Ian Desmond’s high bounding infield hit and Rick Ankiel’s hustle home in the bottom of the ninth inning provided the winning margin for the Nationals on Sunday, as they took the third game of their three game set against the New York Mets, 3-2 at Nationals Park. Desmond’s hit came after Ankiel, in a heads-up play, was able to take third base in the ninth with one out.

Jordan Zimmermann returned to his ace form as a Washington starter, throwing six complete innings and striking out seven. The only negative in the win came when Drew Storen gave up a two out home run in the ninth inning to Mets’ super utility guy Scott Hairston. The Hairston bomb tied the game, leading to Storen’s fourth blown save on the year.

Aside from Desmond and Ankiel’s ninth inning heroics, the story of the game was Zimmermann, who scattered seven hits in throwing 64 strikes in 107 pitches. Zimmermann pitched out of a major jam in the sixth inning. With Mets on second and third, Zimmermann struck out New York heavyweights Angel Pagan and Jason Bay.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: After shuttling Jerry Hairston to Milwaukee and Jason Marquis to Arizona, the Nationals decided that Minnesota was asking too much for Denard Span. Which meant that rumored trade bait Drew Storen will remain in Washington, along with Roger Bernadina and Steve Lombardozzi — all three of whom (but it was probably just two of them, don’t you think?) Minnesota apparently wanted for their concussed lead-off centerfielder . . .

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So here’s the thinking, or presumably so: because the Nationals are near dead last in hitting in the majors, the powers that be have decided to shift the batting order, moving players in and out of the lead-off spot and juggling through a series of middle-order options in an attempt to “get the bats going.” Nothing seems to have worked, though sometimes (as with putting Jayson Werth up top), the attempts have been pretty creative. The most recent thinking is that what the Nationals really need is a good lead-off hitter, a set-up guy that would allow big-bangers like Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse (and, ostensibly, a revived Werth), to drive him in.

The thinking isn’t all the bad, though it comes with some caveats — it’s made on the assumption that Roger “The Shark” Bernadina is not built to lead-off, that the Werth experiment was more an attempt to get him going than to really fill a top-of-the-order need and (embarrassingly), Rick Ankiel just hasn’t worked out. Which leaves the Nats where they are: searching for a lead-off hitter with a high OBP who can also play centerfield. The latter requirement is apparently the result of front office thinking that Bernadina who sometimes is (but mostly isn’t) the team’s go-to guy at the top of the order. Three names have been mentioned.

The most recent is Julio Borbon, the Texas Rangers’ sometime lead-off guy who is currently playing in Triple-A for the Round Rock Express — “an athletic position player” who (whether he worked in the lead-off spot or not) could hit for average, get on base, be a threat on the base paths and be a solid defensive outfielder. Borbon might be a good choice, and perhaps cost less than the other two names mentioned: the Rays’ B.J. Upton or the Astros’ Michael Bourn. The problem with both of these latter “solutions” is that they would be expensive — with teams around the league apparently agreed that the player-to-get would be reliever Tyler Clippard, one of the very best set-up men in the game.

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Josh Willingham has been traded to the Oakland Athletics for former Oklahoma State bopper Corey Brown and pitcher Henry Rodriguez, who features a 98 mph fastball and a devastating curve. It’s tough to see Willingham go and Nationals’ fans are bound to be disappointed in the return: neither Brown nor Rodriguez are considered among the top prospects in the A’s system, and both are unpolished. But the Nats front office was apparently impressed with Brown’s power (he was dominant this fall, in Arizona) and H-Rod’s eye-popping speed and both will get a good look in Spring Training. It’s not out of the question that, if Rodriguez impresses Riggleman & Co., he could be the Nats’ closer in 2011. He has the stuff to do it and was used out of the bullpen by the A’s in 2010. Corey Brown, on the other hand, might well be an experiment: he hit for power in the A’s farm system (with 15 home runs at AA and AAA), but he struck out 129 times in 530-some at bats. Even so, Brown is young enough and good enough (and he’s fast) to start getting more than a look-see in a new Nats outfield.

In Willingham, the A’s get a steady presence both in left field and at the plate where (prior to his August 15 injury) he hit .268 with 16 home runs. The trade for Willingham was set up by A’s General Manager Billy Beane by the signing of former Rangers pitcher Brandon McCarthy and the re-signing of yet-to-reach-his-potential Rich Harden. Then too, in light of a slow off season for the Belinskis, the continued cratering of the Mariners and the failure of Texas to land Cliff Lee, the A’s front office is calculating that the A’s can outdistance the Rangers for A.L. West honors. They might be right. With the addition of Willingham, the White Elephants have finished building an outfield that (in addition to Willingham) will now feature Coco Crisp and David DeJesus, and a revamped middle-of-the-line-up that includes newly signed Hideki Matsui. The A’s are also in the race for Adrian Beltre, whose prospective signing would give the A’s a middle of the order that would be the class of the other coast.

And the Nats? Considering Willingham’s mid-August injury and his reputation as a popular but not-quite-great ballplayer, Rizzo got what he could — and it wasn’t bad. Brown has power potential and is close to getting more than just a cup of coffee in the bigs, while Rodriguez is a comer — and is coming fast. We all loved “The Hammer,” but no one would mistake Willingham for Henry Aaron. Nor was Willingham ever picked as the player who could become a constant presence, or lead the team to the promised land. He was good. He was beloved. He was temporary. The Nats need to get younger, faster and better, which is what they just did.

In the end, it really wasn’t that much of a contest. Behind the pitching of righty ace Tim Lincecum and the long ball hitting of veteran shortstop (and series MVP) Edgar Renteria, the San Francisco Giants won the 106th Fall Classic — downing the Texas Rangers 3-1 in the fifth game of the World Series and taking the series four games to one. That the difference was pitching should not come as a surprise. The Giants rode the arms of their best pitchers, while beating Texas ace Cliff Lee twice. Giants’ starters held the hit-heavy Rangers’ line-up to an embarrassingly anemic .167 batting average, with the Rangers’ best hitters unable to unlock the Giants’ best starters. After scoring seven runs in the first game against the Giants, Texas’ bats went quiet in the Fall Classic’s final four games, scoring just five runs in the final 36 innings of the series. “As a competitor, you want to put it on yourself,” Texas third sacker Michael Young said during post-game interviews in the Rangers’ clubhouse. “They threw the ball well, but no matter who is out there, we still feel we’re capable of scoring runs. We just didn’t get it done.”

The same message was given by patch-em-up and let-em-play veteran Edgar Renteria, who manfully stop-gapped the Giants at shortstop, while providing a home run bat that had been silent nearly all season. The crafty and savvy shortstop walked away from the 106th World Series with the MVP, a much deserved reward for a player who spent the year nursing an aching neck and all sorts of tears and pulls to compile a .412 (7 for 17, two home runs, six RBIs) Fall Classic. Renteria, 34 — and in his fifteenth season — hit a three run dinger in the fifth game to notch his place in Giants’ (and baseball) history. “I got confident, looking for one pitch, and if he throws it I’m going to hit it back to the middle,” Renteria said of his home run stroke against Texas ace Cliff Lee. “So he tried to throw the cutter, and the cutter stayed in the middle, and that’s why it went out.” That Renteria would be the player at the center of the Giants’ postgame celebration seemed oddly just: a legendary franchise that boasts some of the greatest players in baseball history now has a new hero — a slap-and-run good-glove defender who plays quietly behind, argubly, the very best pitching staff in baseball. That’s what made the San Franciso Giants the Champions of the World.

The San Francisco Giants are 27 outs from a World Series win, the first since the team moved from New York to the west coast. If Sunday night is any indication, the send-em-to-the-golf-course triumph will come as a result of stellar pitching and situational hitting: Giants specialities that have flummoxed (in turn) the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and now, the Texas Rangers. Madison Bumgarner is the latest example of how the Giants have dominated the series — throwing 8 innings of three hit baseball (106 pitches, 69 strikes) in shutting down a potent Rangers’ offense. Bumgarner was nearly unhittable, becoming the fifth youngest pitcher in baseball history (21 years and 91 days) to start in the Fall Classic. “He was as good as I’ve seen him,” San Francisco catcher Buster Posey said after the win. “He was in and out, really. The first couple of innings he might have yanked a couple of fastballs, but after that he was unreal.”

The Rangers, stymied by San Francisco’s arms (Bumgarner struck out Vlad Guerrero three times and Michael Young twice), will attempt to get back into the series on Monday by sending uber ace Cliff Lee to the mound to face-off against Tim Lincecum. So while a Giants’ win in the Series is far from guaranteed, San Francisco has to be confident that it can do to Lee what it did on Sunday to Tommy Hunter — and last week to the Rangers’ bullpen. And yet, Texas sounded anything but confident. “We still have to find a way to score runs,” Texas third sacker Michael Young (.250 for the series), said after the Bumgarner outing. Young’s view was seconded by Nelson Cruz — who’s hitting a Willie Harris-like .188 against Giants’ pitching: “We need more hits and more people on base.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Not only is San Francisco’s pitching good, it’s home grown. Tim Lincecum was a 2006 (tenth overall) San Francisco draft pick, Matt Cain was selected by the Giants in the first round (25th overall) in 2002, Jonathan Sanchez was picked up by the Gigantes in the 27th round in 2004 and Madison Bumgarner was a Brian Sabean favorite in 2007 — when he was drafted tenth overall. It’s the first home-grown rotation to reach the World Series since 1986, when Boston trotted out Bruce Hurst, Roger Clemens, Oil Can Boyd and Al Nipper to face the New York Mets. The San Francisco model (draft pitching, buy hitting) is followed throughout baseball, but few teams have had as much success in following it as the Giants. The Giants follow two other principles: they don’t dilly dally in moving their best young arms to the majors (Lincecum and Bumgarner each spent two years in the minors), and they don’t trade them for hitting — Sabean pushed aside a proposed Lincecum for Alex Rios deal, turned down a Cain for Prince Fielder deal and spurned numerous suitors (including your Washington Nationals) for Jonathan Sanchez . . .

The Norris Nine? We’ve received a ton of mail from readers following up on our little ditty about proposed Texas Rangers’ nicknames. One reader divided his list into two parts — “old ones” and “new ones.” Among the old: the “Spurs” (an old Dallas-Ft. Worth baseball team), the “Strangers” (a 1970s nickname given the Rangers because of their relocation from D.C.), and the “Hambones” — which is Josh Hamilton’s nickname. Hmmmm. This reader lists as new ones the “Ex-Senators,” the “Re-Arrangers,” and “the Bushies.” This last makes sense, given the prominence of the Bush family, who have found themselves (with Nolan Ryan), in camera range during the Series. But the best nominee from this (anonymous) reader is “The Texas Walkers,” named for the “Walker, Texas Ranger” television series, starring (quick intake of breath) Chuck Norris. This has potential (this reader implies), because it can be morphed into “The Norris Nine” — which has a certain ring. This regular CFG reader (and who isn’t) isn’t the first fan to put the Rangers together with the aging kick boxer. Back in August of 2009, when the Rangers were contending for a Wild Card spot with the Boston Pedroia’s, a Red Sox fan (with entirely too much time on his hands), gave us this . . .

The Texas Rangers broke out of their two game World Series slump, defeating the San Francisco Giants 4-2 in Arlington, Texas on Saturday. The win came on the arm of Colby Lewis, who threw nearly eight innings of five hit ball, giving up only two runs and striking out six. McCovey fans always fear the return of “the torture” — a sudden inability to hit good pitching, and it happened on Saturday. San Francisco fans also got an eyeful from rookie closer Neftali Perez, who struck out two in the San Francisco 9th to notch the save, hitting 99 mph on the gun and setting the suddenly whiff-prone McCoveys down in order. The big blow in the game came from Mitch Moreland, the Rangers’ 2007 17th round draft pick (and Mississippi State afterthought), who is solidifying his spot as a first base regular. After fouling off two Jonathan Sanchez change-ups and two more sliders (and working Sanchez into a tizzy of nine total pitches), Moreland launched a fastball into the right field seats, putting the Rangers up 3-0. It was all Texas would need.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’re struggling to come up with a good baseball nickname for the Rangers, and for good reason. After all, it’s not as if the Rangers have a storied history. After moving from D.C. in time for the 1972 season, the Rangers regularly struggled to find pitching. Their best years were ’98 and ’99, under Johnny Oates, when they sported a hit-heavy line-up (Ivan Rodriguez, Will Clark and Juan Gonzalez) and pitchers who could throw well for a year — but not much more. We could call them the Ryans, or even the Hamiltons, but that seems almost too easy. Then too, Ryan pitched for Houston and the Halos for a lot longer than he ever pitched for the Rangers. His best year with Texas was ’89, when he was 16-10. Oddly, the Rangers had trouble hitting in ’89: one of the few years that that has ever happened. After bursting out of the gate in the early-going, the Rangers faded, falling into fourth place and finishing well back in the A.L. West. Their best player was Ruben Sierra, then in the fourth year of a semi-distinguished career . . . and we’re certainly not going to call them the Sierras.

Of course, there’s the old stand-bys: the Lone Stars (ugh), the Gunslingers (ick), or the Cowpokes. The internet is bereft of anything approaching a suggestion — as all the old baseball nicknames (Mutuals, Red Stockings, Eckfords, Knickerbockers and the like) have solid histories associated with established teams. Of course, we could call them the Morons: a name that comes to mind anytime a Washingtonian decides to read a Dallas newspaper (which, admittedly, isn’t that often). Steve Blow’s Dallas Morning News piece on why the Rangers deserve to win the Series, is a case in point. Blow goes on about how the Rangers are a bunch of “regular Joes,” while the Giants are long-haired hand-holders. Or, as he says: “Giants fans sip hot chocolate and wear coats and jackets to games all summer long” (he’s got a point), while the Rangers tough-it-out in “a sweat lodge.”

Blow isn’t kidding — he writes that the Rangers are real Americans (they wear red, white and blue), while the Giants wear “Halloween colors.” He goes on to write that San Francisco’s mayor “reeks of effete.” Blow also puts in a plug for Republican Congressman Joe Barton, while “Madame Pelosi” represents The City by the Bay. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to inject politics into baseball,” Blow writes. “But it’s hard to imagine two places more different facing each other in the World Series – one right, one left.” The response has been viral — the article was posted on Facebook and has occasioned endless responses. And while one Texas reader responds that Blow is writing tongue-in-cheek (“calm down and take your medication”), there’s a tangible sense that Blow speaks for a lot of Rangers’ fans, who view their all-American team as . . . well . . . all-American. Giants fans have responded in kind: “Hey Hopalong Dufus, your article is like everything else in Texas; high hat, tall boots, no cattle” or (better yet): “Things that are bigger in Texas: “Waistlines, execution rates, strip malls, racism, postseason ERA’s.” Actually, Cowpokes isn’t all that bad.

The more you think about the 106th World Series, the more you have to believe that the Texas Rangers are not simply snake bit, they’re actually over matched — or worse: that the real contest to see who’s the best in baseball has already taken place. And the Phillies lost. Fans of the American League will bitterly deny this, arguing that we have yet to see the real Rangers’ line-up, that Cliff Lee will assuredly return to form, that the Lone Stars’ two, three and four hitters will find their rhythm in Arlington. Not a few Texas fans are blaming manager Ron Washington for the flame-out, arguing that he could have kept the Giants close in last night’s 9-0 blowout if he had brought uber closer Neftali Perez in to pitch the 8th. The criticism’s fair, Lookout Landing says, but bringing in Feliz probably wouldn’t have changed the game’s outcome. That true; but the point of the criticism has little to do with Washington’s decision in the eighth inning of last night’s game and more to do with his decision making for the entire series. Which has been questionable.

Washington failed to fill out a line-up capable of hitting in an N.L. pitcher’s park, where long balls fall onto the warning track and hits to the right-center and left-center alleys never die. David Murphy (who has little no power) and Matt Treanor (who is a average poor hitter in the best of times) are fine players who are important pieces in a 162 game season (when regulars have to be rested), but they have no business starting in a seven game do-or-die series for all the marbles — particularly when Vlad Guerrero and Bengie Molina have played a lifetime of games in pressure situations against tough competition. Murphy and Treanor combined for 17 home runs during the 2010 campaign, while Vlad smacked nine dingers and hit .350 against the Gigantes in his career — oh, and accounted for 29 homers in 2010, which is 12 more than Murphy and Treanor combined. Then there’s Molina, who’s not only a fine hitter, but a player who actually knows the opposing rotation: having caught them for 61 games during the regular season. What the hell were these guys doing sitting on the bench? Or, put another way, Ron Washington’s failure didn’t come in the 8th inning of last night’s game, it came when he filled out the line-up card.