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.

You can’t mention the words Milwaukee Brewers without adding “surging” — as in, the “surging” Milwaukee Brewers. After taking three from the Colorado Rockies that left the Helton’s reeling, the Brewers decided that they’d had enough of Corey Hart’s 0 for 11 start of the season, and the big bopping right fielder victimized the Nationals with three home runs and seven RBIs.

But even without Hart’s heroics, the Nationals would have fallen to the Brewers’ bats: the Anacostia Nine accounted for eight hits (which included a Michael Morse dinger) and just three runs — but the game was not as close as the final 11-3 score indicated. Without pitching the team is starting to look like road kill to the rest of the National League. Washington starter Tom Gorzelanny looked particularly ineffective on Monday, giving up eight hits and six runs over five innings. The Brewers, meanwhile, are just three games behind the Cardinals in the N.L. Central, as the Reds have dropped six in a row.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Adam LaRoche was put on the 15-day DL with a sore shoulder. But it might be worse than fifteen days. Isn’t there a pattern here somewhere? Last year, Jason Marquis had much the same problem, tried to play through it — and couldn’t. It took a second year for the free agent signing to work out. With Ryan Zimmerman out until June, LaRoche sidelined and Rick Ankiel rehabbing, the Nationals are playing with one-third of the starting line-up they started with in April . . . Stephen Strasburg is now throwing off a mound, which means that he’s playing catch off a mound, not pitching off of one. Hey great. See you in 2012 . . .

Book ‘Em Danno: Joe Torre, MLB’s head of baseball operations has fined Nats’ G.M. Mike Rizzo an undisclosed amount of cash for confronting umpires after Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Mets in New York. Rizzo and Nats’ catcher Ivan Rodriguez were upset with a call on Jayson Werth that snuffed out a late inning Nationals rally, and confronted the umpiring crew in a stadium tunnel after the game. Rizzo had no comment on the fine, except to say that he would always stick up for his team and organization. “I’ve always got the manager’s, the coaches’ and the players’ back,” Rizzo told a reporter. “Whenever I need to put myself on the line to do so, that’s my job, so I’m willing to do it.”

Ya just gotta love Mikey (and we sure do), but maybe he’s gotta bigger problems than umpires. Yardbarker has put together stats on Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche’s slumps and concluded that the first two months of the season are actually “among the worst months these guys have ever had.” A quick scan of the stats shows this is probably so; and leads us to the conclusion that as statistics are only terrific when predicting past performances, they show what we’ve been saying all along: Adam LaRoche needs shoulder surgery, and Jayson Werth needs Ryan Zimmerman . . .

Omar Infante narrowly avoided a tag from Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos in the 11th inning of the Nats-Marlins contest at Nats Park last night — giving the Marlins a they-just-keep-coming 6-5 victory. The Infante slide (the result of a Greg Dobbs double) was the culmination of a classic back-and-forth between the two teams, which is turning into one of the more bitterly contested rivalries in the N.L. East. While Nats’ skipper Jim Riggleman argued the call, the replay showed Infante had just barely eluded the tag. “He was safe,” Riggleman said. “I knew.”

The game began with the Nationals down by three to the Marlins, with Gaby Sanchez and John Buck registering back-to-back dingers against less-than-effective Nationals’ starter Tom Gorzelanny. But the Nationals struck back, with a clutch single in the third by Ian Desmond and an upper deck home run by Laynce Nix. The Nationals tied it in the eighth with another hit by Nix, this one a double, that scored Jayson Werth. Nats’ skipper Riggleman was in his head-shaking mode after the loss: “I try to stay away from those words — disappointment and frustration — but that was a great ballgame,” Riggleman said. “We played really good baseball.

Those in attendance were treated to what might well be the defensive play of the year, which came in the fifth inning off a long drive from Marlins’ youngster Mike Stanton. Bernadina went back on the ball, which seemed over his head — but then reached up and rolled, snagging the line drive and saving the Nationals from a long inning. “The only thing I could do is dive,” Barnadina explained.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Nationals will face some tough decisions over the next two weeks, not the least of them being what to do with Roger Bernadina when Rick Ankiel comes off the disabled list. If you were to poll Nats fans, they are likely to say that Bernadina should be given the job in center field, with Laynce Nix taking Michael Morse’s spot in left (Mark Zuckerman has this right — over at Nats’ Insider). Will Riggleman made the switch? Here’s what he told Zuckerman: “You can’t get too far ahead of yourself,” Riggleman said. “Mike did what he did for six weeks in spring training, and Laynce has been hot here for the last 10 days. We’re just going to ride that out. It’s certainly not cast in stone as to who will be playing left field or whatever. We’re just going to try to put a lineup out there that gives us the best chance to win.”

Bernadina has been a catalyst, and not simply because he makes great defensive plays in center. Bernadina led off Friday’s game with a bunt single, which is the same thing he did in Atlanta on Thursday. The Nats have been looking for a lead-off hitter; well, here he is . . . Or, as Federal Baseball slings it: “Shark attack! Roger Bernadina is 3-5 with a game-tying, two-RBI double, a bunt hit, a stolen base, and a fantastic highlight-reel catch that he sadly gets no WPA credit for at all.” Yup . . .

It’s clear that Jim Riggleman is feeling the pressure from his bullpen — shuffling and reshuffling arms to cover weaknesses. The core of Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard, Todd Coffey and Sean Burnett (despite his recent troubles), is among the best in baseball. They’ve all proven their toughness in close games. Which leaves Brian Broderick, Henry Rodriguez and Doug Slaten. Broderick is a Rule 5 pick (and should be learning his trade in the minors), Rodriguez is a major talent (who threatens to walk the bases loaded everytime he appears) and Doug Slaten is struggling. Riggleman can use Broderick, Rodriguez and Slaten in blow-outs (taking pressure off the core four), but when exactly does a “blow out” ever happen . . .

The issue will be forced once Chad Gaudin returns. Gaudin, who is nursing shoulder inflammation, is a savvy and tested veteran who is not likely to be cowed by appearing in the show (Broderick), knows how to throw strikes (Rodriguez), and has pitched well enough recently to be a part of the core-four (Slaten). Our prediction? Unless Slaten shows he can stick as a “lefty one out guy” that job will default to Burnett, which means that Slaten is likely to go elsewhere . . . Ah, of course, the Nats could designate Broderick for assignment and call up Cole Kimball (as they just did, as we were posting this), but that doesn’t exactly solve the problem — though maybe, if his performance this year is any indication, Kimball can now work his way into the Nats’ core four . . .

The Nationals seem to have recovered from their three game pasting in Philadelphia, winning their second straight against the Florida Fish and climbing back to within a game of .500. The hero of Saturday night’s 5-2 win was emerging ace lefty Tom Gorzelanny — and a host of slick nose-in-the-dirt plays behind him. The Nationals also banged out nine hits, including a badly needed two run first inning single from struggling first baseman Adam LaRoche.

Lefty Gorzelanny has hit his stride. The from-the-Cubs fifth starter has been one of the feel-good stories of the Nats’ 2011 season, emerging as a stopper at the back of the rotation. On Saturday he pitched through seven complete innings while giving up only two hits, befuddling Marlins’ hitters and relying on a snappy defense: right fielder Jayson Werth snuffed a potential Fish rally when he threw behind Mike Stanton in the sixth (catching him off of first base), while Danny Espinosa made three spectacular defensive plays, including a third inning catch of what should have been a Hanley Ramirez single.

The Fish face-off was notable for Gorzelanny, Espinosa, Werth and LaRoche — but also for Roger Bernadina, who has rejoined the club after regular center fielder Rick Ankiel went on the DL. Bernadina has injected some needed speed and excitement at the top of the Nats line-up. He was a spark plug on Saturday (you could almost hear Nats’ fans cheering) as he led off the first with a single, the first time a Nats’ lead off hitter has been in base in just about forever. Bernadina was 2-4 on the night, and Nats’ skipper Riggleman says he’ll get a good long look by the club.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The San Francisco-Colorado knock-down, drag-out continues apace in the Series By The Bay. The Giants took the second game of the three game set last night, with another walk off win against the Heltons (the second in as many days) on a game winning sacrifice fly from shortstop Mike Fontenot. This suddenly looks like a different team than the one that showed up in D.C. last week. The Giants have great pitching, but the key to their recent success has been the hitting of second sacker Freddy Sanchez, who was 3-5 last night and drove in the game-ending run the night before. You can almost hear Bruce Bochy’s sigh of relief all the way to Washington; the Giants are getting hits when they need them, which wasn’t true in April . . .

The disappointment in the early going for the Giants has been the strength they relied on all last year: their pitching. San Francisco’s pitching has been good, but not good enough, leaving a traditionally anemic batting order to scrape and claw for runs. Sounds familiar. Winderkind Madison Bumgarner has been the hard-luck case on the McCovey staff (last night’s outing seemed a replay of his May 2 outing against Tommy Gorzelanny), with the lefty pitching well, but not well enough. After wrestling with a stratospheric ERA in April, Bumgarner has settled down, though he just can’t seem to get a win. In predictable Crash Davis fashion, Bumgarner says he’s more interested in the team win:  “I don’t care if I don’t win a game all year if we win; if it works out like that, I don’t care,” he said following the victory.

The twin walk offs on two exciting games (you can watch them late-night if you have MLB Extra Innings, following a Nats victory in Florida, or wherever) has our California readers (we have some, and here they are) excited, with one of them writing about Sanchez’s heroics after the walk-off on Friday (“Freddy, Freddy, Freddy” — which sounds a whole lot better than “Fred, Fred, Fred”), which was followed by a raucous standing ovation for the home town heroes. The two wins against the Purples leave the Giants two games behind Colorado, with cash-strapped Los Angeles fading fast.