Rookie September call-up Steve Lombardozzi’s hit in the top of the 7th inning — his first hit of the season — scored Brian Bixler and led the Nationals to a 3-2 win against the Mets in New York. Lombardozzi, who started the game at second base for Danny Espinosa, was 0-15 before his clutch single. The Mets had tied the score in the bottom of the 6th, driving starter Ross Dewiler from the game.

The Lombardozzi single brought the Nationals to 68 wins on the season, and drew them to within two games of the third place Mets. While Lombardozzi was energized by his hit, Ross Detwiler was the big news of the game for the Nationals. The lefty breezed through the Mets line-up for 5.2 innings before losing the strike zone and walking two. The Mets then capitalized, with a single from David Wright and a double from Angel Pagan.

Detwiler’s outing brought his ERA to 3.76 for the year, and put him in line in the competition for a spot on the Nationals’ starting rotation for 2012. Speaking of Detwiler’s outing following the game, Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said that Detwiler “just lost it” in the sixth inning, but that he didn’t know why. “It just happened,” Johnson said. “I would have liked to get him the win.”

Leading 3-2, the Nationals’ bullpen came through again, with Todd Coffey, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen shutting down the Madoffs the rest of the way. Johnson praised the bullpen after the win, adding that he was pleased that “we were able to rest” Clippard over the previous two days. “He was fresh and we needed that,” Johnson said. Coffey got the win, Clippard registered his 33rd hold, and Storen notched his 35th save.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Mets have now lost their third in a row, and the fans over at ‘Amazin Avenue aren’t pleased, comparing Monday night’s game to the snoozes provided by former Met Steve Trachsel, who believed that so long as you stood on the mound with the ball, nothing bad could happen . . .

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Ryan Zimmerman’s ninth inning bleeder into right field gave his team yet another improbable ninth inning walk-off win, as the Nationals bested the New York Mets on Friday night, 8-7. Zimmerman’s hit came after the Nationals loaded the bases on Mets’ closer Bobby Parnell — and capped a night that saw Nats’ rookie pitcher Tom Milone make his team debut.

The 8-7 win masked a back-and-forth contest that saw the Nationals sprint into a 5-0 lead after three innings, with Milone pitching a steady rookie game against a tough line-up. Milone looked good, and is clearly in the Nationals’ plans for the rest of the season. But Milone had trouble during his second time through the Mets’ line-up, giving up four runs in the Mets’ fourth, including a home run to Mets’ first sacker Nick Evans.

Rookie Milone also notched one of those unusual first-game oddities: a home run on the first pitch he faced as a major leaguer. But it was Milone’s steady pitching that got the attention of Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson: “He is a pitcher. I know everybody wanted me to stay with him,” Johnson said. “He pitched well for me. He made a couple of bad pitches, but — by and large — he went after them. I didn’t want to take a chance of him losing it.”

The nail-biting ninth inning was necessary after Tyler Clippard (who has struggled with his command over his last three outings) gave up a single run to the Mets in the top of the seventh. Jesus Flores (who was 3-4 on the night) started out the inning with a single, pinch hitter Jonny Gomes walked, Ian Desmond sacrificed pinch runner Brian Bixler and Gomes to second and third — and Mets’ manager Terry Collins intentionally walked Roger Bernadina to bring Zimmerman to the plate.

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Three errors and solid pitching from Pirates’ righty Jeff Karstens all combined to deny the Washington Nationals a victory in Pittsburgh, as the Anacostia Nine dropped their first game of three to the Stargells, 7-2. “We’ve got to play better defense,” Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman said. “We’ve just got to play better. Just defense in general — we were a poor defensive ballclub last year and we just cannot be a poor defensive ballclub. We’re too athletic to do that and we’ve just got to do a better job.”

Washington’s defense is reverting to its 2010 form: shortstop Ian Desmond committed two gaffes (in the bottom of the 1st and in the bottom of the 4th), and rookie Wilson Ramos committed his first. Washington is also having a difficult time in breaking out of its hitting slump, though Jayson Werth remained optimistic that it’s only a matter of time before the Nats start swinging. “We’re close,” Werth told a gaggle of reporters after the game. “We’re getting close and I feel like it’s all going to line up pretty soon, and everybody is going to get locked in and we’re going to take off.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Jayson Werth is probably right when he says it’s only a matter of time before the Nats unlimber the lumber. But our bet is that that won’t happen until Ryan Zimmerman returns to the line-up. Ben Goessling had a dit on this a few weeks back, and he’s absolutely right. If you don’t know how valuable Zim is, just play a few without his bat in the line-up. He’s the one who lights this team’s fire . . .

The Red Sox have to be overjoyed with Daisuke Matsuzaka’s recent outings. The Japanese righty has allowed two hits and no runs over the last 15 innings, fueling a Boston resurgence. It’s feast or famine for streaky Boston, but you have to believe that one of the reason’s for Dice-K’s recent success is that he’s just plain scared. Prior to last night’s outing against the Belinskys, Matsuzaka worried out loud. “If I did pitch badly I thought there wouldn’t be the next chance . . .”

Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in New York yesterday (okay, well maybe not), as the New York Mets won their third in a row, all from the lowly Showboats. Mets fans are ecstatic. This could be the start of something big. The Mets are pitching. The Mets are hitting. Jason Bay is back in the line-up. Just you wait: the Mets are coming! The Mets are climbing their way back into it! It’s only a matter of time before the Mets streak into first place! . . . ah . . .

Nah.

The Nats continued to struggle on the road, suffering a 4-1 road loss in Atlanta on Wednesday. The defeat was yet further evidence that the Nationals downward spiral is for real — that the early season hope that the Rizzo and Riggleman’s Nine could contend in the NL East, or at least play .500 ball, has now faded. The deep funk seems puzzling to Nats players, who regularly cite the team’s talent as an indication that things will improve. “We need something,” first baseman Adam Dunn said in the wake of yesterday’s loss at Turner Field. “We’re not playing up to our capabilities, and I don’t know why that is. It’s not for a lack of effort, a lack of talent, any of that. I don’t know.”

For the most part, as Dunn seems to imply, the Nats have been victimized by themselves — with a lack of steady pitching (excepting for those who pitch into those who pitch into the 7th, as Craig Stammen did on Tuesday), good hitting (the entire team, with the exception of Dunn, is slumping), poor fielding (the Nats are last in defense), and indifferent and confounding base running — as evidenced by Nyjer Morgan’s continuing inability to read the pick off moves of opposing pitchers. What to do? What to do? What to do? It’s hard to imagine the Mike Rizzo would thoughtlessly scramble to stop the bleeding, but the escalation in trade talk is a signal, and a fairly significant one, that the front office is beginning to search for a solution outside of Syracuse or Harrisburg.

The House That Jose Built: The Mets have provided New York with a history of spotty but triumphant success that has, admittedly, provided some memorable moments — the 1969 “Miracle Mets” and the 1986 “we beat Boston” Mets.  Even so, the Mets are New York’s second team, bearing no resemblance to the New York Siths, who regularly lug home the World Series trophy. This anguish was on full display in ’08 and ’09, as the Mets collapsed and then underperformed. It was no wonder that baseball’s gurus had doubts that the 2010 version of the Mets would follow suit: the front office seemed in chaos, with GM Omar Minaya pleading the case that signing Jason Bay (and only Jason Bay) was the right decision. Now, as it turns out, Minaya knew something we didn’t — that the Mets had enough pieces in place to contend in the NL East, and perhaps well into the post season.

Here are the pieces: a revived Mike Pelfrey (10-1, 2.93 ERA), slap-and-power first baseman Ike Davis (.261, 9 HR), a surprisingly uninjured Angel Pagan (steady defense, good speed, .304 BA) some guy named R.A. Dickey (6-1, 1.29 WHIP), a solid enough bullpen and (if that is still not enough) a good-enuf Jason Bay and a reanimated hit-homers-the-other- way, David Wright. All of this makes up for the team’s other struggles: fans are worried that Johan Santana will remain inconsistent and that the Mets will not be able to fight their way through holes on the left side, behind the plate and on the mound in the middle innings. But the real key to the Amazin’s amazing early season of success is Jose Reyes. The evidence that Reyes is the key to the team is non-statistical and purely intuitive: without him the Lords of Flatbush look like the peasants of Queens.

For more than a year, Reyes has battled an assortment of injuries, the most recently a high profile thyroid problem that apparently barred him from so much as working out. Before that it was a “cranky hamstring” that simply wouldn’t heel, leading to worries that the fleet-footed shortstop might be permanently slowed. But Reyes has come back this year with his patented passion for the game and eternally smiling countenance. He seems to have returned to the form that once made him the most talked about man in baseball, and a leading candidate for best shortstop in New York. He threatens to do what no other Mets player can do: turn Mets haters into proto fans, those who watch the Metropolitans just to see him play. In spite of his very good (but not great) stats, Reyes — not Bay, not Dickey, not Santana — is the symbol of these Mets. He went 0-7 during the mid-April marathon against the Cardinals: he notched the game winning RBI and scored a run and was ecstatic after the game. “I’m ready for tomorrow,” he said. The Nationals will take on the Metropolitans starting tonight at Nationals Park.

Nationals fans will be forgiven if they now view Pittsburgh as part of the Washington franchise feeder system — a kind of waiting room for Nats-to-be. With the signing of reliever Matt Capps on early Thursday morning, Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo has added a third Ahoy to the rebuilding Nats: a trio that also includes fleet centerfielder Nyjer Morgan and lefty set-up whiz Sean Burnett. The new Nats relief corps is also expected to include aging former star Eddie “Everyday Eddie” Guardado, who once notched 45 saves with the always surprising Twinkies. While the Guardado signing is not final, it is expected soon. Capps, team officials say, is expected to compete for the job of closer with Bruney in Spring Training.

With the signing of Capps, Nats fans will go into the Christmas holidays knowing that (while everything else might collapse), the ballclub’s end-of-game options will include a set of potential closers that includes a young Yankee, a steady Bucco and (perhaps) an ageless wonder. Coupled with Burnett and Clippard, the Nats’ bullpen seems stronger now than it has since the departure of sore-armed closer Chad Cordero, felled by a labrum tear back in 2007. The signing of Capps probably ends Mike Rizzo’s off-season efforts to shore-up the Nats bullpen (barring a bit of tweaking here and there), leaving the Anacostia Nine with several more holes to plug: the addition of a middle-of-the-infield glove (the Nats are still interested in signing second sacker Orlando Hudson), an add-on in the starting rotation (Jon Garland is still an option — albeit one that seems to be fading) and (as we hope) the signing of a versatile bat-and-glove man that could play second, left, short and (under a worst case scenario) third. The Nats could (could!) go into Spring Training with a rotation of Jason Marquis, Jon Garland, John Lannan and Craig Stammen (or maybe what’s-his-name) and an infield that includes Mark DeRosa or Orlando Hudson — and (will wonders never cease) two steady catchers. It’s certainly not out of the question that the signing of either Hudson or DeRosa would include a trade (and salary dump) of Cristian Guzman, who has been making noises about not wanting to switch to second.

Don’t Let It Go To Your Head: Remember all the yacking about how this year’s free agent class was weak with few marquee (ahem) players? Well, maybe. But don’t tell the Phillies — who have solidified their reputation as the Yankees of the National League. While Mike Rizzo has been busy deftly filling holes in the bullpen, starting rotation and behind the plate (and others have been sucking their thumbs about the eventual destination of Jason Bay and Matt Holliday), the Ashburns have been busy getting stronger — adding Placido Polanco as their new third baseman and engineering a blockbuster trade for Roy Halladay. While a gaggle of analysts say that the Mariners were “the big winners” in the Halladay sweepstakes (nailing down Cliff Lee), that’s not the way it looks from our perch outside a snowed-in Nats Park, where the spectre of a Halladay-Hamels-Happ-Blanton front four makes the Phillies (with a Polanco-Rollins-Utley-Howard infield) the class of the National League. And the Phuzzies aren’t done . . .

But The Mets Might Be: Whatever happened to the Mets front office? While the silence in New York has Mets fans upset, our friends over at TRDMB cite Newsday reporter David Lennon’s claim that Mets’ fans should learn to appreciate Omar Minaya’s patience in going after the likes of Bay and Holliday. After all, Omar says, the Mets are not as attractive a destination as Philadelphia and these things take time. “It’s not that they [free agents] don’t want to come here,” Omar says, it’s that the timing didn’t work out. As for Halladay and Lackey — well, the Mets were never really in the running on Halladay and Lackey – and Lackey “blindsided” the Mets when he signed with the Red Sox. That son-of-a-bitch, what was he thinking? Don’t worry, Omar says. All of this can be explained, Omar says. “Players like going to situations where they can win,” Omar says. Never fear, Omar says, the Mets have a plan. “I like our plan,” Omar says.

Yikes.

That glazed and puzzled look that has appeared on the faces of so many other post season teams (the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday, and the Chicago Cubs last year, to name just two) is now being worn by the Boston Red Sox. The A.L.’s wild card entry was stunned by a ninth inning rally in Boston on Saturday, and swept in three games by the Los Angeles Angels to be eliminated from the playoffs. The Bosox appeared headed for a sure win in their head-to-head match-up against the Belinskis, leading the Halos 6-3 heading into the 9th inning at Fenway Park — with their ace closer, Jonathan Papelbon on the mound. But with two outs, Papelbon’s down-and-out or up-and-in stuff failed him: Erick Aybar singled, Chone Figgins walked and Bobby Abreu doubled to tighten the contest. Even then, the Red Sox remained a simple grounder or fly ball away from victory. To set up a force out at every base, Papelbon walked Torii Hunter intentionally. That brought Vladimir Guerrero to the plate. On the very first pitch to one of baseball’s beset bad-ball hitters, Papelbon gave up a single to center. Guerrero’s hit, a leaning over-the-plate smack of a low and outside fastball, scored Figgins and Abreu and gave the Angels the 7-6 victory.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The elimination of the Redbirds and Bosox now sets the wheels in motion for the offseason in both Boston and St. Louis. There’s a lot to do. Fans of “the Nation” face some big questions: about the future of David Ortiz and the cost of Jason Bay. The team is hardly in need of a major overhaul, yet the horses that have consistently put it into the off season are aging or hobbled. The entire left side of the Boston infield is in question: Mike Lowell can’t play third forever and the team has no ready answer at shortstop. “Phtttt . . . c’mon” — fans of the Nation say: what about Jed Lowrie? Well, what about him? Maybe Baseball Reference is lying, but their stats show him hitting .147 in 32 games. Hell, there’s a shortstop in Washington who hits a damn sight better than that and he’s no damn good at all . . .   

The Redbirds are younger, but the questions might be more pertinent: whether to pony up the big bucks it will take to keep Matt Holliday in left and (just like the Red Sox) what to do at third. Mark DeRosa is a free agent and while he likes St. Louis he will test the free agent market. Then too, while shortstop seems set for the River City Nine, rookie phenom Brendan Ryan hit a scorching .083 in the playoffs and looked shaky in the field. Redbird fans have the same reaction to this negativity as their Bosox buddies: “Oh yeah, well what about Troy Glaus?” Okay, right. Troy Glaus: who left his right shoulder somewhere in Toronto and hasn’t been the same since. Maybe he’ll return to his 2008 form (.270, 27 home runs), but it’s a pretty big maybe. Then too, number three starter Joel Pineiro is a free agent and would be a number one starter on most major league teams: including the Nats (now there’s an idea). Oddly, whether Holliday or DeRosa or Pineiro decide to stay in St. Louis might hinge more on the fate of Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan than on how much money Billy DeWitt puts on the table. LaRussa and Duncan’s contracts are up and both are rumored headed to Cincinnati, to team up with their old St. Louis G.M. pal Walt Jocketty . . .

Centerfield Gate writer DWilly, a member of the Fenway faithful (but ardent Nats supporter), weighs in on the woes of “the Nation” — despite their win Saturday vs. the Yankees.

So . . . here’s the question: what happened to the Red Sox? I have two answers. First, too many of their regulars got old in a hurry and, second — their highly touted starting pitching was a mile wide, but an inch deep.

At this point, the Red Hose have only four everyday players they can count on – Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and the newly added Victor Martinez. The team hasn’t had consistent play at shortstop since they let Orlando Cabrera walk after the ’04 season. At third base, Mike Lowell is game, but his hip could give out at any moment. Oh, and don’t forget, J.D. “Nancy” Drew came in third in a recent Sports Illustrated list of “which player gets the least out of the most talent.” (He was tied with Elijah Dukes.) Jason Varitek is running on empty. It was painful to listen to last Saturday night’s game vs. Texas when the Rangers stole eight bases. None of Varitek’s throws was even close. Jason Bay had a great first half before going into a prolonged funk. Sure, he’s picked it up a little recently, but he’s still only hitting .255. And then there’s Big Papi. I don’t know whether he’s part of the Dominican tradition of fudging your birth certificate, but he looks a lot older than 33.

Meanwhile, the Sox starting pitching is painfully thin. Brad Penny has won once in his last 11 starts and seems headed for assignment when Tim Wakefield returns on Wednesday. Dice-K is still in rehab, and Junichi Tazawa is unproven. A better bet at this stage may be to ask one of the stellar relievers (like Manny Delcarmen), to go 5 innings every five days and let the bullpen do the rest. Picking up Billy Wagner should help.

It's no use arguing: these are not your '04 or '07 Red Sox

The tell-tale sign for me that the team’s purported deep pitching staff was really more of mirage came in the days after the July 31 trading deadline. It was reported that Theo Epstein gave the Mariners a list of eight top prospects and told them to pick five in a bid for Felix Hernandez. On that list were Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard and Michael Bowden.  At 22, Bowden has had a mediocre season in AAA and his trade value took a dive with last night’s 2-inning stint vs. the NY Junkees (8 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs). Bard, with his 100 mile-an-hour heater, could be the team’s next closer if they don’t re-sign Papelbon next year. Meanwhile Buchholz, after a pathetic game in Baltimore when he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings, has looked good in the last three starts, particularly his last one when he bested Roy Halladay in Toronto. If the season ended tomorrow, Buchholz would be the third starter in the playoffs after Beckett and Lester. That said, the Mariners’ response to Theo’s offer might have been predicted: they took a pass.

I don’t want to say the Sox won’t make the playoffs. Texas is good, but the Rangers lack a top-line starter. Tampa Bay scares me the most. The Rays are three games behind the Sox in the wild card chase. Boston and Tampa Bay square off six times in the first two weeks of September. It will be a key series and might well determine the season for the Fenway faithful. Sox fans know their team will probably make the playoffs. But they also know that this year’s team is not the same as the one that triumphed in the ’04 and 07 world series. There are just too many holes.