The Washington Nationals won ugly on Friday night, but they won. With two on and one out in the eleventh inning, Jayson Werth hit a bounder to Astros’ third baseman Jimmy Paredes who, in an attempt to get a force out at second, threw the ball into left field. The muff scored Ryan Zimmerman with the walk-off run, giving the Nationals a badly needed, 4-3, bottom of the 11th inning walk off victory.

“Initially, I hit it and I knew there was a potential double play, so I was running hard out of the box,” Werth said following the victory. “I looked to see what happened at second when I didn’t see the ball. I thought it was going to be there. I kept looking, and I saw it go in the outfield. That was that.” The walk-off notched a win for Tyler Clippard — but the victory could have gone to the entire bullpen, which kept the Astros off the board from the 6th inning on.

The botched throw from Paredes lacked the deep-throated dramatics of the Nationals’ usual walk-off triumphs, but the win was welcome: the Nationals had struggled with putting runs on the board of late, and were attempting to recover from a late-game 7-4 pasting at the hands of the Dodgers on Thursday.

Even with the win, the Nationals were able to scatter only six hits off of five Houston pitchers. The lack of offense has been the most disheartening part of an up-and-down season. In the wake of the Houston win on Friday, Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson told the media the problem has kept him awake nights. “I’m used to a little more of a comfort zone,” Johnson said. “With all the young players … it’s been that kind of a struggle. Everybody’s trying to probably do a little too much.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The clubhouse is crowded with new arrivals, and three of them started the game on Friday. Steve Lombardozzi started at short, Chris Marrero was at first, and Tom Milone was on the mound. The early results are just starting to come in, but here’s what they say: Lombardozzi has not yet mastered major league pitching, Marrero has yet to hit the long ball, and Milone needs to work on getting through a line-up the second time . . .

For those who think that is too negative, there’s this — there doesn’t seem much doubt that Lombardozzi can hit, Marrero’s double last night to left-center was one of the hardest hit non-dinger slaps this year at Nationals’ Park and Milone is absolutely unintimidated by major league hitting . . .

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Chien-Ming Wang still isn’t ready for prime time. The former Yankee and new Nationals’ righthander struggled through five innings against the Braves yesterday, giving up seven hits and two runs through five innings — and the Nationals fell to Atlanta in the final game of their three game set, 6-4.

While Wang recovered from a shaky first inning (in which he gave up two runs), he had trouble in the fifth, which proved the key to the game. Wang threw wildly on a Brandon Beachy bleeder for a two base error, Jose “George” Constanza followed with a single and, after a force play and an out at the plate, Dan Uggla plated the two stranded runners (and himself) with a three run homer.

The Nats fought back, rapping out a four run sixth inning, with a walk by Danny Espinos, singles by Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, a Beachy wild pitch and a Jayson Werth home run. But four runs weren’t enough to secure the victory. Despite the loss, pitching coach Steve McCatty was upbeat on Wang. “He had better sink,” McCatty said after the game. “The offspeed pitches were a little flat. He got hurt on that. If he makes a play in the fifth inning — no damage.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Jason Marquis debuted for the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, and it didn’t go well. The former Nats’ righty gave up ten hits and seven runs over four innings, as the Snakes fell to the McCoveys, 8-1. Marquis wasn’t the only thing traded to Arizona; so too was the explanation for why he does poorly: his sinker wasn’t sinking . . .

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It’s quite possible that finally — five months into the 2011 baseball season — the Nationals have finally found their leadoff hitter. Batting in the first slot in the line-up last night, centerfield veteran Rick Ankiel blasted two home runs in leading the Nationals to a 5-3 victory over the Braves at Nationals Park. Ankiel’s homers allowed Livan Hernandez (six innings, six hits and three strikeouts) to walk away with his sixth win of the season.

Ankiel’s homers were only his fourth and fifth of the year and came in the first and the fifth inning — both off of usually reliable Braves’ starter Jair Jurrjens, who registered his fourth loss. Ankiel, who has been in and out of the line-up all year (and has struggled at the plate) seems finally to be swinging with authority. “You just look for a pitch to drive. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you make it happen, sometimes you don’t,” Ankiel said after the victory. “Lately, I’ve been making good contact and good things are happening.”

It’s too soon to tell whether Ankiel’s Monday night performance means that he will be an every game feature at the leadoff position, but Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson liked what he saw: “Now he [Ankiel] is [playing] and he has cut down on his strikeouts, his swings are better,” Johnson said. “That comes with playing. In the last couple of years, I don’t think he has played much.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: If either Pittsburgh or Cincinnati are to have a chance in the N.L. Central, they’re going to have to beat the teams behind them. Last night they didn’t. Newest Ahoy Derrek Lee celebrated his arrival in Pittsburgh with two home runs, but the Pirates couldn’t beat the no-account Cubs, suffering their fourth loss in a row by a 5-3 score. Catch ‘em while you can; they’re fading, and fast . . .

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Jayson Werth might well have broken out of his season-long slump on Wednesday, as the frustrated right fielder, went 3-5 in accounting for two doubles and a home run (his 11th) — but the Washington Nationals lost in extra innings to the Houston Astros, 3-2 in Houston. The loss means that the Astros took the three game series, and sent the Nationals on to Los Angeles with a 2-4 road trip.

Livan Hernandez turned in a badly needed solid start, after struggling with two bad outings in his last three mound appearances. Hernandez turned in six complete innings, while giving up seven hits and only one walk. But as in previous games, the Nationals’ bats went silent when they were needed most, and the team stranded Werth on second base with the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th.

Aside from the tough loss, which came at the expense of usually reliable reliever Todd Coffey (who put the blame for the loss on his shoulders), the big news of the day was Werth. “I’ve seen really good signs for about a week,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of Werth. “He’s started to feel a little better. He was a lot more aggressive today. He hit a couple of first-pitch fastballs, which he hadn’t done. He’s probably leading the league in pitches taken. But it’s good to see him get aggressive out there.”

The Nationals have had to play through some tough one run losses, and Wednesday was another example. While Henry Rodriguez was shaky on the mound in relief of Hernandez, Tyler Clippard came in with two Astros’ runners on and nobody out and saved the day — which is becoming standard practice for the All-Star. “It’s tough in a situation like that,” Clippard said after the game. “You try to limit the damage. I made a good pitch to Barmes to make him pop out in the infield. I was able to pound the zone and put my fastball where I wanted to.”

Is Werth out of his slump? While the veteran (who raised his average to .218) wouldn’t say, it’s clear he keeps looking for ways to help the Nats win games. This afternoon presented a perfect, but missed, opportunity. “It seems like all [the one-run games] we lose, we don’t match up,” he said. “We hit when we don’t pitch and we don’t hit when we do pitch.”

This is exactly what the Washington Nationals needed: Jason Marquis pitched eight beautiful innings and the Nats scored three in the ninth to down the Houston Astros, at Minute Maid Park, 5-2. Marquis threw 102 pitches, 69 of them for strikes, as his patented sinker baffled Houston hitters. The win put the Nationals back at .500 — and in third place in the N.L. East.

The Nationals stayed in the game against Houston’s tough young pitcher, Jordan Lyles, by featuring the long ball. Michael Morse hit a soaring shot onto the glass screen in left field in the 5th inning, and Ryan Zimmerman put one into the right field seats in the seventh inning. The Zimmerman homer tied the game. But the 9th inning was key, as the Nationals scored three on singles by Bernadina, Zimmerman and Morse and a Laynce Nix bounder to the right side.

Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson was more than pleased with the Marquis outing, as it not only provided the win, but allowed the team to rest their overused relievers. “I was able to get ahead early,” Marquis said in reflecting on his outing. “I got some quick outs. They were being aggressive. I’ve been feeling pretty good all year. I had a good sinker-slider combo tonight.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: There are three things that just aren’t gonna happen, no matter how much we talk about them: the apocalypse, the rapture, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Until this year, we might have added a fourth — the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the N.L. Central. And yet, there they are, atop the scrum that includes semi-powerhouse Milwaukee, perennial favorite St. Louis, and last year’s winner, the Cincinnati Reds.

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The qualities that have made the Nationals one of the hottest teams in baseball failed them on Sunday afternoon, as the Washington Nine dropped the last in their three game series against the Orioles, 7-4 at Nationals Park. Returning starting pitcher Tom Gorzelanny was shaky in pitching just 4.2 innings (he gave up ten hits and four runs), the Washington bullpen was just so-so (Collin Ballester appeared, but didn’t impress), and — perhaps most worrisome — the Nationals committed three errors.

The disturbing reversion to form, however, seems more like a hiccup that a talisman of future performance: Ryan Zimmerman is back in the line-up, Michael Morse has claimed first base as his own, and it’s likely the strong-up-the-middle Nationals will remain so. “It’s a long season, and you’re going to have a couple games where you play terrible defensively,” third sacker Ryan Zimmerman said after the loss. “The thing is you just have to learn and realize that’s why you lost the game. When we won all those games in a row, it was because we were playing good defense and doing the little things right.”

The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: It’s been three weeks since reports surfaced that the Nationals were inquiring about Houston outfielder Michael Bourn, but Nats fans are still talking about it. The consensus, at least in 1-2-9, is that the the inquiry is evidence that the team doesn’t realize what it has in Roger Bernadina. “Rizzo and crew have the solution to their lead-off and centerfield problem right in front of his eyes,” a 1-2-9 regular said on Friday. “They’ve got to give this guy a clear shot. He’s getting better every day.” There wasn’t much disagreement, even as 1-2-9′ers agreed on Bourn’s talents.

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Rookie and second base phenom Danny Espinosa’s two run homer in the seventh inning provided the Washington Nationals with their second straight victory over the Houston Astros 4-3 on Tuesday night at Nationals’ Park. The Espinosa homer, which came with one on, broke the young rookie’s hitting slump — and provided the Nats with a measure of pride: this was the second win in a row for the team, and it came against a surging Astros’ Nine which has the second best record in the N.L. Central since late July. Jason Marquis provided a strong outing on the mound, throwing six innings and giving up just two runs. “I was consistent early in the count,” Marquis said, following the win. “I controlled the counts and was able to get some quick outs. The defense did a great job. It was definitely nice to get back-to-back wins.” And once again, the Nats bullpen came through — with Doug Slaten (who walked the only batter he faced), Tyler Clippard, Joel Peralta and Sean Burnett closing out the game. Burnett notched his third save.

Will He Stay Or Will He Go: Tom Boswell writes that Stan Kasten is reconsidering his future with the team and is considering resigning his position. The rumor that Kasten is rethinking his employment is so pervasive that it reached into the stands during last night’s game — with one Nats’ watcher saying that Kasten would actually resign his position not just soon, but today. The reason for Kasten’s rethinking, Boswell speculates, is Kasten’s desire to move on to a new challenge, as well as frustration over his continuing skirmishes with team ownership about the tight wad philosophy that has landed the Nats in last place in the N.L. East. “My preference for the Nats’ sake: He stays. My firm opinion: He’s gone,” Boswell writes. There seem to be three possibilities here: Kasten is fed up with the Lerners and wants out, he wants to take on a new job with a different team or (and it’s a distinct possibility), he’s sending a signal to the Lerners that they will either increase payroll or he’s gone. “If Kasten leaves,” Boswell writes, “. . . the Nats’ reputation will take a hit within the industry.” And with the fans.

Lightning In A Bottle: All the oohing and ahhing about the emergence of youngsters Tyler Clippard, Doug Slaten, Sean Burnett and Drew Storen is more than justified; the four relievers have steadied the Nats’ bullpen and provided headlines for a team without a starting rotation. But all the talk of just how good the Clippard-Slaten-Burnett-Storen quartet has been ignores the steady contributions of perhaps the Nats’ most effective middle-innings reliever — Joel Peralta. Last night’s win over the Astros provided a useful antidote, as Peralta was the focus of a MASN post-game interview and in-game praise from the Bob Carpenter-Ray Knight MASN tag team. Peralta has been a wizard, with last night’s outing symbolic of his competence: Peralta gave the Nats 1.1 innings, registering his ninth hold and striking out three. Success has come late for Peralta, who toured the U.S. (Butte, Boise, Cedar Rapids, Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, and points in between) for several teams before arriving at the Nats’ doorstep at the age of 34. The Nats signed Peralta in the off-season and he was so good at Syracuse that he could no longer be ignored. His numbers are stunning: in 45 innings he’s given up just 27 hits, while fanning 44. Over the last ten games he’s lowered his ERA from 2.57 to 2.00. Which is to say: Peralta’s steady presence means he’s here to stay.