Many view young Jordan Zimmermann has the hope of the franchise. So when the 23 year old gets rocked for six first inning runs, hope gets sucked out of the stadium pretty fast for Nats fans.

The Nats did something last night they hadn’t done all year however, they dug in their heels and fought back. Facing a 6-0 deficit in the 6^th the club began to chip away. Josh Willingham got the party started with a drive just past the left-field foul pole. Andy Hernandez and Adam Dunn continued it in the seventh, bringing the score to 6-4.

Then the top of the eighth saw the Nationals not only take the lead, but take it with force. Austin Kearns slammed a two run –bases loaded- double over the centerfielders outstretched glove to get things started. Johnson got in on the party next, smacking in Kearns and Hernandez. After it was said and done, the Nationals had scored 6 runs in the top of the eighth, and took the lead for good winning 11-9.

With the victory the Nationals became the first team in Major League Baseball to beat the Dodgers at home this season, only a night after L.A had set the record for consecutive home victories to start a season.

The offense was spectacular overall. Seven of the Nats eight starting fielders had multi-hit games, and Elijah Dukes contributed one hit himself. The club finished with six extra base hits.

Despite Zimmermann’s poor first inning, he showed great maturity in locking down. Not letting the six run first get to him, he put the first inning behind him and pitched form the second inning on.

Jay-Z’s first inning: 4 H, 6 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 1 K
Jat Z’s last four innings: 2 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 3 K

That’s a bulldog right there. How many young pitchers do you see get shell shocked after the first sign of trouble? This is a great sign for the Nats, because if Zimmerman can develop and get better, we know he has the mentality to be a dominant pitcher, even if he never has dominant stuff.

It looks as if Anderson Hernandez has found his stroke again. The second basemen has raised his batting average from .176 to .328 in his last 10 games. This stretch has seen him have six multi-hit games, score eight runs, and walk a surprising eight times.

While his experiment as the clubs leadoff hitter may have failed, he has more than excelled at the ‘second leadoff spot,’ the eight hole. Manny Acta may even want to think about tinkering his lineup so that the pitcher hits eighth and Hernandez bats ninth. We saw L.A do this last night with Juan Pierre…then again Acta is no Torre.

I think the epic words of Manny Acta can say all this better than I:

“Those guys had something special going on over here, but we were able to stop their winning streak at home,” manager Manny Acta said. “I think that counts for a lot, especially after we were already trailing 6-0. It’s a huge comeback and a very good win for us.”

Thanks Manny. 

Major League Baseball has suspended Manny Ramirez 50 games, starting today, for testing positive for a substance banned by the sport.

 A source has told Yahoo! Sports that the substance Ramirez tested positive for was not steroids or HGH. In fact it was not performance enhancing at all, at least not on the baseball field.

 “The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the substance is supposed to boost sex drive. It is not Viagra, but a substance that treats the cause rather providing a temporary boost in sexual performance, the source said.

Ramirez tested positive for the substance during spring training, then was administered a second test more recently, and it also was positive. Major League Baseball notified Ramirez of the second positive test after Wednesday night’s Dodgers victory over the Washington Nationals. Ramirez admitted to having taken the substance and declined to appeal. His 50-game suspension begins today.

“The substance is not a steroid and it is not human-growth hormone,” the source said.”

Apparently playing the Nationals wasn’t stimulating enough for Manny. Ramirez did not address this specific claim in his press conference today, however he did address the suspension.

“Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me.”

“Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons,” Ramirez said.

As a result, Manny will lose $7.65 million out of the $25 million owed to him this season.

According to the New York Daily News, superstar Manny Ramirez has tested positive for a banned substance and will be suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball, starting tonight's game against the Nationals. 

"Baseball superstar Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance and will be hit with a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball, a source told the Daily News Thursday morning.

Ramirez now joins some of the greatest players in recent baseball history - Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez - in his link to pharmaceutical cheating.

An annoucement by MLB and the players' association is expected Thursday afternoon."

The Nats gave L.A a bit of a scare as they kept it close into the late innings Wednesday threatening to give the Dodgers their first home loss of the year. 

The wheels fell off. All of them. The Dodgers rallied in the bottom of the sixth to the tune of seven runs, ultimately taking the lead for good and wining 10-3. With the win, the Dodgers set an MLB record for consecutive home victories to start the season.

Wednesday's damage came after Nationals starter Daniel Cabrera had been taken out of the game with the bases loaded. The ball was handed over to reliever Mike Hinckley who would not record an out.

Hinckley allowed a singled to Raphael Furcal, allowing Sweet Lou Loretta to score, and then walked the O-Dog, Orlando Hudson, to allow Casey Blake to score. Things got worse as new Nat Logan Kensing came on to face Many Ramirez with the bases loaded. A double, a walk, a single and a fielders choice later and the Nats were down 9-1 going into the seventh.

Back in my highschool baseball days our coaches always used to tell us to avoid the big inning, if you walk no one, and make no errors, then the big inning will happen less and less often...maybe Coach Grove needs to talk to the Nationals.

Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw emerged last spring as a 19-year-old top pitching prospect for the Dodgers. After striking out Sean Casey in March and the fall-out from this Yahoo Sports article, he became a perceived phenom and was anointed as having the ‘best curveball in baseball.'

However things haven't gone quite as outrageously successful as some may have had you believe in May of last year. Klayton Kershaw has not come into baseball like Dwight Gooden, he is not Sandy Kofax just yet, no Klayton Kershaw is pitching like a 21 year old with great stuff...he's just 21.

The only reason we bring up Kershaw's success despite his hype is to remind Nationals fans of what to expect when we do in fact select Steven Strasburg with our first overall pick this summer. Yes Strasburg has college experience, and yes he is a bit older. However prospects don't come much bigger than Kershaw, and neither does stuff. The Nats gave Kershaw his first win of 2009, and he plays on a team that has 20 of them. Yes Nats fans, young pitchers, no matter how good, will struggle.

Poor offense

 I guess we jinxed it yesterday. The Nats offense bit the big one last night as they mustered only 6 hits in 31 at bats. They stranded 14 and struck out nine times. In total, four Nationals batters when 0-for on the day.  With the pitching staff of the Nationals, they simply wont win games with performances like these. You can blame it on the long trip, or on the change in weather, or whatever you want. The bottom line is the Nats didn't face a pitcher last night with an ERA below 4.8, and couldn't get the bat on the ball.

Bright spots: Guzman 3/5 with 2 runs, Flores hit his third homer of the year, Zimmerman extended his hit streak to 24. 

The Nats hopes for an eighth victory were washed away as the Nats blew another late inning lead to the Houston Astros in the rain Monday night.

 Up 10-9 heading into the top of the 9^th, the Nats must have thought for sure that the game was there's after having taken the lead for the third time in the contest. Kip Wells was on the mound and hadn't allowed an earned run in his last five appearances, and already had pitched most of the eight flawlessly. However one extra base hit, a well-placed grounder and a fly ball to center and Houston tied the game on a sac fly.

A few weeks ago, Washington's own Michael Wilbon said on Pardon the Interruption that he believed the Washington Nationals were "The worst franchise in all four major sports."

A slap in the face to say the least from our own Washington Post columnist, but it got me thinking. Who IS the worst? It's hard to really know how bad a franchise is unless you're following that team every day. It's not fair to make such a harsh claim about another city's club unless you really know the ins and outs and the true ups and downs. So I decided to take it to the city's themselves.

I established a panel of the top blogs from teams that are often conjured up when discussing the worst franchises in professional sports and I asked them to do two things. First, defend your club, unless you think they are in fact the worst, and second, tell us who you think is the worst.

Lets meet the panel:

Pittsburgh Pirates- Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke
Oklahoma City Thunder- Thunder Blitz
Cincinnati Bengals- Cincy Jungle
Kansas City Royals- Royals Review
Los Angeles Clippers- Clips Nation
Detroit Lions- Detroit 4 Lyfe

With a league worst team batting average of .211 after the sixth inning, the Nats 4-2 deficit entering the bottom of the sixth looked like a bleak situation.

However a bases loaded walk to Ryan Zimmerman provided the final burst on to the scoreboard the Nats had been building up all game, if not all season. With the Anderson Hernandez run the floodgates officially open as waves of Nationals crossed the bases for a huge fifth inning that saw five runs for the Red White and Blue.

The Nats had taken the lead…and damnet they were going to keep it.  

Joel Hanrahan and Garret Mock, once condemned, came in and slammed the door on the Astros, completing the 9-4 victory at home.

The Hitting 

Ryan Zimmerman extended his hit steak to 22 games by going 4-4 tonight with three runs, two doubles, a walk, and two RBI. It was arguably the hot corners best game of his young career, during one of his hottest streaks. 

He wasn’t alone, Elijah Dukes contributed three hits as Cristian Guzman, Austin Kearns and Adam Dunn all contributed two. In fact, everyone in the line up contributed with at least one hit, aside from Nick , who still walked twice. 

This wasn’t the result of one bad outing from an Astros pitcher either. In a game that saw 9 Nationals earned runs, no Houston pitcher allowed more than three earned runs. Across the board the Nats hit-hit-hit. They hit Moehler, they hit Wright, Paulino and Fulchino.

-Ronnie Belliard made 2 outs in the sixth inning on a double pinch-hit appearance. 

The Pitching 

John Lannan’s struggles continued Monday as he was fortunate enough to get a win off a lousy performance. Through six innings he allowed 9 hits, two walks, no strikeouts and three earned runs. His control problems continued as he threw only 49/92 pitches for strikes, horrendous.  

The reason for Lannan’s struggles so far this season are unclear. Maybe last year was a fluke? Maybe his strong offseason conditioning regiment left little time to work on mechanics and fundamentals, or maybe he’s just too strong for his pitching style. Whatever the reason is, one thing is for sure, the Nationals season revolves around Lannan’s ability to get a win once every five games, and with him pitching like this, they’re in trouble.

After Lannan pitched six, he was relieved by former closer Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan pitched a scoreless frame with a strikeout and turned it over to Mock to finish off the final two innings. The two outcasts combined for three shut out innings and two strikeouts.

AAA Syracuse Chiefs - Lastings Milledge

It looks like Lastings may have finally found his stroke up in Syracuse as he is hitting .302 with 2 RBI and 2 steals in his last 10 games. This effort brings his overall batting average in triple-A to an unimpressive .263, and he has only 3 RBI and four steals total. It’s kind of confusing really, it looks like he has lost all power when he actually does make contact. He’s slugging a measly .333 and getting on base at a measly .300. He has yet to hit a homer anywhere since spring training and he is still striking out once every five at bats. I think the right move would have been to let the kid stay up, confidence looks lost.

AA Harrisburg Senators - Ross Detwiler

Ross Detwiler bounced back from a pair of two starts to put a solid effort on the board which will serve as a notch in his belt on the road back to the majors he once tasted as a 20 year old. Detwiler threw five innings against Arkansas on the 29^th, striking out two and allowing only one earned run. He gave up three walks in five innings however, as it looks that his control is still not mastered. This may be a good sign for the Nats, and finally a step in the right direction.

High A Potomac Nationals - Eric Arneson 

Eric Arneson is a righty out of Grove City College who excelled in the inaugural season of the Hawaiian Winter League. So far through five starts in Potomac, Aerneson is 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings pitched. He has 21 strikeouts to only seven walks and has only let up one long ball. Two things that should be concerning however are his age (25 in A Ball) and his opposing batting average, .295. Maybe he’s just a smart pitcher who gets out of jams, but anyone who lets the opposition hit nearly .300 against them and still has a 2.42 ERA cant be hoping to hold onto that success long without pulling off some sort of magic trick.

Low A Hagerstown Suns - Robert Jacobsen

Robert Jacobsen is a local boy who played his college ball at George Mason University. In his last 10 games for Hagerstown he is batting .395 with four extra base hits, and five RBI. While its clear Jacobsen has a hot bat, a few things should be noted. First, he has only walked once in 52 at bats, a bad sign. Second he is 24 and in low A ball, a worse sign. Third, he hasn’t shown to develop power yet at his size and age, a disastrous sign.