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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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.

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This is what the Nationals must have had in mind when the team came out of Florida after Spring Training: the lead-off hitter would get aboard and the big bats further down in the line-up would hit for power and average in providing the surge needed for a victory. That’s what the Nationals did, finally, in Colorado on Friday, banging out 15 hits to support the steady pitching of Jordan Zimmermann. The result was a much-needed 5-3 victory.

The Nationals’ barrage was led by a revived Rick Ankiel (who was 3-5, and seems to be settling in in the lead-off spot) and Ian Desmond, who was 4-4. The Nationals were able to chip away at the Rockies, scoring single runs in 4th, 5th and 9th innings. Zimmermann, meanwhile, produced another quality start (after two previous shaky outings), throwing 5.2, but giving up only four hits while registering eight strike outs.

The turning point in the game might well have come on a pick-off play engineered by reliever Tyler Clippard. With Chris Nelson aboard with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th and Ian Stewart at the plate, Clippard picked off Nelson for the first out. Moments later, Clippard struck out Stewart. The pick-off ended a potential late-inning rally from the Rockies. Jordan Zimmermann notched his seventh win of the season, Clippard got his 28th hold and Drew Storen his 28th save.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Ramon Ramirez had just about had it with Shane Victorino, so in the 6th inning of last night’s Phillies-Giants match-up, he decided to hit him. The resulting scrum was hardly the donnybrook of yesteryear, but it was sill well outside the bob-and-weave that characterizes these sorts of things. When it was over, Ramirez, Victorino and Giants’ catcher Eli Whiteside were tossed, with suspensions and fines sure to follow.

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The first game of the 2010 World Series wasn’t exactly a pitcher’s duel. The pumped-up Fox Television special of a “classic match-up” between two great pitchers (including one whose post-season numbers were right up there with Sandy Koufax and Christy Mathewson), turned into a sloppy slugfest (six errors, 18 runs and 25 hits) that ranks with some of the worst played games in World Series history. It’s not as if San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy didn’t know it. Bochy all but admitted that the game could have been more cleanly played, but he shrugged philosophically: “We’ll take the win,” he said after the completion of the whirlwind 11-7 tilt. “We were expecting to win,” Ranger Elvis Andrus reflected, “but they played better than us. That’s just the way it is.”

Well, that’s right — the Giants played better than the Rangers. But not by much. While Lee (vying for post-season honors with some of the all-time greats) looked merely human — 4.2 innings, six earned runs — McCovey righty Tim Lincecum pitched like the head-in-the-clouds hippie (5.2 innings, 8 hits, four runs) his detractors criticize him for being: he allowed four hits in the first two innings, gave up a double to the opposing pitcher, and ran a runner back to an unoccupied base. While the post-game Giants touted their dominance over Lee (whose curve just wasn’t working), the truth is that Lincecum looked like he wandered into the game by accident. Then too, you have to believe that without Brian “Beach Boy” Wilson’s shut-em-down appearance (and using him shows you just how desperate Bochy was to finish the game), the contest might have been tied in the 9th — and won by the Texans in the 10th.

There have been plenty of poorly played World Series games (this certainly isn’t the first), and there’s no guarantee that such an indifferently played first contest will mean that this version of “the Fall Classic” won’t be classic. After all, the 1960 Yankees-Pirates series featured two teams with solid rotations who couldn’t pitch a fig when it came to October. The Yankees made the Pirates look silly in three of those games (by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0), but then lost the series on one of baseball’s most exciting moments. That probably won’t happen here, but an 11-7 score is hardly a fair indictation of things to come:  the Giants still boast one of the best staffs in recent post-season history, while the Rangers’ order is capable of putting Mantle-like numbers on the opposing scoreboard. But it’s only a seven game series, and with Cliff Lee’s outing behind them, the Giants have to be optimistic — particularly if they win tonight.

Tim Lincecum struggled on Wednesday — leaving his fastball up in the zone and failing to throw strikes with his curve — allowing the Nationals to score six runs and pound out six hits in taking the second game of a three game stint in San Francisco. Luis Atilano, meanwhile, dominated Giants’ hitters through the first four innings, before San Franciso put together a mini-rally in the fifth. Even with that, San Francisco (which is struggling at the plate) was unable to connect against Atilano, or Washington’s relievers. “Everything was working good,” Atilano said of his performance. “Finally, I was able to command my sinker. I was just throwing sinkers and changeups the first couple of innings. Everything was good. I was happy I finally got back to the point where I was on top of my game. Hopefully, it will keep going like that.” Atilano is now 4-1 on the season — and a surprise for the Nats — while Lincecum lost his first.

There’s no question the Nats need to start hitting. While the Anacostia Nine aren’t having the same problems at the dish as the Giants — who are scrambling to find their rhythm — the team’s anemic performance on Tuesday (two runs on just four hits in a 4-2 loss in San Francisco), serves as a cautionary note for a squad that should be among the NL’s leaders in scoring runs and hitting for average. They’re not. The Nats are in the middle of the pack in the NL in batting average (7th of 16), tenth in RBIs, tenth in hitting the long ball, ninth in walks and 11th in scoring runs. With Ivan Rodriguez on the DL, the team will need to have Wil Nieves step into his shoes not only behind the plate, but in the batter’s box. That doesn’t seem likely. Worse yet, the Nats are near the bottom in fielding (12th of 16), having committed more errors than any team but the Marlins. The good news? Surprise. Surprise. It’s the bullpen. The team leads the league in saves and has been solid in the middle innings. It’s a good thing, with a team ERA at 4.45, the Nats remain desperate for arms that can keep their opponents off the board.

Soylent Green Is People: There was an animated dugout conversation between Tim Lincecum and McCovey manager Bruce Bochy last night after Lincecum was removed from the game. Odds are that Bochy was zinging his ace for his inability to keep runners close at first. The Nats stole four bases on Lincecum, three of them in the top of the 5th and two of them on no-throws from catcher Benjie Molina . . . Rob Dibble’s “intestinal fortitude” speech came in inning 5 last night. This time Dibble’s victim was Luis Atilano. Dibble deemed Atilano’s performance “disappointing.” Really? Atilano gave up two earned and four hits in 5.1 and he might well have pitched a complete 6th if it hadn’t been for a Roger Bernadina misplay in right field. Then too, Atilano was coming off two previous rocky starts and was facing baseball’s best pitcher. What the hell is Dibble talking about? “These kids have to learn, there’s competition up here — they should be pitching like their hair is on fire.” Oh come on: two earned and four hits in 5.1? We’ll take it . . .

Speculation about just when Stephen Strasburg will make his debut is the focus of MLB baseball talk — and the Nats blogosphere. Nats Triple Play says that the Nats front office has been manipulating Strasburg’s debut for contract purposes (check) and to sell out a June 4 Friday night game (check). The Nationals Enquirer (meanwhile) gives the Nats a pass, noting that Mike Rizzo had never said when Strasburg would appear: “Heck, about the only thing the Nationals are guilty of is not stepping in sooner to squash the speculation around June 4th. And really: why should they have? It was only last night that anyone from the Nationals even mentioned June 4 as a possibility; and it was Rizzo denying that this date was written in stone.” Still, there’s a lot of anger on fan forums about the June 4 date. So here’s the deal: don’t listen to the Nats, listen to the pundits. About a month ago, baseball guru Tim Kurkjian had Strasburg starting against the Ahoys on June 10. That sounded about right, but Kurkjian might have been off by about two days. My bet is Strasburg will be on the mound on the 8th . . . so here’s a question: what happens if “the next big thing” gets hit around and Rigs has to pull him in the 4th? Let’s not kid ourselves — there are no guarantees . . .

How odd is it that, just over forty games into the season, the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants — teams so different in outlook, history and raw talent — would have almost identical records? And yet there it is: after suffering through a gut-wrenching five game losing streak, the Giants (predicted in the pre-season as one of the elite teams of the NL West), are one game over .500, as are the Nats (at 23-22). If the Giants are so much better than the Nats (as baseball analysts would have once claimed), then why are they playing so poorly?

At least a part of the answer became obvious on Sunday, as the McCoveys struggled through yet another punchless contest — registering a terminally fatal 0-18 with runners in scoring position and suffering their second consecutive shutout. The loss was particularly hard to swallow, as it came against their White Elephant rivals across the Bay, who not only swept the interleague series, but made the Giants look downright silly. Here’s the key, at least according to San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy: the Giants can hit, but only sometimes and even when they do, it’s not when runners are in a position to score.

Giants fans are becoming impatient: with one of the most formidable starting rotations in all of baseball, the Giants should be winning decisively. They’re not. Bochy has responded to the team’s hitting drought by shaking up the McCovey’s batting order: dropping outfielder Aaron Rowand into the sixth spot and moving speedster Andres Torres to the head of the line-up. But even Bochy has doubts this will work — San Francisco’s problem is that it lacks hitters who can hit for power and average. Pablo Sandoval is San Francisco’s premier (and popular) young power hitter, but his batting average stands at .282 — hardly something to brag about. Aaron Rowand, signed as a free agent to anchor the outfield and drive in runs, is hitting just .242 while import Freddy Sanchez is struggling to remain above the Mendoza line.

A comparison between a line-up struggling to generate runs and one that knows how to put them on the board is sobering. The Giants have put 33 dingers into the seats, the Nats 39; the Giants are hitting an anemic .257, the Nats are chugging along at .265 — the Giants have driven in 160 runs, the Nats 191. Which is to say: a San Francisco front office that boasts a starting rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Zito and Sanchez (truly, the Nats have no one to compare), is now having to scramble to find someone comparable to Willingham, Dunn, Zimmerman and Guzman — anyone of whom would add more power and average to the Giants line-up than anyone they currently have. Which is why, in the weeks ahead, the Giants will begin to search for the hitting they will so desperately need to catch the Friars and Trolleys for the NL West flag. They must know — the price will be high.