The Washington Nationals swept the three game series against the Diamondbacks, with a decisive 9-2 skinning of the rattlers on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park. The victory followed a thrilling 5-2 win on Saturday. The Nats have now won eight in a row and will get a day off before embarking on a semi-extended road trip. In both of the last two games an otherwise shakey starting rotation provided consistent outings — with Garrett Mock beating Dan Heren on Saturday and J.D. Martin besting Yusmeiro Petit on Sunday. It was both Mock and Martin’s first major league victories. Mock and Martin were not overpowering, but they were good enough to allow Nats’ interim manager Jim Riggleman to mix-and-match a bullpen that had been putting in extra innings. The Nats bats continue to heat up: Adam Dunn hit his 30th home run on Sunday, Ryan Zimmerman went 3-5, and Alberto Gonzalez seems to be rediscovering his swing — he went 2-4 on Sunday.

The bats of Dunn, Guzman, Zimmerman, Morgan and Willingham — at the heart of the Nats’ order — figured big in both games: accounting for six of Washington’s eight hits on Saturday and nine of 16 hits on Sunday. But the key to Washington’s sweep of the Diamondbacks may well have been Elijah Dukes, who notched ten RBIs of a total of 21 runs the ballclub scored. Dukes unlikely resurgence makes up, at least in part, for the departure of Nick Johnson to the Marlins. Equally impressive was the Nats’ newest find: reliever Jorge Sosa. The former Braves, Cardinals and Mets journeyman pitched 2.1 innings on Sunday, which followed a one inning no-hit-no-run relief effort on Saturday. It’s clear that the deceptive Sosa has found a place at the back of the Nats’ bullpen. He may even vie, at some point, with Mike MacDougal for the closers’ role.

Why are the Nats suddenly playing so well . . .? The answer seems obvious: good pitching, timely hitting, good defense. All that. For sure. But then, you know (and, I mean, this is just a suggestion) it’s pretty hard to ignore the role played by this guy:

Down On Half Street: The Boston Globe is reporting that the Boston Red Sox, reeling from their slapping at the hands of the New York Gothams, have reportedly put a claim in on Nationals’ shortstop Cristian Guzman, who has been placed on waivers. The Nats can either pull Guzman back, let him go, or work out a deal sometime in the next 48 hours. The Red Sox have had trouble filling their hole at short — Julio Lugo is gone to St. Louis and Jed Lowrie is on the DL . . . I haven’t met a Sox fan yet who isn’t absolutely ecstatic about getting rid of Lugo: “thank God he’s gone,” they say. And you can see why. I mean, his replacement (the aforementioned) is like ”the second coming” of the second coming: except that he’s hitting .143. Oh no, what will they do without him? . . . Hey, maybe they should trade Clay “can miss” Buchholz (ERA: 5.33) and a boatload of other “can’t miss” players for Roy Halladay, who’s only the best pitcher in baseball . . ..  Nahhhhhh .   

We are pleased to announce that there’ll be a twenty minute special report on Lowrie’s status on Boston Red Sox ”Baseball Tonight,” right after the fifteen minute special on David Ortiz (which follows the sixteen minutes on the Bosox vs. the Bronx series, which is the single most important baseball series this year — not counting the Angels-Rangers tilt going on right now too, of course), so be sure to stay tuned for that compelling report . . . and, oh yes, later on in the program, we’ll be presenting our special segment, “that’s not television, that’s boring”  . . . speaking of the DL. It could be bad news for Nats’ starter Jordan Zimmermann, who is experiencing continued elbow soreness. He is scheduled to have x-rays of the elbow examined further on Monday by the nation’s leading baseball orthopedist Dr. James Andrews. Andrews isn’t examing the elbow, mind you, he’s so good all he needs to do is look at the x-rays. In any event, this is not good news . . . but hey, here’s my question and it’s damned important: do you think that Joba Chamberlain should stay as a starter, or go back to the bullpen? huh? huh? huh? do ya? do ya? do ya? . . .

The Washington Nationals won their six straight game, coming from five runs down to beat Jon Garland and the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 on Friday night at Nationals Park. The Nats were keyed by Josh Willingham’s seventh inning bases-loaded single that put the Nats up 7-5. The Nats won despite another poor outing for their starter. Collin Balester started the game, but gave up five runs on eight hits to the rattlers in a little over four innings. Once again the Nationals were able to overcome the deficit because of the hot bats in the middle of their line-up; Ryan Zimmerman hit his 24th home run, Willingham went 3-4, and Elijah Dukes had three RBIs. The Nats’ bullpen had another strong outing, reversing the team’s early season trend. Returning reliever Saul Rivera — just recalled to the big club from Syracuse — pitched one-and-two-thirds solid innings and Mike “Heart Attack” MacDougal faced eight batters to get the last five outs. MacDougal, whose control seems always suspect, earned his eleventh save.

The Showboats, riding a five game winning streak, provided most of the game’s early fireworks, touching Balester for three home runs – by Mark Reynolds, Josh Whitesell and Stephen Drew. Balester admitted after the game that he was leaving the ball up in the strike zone. “The starting staff knows that it has to give the offense and the bullpen a little bit of a break,” Balester added. “The bullpen has been great and the offense has been great. John Lannan has been consistent all year, but the rest of us need to step up and go deeper in the ballgames. We know that.” Elijah Dukes had another stellar outing: with a second inning sacrifice fly to score the Nats’ first run and the doubling off the wall in the fourth inning. Dukes eventually scored on a Wil Nieves sacrifce fly.

MacDougal, who had appeared in four of the last five Nats’ games was called on early (after one out in the eighth inning) by interim manager Jim Riggleman. “I had an off day yesterday, so it was good,” MacDougal said after the game. “I was trying to get quick outs.” The hard-luck MacDougal seems to have hit his stride: the former Kansas City and Chicago White Sox reliever has thrown nearly 33 innings in 35 games for the Nats, recording eleven saves in 12 opportunities. The former Wake University star’s best year was 2003, when he registered 24 saves for the Kansas City Royals by mid-season and appeared in the all-star game. MacDougal has had to battle through some tough times in his career: he was struck by a bat and lost feeling in his right arm in 2001, lost his relief job with the Royals after battling the flu in 2004, and battled injuries while with the Pale Hose in 2006. He was released by the White Sox and signed a minor league deal with the Nationals last May.

"Heart Attack" MacDougal now has 11 saves

The Nats won their fifth in a row, sweeping the reeling Florida Marlins 12-8 at Nationals Park. With the exception of shaky starting pitching (Craig Stammen lasted an inning-and-two-thirds, giving up five runs on six hits), the Nationals seemed to be hitting on all cylinders. The key word is “hitting” — the Anacostia nine accounted for twelve runs on fourteen hits, with the red hot Ryan Zimmerman going 4 for 4. After struggling at the plate since his recall from Syracuse, Elijah Dukes’s bat came alive: the former Floridian battered Phish pitching for four RBIs and three hits, accounting for two runs and raising his BA to .247. The Florida bullpen flopped around all afternoon. Former Nats’ reliever Luis Ayala was snagged with four runs in one inning of work, while Brian Sanches had a blown save. Phish starter Chris Volstad couldn’t make it out of the fourth; the Nats hooked him for seven runs, four of them earned.

Down on Half Street: Anderson Hernandez was traded to the Mets for a minor league second baseman. The Nats grew disenchanted with Hernandez, a point made clear when Manny Acta said he would be spending time on the bench to make way for Alberto Gonzalez, who would get more playing time. It slowly dawned on Hernandez that he was not going to be the team’s second baseman of the future. He pouted and the front office decided he had to go. He was dealt to the Mets; who need him. Chokes’ players are not only having problems in the field, they’re having problems walking down the dugout steps. Luis Castillo was the latest Mets’ player hit with the inexplicable team injury bug: he suffered a slight strain when he dodged a pair of shoes on his way to the pine. The Nats had high hopes for Anderson, at one pointing envisioning him and Alberto Gonzalez as a good combination up the middle . . . 

Speaking of injuries, last night on MLB network, color analyst and former reliever Mitch Williams said that the “freakiest” injury he ever saw took place even before the season started, when Texas pitcher Oddibe McDowell cut his hand trying to butter a dinner roll during the team’s “Welcome Home” luncheon. He was slated to start for the Rangers in their home opener the next day, but instead went on the 15 day DL . . .

Ryan Zimmerman is sizzling after seeing his average dip precipitously following the all star break. His power has also returned. Here’s my theory: all this stuff about “he’s now opening his hips better,” or “he’s seeing the ball better,” or ”he’s not dipping his back shoulder any more” or (and I love this one) “he’s bringing his bat through the hitting zone better” is a load — the kind of incoherence I associate with this guy. Analysts should be called on their bass ackwards explanations: Zim is starting to hit, so therefore he must be seeing the ball better. Of course he’s seeing the ball better; if he were seeing the ball worse he’d be in a slump. My theory is that a rising tide lifts all boats — Willingham and Dunn’s good at-bats have had a team-wide impact. Truth is, Zim was hanging his head a little bit at the end of July, but not anymore. That’s what winning does . . . then too, Carl Yastrzemski hit .278 in 1966 and .326 in 1967. That’s forty-eight points. What — did his eyesight improve? Did he start “squaring his hips”?  . . . The Nats picked up Daryle Ward and Norris Hopper from the Pale Hose today. Ward is a good pinch hitter. Then too, he’s only 34 . . .