The Washington Nationals broke in the new ballpark with an exciting win as Ryan Zimmerman hit a walkoff homerun to give the Nationals the 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Nick Johnson got the team off to a good start in the first inning as he doubled in Christian Guzman.  Austin Kearns then singled to right field that scored Johnson.  Those were the only two runs the Nationals got until Zimmerman ended the game with two outs in the ninth inning.

Jon Rauch picked up the win for the Nationals.  Odalis Perez was the starting pitcher and lasted five innings, giving up four hits and one earned run.  He did serve up a gopher ball to Chipper Jones, that was pretty much his only mistake of the ballgame.

The Nationals will now take on the Philadelphia Phillies as they try to move to 2-0 on the 2008 season.

The Washington Nationals have made another round of cuts as they trim down their spring training roster as it gets closer to opening day.

Chris Schroder and John Lannan were optioned to Triple-A Columbus.

Ryan Langerhans and Pete Orr were sent to the teams minor league camp.

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John Patterson, who many people thought would be the opening day starter for the Washington Nationals was released today by the team.  The lack of velocity Patterson has shown all spring training, was the main reason for his release reports are saying.

What do you think abou this Nationals fans?  The team will only save around $600,000 by releasing him.  I think it is a very big suprise and not sure if I would have done it when you look at the rest of the pitching rotation.

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