Same result, different day. Less than 24 hours after the Nationals lost a game by the score of 8-3 and had their starter's record fall to 5-4...the Nationals lost a game by the score of 8-3 and had their starter's record fall to 5-4. Washington (31-36) dropped its third straight game to the Detroit Tigers (36-29) with little to show for it. Adam Dunn was two for four with a home run and two runs batted in; however, the Nats had little to hang their hats on beyond that. Rookie starter Luis Atilano gave up five runs on nine hits over 4.1 innings, while Doug Slaten and Tyler Clippard allowed two and one runs, respectively. The Tigers received a quality start from Jeremy Bonderman (seven innings, five hits, two runs, seven strikeouts) and the offense exploded for 19 hits. Every Tigers' starter except centerfielder and ninth batter Don Kelly recorded multiple hits, led by four from shortstop Ramon Santiago and three from right fielder Magglio Ordonez.

This past series is a continuation of a troubling trend for the Washington nine. After sweeping the Pirates to pull within one game of .500, the Nationals have dropped five of their last six games against their two AL Central opponents (Cleveland and Detroit). The Detroit series saw the Nationals fall to the Tigers in just about every statistical category. In three games Washington was outscored 23-10, outhit 38-22, struck out 32 times to the Tigers' ten, drew three walks to Detroit's 11, and committed four errors against two by Detroit. No National recorded a quality start, whereas the Tigers were a Gerald Laird throwing error away from three quality starts.

Washington now returns home to face the surging Chicago White Sox, winners of three straight games and eight of their last ten. Following the White Sox into the nation's capital are the Kansas City Royals who, though nine games below .500, have won five of their last seven and boast the second best team batting average in the league. The Nationals' pitchers need to bear down and the offense needs to reawaken in order to avoid digging a deeper hole in the cutthroat NL East.

The combination of Justin Verlander, Brandon Boesch and a poor effort by Livan Hernandez led to the demise of the Nationals tonight, falling 8-3 to the Detroit Tigers.

Livan Hernandez had his poorest outing of the year thus far for the Nationals by doubling his season-high in earned runs allowed in a single start tonight. Hernandez lasted into the seventh, giving up eight earned runs only seven hits on the evening. However, he also walked a season-high six Tigers, contributing greatly to the eight runs he surrendered.

However, the play to keep Livan in for the seventh inning is one that manager Jim Riggleman even questioned himself. Entering the inning, the Nationals were trailing 5-3. Livan quickly got two outs in the inning, forcing Don Kelly to ground out and Johnny Damon to line out to second. Facing the heart of the order with two outs and nobody on, Hernandez gave up back-to-back singles to Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera. Rookie phenom Brandon Boesch capitalized, scorching a bomb to right field for a three-run home run and to break open the game.

To complicate matters, Justin Verlander was on his game tonight. Verlander lasted eight innings tonight, striking out 11 without giving up a walk. He gave up three runs, two of which came in the form of solo home runs from Adam Dunn and Roger Bernadina. The old adage is good pitching will beat good hitting any day, and on this night, Verlander was just better than the Nationals offense.

The Nationals remain in last place, falling seven games behind the Braves and Mets in the loss column. The team is 4-6 in their last 10 games, and 5-9 in the month of June. However, after their day game tomorrow against the Tigers, the Nationals have nine consecutive games against lower American League competition in the form o f the White Sox, Royals and Orioles.

ANALYSIS:

I said in a recent post that Livan Hernandez was going to come back to Earth after his hot start, but this was not exactly what I meant. In all honesty, I believe realistic Livan is somewhere in the neighborhood of his first six innings of work tonight. He will always pitch to contact, maybe walk a few hitters along the way, but not six in one game. Typical, reliable Livan should sit somewhere between 5-7 innings and surrendering 2-4 runs a game. Those numbers will keep the Nationals in the games deep, which is all you can ask for when the heart of the order is clicking.

At 31-35 and struggling in June, things aren't looking promising tonight. But, like I mentioned, easier competition the Nats should be able to beat up on is forthcoming. Tomorrow afternoon, the Nationals look to avoid the sweep with Luis Atilano (5-3, 4.34) facing off against Jeremy Bonderman (2-4, 4.21).

MetsBlog gives the latest update on the progress of Carlos Beltran.

With Beltran being sidelined for so long paired with the fantastic play of Angel Pagan filling in for him, I forgot Carlos was even still on the team, and I'm having a hard time imagining him bringing any success to the club when he does return. Unfortunately, no matter how well Pagan plays, he will most likely surrender center field to Beltran when he comes back, but Pagan has proved that he can be an everyday player with the Mets, so hopefully they can find a spot for him. Beltran is a great player, he had an MVP type year in 2006 and made some amazing plays in the outfield, but now I can't stop associating him with the Mets failures from the past few years. Beltran was the one who left the bat on his shoulder in Game 7 as a rookie named Adam Wainwright spun a curveball for strike three. He has also been having these knee problems for quite sometime and in the field it always looked like he was playing at 80%. The 33-year-old looks to be breaking down, and I'm just tired of dealing with it. The 2010 Mets seemed to have put their dark past behind them, but Beltran's return is an inevitable conflict the team will need to address.

Despite an impressive eight innings by Jamie Moyer last night in a win over the Yankees, the overall mood in the Phillie clubhouse is not where they'd like it to be.

Unfortunately for Philadelphia, this is the team they are going to have to rely on down the stretch. They can't use Jimmy Rollins as an excuse anymore (not saying that they have); it is time to accept the fact that Juan Castro is going to be their everyday shortstop until further notice. Even without Rollins, the Phillie lineup is still terrifying for opposing pitchers with players like Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, and Chase Utley all threats to hit the long ball. Somehow, someway, they need to get on the same page, and that is where Charlie Manuel comes in. Have a team meeting, make a bold move at the deadline, just do something to put some energy back in this lifeless team.

-In his first week in the majors, the Nationals Stephen Strasburg has been named the National League Player of the Week. In starts against Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Strasburg went 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA, while striking out 22 batters in just 12.1 innings pitched.

ANALYSIS:

Strasburg proved that he was more than ready for the major leagues with last weeks performance. When everyone in the baseball world was tuning in to his start against the Pirates, he rose to the occasion and then some. The poise and maturity he showed in Cleveland, a start in which he was having mound problems that affected his control, Strasburg still managed to strikeout eight Indians in just 5.1 innings.

There are still some who say they are not convinced because Strasburg was pitching against two of the weakest lineups in the league. That is a valid point, at this point, who wouldn't want to see him go up against the Yankees or Red Sox, but the fact remains that the Pirates and Indians are major league teams that Strasburg had little problems with. He has dominated at every level and it is hard to imagine him having any extreme difficulties in his transition to the bigs.

The Washington Nationals (31-34) built and subsequently surrendered leads in the first and third innings as they fell to the Detroit Tigers by the final of 7-4. Detroit (34-29) was lead by multi-hit games from centerfielder Ryan Rayburn, right fielder Magglio Ordonez, and catcher Gerald Laird. The Tigers' multiple comebacks came at the expense of Nationals' starter John Lannan, who yielded seven runs (six of which were earned) on ten hits in just 4.1 innings pitched. He also walked four batters in his second straight poor outing, raising his ERA to 5.45. The Nationals' bullpen did perform quite well when called upon for extensive service, as Tyler Walker and Sean Burnett combined for 3.2 innings of two-hit baseball while walking no one and keeping the Tigers stuck on seven runs.

Unfortunately for the Nationals, their offense ultimately let them down. After scoring four runs in the first four innings, Washington's bats went cold. Though credit is clearly due to Max Scherzer and the Detroit pitching staff, an inability to put the ball in play severely hampered the Nationals' chances. After averaging fewer than seven strikeouts per game entering last night's contest, the Nationals walked back to the dugout on the 13 separate occasions, with four hitters striking out multiple times. When facing a defense as porous as that of Detroit (third in baseball in errors committed), the Nationals needed to force Tigers' fielders to make plays. Washington was unable to fully exploit Detroit's weakness (though Laird did make a throwing error in the first that led to a run), a failure in execution that helped cost the Nationals the game.

ERROR WATCH

The Tigers and Nationals kept pace in their race for the worst defense in Major League Baseball. Each team committed one - Washington second baseman Cristian Guzman and Detroit catcher Gerald Laird both had errors that cost their teams runs. The count is tied at one apiece, but keep an eye on the defense to see how and when it affects this series.

Oswalt is heading to the Rangers...right?

The mid-season trading season appears to have opened in early June, and the first piece moving looks to be Astros longtime ace, Roy Oswalt. It looks like he wont go very far.

The Rangers have been holding onto a half-game lead over the L.A. Angels, two in the loss column, going into action Monday. While the Rangers have no problem striking players out, they ranked as a team 16^th overall in ERA and 15^th in WHIP. To complicate matters, right handed pitcher Rich Harden, who was signed in the off-season, has been placed on the 15-day DL with a strained left gluteus muscle.

The Rangers rotation has been a roller coaster of pleasant surprises and utter disappointments. Colby Lewis, signed in the off-season from Japan, and has exceeded expectations this season with a stat line of 6-4, with a 3.30 ERA and a K/BB ration of 81/33 in 84.1 innings of work. Equally surprising has been reliever-turned-starter CJ Wilson.

However the Rangers season has not been without letdowns on the mound. After a promising season last year, Scott Feldman has taken a few steps backward with his ERA hovering at 5.28. And before Harden's most recent DL trip, his ERA was sitting at 5.68. An ace is what they have surely lacked.

Phillies Nation fears the worst if the Yankees trade for Seattle's Cliff Lee

If this trade does go down, which it very well could, Lee would like nothing more to stick it to his former team if they were to match up again in this years World Series. Lee, Sabathia, and Hughes would arguably be the best post season starting rotation ever. But of course, in order for this to happen 1) The Phillies need to start winning some ballgames and 2) the trade actually needs to happen. There is no shot Lee finishes the season in Seattle, the team has been an extreme disappointment and will likely be the focus of many trade rumors come the July 31^st deadline. Why are they even worrying about Lee anyway? Sure it would have been nice to keep him, but now you have someone just as dominant in Roy Halladay, who has just thrown a perfect game in the Phillies uniform. Lee will be on the top of several contenders shopping lists, it will be interesting to see how hard the Yankees push for him.

After being dumped by the Mets three years ago, Heath Bell found a home in San Diego, but would not rule out a return to the team that gave up on him.

It looks like the Padres will be contending for the duration of the season, meaning that they will probably keep Bell for the rest of the year. Bell would be a great fit in New York if he were to return. He has grown a lot the past couple years and it is nice to hear that he still has a soft spot for the Mets. It will be interesting to see what the Mets will do after the 2011 season with Francisco Rodriquez and Heath Bell both free agents. Relievers are difficult to read because their success comes and goes quicker then any other position. Personally, I don't know who I would rather have closing for the Mets in 2011 and beyond, we will just have to wait and see.

With the Braves in first place despite Jair Jurrjens absence, Talking Chop is happy with the performance of the Braves starting pitchers.

Tim Hudson and Chris Medlen have had fantastic seasons and are one of the several reasons the Braves find themselves in first place. Jurrjens is beginning his rehab assignment in the minors now, and will be making his return to Atlanta soon. The Braves staff will be that much better when Jurrjens is ready to go. Derek Lowe keeps picking up wins and Tommy Hanson is tenth in the NL with 80 strikeouts, making Atlanta a team no one wants to face down the home stretch.

As we will do each week of the season, today we will look at Accuscore's playoff forcaster to see how last weeks game influenced the division's playoff race. Not suprisingly, Washingtons percentage jumped 13%, the second best turnaround of the week, and now have a 16.6% chance of reaching the postseason. A 4-2 week and the arrival of Stephen Strasburg was enough to make the team a legitimate contender in the NL, as they hope to build of off last weeks success and carry it with them through the rest of the sesaon.

PLAYOFF SHIFTS WEEK 10

Stephen Oh on the NL East

The Nationals got two great games from Stephen Strasburg.  While the 4-2 week helped them pick up +13 percentage points, the real impact is the one Strasburg has on the Nationals the rest of the season.  With another 19 or 20 starts he could definitely help the team win 14 or 15 of these games vs 9 or 10 without him.  Strasburg could help Washington win 5 more games than they would have otherwise.  The Phillies are crashing in the NL East.  A month ago they were 86.6 percent favorites in the division and now they are just 34.4 percent favorites.  The Braves and Mets also had their odds significantly increase and now all the NL East teams are finishing with an average of 83 to 90 wins.