With Chad Billingsley on the mound in the top of the 1st inning, the Washington Nationals loaded the bases with no outs — with Billingsley reeling from a walk, a hit batter and two singles. But the Nationals could only muster a single run in that inning, as Billingsley ended the threat with three straight strikeouts, and went on to tame the Nationals and secure a 3-1 L.A. victory.

The Nationals’ defeat brought the team to a disappointing 3-6 record on their Atlanta-Houston-L.A. road trip as they headed home for a crucial set of games against their N.L East opponents. “We should have [broken it open] in that first inning,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “We couldn’t put the ball in play with nobody out, and that hurt us. And then Billingsley settled down and pitched an effective ballgame. We swung and missed a lot today.”

Like Billingsley, Nationals starter Jason Marquis was shaky in the early going: the Washington righty gave up two early runs, but then settled down to pitch six innings, while giving up three runs on five hits. “It was a battle,” Marquis said of his outing. “I was trying to keep my team in the game as best as possible. I had some unfortunate breaks. That’s the way the game goes. We just weren’t able to break through.” How effective was L.A.’s pitching? The Nationals were only able to muster two hits for the entire game, and never had another one after the first inning.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: There are all kinds of grand slams — there are regular grand slams, there are walk-off grand slams (a victory when a grand slam provides a walk-off victory by more than a single run), there are “ultimate” walk-off grand slams (a walk-off grand slam that gives a team a victory by a single run), there are inside-the-park walk-off grand slams (you get the idea), and then there are “ultimate” walk-off inside-the-park grand slams.

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Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez’s eighth inning pinch hit single scored Rick Ankiel from second, giving the Nationals a 4-3 win and a split in their doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday. The win followed a 5-3 loss to the Ahoys in the first game, when the Pirates feasted on the Nationals’ bullpen, getting ten hits while the Nationals once again looked ineffective with runners in scoring position. The Nationals left 19 men on base in the first game loss.

The Nationals continue to struggle with the bats — spraying just five hits in the second game, with Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth going 0-7. For the first time this year, the fans began to boo Jayson Werth — who was 0-3 with two strikeouts in the 4-3 win. Davey Johnson remains confident that it’s only a matter of time before the Nationals break out of their team slump. The Nationals are batting .232 as a team, worst in the National League.

But Nats’ pitching remains superb. In the first game of the doubleheader, Livan Hernandez was his usual professional self, allowing just six hits and two runs in seven complete. But the Pirates were able to get to reliever Sean Burnett, who gave up back-to-back homers to Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen. The dingers proved to be the difference in the game, victimizing a reliever who arrived in Washington in 2009 after being traded from Pittsburgh.

After the first game loss, Davey Johnson expressed frustration with the sputtering offense. “We had the right guys up with the bases loaded and we just couldn’t do the job, and the back end of the bullpen didn’t do a good job today,” he said. The second game of the doubleheader provided salvation for the Nats, who once again had a clutch hit to win a game. The win was also a salvation of sorts for John Lannan who, like Hernandez, pitched seven complete innings — though it was reliever Ryan Mattheus who got the win. Drew Storen clinched his twentieth save.

The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: The boo birds were out for Jayson Werth on Saturday, but few of them were sitting in Section 129. Which is not to say that there wasn’t an undercurrent of disenchantment with the right fielder. “What the hell is wrong with this guy?” a section regular asked. He wasn’t really looking for an answer, so there wasn’t one. And there were shaking heads in the second game, when Ryan Zimmerman struck out looking. “Do you think anyone is telling these guys not to do that?” Zimmerman was 0-4 in Game 2, leaving four runners on base. “Maybe he’s still injured,” one fan said. “He just doesn’t look like he’s comfortable out there.”

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We can spend all day talking about Roberto Clemente’s legacy (that he was a humanitarian, the first Hispanic elected to the Hall of Fame, that his life ended providing aid to the people of Nicaragua), but we should not forget his extraordinary baseball numbers. In many ways his career was a paradox. Popular opinion views him as a power hitter, primarily because of his powerful swing, completed after his patented left-leg buckle (his leg hung and hung in the air, cocked like a gun, until slap . . .). In truth, Clemente was known among his fellow players as a slash and drive non-powerhouse, his feet digging circles in the batter’s box as he hit the ball into the gaps. He led the N.L in hits in two separate years and won four batting titles. His power? Well, frankly — he had some, but not a lot. Rather, he decided that he would be better off acclimating himself to the ugly facts of Pittsburgh’s just as ugly and more than spacious Forbes Field (I remember it as a gussied up and ready-to-burn barn), that played more like the Roman Colosseum than a mid-city diamond. You could hit gappers at Forbes, so Clemente did. He hit 29 dingers in 1966, the peak of his career.

So  . . . okay. Clemente couldn’t hit the long ball that well, but at least he was fast. Really fast. Right? Well, actually . . . no.  Clemente’s stolen base totals in a career spanning 18 seasons are below average for his time; in fact, they’re way below average. He never stole more than 12 in any one season. Which is nothing to brag about. But here’s the paradox. While Clemente wasn’t Maury Wills, he was probably the best player of his era in going from home to third, or first to third, or first to home. He was absolutely single-minded in hitting the ball to the gaps and then racing the throw to the bag. There are libraries full of videos of Clemente (take a look at this — arms akimbo and pumping) legging a single into a double, or a double into a triple. He won the 1971 World Series MVP (he hit .414 and smacked a home run in the seventh game) almost solely on the basis of his running, what can almost be described as his sheer desire to end up on third. He drove the Orioles crazy.

It was this, his ability to drive the ball into the gaps (and, of course, his twelve Gold Gloves — oh, and his legendary pinpoint throws to third from right field), that made his reputation. He led the National League in triples once, but came close nearly a dozen other times. He was Clemente “the gapper,” with a special all-out work ethic that allowed him to hit over .300 in twelve of his eighteen years (with a lifetime batting average of .317), stroking over 150 hits per year at the same rate in 2400-plus games. He was among the best, ever: there are 27 members of the 3000 hits club, a grouping that may (arguably) be as important — and as elite — as the 500 home runs club (of which there are, count ‘em, 25 members). As important? There’s good reason to argue that 3000 hits is actually less attainable than 500 home runs — the last major leaguer to reach that lofty mark was Craig Biggio, three years ago. Which is only to point out that, in the era of Mays and Mantle and Aaron (an era of long ball hitters), Roberto Clemente stood out as the quintessential all-out play-until-you-drop slasher. It’s what made him a legend in Pittsburgh. It’s what put him in the Hall of Fame.

The Nats will host Roberto Clemente Night on Friday night when they face off against the Florida Marlins. As I recall, I saw Roberto Clemente play six or seven times, almost all of them in Milwaukee County Stadium. This must have been in 1964 and 1965 — at the peak of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I saw him two more times after that, in 1969 or 1970, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Clemente was only 25 when he played on that great 1960 world championship team that took the series in seven games from the Yankees — the one where Bill Mazeroski hit the walk-off in the ninth inning of the sevnth game. Clemente was young, just 25, and hit .314 for the season.

Clemente won the MVP award in 1966 at the age of 31, his greatness established: he hit .317 with 29 home runs and he had 202 hits. He was a hitting machine — at the end of the 1972 season (just before he was killed), his hit total stood at exactly 3000. He had at least three more good years left in him in baseball, a lot more in life. The Clemente years were good years for the Pirates: they won a world championship in 1960 and 1971 and Clemente was surrounded by good players, some of them were very good: Matty Alou and Dick Groat and Don Hoak and Willie Stargell and Al Oliver and Bill Mazeroski and legendary pitchers Vern Law, Harvey Haddix and Bob Friend.

I remember Clemente playing right field, but I don’t have any specific memory of him hitting and I remember the way that he ran because it was so distinctive. He was scary quick, midwest quick. And you knew, when you saw him play, that he had a very special ability. I had heard he had a legendary arm and I saw it — once — though I don’t remember the exact details. Close enough thought: I remember the game. It was in Milwaukee County Stadium and it was a day game featuring the home team lame-duck-no-account 1965 headed-out-of-town (I’m still bitter about those) Milwaukee Braves against the mighty Pirates. The Braves were at bat with two outs, but there wasn’t anyone special at bat (like Aaron or Mathews); but some light hitting lug – and I didn’t much like many of them anyway. It was someone like Woody Woodward or Dennis Menke or someone like that. I would like to think it was Menke, one of my least favorite players. Dennis “boot ’em” Menke.  

Anyway, whoever it was came up and hit a scorcher down into the right field corner (a hell of a hit) and tore around first and the ball was hit on a line just inside the first base bag. The ball headed to the corner and it took one high bounce against the green wall. And Clemente went and got it and caught it on the bounce as it came off the wall and Menke (or whoever) headed to second and just kept going. A clear triple. And Clemente turned and rifled the ball over the head of the second baseman and into third where Pirate third sacker, young Bob Bailey was waiting.

I remember it well: the ball caught up with Menke about halfway between second and third and Menke looked at the ball as it passed him. I saw his head turn. Everyone saw his head turn. And Bailey just kind of spread his legs and leaned down and the ball took one bounce and Bailey applied the tag and flipped the ball to the ump. We were all on our feet with Braves fans (what there were of them) ready to cheer this fantastic triple and the air just came out of the stadium and everyone, just everyone, kind of looked at their shoes and shook their heads and went back to their popcorn. What was amazing about it really was that when Bailey applied the tag, Clemente was already halfway to the dugout — he was on the lip of the infield grass. And I remember thinking: well, I saw that.