I knew it would happen, I just didn't know when. At some point, the Nats would find a way to win. Would it be a 6th inning home run? Perhaps an 9th inning walk-off double? No. On Friday night, it was an 8th inning sacrifice bunt. But that's only part of the story.

We've seen this before. Jose Guillen was at second base, Nick Johnson was at first. Nobody out, Vinny Castilla up. Now, Vinny is great at hitting clutch drives into the gap and plating base runners. Sadly, he's been doing pretty well at grounding into double plays too, effectively killing rallies before they start. Vinny could have swung from his heals and maybe hit a 3 run home run, both padding his numbers and stroking his ego. But something strange is happening to the players on the Nationals. They seem to care more about the team's welfare then their own. So Castilla dug in, raised his bat high over his head, bent his knees and, with hands tightly gripping bat, squared and pushed a perfect pooch sacrifice bunt between the pitchers mound and first base. Castilla successfully moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd with only one out. He was greeted by his teamates in the dugout as if he'd hit a long, towering homerun. The 28,000 fans in RFK gave him an ovation. From that point, the rout was on.

Ever since the Nationals took over first place a week ago, pundits and prognosticators have been saying, "The Nationals are in first place, but based on their statistics, they shouldn't be." I finally realized how wrong they really are. The Nationals are in first place BECAUSE their statistics don't look particularly good. Championship teams always have great numbers; teams that are champions never do.

Later in that same inning, the TEAM went to work again. With Jamie Carroll at bat, Junior Spivey darted home on a suicide sqeeze. Jamie Carrolls' bunt was so good that he reached on an infield single. Throughout the homestand, the Nationals have been sacrificing, bunting, hitting behind the runner, doing all the "right" things. Playing fundemental baseball does two things: 1]you win games and 2]your stats take a dive. Brad Wilkerson and Jose Guillen came to bat with the bases loaded, determined to be selective at the plate. Both of them walked to drive in a run. Jose Guillen hit behind the runner, grounding a ball to first, scoring Tony Blanco to finish the scoring. The Nationals scored 6 runs in the 8th inning with the longest hit being a sharp liner to center field.

The Nationals batters no longer launch tall, towering drives to the warning track. That ended with the last road trip. Since their first game of this home stand, they have mastered the art of "small ball," and have a 10-1 record to show for it. A combination of good pitching, great defense and timely hitting CAN win division championships.

Jim Bowden brought in Junior Spivey, another fundementaly sound player who will play 2nd base until Jose Vidro gets healthy. This will allow Jamie Carroll to spend more time at short stop if Cristian Guzman cannot regain his offensive form.

Each nite, it becomes harder to find the right words to try and describe this very special team.

NATS NOTES: Rick Short made his first appearance in a major league game after 12 years in the minors, singling as a pinch-hitter and driving in a run ... Brian Schneider's bat is coming alive again as he got his 5th hit in his last 4 games ... Sunny Kim pitched well for the Nats, giving up 2 runs in 5 innings. He now has an ERA of 1.93 since his call up ... The Nats used 5 pitchers Friday night ... their ERA's were 1.93, 2.16, 1.98, 2.52 and 3.00 ... THAT IS WHY THE NATIONALS ARE IN FIRST PLACE

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 9:51 PM