It figures maligned former closer, Joel Hanrahan, would have his most successful output while not even in the stadium, or a part of the organization.

The Nats former closer earned his first victory of the year for the Nationals, despite now being a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The victory came Thursday night as the Nationals finished a suspended game against the Astros. The game resumed in the 11^th inning in Houston with the Nationals (the home team) at bat.

The Nats won with a Nyjler Morgan single and a Miguel Tejada game losing error. 

Matt Chico has been officially taken off the disabled list as he was optioned to AA-Harrisburg last night.  

The Lefty underwent reconstructive Tommy John surgery last July after a disappointing 2008 campaign.

The 25-year-old went 0-6 with a 6.19 ERA in eight starts last year to start the season. Chico was shut down in late May 2008.

The Nats are hoping he can regain his 2007 form where as a rookie he made 31 starts and posted a respectable 4.63, not bad for a then 24-year-old.

The good news for Chico is there is no rush for him to return. The Nats are pretty well endowed in the starting pitching category, so he can take as much time as he needs to regain command of his fastball and off-speed pitches,  pump up his velocity, and most importantly gain confidence.

There is really no way to know if Chico will ever be the same pitcher again. Tommy John surgery has been a great success for a lot of pitchers, but some also never recover.  The good news for Chico though is that he’s young, and has the time to rebuild his repertoire with a brand new arm. My guess is that he could be in the Nationals bullpen as early as September 2009. 

The Colorado Rockies (45-39) have been on a tear since firing their former manager ,Clint Hurdle. Since late May, Colorado has gone 25-11 under their new skipper, Tracy O’Dowd.

The hot streak continued this week as Washington came to town.

Game 1
 

Monday night saw one of the hottest pitchers in Major League Baseball, Jason Marquis, take on a young pitcher who may have finally found himself, Craig Stammen.

Stammen took the mound in Colorado with a great confidence that showed early. It seemed the young righty was unhittable in the notorious hitters park, Coors Field. Through seven innings he allowed only five hits, one earned run, and struck out three while only walking one.

The young pitcher learned a valuable lesson however, as he received no run support for his outstanding performance. Jason Marquis, the veteran, simply out-pitched him.

The 30-year-old lefty blanked the Nats through eight innings, scattering seven hits while walking two and striking out three. The Rockies went on to win his MLB leading 11^th game, 1-0.

Game 2
 

Tuesday night saw Jordan Zimmerman’s least effective start in months, a five inning bullpen performance that allowed no earned runs, three Nationals errors, and a late inning loss for the Nats.

Zimmermann only allowed four runs, two earned, through four innings Tuesday night. The young hurler however walked four and through four innings threw 94 pitches, only 59 of them strikes.

The defense is what unraveled for the Nats this game however.

The club committed three errors. One by relief pitcher Jeff Biemel, who has a shockingly high three errors now on the season. This is an alarming amount when you consider he only pitched 33 innings. Another error came from Cristian Guzman, who continues to look more and more lost by the day. Yet another error came from Willie Harris, who had been applauded by the Nationals organization for his outfield defense, but now was playing second base.

Despite a four to four tie late in the game, the Rockies took the lead 5-4 in the eighth with a Clint Barmes sacrifice fly, allowing Gonzalez to score.

Game 3
 

Ross Detwiler has been up and down in this his rookie season. He was down Wednesday night.

The young hurler pitched only four innings, allowing eight hits, six earned runs, and three walks.

The early blow wasn’t enough for the Nationals to overcome, losing 10-4.

The defense in this game was atrocious for the Nationals. While all the runs put on the board by the Rockies were earned, the three defensive  gaffs by Washington can not be overlooked concerning its mental affects on the teams performance.

Adam Dunn, the teams supposed best player had two errors in the field, both with his glove.

Most embarrassing however was Wil Nieves’ drop of a simple pop up in foul territory.

Manny Acta later forgave Dunn’s misplays, saying that the Big Donkey wasn’t brought in for his defense, but to hit 40 homers year. While this may be true, I think the skippers reaction to this is indicative of the overall problems on the field throughout the season; ; lack of accountability and low expectations.

If  you make 10 million a year, you need to catch a ball..period.  

Between the Fourth of July holiday, network problems and network outages, it’s been a rough week here at The Nats Blog. We apologize.

We should be back up 100% and running within a few days. Once again we apologize for the technical problems. 

Washington’s team won in our nation’s capitol this Independence Day, five to three, over the Atlanta Braves.

The Nats were carried by their ace, John Lannan, who again put in a strong performance. The lefty pitched eight innings, scattered nine hits, allowed three earned runs, struck out one and walked one.

It seemed early that Lannan’s bulldog presence on the mound would be for nothing, as the club fell to a three to nothing deficit. It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Nats put a run on the board with an Adam Dunn solo homer(his 300^th of his career).

The performance was beginning to look like a classic Washington Nationals output, lacking everything needed to pull out the win. Atlanta turned the game over to their bullpen, and everyone, including the Braves and many Nationals fans, expected Washington to roll over.

The eighth inning however brought a holiday surprise. A rally spurred by singles and walks turned the game around for the club.

With the bases juiced and one out, club leader Ryan Zimmerman hit a two run single to tie the game. Following him Adam Dunn hit another single to nock in yet another run. The rally didn’t stop there, as Josh Willingham got in on the party, hitting in Zimmerman, giving the Nats the 5-3 lead.

MacDougal came in and shut the door for the club in the ninth, despite allowing two walks. He now has four saves and a 1.17 ERA.

Transactions

The Nationals designated Jesus Colume for assignment today. Colume had posted a dreadful 8.40 ERA in 15 innings this year. He will try and find his mechanics in Triple-A.

To fill Colume’s spot, the Nationals called up last year’s starter Colin Ballester. Ballester had excelled so far in Syracuse. 

Mike Rizzo made his first major move as acting General Manager for the Washington Nationals yesterday by trading Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan to Pittsburgh for Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan.

In Morgan the Nationals get a slap-hitting outfielder in the mold of Willie Harris and in Burnett they get a major league ready reliever who has contributed well this season.

The Nationals gave up two key members from last year’s roster in the deal.

Hanrahana entered 2009 as the teams closer. In 2008 he stepped into the stopper spot after the team traded John Rauch. In 69 games the hard throwing righty saved nine games, blew four, earned a 3.95 ERA and had 93 K’s in 84 innings. Solid.

2009 was a falling out. The closer lost his position two separate times and often had trouble locating anything but his super straight fastball. In 34 games Hanrahan save five games, blew five, struck out 35 in 32 innings pitched and boasted a bloated ERA of 7.71.

Lastings Milledge was a former super-prospect acquired from the Mets as a raw 22-year-old outfielder with both a crazy brain and crazy potential. The now 24-year-old entered the season as the clubs starting centerfielder. While there were questions early on about his work ethic, Milledge proved that he was taking the steps to become a superstar outfielder. In 2008, his first full season, he put up a line of .268/.330/.402.  He hit 38 extra base hits and stole 24 bases. He showed promise that his power would develop and so would his fielding.

Milledge too had a falling out in 2009. It seemed from the get go that the Nationals management wanted him out. After a poor, but not unheard of 4-24 start, the Nationals immediately dropped their future star to AAA, never to be heard from again.

Now for the rant

With this trade the Nationals were able to rid themselves of two talented players that they weren’t quite clear on how to use/handle. The result of their mishandlings made them completely useless to the club right now, and in return they got two players who can help them in the short run.

This season’s outcome is clearly very important, didn’t you know?

It’s okay though, because evidently Nyjer Morgan has character.

You know, Darren Erstad stuff. We’re talking contact sports, the guy used to play hockey, and according to Bill Ladson the Nats like his, “Hockey attitude.”

Speaking of attitude, the Nats are actively trying to get rid of Elijah Dukes.

It appears the club wants to kill two birds with one stone; getting the two extremely talented, but immature, outfielders out of Washington.

Dukes has struggled so far in 2009, not as badly as he did in his first hundred or so at bats in 2009, but still pretty bat. The slugger is batting a measly .244/.308/.415 and has played shaky outfield defense. He has also only stolen successfully twice in nine attempts. 

Despite his off-field antics Dukes project to be a tremendous player if he figures out all his tools. Perhaps his time down in Triple-A will help him get it together, hopefully before the Nats give up and send him somewhere for hardly nothing in return.