The Washington Nationals broke out the lumber at Nationals’ Park on Sunday, spraying twelve hits and hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs to down the visiting Houston Astros, 8-2. The hit parade was led by Ian Desmond, who was 3-5 with two RBIs. Ryan Zimmerman, Chris Marrero and Danny Espinosa claimed two hits each, with Rick Ankiel, Jayson Werth and Laynce Nix each collecting one. The win meant that the Nationals took the series, two games to one.

“I think the nicest thing about all that is we finally had the lead,” Desmond said following the victory. “All series and the last two series, we have been behind and defensive. So today, we all wanted to make sure that we stayed aggressive. We weren’t so passive, giving a pitcher a strike, whatever it may have been. We wanted to make sure we were in the driver’s seat all day. That worked out for us.”

The Nats’ win dampened the headlines that were sure to be dominated by Stephen Strasburg, who pitched three innings — but was taken out by Davey Johnson after throwing 57 pitches. Johnson noted that Strasburg had thrown a lot of pitches in the first inning, and he didn’t want to extend him further: ” I explained to him, ‘I don’t want to [take you out during an inning]. As far, as I’m concerned, it’s like your second time out in Spring Training. That’s enough for me. You are not going to go five.’”

The Nats home run trifecta took place in the third inning, when Ian Desmond hit his eighth homer, Rick Ankiel followed with his ninth and Ryan Zimmerman followed with his 12th. The back-to-back-to-back home runs were the first time the Nationals had accomplished that unique feat since 2009. Once again the Nationals bullpen was superb: Tom Gorzelanny, Sean Burnett and Henry Rodriguez held the Astros scoreless, with Doug Slaten giving up an unearned run in the ninth.

The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: The by-now traditional end-of-year conversation dominated the talk of the section, nearly from the beginning of the game — determining who would (and who would not), be with the Nationals next year. The yakking started with Rick Ankiel. “Definitely gone,” one opinionated fan said. “What? Seven, eight home runs? We can do better.”

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Respectability? Forget about contending for the N.L. East championship (not even the Braves can do that), or the Wild Card (the Braves might not be able to do that either), but Washington’s 3-2 victory in Colorado on Sunday brought the Nats to within four games of .500. While Nats’ fans might think their team is already “respectable,” a .500 record would make it official. Then too, while Nats’ fans are anxious to see some kind of flag waving from somewhere in Nationals Park, an 82-82 finish would be a stunning success — and an amazing improvement over 2010, when the Nats finished 24 games under .500. But can it be done?

If we look at the Colorado series (and not all that closely), the answer is yes . . . and no. Washington lost game one of the match-up, 6-3, because Ross Detwiler was just so-so in his five inning outing, though the game was decided in the eighth, when the usually reliable Ryan Mattheus gave up three runs in a single inning. Game three was more of the same: except that Washington’s Livan Hernandez was less than mediocre, while the Washington bullpen collapsed. Washington actually hit well in both games — breaking the mold for the year.

Washington’s wins, on the other hand, came as a result of solid (not superb, but solid) pitching from its starters: Jordan Zimmermann provided a steady outing in game two (5.2, four hits, two earned runs), John Lannan in game four (6.0, six hits, one earned run). And in each game the bullpen came through to hold the Rockies. That said, the common theme for all of the games was that Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen were the only two bullpen arms who were consistently steady — while Henry Rodriguez (please, please, throw a strike) and Todd Coffey & Company were downright frightening.

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Washington and the Rockies rapped out 33 hits in scoring 22 runs on Saturday — but the Heltons were just too powerful and downed the Nationals, 15-7. This was a poor outing for Livan Hernandez (now 6-11 on the year) who gave up nine hits and seven runs in just 3.2 innings.

The big bats of Colorado showed up in force: Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki were a combined 5-8, while normally light hitting catcher Chris Iannetta was 4-5. The Nationals bullpen was also ineffective. Tom Gorzelanny, Todd Coffey, Sean Burnett and Henry Rodriguez gave up a combined ten hits in 4.2 innings of work.

The Nationals fought back in the top of the sixth, scoring four runs to bring the game to within three, at 10-7. It was the only strong point of the Washington showing. “I was really pleased with the team,” skipper Davey Johnson said, after the loss. “We battled back and scored a bunch of runs with two outs, and that was a good sign. Stuff like that happens here.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Cincinnati Reds were swept by the Mets at the end of July, but then took three of three from the Giants — a sure sign the team was still in the thick of the N.L. Central race. But since then the Redlegs have tanked. They dropped two of three from the Astros and have now dropped two in a row to the Cubs . . .

They look awful. Yesterday in Chicago (which has a seven game winning streak, though no one knows exactly why), Dusty Baker’s boys were eaten by Carlos Zambrano, who gave up six hits in six innings and homered off Johnny Cueto in the second inning. Zambrano (whose homer was a straight-away-to-center shot), is now 9-6 . . . Cueto couldn’t make it out of the fourth . . .

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Southpaw pitcher John Lannan threw 6.1 lights-out innings, homered into the right field seats, and then watched as Washington’s ace relief corps derailed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 in the City of Angels on Friday night. The win brought the Nationals to 3-4 on their current road trip, and provided a badly needed win after the team dropped two of three in Houston.

Lannan’s performance on the mound was memorable, but not nearly as memorable as his surprising home run into the right field seats, which came with two outs in the second inning. It was the first home run Lannan has hit since he was 15. “I just got a pitch to hit,” Lannan said. “I wasn’t trying to hit a home run. I was trying to put the bat on the ball and it went out. It’s kind of a blur right now.”

The Trolleys kept the game close, despite Lannan’s pitching and hitting heroics. Dodger righty Hiroki Kuroda struggled in the early frames, but then settled down to hold the Nationals to a single run lead. But his teammates couldn’t solve the Nats’ pitching, registering just three hits in their 56th loss. Kuroda, who is 6-12 (but with a snappy 3.19 ERA) has been mentioned prominently in trade talks.

The Dodgers have struggled to score runs recently, despite having some heavy hitters (including triple crown candidate Matt Kemp) in their line-up. Don Mattingly showed his frustration with his team’s lack of production during a post-game interview. “We’ve gotta put some numbers on the board,” Mattingly said. “We had the one inning there, but we just really didn’t mount a whole lot of charges after that. The main thing we have to do [as a team] is throw some numbers up there.”

The Nationals finished strong: Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen combined to hold the Dodgers’ hitless in relief of Lannan, and uber-sub Jerry Hairston collected a ninth inning grand slam that just cleared the left field fence. Hairston’s dinger put the game out of reach.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Kuroda is the Dodgers’ lead candidate to be traded, undoubtedly for a package of prospects. The righty is a steady starter, but he’s 36. He says all the trade talk doesn’t bother him: “I have to really concentrate on the game that I pitch,” Kuroda said following his loss to the Nationals . . .

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Washington couldn’t hold a solid lead after the 4th inning, then gave up the winning walk-off run in the ninth, to fall to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field, 9-8. The loss came on the shoulders of the bullpen — one of the team’s strong squads. The good news from the loss was that the Nationals’ bats came alive, as the team rapped out 11 hits on the afternoon.

The turning point in the game came in the 5th inning. Leading 6-2 going into the bottom half of the inning, reliever Henry Rodriguez (pitching for starter Tom Gorzelanny, who injured his ankle on a play at the plate in the second), gave up a double to Wilken Ramirez and hit Jason Heyward with a pitch. Jordan Schafer then singled to drive in a run. When Schafer stole second, Davey Johnson replaced Rodriguez with struggling lefty Sean Burnett.

It was all downhill from there: Brian McCann put a Burnett offering into the seats, scoring three and tying the game. Another run on a walk, a single and a fielder’s choice put the Braves in the lead. “It was poor location,” reliever Burnett said of his pitch to McCann. “It was a pitch that caught a lot of the plate to a good hitter. He made me pay for it again.”

Even with that, the Nationals could have (and should have) won. The Anacostia Nine recaptured the lead by scoring two in the sixth, but Atlanta stormed back: the normally reliable Tyler Clippard gave up a home run to light hitting Nate McLouth in the eighth, that tied the game. Ryan Mattheus came in to pitch the ninth, but gave up the winning run on a Freddie Freeman single to right field.

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With the MLB trade deadline looming, rumors of what the Washington Nationals will — and won’t — do are now beginning to circulate. This morning, commenter and analyst Buster Olney, wrote that “the dam is about ready to burst on the trade market,” with teams looking for a way to help themselves (or wave the white flag), before the end of July. The Tigers are looking for pitching, the Philllies are looking for a bat, and Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez is on everyone’s radar screen.

What will the Nationals do? G.M. Mike Rizzo isn’t exactly saying, though he notes that the team could be “both buyers and sellers” at the trade deadline. We have no clue what that means, which was obviously Rizzo’s intent. Still, the Nationals have been actively talking about acquiring a lead-off hitter (Michael Bourn’s name has been mentioned), and they have apparently inquired about Tampa’s B.J. Upton. There was even talk that the Nationals are willing to trade All-Star reliever Tyler Clippard in an attempt to answer some of their outfield problems.

There’s no question, a B.J. Upton trade would be intriguing: back in mid-June, Ken Rosenthal said that Upton could be had for the right price — with the Nationals ponying up a hot young infield prospect in a package with Clippard that would bring the then-struggling Upton to Washington. Rosenthal’s thinking was compelling: if the Rays fall out of contention, they could off-load Upton, and save themselves some future bucks. Hmmmmm. And, as Rosenthal noted then: Todd Coffey is being eyed by a number of teams who need a good righty out of the bullpen.

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The Washington Nationals won yet another one run game, defeating the White Sox in Chicago by a score of 2-1. While the Nationals were able to scratch out only three hits against the Chicago starting staff and bullpen, it proved to be enough to make Livan Hernandez (now 5-8) a winner. He deserved it: the big righty threw 6.2 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out nine.

Washington scored its runs on Danny Espinosa’s 7th inning home run with Michael Morse aboard, giving the Nationals just enough to edge the Pale Hose. Espinosa’s average has been climbing steadily over the last ten games. Chicago’s fans had to be disappointed: Philip Humber threw brilliantly, matching Hernandez pitch-for-pitch and holding the Nationals scoreless through six. Humber held the Nationals to just three hits while striking out four and had a no-hitter through five.

The three game series must have provided a sobering moment for the White Sox whose biggest boppers have not-so-suddenly turned into hitless wonders. The boo-birds were out for Adam Dunn, the off-season mega-bucks free agent (and former National) who’s hitting .019 from the left side of the plate. Dunn is hitting .176 on the season. His four strikeouts today against the Nationals gave him 100 strikeouts for the year. His blood-draining power production (or lack of it) has turned much of the south side against him: he has 40 hits, only seven of which are home runs.

Hernandez was brilliant, but so was the Nationals’ bullpen. Washington’s trio of relievers — Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett and Drew Storen — held off the Chisox through the 7th, 8th, and 9th, with Clippard and Burnett notching holds, and Storen registering his 19th save. Burnett looked particularly effective, good news for the young lefty who struggled in the early part of June. Burnett has given up no runs and just two hits in his last seven outings. Burnett has lowered his ERA a full point over the last three weeks. The Nationals now head to Los Angeles, where they will duel with the Belinskys.