Jordan Zimmermann (with help from Ryan Mattheus, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen) pitched Washington to a 2-0 shutout win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday — a victory that ensured that the Anacostia Nine will finish the first half of the 2011 campaign at .500. The Nationals’ win came on a broken bat single by Roger Bernadina that scored Ian Desmond. Rick Ankiel added a solo home run for the second score.

Zimmermann’s outing ended after a single out in the 7th inning — much to the puzzlement of fans — after breezing through the Colorado line-up. Zimmermann was never in any trouble in the game, but Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson wanted to go his bullpen to seal the victory. “I’m sure everybody in the stands thought I gave him a quick hook,” Johnson said. “And it probably was.”

Zimmermann has emerged as Washington’s staff ace and his win was his sixth of the season. “When you’re in a close game, you never really are too sure what’s going to happen, but Jordan was phenomenal,” Washington reliever Tyler Clippard said. “He’s kind of proven to everyone in the league what kind of pitcher he is, and what kind of pitcher we all knew he could be.” Zimmermann’s record now stands at 6-7, but his ERA is a sparkling 2.66.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The regular announcing crew of Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball laced into the New York Mets last night during the Mets-Giants telecast from San Francisco. The criticisms were breathtaking: Valentine went after the coaching staff on placement of outfielders, Hershiser talked about Pelfrey’s “questionable” delivery (“he has no foundation”), and both went after Daniel Murphy’s indifferent defense at third base: “he’s very tentative over there” . . .

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Carlos Beltran’s two home runs and a misplayed fly ball tamed the Washington Nationals in New York on Saturday, 8-4. The loss spoiled a fine first-outing for lefty Tom Gorzelanny, who could not make it through the sixth inning. While Beltran’s home runs were important, they were not the difference in the game. In fact, even with Beltran providing a spark, the contest might well have gone the other way: after Gorzelanny walked David Wright to start the bottom of the 6th, Jerry Hairston, Jr. misplayed a Beltran fly ball that would have kept Wright at first with one out. Ike Davis followed and tripled to right-center. The Nats could not catch the Mets thereafter, with double-plus bad rookie reliever Brian Broderick entering the game and allowing the Mets another two runs.

This is one the Nats could have won. Beltran’s first dinger followed an inside fastball that should have been called a strike. Beltran put the next pitch into the left field seats, angering Gorzelanny, who questioned the call. And if Hairston had snagged Beltran’s fly in the 6th, Gorzelanny might have been able to preserve the victory. Hairston said that he thought center fielder Rick Ankiel was coming in behind him to take the fly: “At the last second, I felt something that he may go after it. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. I just missed it. Flat out. I just put us behind the eight ball tonight.” If there was good news from the loss, it was that Gorzelanny pitched well, establishing himself as a solid starter. The third game in the series will pit the Nats against the Mets at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon.

Pass The Warm Milk: Washington insomniacs should do what we do — after watching the scintillating Nats, switch over on “MLB Extra Innings” to a Cardinals west coast game, where play-by-play announcer Dan McLaughlin and color commentator Al Hrabosky are baseball’s version of Ambien. Last night, in what had to be one of the most exciting games of the young season (a 3-2 San Francisco win on a walk-off double in the bottom of the 9th), Dopey and Sleepy could hardly contain their excitement: “That’s a bloop to right field,” McLaughlin said, describing a Mark DeRosa hit in the bottom of the fifth. “Yeah, but it’s a lucky hit,” Hrabosky added. A run scored, but you would have never known it: the two announcers were silent for the next 60 seconds. “Okay, next up,” McLaughlin said.

In truth, watching “Fox Sports Midwest” (which becomes “FS Cardinals” during St. Louis broadcasts), provides a kind of discipline for fans: the lack of on-screen stats, or even information on who’s at the plate, keeps you on your toes. Last night, if you weren’t keeping score you wouldn’t have had a clue, and you wouldn’t have been alone. “Who’s this?” Hrabosky asked, at one point. “Rasmus,” McLaughlin answered. Tick. Tick. Tick. “Oh yeah, listen this guy’s got a lot of tools,” Hrabosky answered. Compared to FS Whatever, MASN is a dream — with all kinds of useful information, including a font that tells you who’s actually at the plate. The pinnacle of last night’s in-booth commentary came when McLaughlin and Hrabosky wrestled with a “fan question.” So, what’s a waiver wire? “It’s when a team no longer wants a player and other teams get to see whether they want him,” Hrabosky answered. “But there are lots of waiver wires,” McLaughlin added. “Oh sure,” Hrabosky said.

Whew.

Thankfully, while McLaughlin and Hrabosky are verbally challenged, the Cards-Giants match-up was fascinating. While the Giants squeaked out a nail-biter, the contest should have made it clear to the Cardinal faithful that it’s going to be a long season. St. Louis is a team headed in the other direction: GM John Mozeliak used the off-season to plug holes, acquiring Ryan Theriot to play short, trading Brendan Ryan to Seattle, signing Lance Berkman to play right and bringing in Gerald Laird as a back-up behind the plate. This was heady activity, if not quite useful: the Cubs and Dodgers had problems trying to figure out whether Theriot should play second or short (Ryan is better defensively) and Berkman’s time in the outfield passed several years ago. What the Cardinals really needed was another pitcher, a fact made clear when Adam Wainwright went down in February with a rotting elbow.

Wainwright was only the beginning: hefty hitter Matt Holliday took a week to deal with a swollen appendix and oft-injured head case David Freese (car accident, surgery, DUI, deep bruise, lost weight, damaged tendons), is giving way to someone named Daniel Descalso at third. The Cardinals haven’t had a third baseman since Scotty Rolen did his Hatfield and McCoy routine with Tony La Russa, haven’t had a shortstop since Ozzie did back flips. In this sense, at least, watching the Cardinals is instructive for Nats fans, whose infield is better at all positions except for first, where it’s cheaper. Last night’s Cardinals line-up told the tale: with Descalso, Tyler Greene (subbing for Theriot), Skip Schumaker and Pujols around the horn, Yadier Molina behind the plate, and Jon Jay, Colby Rasmus and Lance Berkman in the outfield. That’s fourth place waiting to happen.

Jordan Zimmermann pitched into the sixth inning, the Nats rapped out nine hits, and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez got two badly needed RBIs for his first hit of the season as the Washington Nationals surged past the New York Mets, 6-2, on Friday. It now seems all but certain that the young, but steady, Zimmermann is a commanding influence in the Nats’ starting rotation — which has been outstanding in the 2011 campaign’s early going. Zimmermann added to his own growing resume with an unexpected, but badly needed, two run RBI single of his own in the second inning. The victory brought the Nationals to 3-4 in the young season, with the team adding to their own legendary mastery of the Mets. The Nats are now 6-3 in their last nine games against the Metropolitans.

Once again the bullpen was superb, providing the Nationals with 3.2 innings of one hit baseball, while striking out three and walking two. The only unsteady presence was Chad Gaudin, who is having problems mastering the strike zone. The key contributor in the pen once again was Tyler Clippard, who is emerging as one of baseball’s most effective relievers. Clippard came on in relief of Gaudin, with runners on second and third and one out — and retired the side. “In those situations, you have to set the tone and throw strikes. I was able to do that,” Clippard said. “The last few outings, I’m trying to build some confidence. We have been playing good ball. We tried to change the momentum today and get it on our side. I made some good pitches to where we were able to do that.”

Trouble For The Kings of Queens: You can see why Mets fans are worried. Friday’s win came at the expense of Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, one of the mainstays of the shaky Mets rotation. But Dickey has problems of his own, including a nagging nail problem that hampers his control. New manager Terry Collins lifted Dickey for this reason, despite the pitcher’s claim that he could go another inning. “I tried to hang in there as long as I could,” Dickey said. Other post-game comments centered on Carlos Beltran, who started in right field at Citi Field for the first time in his career. Beltran told the press that he felt “comfortable” in right and that he is seeing the ball well at the plate. It’s good that Beltran is seeing the ball well, but that’s not the issue — the issue is whether he can run. And the answer is that he can’t: Beltran’s knees are wobbly, which is clear every time he takes the field.

This isn’t the only worry for Mets fans. The continuing financial problems of the Wilpons mean that the Mets will not be able to afford the kind of acquisitions the team desperately needs, the starting rotation is stocked with question marks, Ike Davis is not turning into the kind of superstar Mets fans had hoped for, the farm system is thin-thin-thin, the team is crippled by hefty salaries for so-so players (like Francisco Rodriguez, who was booed by the fans during team introductions on Friday), the team’s ace (Johan Santana) may not pitch at all this season, no one knows when Jason Bay will return (or whether he’ll return as the Jason Bay of old), and “ace” Mike Pelfrey might be imploding.

There is good news: Jose Reyes is healthy, David Wright remains an elite third baseman and the bullpen is young and strong. And new manager Terry Collins (not known for his patience) might be just the kind of go-get-em personality the team needs. Still, Met fans are likely to be disappointed by the team in the coming campaign and it may be past time (as one scout told Sports Illustrated) for the franchise to “blow it up and start over.”

Sooner or later there was bound to be an N.L. East team that was worse than the Nationals, and now it turns out there likely will be. This is hardly a palliative for long-suffering Nationals fans, particularly since the death spiral of the team in question has as much to do with its off-field woes as it does with its on-field performance. Or more. The New York Mets have had troubles putting together a coherent line-up for some time now, but news that the Mets’ owners, the Wilpon family, are having trouble balancing the books is probably the last piece of evidence anyone needs to show that the Mets are not what they once were. Of course, we’ve said this before: last year, CFG announced immodestly that the Nats would finish ahead of the Mets in the “N.L. Least” — words that we had to eat ignore when a final accounting came do. Never fear: this is the year of the Nats.

And, in many ways, it’s also the year of the Mets. Rumors started to circulate early last season that the Mets were having financial troubles, the result of Bernie Madoff’s siren song financial promises to Mets owner Fred Wilpon. It’s not known exactly how much Wilpon lost in the Madoff scandal, but it was appreciable enough for Wilpon to ask Major League Baseball for a $25 million loan. Commissioner Bud Selig, a Wilpon fan, tossed over the money, hoping to stabilize the franchise and keep the team out of bankruptcy. It was that bad. Selig then recommended Wilpon hire baseball guru Sandy Alderson — and, as any businessman will tell you, when the bank holding your paper makes a suggestion, you usually take it. As it turns out, the $25 million-plus-Alderson may not be enough. New York newspapers are awash with reports that the team faces a mid-season fire sale of some of its best players just to stay afloat; that, or the Mets will relieve their financial distress by finding new owners.

The impact of this is being felt on the field. New York’s John Delcos’ writes: an ownership transition may be in the works, which means the Mets “will attempt to deal Carlos Beltran this July, doing everything it can from having Francisco Rodriguez’s $17.5 million option kick in, and after the season ridding itself of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo.” Can franchise cornerstone David Wright be far behind? Writing in the New York Post, Joel Sherman says Alderson’s job will be to slash the Mets’ payroll from $140 million to $70 million — which means everything (and everyone) will be on the table. The Wilpons, Sherman writes “are fighting ardently to retain the team, and it would not be unique for an ownership in financial hell to make its costliest players available. For the Mets, that would mean not only the free-agents-to-be, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, but also Jason Bay, Francisco Rodriguez, Johan Santana, and, yes, even seeing what would be available for organizational icon David Wright.”

There isn’t anything here that is fair to Mets’ fans, who don’t like the Wilpons to begin with: they’re the ones who will have to watch as the Mets are made to pay for the Wilpons’ poor judgment. Nor is it particularly just to note that the Chokes (we promised not to use that term, but then . . .) were breaking down even before Bernie’s appearance — Jose Reyes is not the same player he was in 2006, Carlos Beltran continues to fight injuries, David Wright is having trouble hitting the long ball in the new stadium, Johan Santana’s arm is hanging by a thread and Oliver Perez is, well . . . you know. “I don’t think any NL East team would trade all the players in their organization for those of the Mets,” Sherman writes. “Even the Nationals can imagine their next three-to-seven years being better than the Mets’ simply by having Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg under control.” Which is only to conclude with this irony — while Nats fans complain endlessly about the Lerners (the “slow Lerners” as one of our readers recently commented), compared to the Wilpons they look absolutely enlightened.

The Nats need a semi-miracle to pull out a 6-5 victory against the Mets on Friday, but they got one, as a hard bouncing grounder that might have led to a walk-off Mets’ win resulted in the final out in a Nationals’ victory. Closer Mike “Heart Attack” MacDougal knocked down the sharp bounder off the bat of Mets’ hitter Jeff Francoeur and lobbed it to first to give the Nats a much-needed win. With the Nats in the lead and coasting to a victory, MacDougal started the 9th inning with an out, but then pitched himself into trouble: he walked two batters, then gave up a clean single to David Wright and a fielder’s choice smash to Carlos Beltran. Daniel Murphy then hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Ian Desmond — who threw the ball away. Francoeur’s hot grounder up the middle took off MacDougal’s glove and might have ended up in centerfield (and ended the game), but MacDougal speared the ball and threw Francouer out.

 

After playing a flat — and losing — series in Philadelphia, the Nats came alive against the Mets. Ryan Zimmerman hit his 30th home run of the season (the most of his major league career), Josh Willingham hit his 23rd (and ended his three week slump at the plate by going 2-4) and Josh Bard added three RBIs. Bard was the hero of the game: the hobbled catcher was one for three with three RBIs, which included his fifth home run of the season. “I finally got an advantage count for myself. I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Bard said. “I just told myself, ‘Just make sure that you are really aggressive.’ I was able to get a good pitch.” Bard was also key in dampening a Mets rally in the sixth. With the bases loaded Bard, in a close play at the plate, tagged out Carlos Beltran on a short-bounce throw from Josh Willingham in left field. It was the play of the game. J.D. Martin pitched well enough to take the win (giving up two earned runs in 5.1 innings), while Mets fireballer Mike Pelfrey (now 10-11) took the loss.

The Nats head to New York to face the faded and no-account New York Chokes after being swept in three games in Philadelphia. The latest instance of Nats futility was a 4-2 sigh at the hands of Phuzzie lefty Cole Hamels, who appears to have returned to his 2008 end-of-season form. Hamels, pitching like he meant it, had a perfect game through five. Up and down all season, Hamels attributed his good outing to the heat of the pennant race: “I think it’s being able to go out there, knowing what’s at stake,” he said following his outing. “I think anytime September rolls around, and fortunately enough, I’ve been here when we’ve had to win every game. You still have to go out there.” Hamels was aided in his victory by the continued no-show of Washington lumber: Guzman, Zimmerman and Willingham were a combined 2 for twelve against the lefty (Dunn, the only Anacostia bopper who’s actually hitting was given the night off), bringing the middle-of-the-order Nats to a stunning 2 for 27 over the last two games. If there was any good news from the last game of the sweep it was that Ross Detwiler looked passably competent: pitching five innings of four hit ball — for his sixth loss without a win.

The New York Stinks host the Nationals today on the heels of a five game losing streak, which included a just-yesterday three game sweep at the hands of the Chops, and a record of 1-9 over their last ten games. The good news for Mets fans is that they won’t have to suffer through a September collapse this year: they did that all the way back in June. The Mets are in terrible shape. Unlike the Nats, they don’t seem to have a firebrand prospect (Ian Desmond) wowy-zowing the crowd, or a potential game-changing hatchling (Stephen Strasburg) waiting to flap his wings, or a tested and still-young lumberjack (Adam Dunn) that can put the horsehide in the cheap seats. Even the most tried and truly tested Chokes’ fanatics are desperate. We here at CFG say that advisedly because the last time we talked about the Chokes at any great length there were riots in New York. We had to put on our kevlar. We had to call in airstrikes. Even so, we’ll give it another try: so what should the Mets do.

Over at The Real Dirty Mets Blog, Rusty has been going on about shaking up the dugout — a “bold move” that would change the tectonics of Citi Field and give the Moribunds some hope. His recommendation? Bring in Orel Hershiser. Not a bad idea. Hershiser has been in the running for a number of managerial posts (Rusty points out) and he was “a thinking man’s pitcher.” Hershiser might, in fact, be the spark the Mets need to shake up the on-field operations. What I mean to say is this: Jerry Manuel has lost faith in his players, and they’ve returned the favor. Manuel has made a hash of the season (injuries or no injuries) and he’s flapped his mouth on so many things so often that it’s hard to figure out what he really thinks. Worse yet, he doesn’t know how to handle the kids.

In truth, the great collapsable Mets don’t have many young stars that could form the nucleus of a future pennant winner, but even if they did Jerry wouldn’t know what to do with them. I’ll give you three examples. There was a lot riding on Mets Daniel “can’t miss” Murphy this year. The Chokes needed a big bat from one of their youngsters and Murphy was picked to supply it. Unfortunately, after 27 games the Mets’ brain trust (Manuel concurring) decided that Danny boy couldn’t play left (they called him “a disaster”), so they switched him and his leather rag to first, in the apparent belief that playing first is easier. As recently as early August, the Mets were trumpeting what a fantastic move the switch had been. But the shine has worn off and when Murphy made two errors on Wednesday, you could hear the groans all the way to Secaucus. Then too, Murphy’s ”big bat” has disappeared: going AWOL at just about the same time that the genius’s in the Mets front office decided that DM would look great at first. 

The same kind of thing happened to Bobby Parnell, who began his career as a whiz-bang reliever, giving so much hope to Mets’ faithful that they were charting the World Series parade route down Broadway. The Mets finally had the one thing that might have saved them from the Tsunami of their 2007 season: a home grown reliever who enjoyed his job and did it well. So what did the Mets do? They spent a boatload of money on a couple of free agent relievers and took Bobby out of the bullpen and made him a starter: in the belief that anyone who’s a good reliever will be an even better starter. So, how’s that worked out? Since arriving on the mound, Parnell’s ERA is 5.60 and Jerry and Company keep talking about how he’s “a work in progress.” Most recently, the Chokes announced that “the experiment” was over and that Parnell was back behind the fence in center. It was the right decision. No doubt about it. But, as usual, the also-rans did it in exactly the wrong way: they treated it like a demotion. Mets fans blame Parnell for his failure as a starter. Jerry Manuel blames Parnell for his failure as a starter. The GM blames Parnell for his failure as a starter. Now they’ve set him up to fail as a reliever. Guess what: it’s not his fault.

Then there’s Mike Pelfry. The way the Mets have handled Pelfrey tells us all we need to know about the problems with the team. Pelfrey is the one guy (he’s 25) who has the kind of stuff and tenacity the Mets need. He throws hard and shrugs off losses with an I’ll-get-em-next-time attitude. Along with his better-than-average stuff, he’s a gamer who’s only going to get better. Strangely, that’s not good enough for Jerry and Company, who lost faith in Pelfrey in early September after a rocky outing against the . . . Rockies. And things haven’t been quite the same since. This is classic Mets stuff: one or two bad outings and Manuel starts looks like he’s about the weep, the front office issues reassurances to the fans that next year’ll be different and Fred Wilpon passes out radiation sickness tablets. It’s almost as if they’re signaling to Pelfrey that unless he pitches like Johan Santana he’s just no damn good.

But all is not lost. There’s hope in Metsland. Jose Reyes (once the best shortstop in the game) will return in 2010. As will Carlos Beltran. Eric, over a The Real Dirty Mets Blog, thinks that, because of the injuries to Reyes and Beltran in 2009, the Mets won’t trade them, but will try to win with them next year. They’re good, very good — and they’re the core. They’ll give it one more shot. But Eric adds: “I believe that next year will be the last for the core unless they win.” Will they? There’s a reason why you never hear the phrase “good team, bad shortstop,” and it’s because the heart of any winner is the guy up the middle with the soft hands. Reyes has that, and the bat to go with it. If he’s anything like he was just three years ago, the Mets will instantly improve. Add Beltran, a still-in-his-prime long ball hitter and game changer and the Mets (with Johan and Maine and a healthy bullpen) are (arguably) a better-than-.500 team and good enough to challenge for the wild card. But here’s the thing: even with all of that, the Mets need a change in culture and they need it desperately. They might want to start in the dugout.