You know you are on a roll when you win the games you should win, even when you shouldn't have.

What?

I became very nervous when I saw the pitching matchups for tonight's game: Livan Hernandez [9-2] against some kid named Blanton [1-5].

Aaaaaah!

The Nationals haven't exactly done a credible job playing games where they were the prohibitive favorite. It was against the quality pitchers that we seemed to do well. We were terrible against all of these kids and retreads. The beginning of the game didn't alay my fears one bit.

Jim Blanton pitched great until the 3rd inning, when Nick Johnson popped a fastball over the head of Mark Kotsay to clear the bases and give the Nats a 3-0 lead. A few moments later, Vinny Castilla doubled and Washington was done scoring for the evening. It was the 3rd inning. For the rest of the game, Blanton, who was on the cusp of returning to the minors, pitched very well, even striking out Nick Johnson twice, something that has happened only three times all season.

Of course, it wasn't the offense that won the game for the Nationals Thursday. Livan Hernandez, fresh off a 150 pitch effort last week, threw another 123 pitches over 8 innings, striking out 5 and giving up 8 hits. He tired in the 8th and allowed 2 runs; even the outs were well hit. Livan's ERA is now down to 3.35.

Chad Cordero is now tied for the major league lead in saves with 17. As usual, he does it the hard way. A typical save for the Chief is to allow 2 or 3 runners to reach base, allow an unearned run before finally bearing down and getting that final out. These hard fought saves have nothing to do with his talent; it is all about is maturity. He is only two years removed from college. As he gains experience, he'll gain confidence, and he will become the DOMINANT closer in the bigs.

The Nationals are now 34-26, 8 games above .500 and remain 1 1/2 games ahead of the 2nd place Phillies, who beat the Texas Rangers.

I'll write more when I stop shaking my head in disbelief ... it's really hard to find the right keys to push on the keyboard to make sense of what's happening in and around our Nation's Capitol this evening.

Wow.

NATS NOTES:
The Nationals are now 8 games over .500 ... the last time this franchise was playing this well was August 2003, almost 2 years ago ... The Nats now have 10 straight comeback wins, the most since the Cardinals streak in April, 2002 ... the starting pitchers had a 6.07 ERA on the just completed road trip and a 2.11 ERA on the current homestand ... the Washington pitching staff features 14 different hurlers who have one at least 1 game, tops in the majors ... the Nats have lost 510 player games to injuries, by far and away the most in the major leagues ...Brad Wilkerson is on pace to shatter the franchise record for doubles with 54 .