The Washington Nationals rallied from three runs down, capitalized on two Mets errors in the 8th inning — and were buoyed by an Elijah Dukes running catch at the right field wall — to take the second game of their three game series with the New Yorkers, 4-3. The Mets gaffes came when pinch hitter Cristian Guzman hit into an apparent double play, but Mets’ shortstop Anderson Hernandez threw the ball away. The next Nats’ hitter, Ian Desmond, also hit the ball to Hernandez, but this time second baseman Luis Castillo made the error — throwing the ball into the Nats’ dugout after getting the force at second. The muffs allowed the Nats to break a 3-3 tie, going ahead by a single run heading into the ninth. The game ended on a spectacular leaping catch by Elijah Dukes against the right field wall, preserving the Nats’ second win in as many nights.

Whatever Jim Riggleman said to closer Mike MacDougal two nights ago (after MacDougal allowed three runs in the 10th against the Braves) seems to have worked: MacDougal notched his 18th save on Tuesday with another dominant ninth inning performance. MacDougal’s ERA has taken a beating during September. After a steady August, the Nats thought they had finally found their closer. MacDougal’s ERA stood at just over 3.40. But over the next month, culminating with the three runs he gave up against Atlanta, MacDougal gave up a steady stream of ninth inning hits (and runs) and his ERA plunged — after tonight’s win it stands at a wobbly 4.42. But on Monday night, MacDougal notched three ground outs (with three up and three down), while tonight he served up two strikeouts to close out the Chokes on successive nights. Not surprisingly, the key for MacDougal is throwing strikes, which he has consistently done over the last two games.

The Atlanta Braves scored three runs in the top of the 10th inning to down the Washington Nationals, 6-3 at Nationals Park on Sunday. The loss meant a three game sweep of the Nats at the hands of the surging Chops, who now await word on the Rockies’ tilt against the Cardinals in Denver. The Atlanta victory put them just two games behind Colorado in the Wild Card standings — and if Colorado loses against the Redbirds, that difference would shrink even further. The Atlanta win spoiled a good outing from Nationals’ starter Livan Hernandez, who pitched a solid 6.1 — giving up only six hits and three earned runs. It was by far the best outing by a Nats pitcher during the series: the Chops scored 21 runs against the Anacostia Nine in the three game tilt in D.C.

On Sunday, the Nats jumped out to an early lead, with Ryan Zimmerman and Josh Willingham hitting back-to-back home runs in the first inning. The back-to-back homers ended a run of frustrating at-bats for Nats hitters, who have had problems putting together big innings from the middle of their order. In all, the Nats broke out for nine hits in the game, but it wasn’t enough as, once again, the Nats’ bullpen couldn’t keep the Braves off the board. Mike MacDougal’s recent ninth inning woes continued, as he appeared cold coming in from bullpen — and couldn’t find the strike zone. The result was three Atlanta runs and a 6-3 Nats loss.

The Nats need a semi-miracle to pull out a 6-5 victory against the Mets on Friday, but they got one, as a hard bouncing grounder that might have led to a walk-off Mets’ win resulted in the final out in a Nationals’ victory. Closer Mike “Heart Attack” MacDougal knocked down the sharp bounder off the bat of Mets’ hitter Jeff Francoeur and lobbed it to first to give the Nats a much-needed win. With the Nats in the lead and coasting to a victory, MacDougal started the 9th inning with an out, but then pitched himself into trouble: he walked two batters, then gave up a clean single to David Wright and a fielder’s choice smash to Carlos Beltran. Daniel Murphy then hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Ian Desmond — who threw the ball away. Francoeur’s hot grounder up the middle took off MacDougal’s glove and might have ended up in centerfield (and ended the game), but MacDougal speared the ball and threw Francouer out.

 

After playing a flat — and losing — series in Philadelphia, the Nats came alive against the Mets. Ryan Zimmerman hit his 30th home run of the season (the most of his major league career), Josh Willingham hit his 23rd (and ended his three week slump at the plate by going 2-4) and Josh Bard added three RBIs. Bard was the hero of the game: the hobbled catcher was one for three with three RBIs, which included his fifth home run of the season. “I finally got an advantage count for myself. I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Bard said. “I just told myself, ‘Just make sure that you are really aggressive.’ I was able to get a good pitch.” Bard was also key in dampening a Mets rally in the sixth. With the bases loaded Bard, in a close play at the plate, tagged out Carlos Beltran on a short-bounce throw from Josh Willingham in left field. It was the play of the game. J.D. Martin pitched well enough to take the win (giving up two earned runs in 5.1 innings), while Mets fireballer Mike Pelfrey (now 10-11) took the loss.

Ryan Zimmerman’s 9th inning home run on Sunday ended the Washington Nationals eight game losing streak and gave the Anacostia Nine a come from behind 5-4 win at Nationals Park. Knotted up at 2-2 in the top of the 9th, reliever Mike “Heart Attack” MacDougal let the game get away from him, giving the Marlins a 4-2 edge, with Phish righty Leo “lights out” Nunez entering the game to close it out. But in the bottom of the ninth Willie “Wee Willie”  Harris led off the Nats end of the game by pumping his fifth home run into the second deck in right field to pull the home towners within one. His upper deck powerhouse was followed by a Cristian Guzman hustling infield hit with Ryan Zimmerman coming to the plate. Dan Uggla went far to his right to get the Guzman hit, but could’t reach it in time to throw out Guzman, who was called safe at first. Zimmerman then stroked a 1-1 pitch into the centerfield boxes to give the Nats their first win in ten days,  a stunner that sent the Marlins packing to New York without the sweep they needed.

Until the ninth, the heroes of the game were hard luck pitcher J.D. Martin, who pitched 6.2 solid innings, and Elijah Dukes, who was two for two with a walk. Dukes ended up on base four times. Dukes has raised his average to .260 — but, more importantly, he seems more calm and focused at the plate and in the field, a good sign for next year.  Dukes also had an early game scoop of a Marlins sure hit to short right field, a sign of the former Rays’ renewed confidence in the outfield. The win against the Marlins not only ends the Nats eight game skid, in which the Washington club seemed to be unable to score runs when they most needed them, it improved their walk-off prowess against the South Florida Nine. The Nats now have seven walk off wins against the Phish, who are straining to win the wild card race against the fading Chops, as well as the Rockies and Giants. The Marlins will continue their pursuit of the first spot in the wild card against Tim Redding and the Mets at Citi Field on Tuesday in New York, while the Nats will also take a day off before sending John Lannan to the hill to face Pedro Martinez and the ever-surging Phuzzies at Nationals Park. 

On a day that the Washington Nationals played classic in-the-clutch, play-em-close and hold-em-off-late baseball to take a tough 5-4 decision against the fading Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the team announced that they have lost centerfielder Nyjer Morgan to a season ending injury. Morgan broke a bone in his left hand while sliding into third base in the third inning of the tilt against the Cubs on Thursday and his place in center will be taken by hot-glove standby Willie Harris. ”I’m happy for the opportunity to play, but not happy to see my teammate get hurt,” Harris said. “Nyjer was having one hell of a season. He was our sparkplug. He came over here and we started to play better. You hate to see anyone get hurt.” General Manager Mike Rizzo said that he and interim manger Jim Riggleman would discuss other potential moves the team might make to replace Morgan during the Nationals trip to St. Louis, where they will open against the surging Cardinals on Friday.

With their 5-4 win at Wrigley, the Nationals wrapped up a two-of-three set against the slumping Cubs in big-bat fashion, with home runs from Ryan Zimmerman (his 27th) and Adam Dunn (his 34th). The Dunn-Zimmerman duo are now among the best in the NL. In traditional fashion, the Nats pitching staff did just well enough to win, but not brilliantly enough to keep Nats fans from gnawing their fingernails back to the quick: J.D. Martin lasted five innings (103 pitches, 64 strikes) before being relieved (in order) by Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett and Mike “Heart Attack” MacDougal. This now seems an almost predictable rotation, with all three among the most effective relievers on the team. After giving up his by now expected walk in the ninth inning (he oughta just do it intentionally, and get it over with), MacDougal closed the door on the Cubs for his fourteenth save in fifteen tries. With all the early season moaning about Joel Hanrahan (who’s still struggling, though in Pittsburgh) there’s been little serious effort to recognize just how good MacDougal’s been — probably because we’re so busy swabbing the end of our nails with that pink stuff that makes your eyes water. So here goes: Mike MacDougal has been doing a hell of a job.

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 Washington Nationals defeated the Florida Marlins 6-4 Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Adam Dunn hit the big blow in the six run eighth inning. The win was the Nats third in a row. Florida’s right-handed ace, Josh Johnson, dominated the Nats for seven innings, but the Nats’ half of the eighth opened with three straight hits. Willie Harris, Alberto Gonzalez and Wil Nieves led off the eighth with three straight singles. Pinch hitter Ronnie Belliard followed with a double, driving in two. Nyjer Morgan followed with a grounder to the right side, which scored Nieves. Cristian Guzman followed with a single that scored Nieves to tie the game. That’s when Dunn stepped to the plate and stroked an opposite field ball into the left field stands. Mike MacDougal closed out the game.

AD's two run HR wins it for Nats (AP/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Down On Half Street: “Droog” D. Willy writes that he is blown away by Nats’ relief star Tyler Clippard. Clippard is emerging as the Nat’s stopper out of the bullpen. In Pittsburgh on Monday, Clippard worked out of a no-outs bases loaded jam, then turned in another two innings of no-hit two strikeout ball to give the Nats enough to sink the Ahoys, 8-4 . . . the Nats win tonight is not only their third in a row, each of them have been come-from behind wins . . . How good is the Nats bullpen? The change-over from the beginning of the season seems complete, and the results show it. The biggest change has come recently, with the addition of Sean Burnett and the new confidence shown by Logan Kensing.  Dave Sheinin writes: “The Nationals’ bullpen is a combined 5-1 with a 3.23 ERA and a .224 opponents’ batting average since the all-star break . . .”

Tomorrow afternoon NL East Chatter will feature CFG’s take on the trade deadline, the outlook for our Anacostia Boys, and what scares us about the Marlins. It took a couple of hours of thinking to find an answer that last question . . . Ryan Zimmerman sat out Tuesday’s game with a sore left shoulder, the result of being HBP by Jolly Roger pitcher Charlie Morton on Monday. Zim says he’ll be back, perhaps as early as tomorrow. That’s okay, if he doesn’t play third we can always use Belliard over there . . .  

Austin Kearns is headed to the DL with a sore right thumb. That’s too bad, we’ll miss his defense in right field. The Nats have called up Jorge Padilla from Syracuse to take his place. Originally a third round draft pick of the Phillies in 1998, Padilla is a veteran of the minor leagues, having ping-ponged his way from low single-A to Syracuse, while at the same time changing organizations. He was with the Phillies, Mets and Royals before coming to the Nats, in early 2008 . . . Our friend at Curse of Bonds writes to say that he believes that “Chester Cheese” (a Pierogi), could outrace any “racing president” — with the possible exception of Teddy. I will leave that to the experts over at Let Teddy Win . . . In the wake of our article on all of those moving parts the Neal “The Deal” Huntington has shipped away from the steel city, the disenchantment has only grown worse in the land of Lastings Milledge. This from Curse of Bonds: