The Washington Nationals had a bad night at the plate on Tuesday night as they were shutout by the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-0.  Terrible job by the offense on a night where the pitching staff actually threw the ball well.  If it isn’t the offense, it is the pitching, the Nats just can’t get both things clicking on the same night.

Odalis Perez tossed 2 1/3 innings and gave up one hit and a run but was tossed from the game after he argued a balk call.  Steven Shell then came into the game to throw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball.  The Diamondbacks did get one unearned run off of Saul Rivera in the sixth inning.  Joel Hanrahan then tossed the final two innings of the game and did not allow a hit or a run.

Austin Kearns and Dmitri Young both had two hits but were unable to help the team score any runs.  Just another night where the Nationals offense stunk.

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Jon Rauch gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning to Hanley Ramirez and then served up the game winning home run in the 10th inning to Josh Willingham as the Washington Nationals lost to the Florida Marlins 6-5 in ten innings of action. Rauch blew the save and then took the loss to fall to 4-2 on the year.  Rauch will just need to clear his head and get right back on the mound tomorrow.

Starting pitcher Tim Redding pitched the first five innings of the game and gave up eight hits and four runs.  The middle relief of the Nationals did really good as Jesus Colome and Saul Rivera pitched a combined three scoreless innings before Rauch blew the game.

The Nationals got four seperate rbi’s from four different players in the game.  Cristian Guzman, Elijah Dukes, Dmitri Young, and Willie Harris all had a rbi in the game.  Dukes rbi came via the long ball as he hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.

The Nationals will just have to forget about this game and get out there and pick up a victory on Tuesday.  Hopefully they can do that.  Nationals Blog

Exactly what I thought would happened did happen to the Washington Nationals on Thursday.  They were beaten by the Minnesota Twins 9-3 and were swept in their three game series.  We had blogged last night that the Nationals were going to have their hands full with the Twins today and that is exactly what happened.

Shawn Hill got the start on the mound for the Nationals but he sure didn’t stay out there very long.  Hill only lasted 3 2/3 innings as he gave up ten hits and seven runs.  Hill’s season record is now 1-4 and he really needs to turn things around in a hurry.

Brian Sanches pitched the next 2 1/3 innings and didn’t have any problems.  However when Joel Hanrahan came in he gave up two runs in the seventh inning that really put the game out of reach for the Nats.  Jon Rauch did a good job in the eighth inning when he pitched a scoreless inning to hold the Twins to nine runs.

We can’t expect the Nationals offense to score enough runs to win games like this.  Sure they only scored three runs, but I put all the blame right back on the pitching staff.  Cristian Guzman was the guy that did get the Nationals scoring started with a rbi single in the third inning.  Also in the third inning, Elijah Dukes had a rbi single.  It wasn’t until the eighth inning when teh Nats finally scored again when Dmitri Young hit a solo home run.

So now the Natinals are 29-45 on the season and continue to struggle.  It’s going to be a long season in the Nationas capital if you ask me.

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Four Washington Nationals pitchers combined to shut out the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night.  The Nationals beat the Phillies by the score of 4-0 as they improved their record to 20-26.

Tim Redding got the start for the Nationals and pitched 6 1/3 innigs.  Redding gave up seven hits while walking and striking out two batters.  Saul Rivera, Luis Ayala, and Joel Hanrahan pitched the final 2 2/3 innings without allowing a hit.

Lastings Milledge led the Nationals at the plate with two rbi.  Milledge had a two run double in the in the third inning.  Dmitri Young had a sacrafice fly in the first inning and then scored another run with a double play groundball in the seventh inning.

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