You could almost hear the sizzle of doubt at Nationals Park last night: uber sub Jerry Hairston was being shipped to Milwaukee, Jason Marquis was considering boarding the red eye for Arizona, Roger Bernadina and Drew Storen were wondering whether they should make plans to rent an apartment in Minnesota and (worst of all), Yunesky Maya was preparing to take the mound for the slumping Washington Nationals. So there it was: a loss for sure.

But just hours later, Maya was celebrating his best outing of the year (and preparing for a stint on the disabled list — or in the minors), Davey Johnson was going on about “a very good ballgame,” Jayson Werth was being interviewed as “the player of the game” on MASN — and Roger Bernadina and Drew Storen were still plying their trade for the Washington franchise.

The short story is that Jayson Werth won the Nationals’ tilt against the New York Metropolitans with an attitude-lifting three-run first inning homer (it was all the Nationals would need in their 3-0 win), Maya pitched effectively through 5.1 innings and closer phenom Drew Storen registered his 26th save. It was hard to determine who was more happy: Werth or Maya.

“I’m tired of saying I’m close, but I’m working in the right direction,” Werth said following the victory. “I know why, I guess — it’s just a matter of having the right swing during the game.” Like Werth, Maya was in a sort of a rehab — spending most of the season trying to command his fastball and pick up his in-game pitching pace. On Saturday, all of that worked well: he threw 78 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Wilson Ramos went 3-3 in last night’s 3-0 win, proof positive that he remains amongst the Nationals’ most streaky hitters. He’s 5 for 6 over his last two games, which follows a stint in which he went 1 for 24. The Twins must have “traders” remorse. We read somewhere that Ramos’ name has been mentioned as one of the players the Twins would like to get in any trade for Denard Span. That would be a “no” . . .

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Here’s the story in Cincinnati and, for Reds’ fans, it sounds all too familiar: a well-stocked, heavy hitting and young team just can’t seem to put it all together and struggles through a season of lost opportunities. That was the story in the “lost decade” after Cincinnati’s last world championship, and Reds fans fear it could be the story now.

The thing that has Reds’ fans depressed is that this might be the best Reds team that’s been fielded in the last decade or so — and perhaps better than last year’s Central Division winners. The Reds have an MVP at first base (Joey Votto), and All Star at second (Brandon Phillips) and another at third (Scott Rolen) and bunch of long ball swingers in the outfield — masher Jay Bruce (21 home runs), better-than-just-okay Jonny Gomes, uber fill-in Chris Heisey and behemoth Drew Stubbs.

That’s a lot of lumber and it shows: the Reds are first in the N.L. in runs scored, fourth in homers, fifth in batting average, and fourth in on base percentage. In spite of this, the team is struggling. They were shut out twice this week by the Pirates, scoring just four runs in four games. Everyone was slumping. When that happens to good teams, the skipper shifts gears by juggling the line-up and hopes that his pitching staff begins to produce. The problem in Cincinnati is that Dusty Baker doesn’t have much of a pitching staff — or, rather, Cincinnati pitching is all potential and no performance.

The lone exception to this has been Johnny Cueto, who turned in a stellar performance yesterday against the Bucs. Nothing-but-strikes righty Cueto, with the semi-Luis Tiant wind-up, threw for six innings and gave up only four hits — a vindication of a Reds’ front office that has waited for him to be a star. The undersized and underrated righty might now be ready. Finally.

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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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Ubaldo Jimenez looked like his old self on Saturday night, holding the Nationals to just five hits and one run in eight innings — and notching a 2-1 win for his Colorado Rockies. Jimenez, who is suffering through a 4-8 season and an unusually high (4.14) ERA, looked like the Ubaldo Jimenez of last year, when his up-in-the-eyes fastball was the talk of the league. The Nationals loss, meanwhile, squandered a solid outing from former Rockies’ hurler Jason Marquis, who toughed out six innings, giving up two runs to the often run-starved Heltons.

Despite Jimenez’s dazzling performance, the Nationals were within 90 feet of tying the game and a long bomb away from winning it. But slumping star Jayson Werth couldn’t keep the ball out of the glove of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who turned a double play to end the game. Werth, who is mired in a season-long slump, has been booed by Nationals’ fans this year, but no more so than on Saturday, as he stood beyond first after hitting into his game ending double play.

But for Washington, the problem was not Werth — it was the Rockies’ staring pitcher. “He’s filthy,” Johnson said of Jimenez. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the league. We’ve been swinging the bats pretty good, but he calmed us down quite a bit. I think we outhit them, just couldn’t score.”

The Nationals loss marked their third loss in a row — all of them by one run. That mini-streak had been preceded by three wins, all of them also by one run. “Right now, we’re living and dying by the one-run game,” shortstop Ian Desmond, who was 2-3 with a triple, noted. “These one-run games are just flukes. It’s one of those things, but it will turn around for us.”

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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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You’d have to be out of your mind to think that the return of Ryan Zimmerman — scheduled to start for the Nationals tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals — won’t make a difference. He’s a “game changer,” as Adam Kilgore wrote this morning — and Kilgore produced the stats to show it: “Last season,” Kilgore notes, ” . . . Zimmerman accounted for 7.2 wins above replacement. If Zimmerman had kept that performance consistent this season . . . his performance would have been worth 2.6 wins over 58 games.” There’s that, and it’s impressive.

But Nats’ fans will tell you that Zimmerman’s value to the team is much more intangible — and important. He puts people in the stands (Zimmerman jerseys are ubiquitous at Nationals’ Park, nearly every kid names him as their favorite player and the team takes every opportunity to promote him), and he’s a strong presence in the clubhouse. It’s almost as if he’s the conscience of the team: if he were to suddenly announce that he’d lost faith in the ownership, the resulting deflation would be nearly fatal for the Lerners. So long as he has confidence in the Nationals . . . well, the fans will too.

There was just a whiff early in the season that somehow Jayson Werth might take on the role of team leader but, while Werth is an invaluable first-to-third spark, he’s apparently too phlegmatic (or aloof) to be the team leader. And, since Michael Morse is “too new,” Ivan Rodriguez “too old,” Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa “too young” (and Stephen Strasburg “too injured”) that leaves Zim.

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Sooner or later this was bound to happen: on Sunday afternoon in Miami, the Nationals couldn’t hit, couldn’t pitch — and  they couldn’t catch up to the Florida Marlins, who took a “no contest” contest 8-0. Marlins’ hurler Anibal Sanchez was the difference in the game, throwing seven innings of two hit baseball and registering 11 strikeouts. “He was outstanding and he’s had our number,” Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman said of Sanchez. “There’s really not much more to say about it.” Sanchez is now a superhuman 6-0 when facing the Nats.

The Sanchez performance seemed emblematic of the team’s problems so far this year. The Nats put very few balls in play, accounting for a famished four hits over nine innings. If there was good news it was that Michael Morse seemed to be renewed after an early season slump — he was 2-4 on an afternoon when everyone else struggled. After more than several good outings, Washington starter Livan Hernandez also had trouble, throwing five innings in giving up eight hits and six runs.

The bullpen wasn’t much better, with Todd Coffey, Brian Broderick and Henry Rodriguez giving up five hits and two earned. The book on Rodriguez was open for all to see: he walked three and struck out two. “We won the series, and that’s positive,” Hernandez said. “We won two games and lost today because I pitched bad.” The Nationals now head to Atlanta to face the red-hot Braves in a three game series. The Braves emerged from Philadelphia yesterday with a victory, taking two of three from the Ponies on the road.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Watching the Giants spin their magic against the Purples has become a kind of obsession. Yesterday the Giants completed an oh-so-easy sweep of the Heltons, with Ryan Vogelsong spinning a one hit, 6.1 inning 3-0 masterpiece. Who? Vogelsong was drafted in the 5th round by the Giants in 1998, pitched for the Pirates starting in 2001 and then took his arm to Japan, where he threw for the Hanshin Tigers. He put in a stint with the Phillies before returning to San Francisco, where he is currently slotted in the rotation in place of the injured Barry Zito.

Sunday was probably Vogelsong’s best outing — he threw 99 pitches, gave up one hit and struck out four. He had a perfect game heading into the sixth, broken up by a Chris Iannetta single. Jorge De La Rosa started for the Rockies, but couldn’t solve Cody Ross, who homered in the sixth. Having faced the best the Giants have to offer this season (Lincecum, Cain and Bumbarner) and coming up empty, the Rockies should have feasted off of Vogelsong. They didn’t, and they were be sick about it. “There’s not a whole lot to speak when you get three hits and two are by your catcher and the other comes with two outs in the ninth inning,” Colorado manager Jim Tracy said. “We virtually had no opportunities.” The Rockies limp home, the Giants breathing over their shoulder.