A dramatic two out home run from Danny Espinosa tied the game in the bottom of the 9th inning in Anaheim on Monday night — but it wasn’t enough to keep the Nationals from dropping their series-opener to the Angels, 4-3. Once again, the Nationals had a hard time getting hits when they needed them, as Los Angeles starter Ervin Santana corralled the Nats’ lineup through eight innings. The loss was the first by new Nats’ manager Davey Johnson, who took over the reins of the team after the just-completed White Sox series.

Starter John Lannan did not have his best stuff on Monday night, but he kept the Nationals close, throwing 5.2 innings before giving way to reliever Ryan Mattheus. Lannan gave up 11 hits, but that only accounted for three earned runs. The Nationals, meanwhile, were ineffective at the plate, where they scored most of their runs by using the long ball: Michael Morse homered in the second, Ryan Zimmerman homered in the fourth and Espinosa homered in the ninth.

All of the dingers came without runners on base, so that by the 9th the Nationals were trailing 3-2. Espinosa’s homer, a ball down in the zone that he crushed into far right field, tied the game. It was his fifteenth of the year and came off of Angels’ reliever Jordan Walden, who gave up his third blown save in a row. Espinosa’s homer is the most for a rookie second baseman before the All Star break.

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Tom Gorzelanny should have been the news on Saturday, but it was Jake Peavy instead. While Gorzelanny threw seven stellar innings of seven hit baseball, Jake Peavy was the pitcher who captured the headlines. Peavy, who has been battling shoulder problems since his arrival in Chicago from San Diego in 2009, tamed the Nationals with four innings of one hit baseball, picking up the win in a 3-0 White Sox victory over the Nationals.

The single run victory was enough for Peavy, who threw 55 pitches, 38 of them for strikes. Washington hitters could do little so solve him. Peavy, who was once one of the National League’s premier starters, entered the game as a reliever — the first time that has happened in his major league career. “Peavy was unreal,” Nats’ interim manager John McLaren said after the Nationals’ loss. “I was with him during the World Baseball Classic. He had some pitches that were unhittable. He just had really good stuff.”

But Peavy’s four inning gem was more a matter of circumstance than solid strategy. The big righty entered the game in the fourth inning after starter John Danks left the game with a strained right oblique and reliever Brian Bruney appeared to run out of gas. The White Sox were forced to use Peavy after Friday’s fourteen inning marathon burned out the Pale Hose bullpen. “I don’t want to make a big deal of it,” Peavy said. “I needed to do it for my team. That’s the bottom line. We had to find a way to win the game, and give us a chance to win the series tomorrow.”

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When the Nationals play-by-play booth learned that Mike Rizzo had offered the job of Nationals’ manager to Davey Johnson in the middle of last night’s game, there was an almost palpable sense of relief. The promised Al Haig-like Rizzo announcement of the day before (“well, who’s in charge of the team?” Rizzo was asked — to which he replied: “I am”) seemed to be true, after all. Rizzo really was in charge and, while disappointed with Jim Riggleman’s surprise resignation, went out of his way to reassure everyone that everything would be okay.

Or perhaps, on second thought, this was the plan all along. Perhaps Rizzo was using Riggleman to build a bridge to the future, at which point (somewhere in October) he would name Johnson as the recipient of a more-than-one-year-contract and a team ready to make a run for the top spot. Riggleman sensed all of that (or so the theory goes) and beat Rizzo to the punch. Even so, the hiring of Johnson sparked a near-celebration in team circles.

After the Nationals’ improbable 9-5 win against the White Sox, MASN analyst Ray Knight praised the 68-year-old Johnson for his low-key savvy and veteran experience. “If I had the money, and the desire to own a team,” Knight said, picking his words carefully, “this is exactly the man I would name as my manager.” Knight, as emotional about Rizzo’s choice of Johnson as McLaren was about the Nationals win on the field, said that Johnson would mesh well with the team’s young talent, relating a story about a favorite Johnson phrase when he was with the Mets. “He’d say, ‘boys, just keep ‘em close, and I’ll figure out a way to win.’”

Johnson is a known quantity — and a winner. He’s managed the Mets, Reds, Orioles and Dodgers, compiling an impressive won-loss record and a reputation as a scrupulously detailed on-field tactician. And while some have questioned whether someone who’s 68 can work with so many young ballplayers, Johnson’s age might actually cut in his favor: his experience as a player at the major league level as well as his post-season experience will carry weight in the clubhouse. Then too, he seemed to do just fine as a manager of the U.S. Olympic Team.

In the third inning of Wednesday night’s contest vs. Seattle the in-game interview with the manager commenced and revealed, in hind sight, how swiftly things must have disintegrated between Jim Riggleman and Mike Rizzo. Responding to a question by Johnny Holiday regarding where Jason Werth would be batting in the line-up, the then-Skipper said that Werth would remain in the lead-off spot during the Seattle series but that “when we get to Chicago” they may revisit the situation. What that means is that as of about 8:15 Wednesday evening Riggleman had every intention of going to Chicago 24 hours later.

No doubt the pressures on Riggleman were great. Werth’s veiled outburst in Milwaukee on May 24 (“it’s pretty obvious what’s going on around here”), Marquis’ open defection in Baltimore, and Rizzo’s public comment that he had to come back to Washington in early June “to put out some fires,” all probably weighed heavily on the manager. Rizzo was basically saying that Riggleman couldn’t handle the team. No doubt too — Riggleman mishandled things at times. Thomas Boswell’s piece in today’s Post about Riggleman going after Marquis in the clubhouse in Baltimore was downright wince-inducing (Rule #1 of managing anyone: praise in public, scold in private – even if everyone has a good idea of what’s going on behind that closed door). If the Boswell version of events is right, Riggleman broke Rule #1.

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It’s a trademark phrase in Washington — throwing someone “under the bus” means that you intentionally sacrifice them to make yourself look better, or save your job. It’s being used now by partisans of Jim Riggleman to describe what was going to happen to the just-resigned manager of the Washington Nationals in September: Riggleman was expected to manage the team for the season and do well with it. But come September all of that would be forgotten, and Nats’ G.M. Mike Rizzo would throw Riggleman “under the bus.”

Jim Riggleman doesn’t have many friends in Washington this morning — most of the blogs have weighed in against him (for abandoning the team in mid-season) and the Washington Post’s Tom Boswell scorched Riggleman for failing to make his case on the field. “The GM felt he had proved himself the hard way,” Boswell writes. “Why shouldn’t Riggleman, with the worst record in baseball history of any 12-year manager, have to do the same?”

Okay, but there’s another side to this story. There was a palpable sense, even among fans who don’t have Boswell’s access, that there wasn’t anything (zero, zip, zilch) that Riggleman could do to get re-upped. Everyone in this city who follows baseball closely knew, just knew, that come October (and no matter how well he did) Riggleman was going to be told that he wasn’t coming back next year. And the turnstiles would turn: the Nats would hire a big-name veteran like (say) Bobby Valentine, or (God forbid) Larry Bowa to “take the team to the next level.” Thanks Jim, but Larry will take it from here.

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In the wake of a sweep of the Seattle Mariners at home — and in the middle of a winning streak that has made the Nationals the hottest team in baseball — Jim Riggleman announced that he is resigning as the manager of the Washington Nationals. Nationals’ commentator Phil Wood put it best: “He just felt that his commitment to the club was greater than their commitment to him,” he said. Had he heard Wood, Riggleman would have agreed: “This is more about feeling like this is not the way you want to run your ballclub and keep your manager on a one year deal,” Riggleman said.

The surprise announcement has stunned Nationals’ fans, who have consistently praised Riggleman for his handling of Washington’s young team. And it is clearly a blow to the team front office — who have kept Riggleman uncertain about his future. It’s hard to blame the skipper, and it will be difficult for the team to replace him: the Nationals have played exceptionally over the last two weeks, lifting themselves into third place in the N.L. East. Rizzo responded to the news by telling MASN that he and Riggleman had had a talk before the Thursday game and that Riggleman had “expressed his displeasure” at the Nationals not picking up his option. The two then had a discussion after the game, Rizzo added, and Riggleman submitted his resignation.

“I am disappointed for the guys in the clubhouse, for the team, for the fans and yeah, sure, it’s disappointing.” Rizzo said, but added that the team would have a manager in place by the time they arrived in Chicago and that “we will put this distraction behind us.” Once it is game time in Chicago tomorrow, Rizzo said, “it will be business as usual.” Rizzo added that while the clubhouse was jubilant after the win against the Mariners, the clubhouse was “subdued.” It was “kind of a shocking situation here today,” he said. “The fan base in Washington is a great fan base,” he said, “this is just a small bump in the road [but] We’re going in the right direction.” Phil Wood was more realistic. “They can call it a bump in the road all they want,” he said, “but to me it sounds like a death in the family.”

Anyone who watched the Nationals fall to the San Diego Padres, 7-3 on Thursday night could tell you what ails the team — but it’s a long list: lack of timely hitting, too many strike outs and, most surprising, a great collapsing bullpen. This last is the most surprising, because for a while there the Nationals had one of the best bullpens in the majors. Now, they can’t get anyone out.

The problem starts with Sean Burnett (and does not include Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen or Todd Coffey), but it extends to Henry Rodriguez and Cole Kimball. Last night, Burnett came in for Livan Hernandez — and immediately walked rookie Anthony Rizzo. Cole Kimball followed him, and walked pinch hitter Kyle Phillips. Henry Rodriguez followed suit: he registered two quick outs in the seventh, but then walked the bases loaded and threw a wild pitch. The Friars won the game, but the final score veils what was (at least in baseball terms) a “romp.”

Is this the team’s low point? “It was not a good game,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the loss. “The effort and intensity [was] there, but it was not a good game. We had a couple of things that happened on the bases. We walked people. It was not a pretty game. I don’t know how else to say it.” In the postgame interview with MASN analyst Ray Knight, Riggleman was even more blunt — saying that coming into a game and walking hitters was “unacceptable.” Clearly, changes are on the way, including demotions or even trades. (more…)