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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Major pieces of the Washington Nationals’ pitching staff collapsed on Saturday in Los Angeles, leading the way for a dramatic one run L.A. walk off win in the ninth inning, 7-6. The Nationals’ game began to unravel in the bottom of the third, with Washington enjoying a 6-2 lead. That might have been enough on any other night, but it was not enough on Saturday.

In the bottom of the third, the Dodgers’ mounted a three run comeback that culminated in a double off the bat of pitcher Ted Lilly that scored Juan Rivera and Juan Uribe. The Lilly double ended starter Tom Gorzelanny’s three inning outing, as he was replaced in the fourth by lefty long reliever Ross Detwiler. “It was awful pitching — plain and simple,” Gorzelanny said following his outing. “I couldn’t throw anywhere in. I was leaving balls up. I wasn’t able to command the fastball.”

But Gorzelanny wasn’t the only Nats’ pitcher who performed poorly. After 2.2 solid innings from Detwiler (whose performances are cementing his spot in the bullpen), and with the Nationals still holding a 6-5 lead, Henry Rodriguez allowed the Dodgers to tie the Nationals at six. Witn one out in the bottom of the seventh, Rodriguez walked Dioner Navarro and Rafael Furcal, then launched a wild pitch to the backstop that allowed pinch runner Eugenio Valez to score.

Sean Burnett came in in relief of Rodriguez and successfully put out the fire but, after an effective eighth inning, Nats’ reliever Ryan Mattheus couldn’t hold L.A. The Dodgers scored in a walk off in the bottom of the ninth inning on a double from Rafael Furcal that scored Trent Oeltjen. Davey Johnson was irriated, but philosophical about the loss: “It was just a bad outing for a couple of guys,” he said.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Ryan Zimmerman has weighed in on a potential trade for B.J. Upton. “B.J. is a very talented player. I think a lot of people still think he is going to improve a lot. He has all the tools. He is one of those guys who can run, throw and hit for power. He is a very gifted athlete . . . ”

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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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Tom Gorzelanny pitched his best game of the season, but it took a pinch hit walk off single off the right field wall in the ninth inning for the Nationals to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 on Friday night at Nationals Park. The game winning RBI came with Alex Cora on third base — a pinch runner for Michael Morse. Gorzellany was nearly unhittable, throwing seven complete innings and striking out eight Pirates. Gorzelanny gave up just six hits. Tyler Clippard pitched a no-run eighth inning, with Drew Storen picking up the win after pitching in the top of the ninth.

The walk off hit from Stairs made new Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson look like a genius. Johnson had started Stairs against the Angels (as a DH) so that the veteran could get his timing down. Former Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman had used Stairs sparingly, but Johnson is known for using everyone on the team. “Matt swung the bat pretty good out in L.A.,” Johnson said following the emotional win. “He is still not quite 100 percent, but he looked like 100 percent right there. That was a rocket. Like I was saying earlier, 25 guys have to contribute. If they are on the club, I’m going to use them.”

This was Stairs’ first game winning hit as a member of the Nationals. “Hopefully, this is the stepping stone,” Stairs told the press after the on-field celebration. “As a pinch-hitter, when you get a chance to get a big knock to win the game, it gives you a lot of confidence. So, definitely, if I get a chance to get in there, to get some at-bats or pinch-hit, the confidence is there, knowing I had a good at-bat today.”

Davey Johnson, who pinch hit Stairs for a badly slumping Ian Desmond was also pleased. “This became an all-time memory,” Johnson said. “It took 11 years in the big leagues to get that win. We are here in front of the home crowd. It was special.”

Tom Gorzelanny should have been the news on Saturday, but it was Jake Peavy instead. While Gorzelanny threw seven stellar innings of seven hit baseball, Jake Peavy was the pitcher who captured the headlines. Peavy, who has been battling shoulder problems since his arrival in Chicago from San Diego in 2009, tamed the Nationals with four innings of one hit baseball, picking up the win in a 3-0 White Sox victory over the Nationals.

The single run victory was enough for Peavy, who threw 55 pitches, 38 of them for strikes. Washington hitters could do little so solve him. Peavy, who was once one of the National League’s premier starters, entered the game as a reliever — the first time that has happened in his major league career. “Peavy was unreal,” Nats’ interim manager John McLaren said after the Nationals’ loss. “I was with him during the World Baseball Classic. He had some pitches that were unhittable. He just had really good stuff.”

But Peavy’s four inning gem was more a matter of circumstance than solid strategy. The big righty entered the game in the fourth inning after starter John Danks left the game with a strained right oblique and reliever Brian Bruney appeared to run out of gas. The White Sox were forced to use Peavy after Friday’s fourteen inning marathon burned out the Pale Hose bullpen. “I don’t want to make a big deal of it,” Peavy said. “I needed to do it for my team. That’s the bottom line. We had to find a way to win the game, and give us a chance to win the series tomorrow.”

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The qualities that have made the Nationals one of the hottest teams in baseball failed them on Sunday afternoon, as the Washington Nine dropped the last in their three game series against the Orioles, 7-4 at Nationals Park. Returning starting pitcher Tom Gorzelanny was shaky in pitching just 4.2 innings (he gave up ten hits and four runs), the Washington bullpen was just so-so (Collin Ballester appeared, but didn’t impress), and — perhaps most worrisome — the Nationals committed three errors.

The disturbing reversion to form, however, seems more like a hiccup that a talisman of future performance: Ryan Zimmerman is back in the line-up, Michael Morse has claimed first base as his own, and it’s likely the strong-up-the-middle Nationals will remain so. “It’s a long season, and you’re going to have a couple games where you play terrible defensively,” third sacker Ryan Zimmerman said after the loss. “The thing is you just have to learn and realize that’s why you lost the game. When we won all those games in a row, it was because we were playing good defense and doing the little things right.”

The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: It’s been three weeks since reports surfaced that the Nationals were inquiring about Houston outfielder Michael Bourn, but Nats fans are still talking about it. The consensus, at least in 1-2-9, is that the the inquiry is evidence that the team doesn’t realize what it has in Roger Bernadina. “Rizzo and crew have the solution to their lead-off and centerfield problem right in front of his eyes,” a 1-2-9 regular said on Friday. “They’ve got to give this guy a clear shot. He’s getting better every day.” There wasn’t much disagreement, even as 1-2-9′ers agreed on Bourn’s talents.

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The hero of the Nationals 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday was Michael Morse — the result of a first-pitch, bottom of the 9th inning walk off home run that landed in the Friars’ bullpen. The dinger gave the Nationals a badly needed victory, and Morse a triumphant greeting at home plate. But the game will be best remembered for John Lannan’s superb domination of the San Diego line-up.

Lannan’s outing may well stand as the best game he has pitched in his career — a lights out 7.2 inning, 93 pitch masterpiece that resulted in ground ball after ground ball to the left side of the Nats’ infield. The only negative in the game was Drew Storen’s top-of-the-ninth mistake to San Diego shortstop Jason Bartlett, who planted Storen’s pitch over the fence in left to tie the game. The Nationals win snapped a five game losing skid and buoyed the team after a tough, 1-7 road trip.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Jayson Werth and Jim Riggleman met on Friday to clear the air after comments from Werth that changes were needed on the team. “He has been around a lot of winning, and we are not winning right now,” Riggleman said. “I think there are other players who are frustrated, and Jayson is becoming one of the voices of the ballclub with his experience in the game. He expressed that frustration.” So, that ends it right? Well, stay tuned . . .

The Nationals have placed lefty pitcher Tom Gorzelanny on the 15 day DL with elbow inflammation, the team said in a press release. Gorzelanny is 2-4 with a 4.25 ERA. It’ll be interesting to see how the Nationals shuffle their rotation to make up for his loss. The injuries are starting to mount. Ryan Zimmerman, meanwhile, is down in Viera, hitting off a tee and recovering from abdominal surgery. He told skipper Riggleman on Thursday that his rehab is going well. But don’t get your hopes up — he’s still not due to return until mid-June. If then.

Mike Rizzo has told Nats hitting coach Rick Eckstein not to talk to the media, Nats beat reporter Bill Ladson reports. Rizzo, according to Ladson, thinks the media only wants to talk to Eckstein when things are going bad — when they’re going good, the media wants to talk to the players. Mike is getting a little testy, eh . . .? The pressure is on — on Riggleman (from Werth), on Rizzo (from the league front office) and now on Eckstein, by reporters who want to know why the team is hitting a pathetic .229.