It was a wild night between the Washington Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.  The Nationals tied the game with two runs in the ninth inning, and then the two teams traded shots in extra innings before the Nats ended up losing 7-5.  The Nationals were beaten in two out of three games as they dropped their season record to 35-58.

The offense couldn’t get anything going against Dan Haren who struck out nine Nationals through eight innings.  However in the ninth inning, Haren let the first two runners on base and then the Nationals scored two runs off closer Brandon Lyon.  In the tenth inning, both teams scored three runs but in the 11th inning it was all Diamondbacks as they Nationals didn’t have another comeback left in them.

Nationals starting pitcher Jason Bergmann gave up six hits and two runs over seven innings.  Charlie Manning did throw a scoreless eighth inning before Jesus Colome tossed a scoreless ninth inning.  Jon Rauch gave up all three runs in the 10th inning and then Luis Ayala gave up two runs in the 11th to take the loss.

The Nationals will now play the Houston Astros for their final series before the All Star break.

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The Washington Nationals got back at the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night with a 5-0 victory.  It was a great game all around for the Nationals as they limited the Diamondbacks to only three hits and held them scoreless the entire game.  That is the way you want to play every game!

John Lannan improved to 5-9 on the season with the victory as he tossed six innings and only allowed two hits.  It was a good quality start for Lannan as his only mistakes were three walks but they never came back to haunt him.

Joel Hanrahan, Luis Ayala, and Jon Rauch all pitched one inning of relief and all did a great job out of the bullpen as they all pitched scoreless innings.

Jesus Flores led the Nationals at the plate as he hit a three run home run in the sixth inning and finished the game with three rbi.  Kory Casto finished the game with two rbi as he walked in the second inning and then had a rbi double in the sixth.

The Nationals will try to win the series on Thursday as they face off against the D-backs once again.

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The Washington Nationals were able to hold off the Florida Marlins for a 9-6 victory on Tuesday night.  The Marlins actually had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning but they were unable to in the inning.  It was a good win for the Nationals as they evened up the series at 1-1.

The Nationals got down early and just kept plugging away in the game.  Ronnie Belliard finished the game with four rbi as he hit a grand slam in the sixth inning for the Nationals.  Elijah Dukes also had a solo home run in the fourth inning.  Felipe Lopez chipped in with two rbi while Willie Harris had one rbi.

Collin Balester pitched five innings to start the game and only gave up one hit and one run to get a no decision.  Balester pitched well enough to pick up the victory and is now 1-0.  Steven Shell had some problems as he gave up two hits and three runs in relief of Balester.  Charlie Manning also gave up two runs in relief.  Jon Rauch pitched the ninth inning to record his 17th save of the season.

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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

Jesus Flores hit a rbi single to right center field in the bottom of the ninth inning and Elijah Dukes scored the winning run as the Washington Nationals beat the Los Angeles Angels by the score of 5-4.  The Nationals avoided a three game sweet by the Angels with the victory on Wednesday night.

Lastings Milledge led the Nationals at the plate with two rbi.  Both of Milledge’s rbi’s came in the first inning when he connected on a two run home run.  Ronnie Belliard walked with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to record one rbi and then Wily Mo Pena singled in the sixth inning to score another run and pick up a rbi.

Jon Rauch ended up picking up the victory for the Nationals as he pitched the final 1 2/3 innings of the game.  Rauch is now 4-1 on the season.  Even though Rauch picked up the win, he gave up the tying run in the top of the ninth inning so he actually received a blown save as well.

Nationals starting pitcher Tim Redding gave up seven hits and two runs over six innings of action to get a no decision in the game.  Saul Rivera pitched a scoreless inning of relief before Luis Ayala gave up two hits and two runs.  It seemed like the pitching staff just wanted to give this game away and they were lucky to come away with the win.

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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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The Washington Nationals blew the lead in the ninth inning but Elijah Dukes made sure that they didn’t lose the game as he hit a game winning walk off two run home run in the bottom of the tenth inning.  The 10-9 win salvaged a split in the double header against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

After Jon Rauch gave up two runs in the ninth inning to blow the save, Brian Sanches gave up a home run to Joe Mather and it looked like the Nationals were going to lose for sure.  That is when Dukes bailed out his pitching teammates.  You always try to pick up your teammates if they have a bad day and that is exactly what Dukes did.  Sanches actually ended up getting the win in the game because of that.

I should mention that Nationals starting pitcher Tim Redding was rocked in his 5 2/3 innings of action.  He allowed nine hits and six runs.

Dukes led the Nationals with four rbi in the game.  Aaron Boone and Kory Casto both had two rbi while Cristian Guzman and Ryan Langerhans had one rbi.

The Nationals should be glad they were atleast able to come away with a split in the double header.  They will begin a weekend series with the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.

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The Washingon Nationals lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 on a rainy night in the nations capital.  There was a 49 minute rain delay in the top of the fifth inning as the game took longer to play then what had been planned.

The Natinals had hardly any offense in the game as they were only able to come up with six hits and one run.  The one run came in the bottom of the fifth inning Ryan Langerhans grounded out to second and Jesus Flores scored.  The Nationals just weren’t able to string together two or three hits at a time to get a rally going.

Odalis Perez took the loss as he pitched three innings and gave up five hits and four runs.  The Cardinals scored four runs in the first inning with the big blow coming off the bat of Yadier Molina when he took Perez deep for a three run home run.

Jesus Colome came in after Perez exited and he didn’t have any luck either.  Colome gave up two runs on three hits in only one inning of action.  Brian Sanches, Charlie Manning, Saul Rivera, and Jon Rauch were finally able to hold the Cardinals down for the last five innings of the game.

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The Washington Nationals powered past the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night by the score of 6-4.  The Nationals hit a grand slam, solo home run, and sacrafice fly to score their six runs as they even up the three game series one game each.

Jesus Flores got the scoring started in the fourth inning when he hit a grand slam off of Shawn Estes.  Flores led the Nationals with the four rbi in the game.  Lastings Milledge hit a solo home run in the sixth inning and then Aaron Boone had a sacrafice fly in the seventh inning to finish the Nationals scoring.

Odalis Perez pitched 6 1/3 innings while picking up his second victory of the season.  Perez gave up six hits and three runs to improve his record to 2-4.  Brian Sanches came in after Perez left the game and gave up two hits and a run without even record an out.  Luis Ayala got out of that mess and pitched the next inning as well without giving up a run before turning things over to Jon Rauch who recorded his 11th save of the season.

The Nationals will try to win the series as the two teams face off again on Thursday afternoon.

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The Washington Nationals pitched a great game on Monday night but the offense was no where to be found as the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Nationals by the score of 1-0.  The Nationals are now 20-27 on the season after the loss.

Jon Rauch took the loss for the Nationals as he gave up the run in the ninth inning.  Rauch is now 2-1 on the season after losing the game tonight.  Starting pitcher Jason Bergmann pitched seven innings and only allowed five hits as he got a no decision.  Saul Rivera pitched a scoreless eighth inning as well.

The Nationals offense only had five hits in the game but did get a little rally going in the ninth inning.  Elijah Dukes walked and then stole second and third base, but was stranded at third base to end the game when Felipe Lopez grounded out to second base.

The Nationals keep on struggling and I’m not sure when things will turn around to be honest.  Nationals Blog