Christian Guzman

The way the Washington Nationals are playing these days, they can't even give the game away right. Reliever Chad Cordero gave up one run and had the go-ahead run on base when he finally, mercifully, got all universe first baseman Derrek *Boom there it goes* Lee to weakly pop out to end the game. Whoooooooo.

This was one of those "you've got to win against one of the premier pitchers in the league or else all the shine is going to come off the whole Montreal to Washington thing really fast" games that crops a few times each year. After losing the last three in a row, and four out of five, and with Superman Greg Maddux pitching tomorrow, well, we just had to win.

And we did. But not without difficulties.

Don't let the win fool you. The offense remains stagnant as injuries continue to plague the team's performance. The latest is Jose Guillen, whose rib-cage pull is keeping him from any semblance of a real, "manly" swing. He looked so bad at the plate early in the game that the Nats announcers softly suggested that his "gut it out" attitude may be hurting the team more than it's helping. Jamie Carroll got a single subbing for Jose Vidro, and Christian Guzman returned to fulltime duties with a single as well. In total, the team managed only six hits, four singles and two double, one a dink, one a drive.

Now, on to Livan Hernandez. I have good news and I have bad news. First, the good news. All of us religious type Nats fans spent a few moments at the team altar today, praying that Livan could end this ugly losing sked. He did just that, pitching 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs, striking out six. Hernandez is now 6-2. Now, for the bad news. He left the game in the 6th inning with an inflammation in his knee that looked like it was bothering him some before the game began. The team indicated that he will be "re-examined" tomorrow, which leads be to believe that he should be OK.

NATS NOTES:
The teams batting average that was leading the league just a week ago is now third, thanks to injuries ... the ERA is moving up, now 6th best ... The team's "Left On Base" number was reasonable for the first time in five games; only 5 runners were stranded ... Chad Cordero continues to rack up the saves while racking Nats fans with stomach pain when he pitches ... Gary Majewski came in after Livan was injured and got his 3rd "hold" of the year ... Cordero notched his 8th save of the season ... The Nationals pitching staff gave up 3 earned runs for the 4th game in a row ... A paid crowd of almost 43,000 was announced, but many of them were unwilling to sit through the almost two hour rain delay.