it’s clear the team needs to find a way to generate offense. “It’s more of the same,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said following the loss. “I’m glad we got baserunners out there. That’s better than not having them out there, but we are just not getting them in. That’s too bad, because we got another good pitching performance.” The Nationals now head to Milwaukee, where they’ll face the Brewers in three tough games: the Brewers have started to click, and are coming off a three game sweep of the Rockies.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Our readers (here they are) have been calling and writing — wondering whatever happened to our reporting on the Cubs-Red Sox series. And you know what? . . .  it’s a damn good question. But our board of directors decided that, after getting in late (“ladies and gentlemen, we have an unexpected delay . . . and will be here in Bridgeport for a few minutes”), we’ve decided the save the entry until tomorrow . . . er, later today.

That said, we would like to assure everyone that our team of writers (here they are) had a terrific time in Beantown, visiting the city’s most famous sites: traipsing through the Old North Church Yawkey Way, gawking at Lexington Green the Green Monster, and cramming ourselves full of Boston’s Fenway’s famous clam chowdah sausage and beer.

Oh, and the Cubs and Red Sox played three, and we were thrilled upset about the astonishing perfectly predictable results. Nothing we saw changed what we believed — the Cubs are a young and exciting old and interesting embarrassing team, while Red Sox Nation (gack!) is finally on track to contend with the Yanks and Rays.

Baseball’s commenters continue to insist it’s “early” — but if you’re a Boston Red Sox fan, the clock is ticking. With the Nationals rained out in St. Louis, it seemed as good a time as any to check out Boston’s best, switching the channel from the MASN St. Louis broadcast to CSN California, where the struggling Bosox were facing off against Oakland’s Brett Anderson, one of the best young pitchers in the game. The Red Sox have always had difficulties against Anderson and, as it turns out, last night was no different, as Anderson and the A’s shut down the Red Sox 5-0.

The difference in the game was Anderson — who threw eight complete innings of four hit ball, burying his curve and baffling Bosox hitters. Boston’s best flailed away, notching eight strike outs while Anderson walked one. The good news for Boston (if there is such a thing) is that its pitching was strong through seven, with John Lackey returning to form: he looked just fine in six complete, holding the White Elephants to a single run on four hits. But this might not have been the best night to give Hideki Okajima his first outing of the season; the just-returned Okajima threw batting practice to the A’s light hitting roster, and they lit him up (.2 innings, two hits, three runs — that’s a 40.50 ERA).

“It’s awful early,” Sox manager Terry Francona said after the game. “It’s a small sample, but their guy just pitched a great game tonight. They’re a hot staff right now.” Well, it’s not that early — and while the Sox are hardly out of it in the A.L. East (and yeah, there’s still a long way to go), their best hitters are struggling (the team is 10th of 14 in the A.L.), and their pitching is nowhere to be seen (they’re dead last in the A.L. in team ERA). You can see their struggles in their eyes: Carl Crawford looks like he’s been hit with a shovel, and Kevin Youkilis shakes his head after nearly every poor inning.

So here’s the question: is it that Brett Anderson was that good — or that Boston just can’t get on track? For Francona, the glass is still half full: don’t worry, Boston is recovering from its early season woes (he says), they just ran into a tough young pitcher. But for Boston fans, that reassuring message is getting harder and harder to believe. Anderson is only the beginning. The A’s have the best young staff in the game (Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, reclamation project Brandon McCarthy — oh, and Dallas Braden and his temporary replacement, Tyson Ross) and Boston is 0-7 on the road. It might not seem likely, but it’s possible that Boston will emerge from the caverns of the Oakland Coliseum with a record of 5-13. In which case, it’ll be damned hard for the Back Bay faithful to do anything but panic.