Twelve hits and four home runs — one dinger each from Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse, Laynce Nix and Danny Espinosa — and the steady and solid pitching of Livan Hernandez provided Washington with a 9-2 victory in Atlanta. The win broke a six game losing streak and helped to erase the troubles the team had in Cincinnati, where they were swept by the Redlegs.

Starter Hernandez, who has been up-and-down all season, spun his magic against a tough Atlanta line-up; he threw seven complete innings of five hit ball, bringing his ERA for the season to 4.29. Both before and after the game, Hernandez (who threw his 50,000th career pitch during the game) talked about his desire to stay in Washington.

“I love to stay here. It’s not about the money because I know I can make more money,” he said following his win. “It’s about I enjoy every day that I am here. I enjoy playing baseball here. It’s where you feel comfortable. I lived before with no money. This is where you feel good.”

Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson was energized by the win. “I love games like that,” Johnson said from the locker room. “Guys were having good at-bats, good swings every time they went up there. That’s what made it real fun.” The Nats accumulated twelve hits during the victory, including three each from Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse. Laynce Nix was 2-4 and hit his 15th, the most he’s had in any season.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Eisler Livan Hernandez Carrera has had an unusually long career. He started with the Florida Marlins after defecting from Cuba in 1995, and played in the 1997 World Series, where he won two games and was awarded the series MVP. He’s played for the Giants, Expos, Nationals, Twins, Rockies and Mets and is acknowledged as one of the best defensive pitchers to play the game (he’s had only eleven errors in his pitching career) . . .

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It’s unfair, really, to use a picture of Jayson Werth below a headline describing the lack of hitting of the Washington Nationals. The right fielder, caught in a year-long slump, seems finally to be snapping out of it — but, with the exception of Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, you can’t say that for the rest of the team.

The Nationals lack of hitting was on full display on Thursday at Nationals Park, as the Florida Marlins completed a three game sweep of the Nationals, plunging the Anacostia Nine further into last place in the N.L. East, and sparking increased talk of what the Nationals might now do as the trade deadline ticks down. And it’s clear: they’re going to do something.

The Marlins’ 5-2 pasting of the Nationals had a little of everything: an indifferent outing from lefty John Lannan (5.2 innings pitched, four earned runs), a missed sign from third base coach Bo Porter (Ian Desmond was thrown out at third for the third out in the fourth), and (outside of Werth and Zimmerman, who accounted for six of Washington’s seven hits) an offense that just didn’t show up.

John Lannan pitched poorly — a bad sign for a staff that is already struggling. “He was all over the place,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of Lannan. “It looked like he was strong coming out. I took him as far as he has been this year, just to save my bullpen. We are all stretched way out right now. Normally, he would have seven or eight innings with those numbers of pitches. It was a struggle.”

The big bats for the Marlins were Mike Stanton (who smacked his 24th home run) and Emilio Bonifacio (who was 2-4 and extended his hitting streak to 26 games). “Realistically, we have to play better baseball,” Jayson Werth said after the loss. “We still have to hit and drive in runs, and we haven’t done that all year. If you want to win, you have to score.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: How ’bout them Mets? The New Yorkers waltzed into Cincinnati on Monday with rumors of trades swirling through the clubhouse and promptly took four games from the Reds — who are suddenly stuck in reverse. Forget New York’s pitching, the team scored ten yesterday on 14 hits, downing the Sparkys 10-9. The Madoffs are now surging, and remaking their roster at the same time . . .

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The Nationals mounted a furious rally against the visiting Florida Marlins during the ninth inning last night at Nationals Park — but it wasn’t furious enough to top the Hanleys, who snagged the Nats, 7-5. As in his previous most recent starts, Nats’ righty Livan Hernandez was inconsistent — as opposed to the normally shaky Javier Vazquez, who was able to hold down Nationals hitters through seven innings of competent, if not brilliant, work.

The Nationals’ bottom-of-the-ninth rally came on a triple from Ian Desmond, a Jerry Hairston single, an Alex Cora walk, a Ryan Zimmerman triple, a Michael Morse single — and a Laynce Nix fly ball to the warning track in right field that was just feet away from being a game-tying home run.

The Nationals have reached the dog days of the season in the doldrums: Livan Hernandez pitched only four complete innings, reliever Todd Coffey gave up three hits and a run in 1.1 innings, and Drew Storen gave up a two run home run in the ninth inning to newly arrived Marlin Mike Cameron. “The bats just woke up too late,” Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said after the loss.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Carlos Beltran is going to the Giants, in exchange for wunderkind-to-be Zach Wheeler. While everyone is talking about how Beltran is going to help the McCoveys (providing a big bat in the middle of their anemic hitting line-up), the Mets were able to get a young and formidable arm. This was a good trade for the Metropolitans.

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It’s now official: the Washington Nationals are in one of the worst funks of their 2011 campaign, having lost seven of ten games coming out of the All-Star break. The latest exercise in futility came on Tuesday night, as all aspects of the Nationals’ game came up short against the division rival Florida Marlins, who tamed the flopping Nats by a decisive 11-2 score.

The game got out of hand early, as the normally sparkling Jordan Zimmermann suffered through his second consecutive mediocre start. The young righty gave up six earned runs in 6.2 innings, struggling with his command. But the game was put out of reach by the Marlins, who smacked thirteen hits to back the three hit pitching of Ricky Nolasco and three relievers. Henry Rodriguez, who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, pitched poorly in relief (three hits and five runs in just one-third of an inning), though Sean Burnett, Todd Coffey and Ryan Mattheus remained steady.

Zimmermann admitted to his subpar outing: “It’s one of those games where I need to put it behind me and turn the page,” Zimmermann said following the loss. “The last two innings, I really picked up the tempo. I felt a lot better. I just feel I have to pick up the tempo from the start and do a lot better.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Nationals swapped two minor league prospects for Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes, in an apparent effort to meet Davey Johnson’s requirement for a right handed bat off the bench. Gomes is a solid hitter who is struggling with a .211 BA and eleven home runs in 256 plate appearances this year. The club game up outfielder Bill Rhinehart and left hander Chris Manno . . .

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With the MLB trade deadline looming, rumors of what the Washington Nationals will — and won’t — do are now beginning to circulate. This morning, commenter and analyst Buster Olney, wrote that “the dam is about ready to burst on the trade market,” with teams looking for a way to help themselves (or wave the white flag), before the end of July. The Tigers are looking for pitching, the Philllies are looking for a bat, and Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez is on everyone’s radar screen.

What will the Nationals do? G.M. Mike Rizzo isn’t exactly saying, though he notes that the team could be “both buyers and sellers” at the trade deadline. We have no clue what that means, which was obviously Rizzo’s intent. Still, the Nationals have been actively talking about acquiring a lead-off hitter (Michael Bourn’s name has been mentioned), and they have apparently inquired about Tampa’s B.J. Upton. There was even talk that the Nationals are willing to trade All-Star reliever Tyler Clippard in an attempt to answer some of their outfield problems.

There’s no question, a B.J. Upton trade would be intriguing: back in mid-June, Ken Rosenthal said that Upton could be had for the right price — with the Nationals ponying up a hot young infield prospect in a package with Clippard that would bring the then-struggling Upton to Washington. Rosenthal’s thinking was compelling: if the Rays fall out of contention, they could off-load Upton, and save themselves some future bucks. Hmmmmm. And, as Rosenthal noted then: Todd Coffey is being eyed by a number of teams who need a good righty out of the bullpen.

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By now, you’d think, baseball pundits would stop talking about how John Lannan has “arrived,” and finally admit that the lefty is actually a veteran — and with enough command of the strike zone (and his own pitches) to be seen as a savvy and wily hurler who can provide key victories in key situations. In that sense, at least, what Lannan did with Seattle hitters on Wednesday is not a surprise: Lannan tamed the Seattle line-up into the 6th inning, giving his teammates (and bullpen stalwarts Henry Rodriguez, Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard and saves-ace Drew Storen) just enough breathing room to lock down a 2-1 victory and bring the Nationals back to .500 at 37-37.

Lannan (now 5-5 with a plunging ERA), was the key to the win, as was the Nationals’ bullpen, which MLB Network commentator Ron Gant told viewers was “electric.” He’s not the only one who noticed. The Nationals, 9-1 in their last ten, are the talk of baseball, though not only because of the Tuesday heroics of Wilson Ramos. The Nats are now seen as more than just a team with a few accidental wins. They’re young, tough, fast and . . . winners.

The Anacostia Nine has one of the best bullpens in the game, and an up-the-middle defense that is strong enough to spur commenters to wonder whether, in fact, the sky is the limit. And it’s no longer news that the Nationals, recipients of a Seattle error on Wednesday (that made the difference in the game), can take advantage of opponents’ miscues and hold on to win the games that, in reality, they shouldn’t. Wednesday was a case in point: Eric Bedard struck out ten Nationals, and it didn’t matter.

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The Florida Marlins have one win in 15 games in June, and everyone in Miami is wondering what the hell is wrong. They oughta: the franchise has put together an impressive group, but right now they look a lot like the Hindenburg — they inspire awe, endless comment and even headlines, but just when the applause is about to begin they inexplicably explode. The most recent explosion, heard all the way to Miami, happened last night, when the Marlins dropped a doubleheader in Philadelphia– after leading in the second game into the ninth with only one out to get. Oh, the humanity.

Most baseball commentators view the Fish as just too good to stay down long, waving away their recent troubles by repeating the kind of babble that the otherwise thoughtful Larry Bowa (the former shortstop is now “an on-air personality”) is known for. “They’ll be fine,” he said on MLB Network on Wednesday night. “Listen, they’re a fundamentally sound team.”

Really? Are they?

All of the notional statistics about the team seem to suggest otherwise: Leo Nunez, their celebrated closer, has blown three of his last four save opportunities, their most important pitcher (Josh Johnson) is on the D.L., Hanley Ramirez (just returned from his own stint on the disabled list) is hitting .206, their bench is thin (they recently called up Jose Lopez in an attempt to provide stability at third), celebrated righty Chris Volstad looks like he belongs in Triple-A, and off-season free agent acquisition Javier Vasquez can’t find the strike zone (and sports an atmospheric 7.09 ERA). The Marlins might be a lot of things — but “fundamentally sound” is probably not one of them.

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