The first game in a wraparound series with the Milwaukee Brewers ended in a meltdown for the Washington Nationals, who held onto a slim 2-1 lead through eight innings only to lose it in the ninth behind another rough outing by Tyler Clippard. On the bright side, the Braves lost, so the Nats magic number is down to seven now with 12 games remaining, and the division lead held at 5.5 games. There’s nothing to worry about, but it sure was a frustrating loss after such an exciting game the night before.

Before the ninth inning breakdown, the story of the night was the starting pitchers. Edwin Jackson went a masterful eight innings giving up just one run on a Jonathan Lucroy home run to lead off the second inning. He scattered just six hits, struck out six, and perhaps most important, didn’t walk anyone.

Jackson got into a bit of a jam in the fourth inning, but some incredible defense got him out of it. He gave up a leadoff double to Ryan Braun, and Aramis Ramirez followed up with a single to center. As Braun rounded third trying to score, Bryce Harper came up firing. He threw a perfect strike to Jesus Flores who applied a great tag on Braun at home and saved what would have been the game-tying run. Here’s a video of the awesome throw:

Jackson threw 101 pitches in eight innings, and when asked in the post-game press conference about Jackson’s performance, manager Davey Johnson said, “Jackson pitched a great ball game. I was tempted to let him go out in the ninth.” But he went with Tyler Clippard, because was “fresh.” To start he ninth, Norichika Aoki, the Brewers speedy right fielder, bunted for a hit that looked to throw everything out of whack for Clippard, and it was all downhill from there. “I mean, the play of the ninth inning was Aoki’s bunt,” Davey said. “We’re playing in, and he made a perfect bunt. And a couple passed balls didn’t help.”

They certainly didn’t. There was only one official passed ball on Flores and one wild pitch on Clippard, but either way, they allowed the Brewers to pile on three runs in the inning and hand the Nats the loss.

The game reopened the door on the closer conversation a bit, because earlier in the day, Davey named Drew Storen and Clippard the team’s co-closers. It doesn’t look like that will change for now. As for the near future Davey said, “Well, with the number of pitches [Clippard] threw tonight,... Storen will be the guy tomorrow.”

Some thoughts:

- Recently, Jackson has had much more movement on all of his pitches, especially his fastball and slider. He hung the slider to Lucroy for a home run, but that was really his only mistake with the pitch. As the season wears on, maybe a little bit of fatigue has allowed him to get some more action on his pitches. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.

- Yes, Clippard has struggled a bit lately. He’s earned a loss in three of his last seven appearances, and he doesn’t seem to be fooling anyone like he did earlier this season. In all reality, it’s probably time to consider reinstating Storen as the team’s closer.

That said, there is absolutely no excuse for booing Clippard during this outing. He has 32 saves this season and is a major reason the Nats are in this position at all. It is remarkably shortsighted as a fan to do anything but hang your head, give a polite golf clap, and move on to the next game. I hoped for better from a group of fans that clinched a postseason spot barely 24 hours earlier.

After the most exciting night of baseball Washington has seen in many, many years, the Washington Nationals (91-58) are geared up to begin a four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers (77-72), a team with postseason aspirations of its own. With last night's victory the Nationals clinched their playoff berth, but with a magic number of eight to win the division, they are going to continue pushing forward toward the prize they really want.

In order to get closer to that goal, though, the Nats will have to halt the momentum of the surging Brew Crew, who have won 23 of their last 29 games and are riding a five-game winning streak. The Brewers are 2.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals and a half game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in what is becoming a heated battle for the second wild card spot.

The last time the Nationals and the Brewers met in late July, the Nats won three of four contests, but the Brewers have been playing with more urgency than they were this summer, as the postseason creeps closer, and their stats show it. 

September stats

The Brewers finished out July with a collective .269 batting average (8th in the majors) and a 4.49 ERA (20th). September has seen a different story from the Crew though, as they’ve batted .288 (2nd) and pitched for a 3.50 ERA (8th) this month. They have scored more runs (101) and stolen more bases (34) than any other team in September, and their 25 home runs rank fourth.

However, Nationals’ numbers can easily compete, with their .498 slugging percentage and 34 home runs the best in the majors, and their .281 batting average ranking fourth.

Overall the Nats have the highest run differential in baseball (+132), which is much better than the Brewers (+51), but the Brewers run differential in September (+33) bests the Nationals' number by a bit (+19.)

Motivation in pitching

The Brewers’ 3.50 ERA in September is significantly improved over their 4.16 ERA for the year, and from the point of view of closer John Axford, pitching had a lot to do with the Brewers' run for a postseason spot. According to MLB.com, Axford thought that trading Zack Greinke – the Brewers’ best starting pitcher when he was traded – actually motivated the other pitchers to step up and fill his shoes.

"Personally, I thought it was going to be more motivation for certain guys," Axford said. "There wasn't ever a thought on this team that this was a lost season. It was disappointing for a while and things weren't looking well, they were looking pretty bleak. But there's no guy on this team that's going to lie down and give up. It's shown recently."

Davey’s favorite number

With just under two weeks left of the regular season, the pressure is on for all teams in contention. For the Brewers to grab a wild card spot, wins in Washington will be important. But the Nats aren’t going to be eager to give them up easily, especially after tasting a bit of postseason-related victory last night.

While that victory was sweet for Nats fans everywhere, Nationals' manager Davey Johnson is focused on the opportunity to clinch the NL East in the next few days, according to MLB.com.

"Whatever number that is, it will be my favorite number," Johnson said.

The Nationals will be trying to move four steps closer to that final magic number this weekend, as they continue their journey to bring Natitude to the postseason for the first time ever.

Worth noting

- Right fielder Norichika Aoki has a 10-game hitting streak going into Friday’s game, the fourth time this season he has had a hitting streak of at least that many games.

- The Brewers score an average of 4.83 runs per game, which is best in the National League. The Nats pitchers give up an NL-low 3.58 runs per game. Something’s got to give.

Who's hot?

Norichika Aoki (OF) .415 AVG, .468 OBP, .732 SLG, 2 HR (last 10 games)

Ryan Braun (OF) .357 AVG, .438 OBP, .607 SLG, 2 HR (last seven games)

Jean Segura (SS) .409 AVG, .519 OBP, .545 SLG, 1 3B (last seven games)

Marco Estrada (SP) 1.23 ERA, .195 BAA, 42 SO, 36.2 IP (last six games)

Who's not?

Travis Ishikawa (1B) .211 AVG, .286 OBP, .421 SLG, 0 HR (last seven games)

Manny Parra (RP) 4.76 ERA, .308 BAA, .538 SLG, 5 BB, 5.2 IP (last eight games)

Probable starters

Edwin Jackson (9-10, 3.89 ERA) vs. Shaun Marcum (5-4, 3.91 ERA)

Gio Gonzalez (19-8, ERA) vs. Wily Peralta (2-0, 2.14 ERA)

Chien-Ming Wang (ERA) vs. Yovani Gallardo (16-8, 3.59 ERA)

Jordan Zimmermann (11-8, ERA) vs. Marco Estrada (4-6, 3.56 ERA)

People always talk about “where were you when...?” moments. Some are political, some are breaking news alerts, and some are sporting events. I have memories of many newsworthy events in my lifetime, and now you can add the Washington Nationals clinching their first playoff berth to the list. I was at Nationals Park, with 30,358 of my closest friends.

It hasn’t always been easy being a Nats fan, as most of you that read this blog are aware. The 2005 season was special because there was finally baseball to cheer for where I lived, but things got ugly for quite a few years after that. From consecutive 100 plus loss seasons to the “Natinals” debacle and everything in between, it wasn’t always fun to be a DC baseball fan, but at least there was a team to watch.

Watching and being among an excited crowd at the Park on Thursday was a surreal experience, and one that hasn’t been rivaled by any game I’ve been to so far. Stephen Strasburg’s debut in 2010 was great, and the park was loud, but this was different. There was unbridled emotion in the stands. Strangers were hugging and high-fiving, people were jovial, screaming “Dreeeew” as Drew Storen closed the game, which is a familiar place for the Nats former, and likely future, ninth inning guy.

The Nats executed the festivities following the win just the right way at the stadium, too. They put up “Nats Clinch” on the big scoreboard, and they had fireworks for the first time after a win this season, which allowed Charlie Slowes to proclaim “Bang, zoom go the fireworks” once again. The players treated it mostly as another win, with handshakes and high-fives after the game. They have a bigger goal that’s just eight wins and/or Braves losses away.

Winning the division is especially important with MLB’s new postseason structure. The Nats would avoid a one-game Wild Card playoff and move right to the five-game NLDS if they clinch the division, and Davey Johnson and his squad have their eyes set on that goal. At the beginning of the year, I never expected the Nats to be here this year, but Davey did. During spring training, he said, if they didn’t make the playoffs this year, “they can fire me.” Well, Davey won’t be fired anytime soon, and I have a feeling he will be able to stay as long as he wants.

I leave you with this: The Washington Nationals are going to the postseason. Embrace this feeling. It’s the first Washington, DC baseball team to make the playoffs since 1933. Be happy, be nostalgic with your fellow fans, and be excited for what’s to come. It’s going to be a fun ride.

It's not often that a closer pitches in two separate games the same day, and it's even less frequent that he has to face one of the most potent hitters in baseball while doing it. But that's exactly what Tyler Clippard had to do with Matt Kemp in Wednesday's doubleheader. You can read the day game and the nightcap game stories, but this is focusing on just two pitches.

Game One

With two outs in the ninth, Clippard decided to challenge perhaps the best hitter in the National League with fastballs. That alone may not have been the best decision in the world, but in game one, he challenged him up in the zone on a 1-0 pitch with a 92-mph fastball. It ended up being a flyout to Michael Morse in deep left field, but he made good contact and just missed what would have been a game tying home run. Here's the pitch location.

(Screenshot via MLB Network)

Game Two

The Nats had just made a miraculous six-run comeback to tie the game in the eighth inning, and Clippard was on for the ninth to keep the game tied for his offense in the bottom of the inning. It is extremely common to have your closer pitch the ninth at home in a tie game, because you can't possibly get a save at that point, and you want to keep your team in it for the walk-off possibility. Since Clippard pitched the ninth inning in the earlier game, there was obviously some concern about fatigue, but presumably he would have told Davey if he couldn't go.

He did a nice job getting Kemp to an 0-2 count, and then he challenged him with two consecutive fastballs. The second one, a 93-mph fastball, was in the wheelhouse of Kemp, who put it into the Red Porch, which cost the Nats the game. Here's the screenshot of that pitch's location.

(Screenshot via MLB Network)

Now, I don't know about you, but those pitches look to be in pretty similar locations to me. Kemp just missed a similar pitch at the end of the late afternoon game, yet in his post-game interview he said he threw that pitch exactly where he wanted, according to Mark Zuckerman. It was a bit high, but it was an 0-2 pitch that was over the plate, and Kemp made him and the Nats pay. You would think that Clippard would remember that Kemp almost tied the game just a few hours earlier on a very similar pitch against him, and maybe he did. It's just this time, Kemp didn't miss it.

The second game of tonight’s doubleheader between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers shows exactly why you should never leave a game early and why the Nats are in the position to clinch a playoff birth any day now. It was a rough start and almost an outstanding finish at Nats Park with a crowd that got quite a show in the late innings by the Nats offense.

The nightcap looked all but over until the eighth inning, when the Nats finally got to the Josh Beckett, who looked great through seven innings. They put a six-spot up in the inning against Beckett and two Dodgers relievers on their way to tying the game. Michael Morse started things off with a home run, followed by an Ian Desmond single and a Steve Lombardozzi two-run shot. Corey Brown reached on a rare Adrian Gonzalez error and took second. He later scored on a Bryce Harper single. Finally, Morse tied it up with a single, scoring Mark DeRosa and Harper.

The course of the game was changed on a controversial call in the fourth inning, when the umps said that Matt Kemp had scored when clearly the third out was completed by Ryan Zimmerman prior to him getting home. It turned out to be a game changing call that caused the Nats to fall short in their comeback.

For the rest of the game, John Lannan looked nothing like he did in his previous MLB starts this year, and he put them in the hole in the first place, as he gave up six runs on eight hits in just 3.2 innings in game two. He was pulled in favor of Chien-Ming Wang, which is never a good thing for the Nats.

Wang looked rough at the start of his outing, about has bad as he did prior to his extended stint on the disabled list and during his rehab in the minors. The Dodgers made solid contact on just about everything they saw from him early, but he settled down and actually put together an impressive two and one-third innings.

I’d by no means say Wang is fixed or that his career will turn around, though. The contact they made against him was pretty solid, and without some nice plays by Zimmerman and Bryce Harper, we’d be singing a different tune about the outing.

Zach Duke put together a nice outing in two innings of long relief, too. He gave up just one hit and struck out a batter. At the time, it looked like he was just mopping up a loss, but his outing allowed the Nats to stay in the game to make their eighth inning comeback.

It was Tyler Clippard, who pitched in both games of the doubleheader, who ended up losing the game for the Nats, though. He got Matt Kemp to an 0-2 count in the ninth and threw a fastball perfectly down the middle of the plate. Last year’s runner up NL MVP wasn’t going to miss it, and he put it into the Red Porch, giving the Dodgers a 7-6 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Nats will have to wait at least another day before they clinch their first postseason appearance since their return to DC in 2005, but they showed their resilience in a comeback against a playoff contending baseball team. There are still plenty of chances to clinch in their remaining 14 games, and their magic number to clinch the division is nine after winning the first game of the doubleheader.

When Jordan Zimmermann started game one of Wednesday’s doubleheader between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers, he struggled to find consistent ocmmand. He didn’t give up many hits, but his impressive line can’t be argued with. He went six innings and give up just one run on six hits. The Nationals locked up their 90th win on the season with 15 games remaining on their schedule, and they are one win away from their first postseason birth.

Cortisone was the name of game one. Ryan Zimmerman and Danny Espinosa both had cortisone shots before the games today, and they both performed well in game one both offensively and defensively. Zimmerman went 2-for-4 at the dish with an RBI, and Espinosa went 2-for-4 as well. In the fifth inning, Espinosa made a nice sliding grab for the first out, which was immediately followed by a diving stop by Zimmerman for the second. Espinosa will sit game two tonight to rest his shoulder, which was expected.

Bryce Harper had a triple in the fifth inning that we’ve come to expect from the rookie. It was stamped for a double, but Harper hustled for a triple, and he was later driven in. Harper now has eight triples this season, which is a Nats record, and he has 49 extra base hits this season, which is the most ever for a teenager, according to Dan Daly. He has been a huge catalyst for the Nats on the base paths this year.

The bullpen, after a rough weekend in Atlanta, finally looked to be back to their good old selves. Sean Burnett looked very good. He gave up a walk to Matt Kemp, which maybe wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Otherwise, in two-thirds of an inning, he struck out both batters he retired: Andre Ethier and Adrian Gonzalez.

Drew Storen gave up a hit in the eighth on a ball that wasn’t hit solidly, and he struck out two of his three outs. Storen keeps getting better as the season goes on and is among the games most devastating setup guys. Tyler Clippard had a dominating outing in the ninth for his 32nd save of the season. He gave up a hit, too, but it wasn’t well hit either. Nats park errupted with the win.

Game two is underway right now, and we’ll have a summary of the doubleheader not long after it’s conclusion. Maybe we’ll be celebrating a clinched post season for the first time in Nats history (since 2005, of course).

As the countdown to the postseason progresses, the Washington Nationals (89-57) prepare to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers (76-71) from a position the Nats weren’t even ready to dream about when the two teams last played each other. The last time the Nationals and the Dodgers faced off was at the end of April when the Nats' record stood at 14-5, which was the best in the National League followed by the Dodgers in second at 13-6.

Back what feels like ages ago, Nats fans were excited, yet still wary of getting their hopes up too high. But the Nats have yet to disappoint their fans; they have charged through this season, and they still maintain the best record in the National League, and in all of baseball.

With their magic number to ensure themselves a wild card spot at three, the Nationals could potentially secure their presence in the playoffs during this series, if they put in a good showing against the Dodgers.

Until recently, the Dodgers had been embroiled in a close pennant race with the San Francisco Giants, who have since broken away to lead the NL West by eight games. Despite their recent slide – they’ve gone 6-8 in September – the Dodgers still have a shot at the postseason. They are trailing the St. Louis Cardinals by just one game for the second wild card spot. With the postseason edging closer and closer every day, both the Nationals and the Dodgers are going to be anxious to get some more wins on the board to solidify their shot at a postseason appearance.

With the Atlanta Braves making some noise from five games back, and preparing to face the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets (who they have 10-3 and 10-5 season records against, respectively), the Nationals will need to show the Dodgers they mean business if they want to prevent the Braves from lessening the margin between them even more than they did after sweeping the Nats over the weekend.

Last time

When they last met, the Dodgers completed the first sweep of the Nats of the season – a feat that would only be accomplished four more times to date. But the Nationals are a much different team now than they were in April.

Then, the Nats were averaging 3.36 runs per game – a respectable number for a team who was astonishing the baseball community with a shockingly good pitching rotation. Now, the pitching is still just as good, but recently it has been the offense’s turn to impress. The Nats’ bats are averaging 5.07 runs per game for September, and they claim the second-highest batting average (.284) and the highest slugging percentage (.514) of the month, due largely in part to their smacking 32 homeruns already this month, the most of any team.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, have been struggling offensively, while they have continued to lean on their strength in pitching. L.A. was averaging 3.96 runs per game in April, but that number has dipped to just 2.79 runs per game for September, their 39 runs scored the lowest in the majors. Slogging through a team-wide slump, the Dodgers are hitting for a combined slash line of .223/.284/.345 for the month, which ranks 28th, 29th and 25th, respectively. Those numbers aren’t much worse than their .249/.315/.367 slash line for the year, ranking 19th, 21st and 29th. The Dodgers’ bats are going to have to come alive in Washington if they hope to take the win when the Nationals have home-field advantage.

Missing the ace

In that April series, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw pitched eight complete innings for the first win, setting the tone for the rest of the series. But with Kershaw out with potentially season-ending hip pain, the Dodgers could be preparing to attempt their playoff push without one of their most reliable pitchers. Kershaw claims the third best ERA in the majors (3.44) and the fourth highest WAR (4.9), so the idea of being without him for the rest of the season is a scary one for the Dodgers.

"Really right now you don't have time to brace yourself and it's really not a good thought," Manager Don Mattingly said, according to MLB.com. "It's almost like any other time when you don't want to think about having to go through it without Kersh because … you know you are going to be in the game with a pretty good chance of winning.”

Kershaw’s injury could be the third season-ending injury to a Dodgers’ starting pitcher this year.

- Reliever Ronald Belisario hasn't allowed an earned run since August 13. He has faced 68 batters in that time frame and has only given up 12 hits.

Who's hot?

Andre Ethier (RF) .269 AVG, .321 OBP, .538 SLG, 2 HR (last seven games)

Luis Cruz (SS) .269 AVG, .269 OBP, .423 SLG, 1 HR (last seven games)

Ronald Belisario (RP) 0.00 ERA, .200 BAA, 16 SO, 1 SV, 68 BF (last 15 games)

Who's not?

A.J. Ellis (C) .000 AVG, .000 OBP, .000 SLG, 7 SO, 17 AB (last six games)

Matt Kemp (CF) .094 AVG, .121 OBP, .156 SLG, 9 SO, 32 AB (last eight games)

Probable starters

Jordan Zimmermann (10-8, 3.01 ERA) vs. Aaron Harang (9-9, 3.79 ERA)

John Lannan (3-0, 2.41 ERA) vs. Josh Beckett (6-13, 3.38 ERA)

Ross Detwiler (9-6, 3.16 ERA) vs. Chris Capuano (11-10, 3.60 ERA) 

A bit over half way through the season, I was covering a game at Nationals Park. Between innings, when the team does their Down on the Farm Report, they teased Christian Garcia’s minor league numbers. I knew of Garcia but didn’t really know his story or his stuff terribly well, so I did some reading and looked at some stats. The numbers almost looked like typos. They were that good.

In 45 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse this season, he posted an 0.86 ERA in 52.1 innings. He struck out an incredible 11.4 batters per nine innings with an 0.917 WHIP. Garcia had shown promise when he was a Yankees farmhand, but two Tommy John surgeries fueled his release. The Nats, as they often do with pitchers, picked him up as a reclamation project. That’s gone pretty well.

It’s certainly a small sample size for Garcia’s MLB experience, but it's been impressive nonetheless. He has thrown six innings in seven games since being called up with expanded rosters in early September. He’s walked just two batters, struck out seven, and allowed just four hits. The stats tell one story, and the stuff tells a similar one.

Garcia has a live arm with a fastball velocity that averages over 95 mph, and it’s a pitch that moves. He also has a devastating change up that averages about 9 mph slower than his fastball. It dives down and away from lefties, similar to that of Stephen Strasburg’s, which is a lofty comparison. But boy... if you haven’t seen his curveball yet... It dives out of the zone before you know what happened.  Here’s a GIF of his curve against Daniel Murphy, gotten from FanGraphs.

All that said, does he have a chance to make the postseason roster after only being called up on September 3 for the first time in his professional career? Not only is there a chance, it’s likely. The Nats will likely go with a four-man rotation for the playoffs, as most teams do because of the extra rest you get in a postseason schedule. This will open up another roster spot that the Nats could use to solidify the back end of their bullpen.

Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen have done a nice job locking down the back end, but Garcia can give you a big strikeout (as his 11.4 K/9 shows) in a pinch and pitch in a seventh inning hold situation, especially with Sean Burnett’s recent struggles following his elbow inflammation. When I put together my postseason roster predictions later this season, you better believe that Garcia’s name will be on it.