Adam LaRoche ended his standard early season drought with two home runs in consecutive at bats and the Nationals squeaked by the Chicago White Sox, 8-7 to bring their record to 5-2. LaRoche’s homers helped the Nationals stave off a surging Chicago line-up — and helped the team to survive some shaky bullpen outings.

LaRoche’s blasts came in the 6th inning with one on and in the 8th with no one on. Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth also went deep for the home towners. “You get into the second week of the season, that’s never a good feeling to look up there and not have a hit,” Laroche said following the win. “I felt great that first series at home, I just couldn’t get the ball to fall. To come back and get a couple [tonight] was nice.”

The home runs were needed: Chicago’s Paul Konerko blasted a three run home run in the 7th inning off of Tyler Clippard to bring the score within one. Washington came back to tack on a run in the bottom of the 7th, which was followed by LaRoche’s second home run — but Chicago added two more in the top of the 9th off of Rafael Soriano, who then closed out the game.

Both Chicago and Washington were hoping their starters would turn Tuesday’s game into a classic pitching match-up, but Jake Peavy gave up six runs on nine hits in 5.1 inning, while Nats’ lefty Gio Gonzalez surrendered four hits in five innings. That wasn’t so bad, but Washington’s bullpen gave up seven hits and four runs in the next four frames.

Washington’s big inning came in the 6th, when the Nationals put four runs on the board — with home runs from Werth and LaRoche.  “Obviously, the sixth inning got away from us,” Peavy said. “I didn’t have much there, and it was hot and humid, and I ran out of gas. I didn’t have much left with LaRoche, and he put a good swing on it.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: It’s deja vu all over again for the Los Angeles Angels, who are repeating their slow start from a year ago. The Angels dropped a slugfest at home last night, in their opener, against the forever surprising Oakland A’s. The Angels yielded a one run lead in the top of the 7th by giving up home runs to pinch hitter John Jaso and first sacker Brandon Moss. The A’s went on to dump the Halos 9-5 . . .

Nothing seems to be working for the Belinskys, and you can read the frustration in the face of Angels’ skipper Mike Scioscia. Ace C.J. Wilson came out of the clubhouse and promptly gave up three runs in the top of the 1st, but it could have been a lot worse: Wilson left the inning with the bases loaded . . .

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The first blush of comments are in on the trade of Michael “A-ha” Morse to Seattle, and the reviews are mostly negative. That is to say: they’re mostly negative in Seattle. “Lookout Landing,” the high profile Mariners blog, calls the trade “just brutal,” while “Baseball Nation” gives the Nationals an “A,” leaving a gaping “no comment” for the forever struggling Navigators.

Washington Nationals fans undoubtedly have a different perspective. Gone is the big galoot with the eccentric warm-up swing, the “Take On Me” walk-up music — and all the good memories. Which includes a well-I’ll-be’damned 2011 season in which the former White Sox prospect lifted the D.C. Nine from cellar dwellers to “most talked about.”

Morse’s 2011 season is worth remembering — a .303 BA with 31 HRs. The season lifted Morse into the stratosphere, with descriptions of how a “late bloomer” can finally find his way into the game. That reputation was only sullied slightly by an injury marred 2012, in which (if truth be told), Morse never could find his stride.

“Quite simply, the Nationals dealt from a position of excess (Morse) to replenish their farm system (starting pitching),” the Washington Post’s Jame Wagner writes. That’s true, but the Morse swap also is a certain signal that Mike Rizzo’s four player shipment to the A’s during the last off-season (another “gone in 60s seconds” moment), might well have left the G.M. with an untidy feeling that perhaps the Nats had shipped out one prospect too many.

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An improbable and heroic comeback from the hometown nine — a six run 8th inning that tied the game at six apiece — was undone in the 9th inning by a Matt Kemp home run off of Nationals’ reliever Tyler Clippard, and the Los Angeles Dodgers took the second game of a doubleheader at Nationals Park, 7-6.

The loss kept the Nationals from clinching a playoff spot, but brought the crowd at the Half Street stadium to their feet to cheer their team on in one of the more exciting rallies of the season. The comeback followed two three run sets scored off of Nationals starter John Lannan in the third and the fourth innings. But, as it turned out, the rally fell short of providing a needed victory.

The six run eighth inning started with a Michael Morse home run, followed by an Ian Desmond single. Steve Lombardozzi followed, with his third home run of the season, and suddenly the Nationals were back in the game, having cut L.A.’s lead in half.

After Jesus Flores grounded out and Corey Brown reached on an error by first sacker Adrian Gonzalez, L.A. manager Don Mattingly did what he should have done to start the inning — he pulled starter Josh Beckett, who had tamed the Nationals through seven complete.

But the Nationals had only begun their rally. With reliever Randy Choate on the mound, pinch hitter Mark DeRosa singled, pushing Brown to third. Bryce Harper then followed, with the fifth hit of the inning, plating the inning’s fourth run. Danny Espinosa then came to the plate, singled — and suddenly the bases were loaded.

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Stephen Strasburg’s fourteenth win of the year, a six inning seven-strikeout four-hitter might have been headlines in baseball today, were it not for two other stories. For this was the day that Giants’ outfielder Melky Cabrera was suspended from baseball for fifty games for using a banned substance — and the day that Seattle’s Felix “King Felix” Hernandez threw baseball’s 23rd perfect game.

Even with that, Strasburg’s outing was memorable enough. The big right hander was able to lead the Nationals to a 6-4 win in San Francisco and a 2-1 series victory. Strasburg provided his patented in-and-out up-and-down stuff, throwing 100 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. The Giants were able to scratch out two runs against him, but that was all.

Strasburg was disappointed in his performance in the second inning, when he gave up walks to Buster Posey and Hunter Pence, then two singles to score two. But he settled down after that. “Once I told myself to just trust [my back] and just let it happen, all my pitches started to come back, and I started having a much better feel,” Strasburg said.

San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum, meanwhile, continued his season-long struggles. Lincecum, who took his 13th loss, was lifted after four innings — having given up four runs on eight hits. “I was just battling through four innings, and they beat me to death with foul balls and balls in play,” Lincecum said of his performance. “They kind of put it on me today.”

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Baseball Tonight was all agog over the Washington Nationals last night, featuring a look at their top three pitchers — and speculating on whether Stephen Strasburg should be starting the All Star game for the National League. Ironically, even as ESPN’s premier baseball show was trumpeting the Nats top three, Washington’s fourth pitcher, Edwin Jackson, was soaking his elbow after throwing an eight inning four hit gem against he Toronto Blue Jays.

Jackson’s outing in Toronto, and the Nats eventual 6-3 win, is prime evidence that Washington’s touted one-two-three of Strasburg, Gonzalez and Zimmermann, is more appropriately viewed as a 1-2-3-4 punch that includes the well-traveled righty. “He’s got great stuff, he’s stingy about giving up hits per inning,” Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said after the victory in Toronto. “His command is a lot better.”

For non-Washington fans, Jackson is the forgotten starter in the Nats’ rotation — a savvy innings eater that provides a predictably steady and savvy outing every time he takes the mound. Jackson has been a steady presence — sporting a nifty 3.02 ERA and giving the Nationals a once-every-fifth-day arm that has helped Washington catapult to the top of the N.L East.

Last night, in Toronto, Jackson was at his best. After his SOP early game troubles, Jackson spun out a dominating 108 pitch performance, with three strike outs. His fastball was sinking, with a total of twelve ground outs and seven fly outs in his outing.

The Nationals clearly felt comfortable in Toronto’s bombs away Rogers Center, with a quartet of batters serving up a multi-hit game: Steve Lombardozzi was 2-5, Bryce Harper was 3-4, and Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond were 2-5. LaRoche hit his eleventh home run.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’ve always thought the Seattle Mariners are a little light in hanging onto pitching talent, or any other kind of talent. But if you don’t believe that, just check the record. When the Mariners needed pitching back in 2009, they traded Adam Jones to Baltimore for lefty Erik Bedard, a breathtaking swap that reminded us of Cincinnati’s trade of Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas back in the 1960s . . .

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Chicago White Sox hurler Philip Humber has just finished throwing a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners in Seattle. It’s the 21st perfect game in baseball history. It is the White Sox eighteenth no hitter, their third perfect game. Humber had nine strikeouts in dominating Seattle hitters.

The Nationals came up with one run in the 9th inning to beat the Mariners 1-0 at Nationals Park — and sweep Seattle in their three game series. Jason Marquis, who had to settle for a no-decision, pitched beautifully, outmatching Seattle fireballer Michael Pineda. Marquis held the Mariners to three hits through eight innings of work, inducing fourteen ground ball outs. Marquis was superb and while he did not get the win, he has established himself as the Nationals’ pitching ace — and put himself in contention for an All Star berth. Marquis threw 108 pitches, 70 of them for strikes.

The Nationals sealed the victory in the 9th inning: Michael Morse singled, Danny Espinosa reached first on a bunt, and Ivan Rodriguez got on base on a sacrifice bunt. Jerry Hairston came to the plate with the bases jammed, but hit a grounder that allowed the Mariners to get a force out of Morse at home. The next batter, Laynce Nix, on an 0-1 count, hit a short sacrifice fly into left field that scored Danny Espinosa from third. The Nationals finished the homestand at 8-1 and have won 11 of their last twelve starts. The Nationals now head to the south side of Chicago to take on the White Sox.