In a game that was protested by Washington, the Nationals played with the most conviction they have had in weeks.

After San Diego starter Clayton Richard had retired the Nationals in order in the first half of the first inning, manager Bud Black realized his own mistake. The official line up card had listed Adam Russell, not Clayton Richard as the starting pitcher for the nights game, the only problem was that Russell was not only not on the mound he wasn't even in the same city as he had been demoted to AAA that day. As a result, manager Jim Riggleman declared the Nats were playing the game under protest.

They didn't need it.

For the second start in a row John Lannan looked like the pitcher that made him the clubs best starter in 2008 and 2009. The lefty pitched seven strong innings, scattering seven hits and allowed only one earned run. While Lannan only struck out one batter, he overcame one of his biggest deamons of the season by walking no batters on the night.

The 25-year-old had struggled with his command this season. A pitcher who made a career off of painting corners and making batters chase junk, Lannan has had poor command over his pitches this year, forcing him to make up for missed strikes with pitches over the plate. In 10 starts this season he has a career high 4.20 BB/9, which is terrible, and his 2.91 K/9 is also the worst of his career. While Lannan may be able to live without the strikeouts, he can not live with the walks.

Things are looking up for the lefty, however. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in his last three starts.

The Nationals bats came out to support Lannan early Friday night. Josh Willingham helped give the Nationals an early lead with a fourth inning three-run homer, and Ian Desmond extended that lead to 4-0 with a solo shot in the seventh inning. While the Nationals only recorded six hits on the night, they managed to score five runs with only eight runners reaching base total.

Win Probability

As you can see the Nationals took control of the game until Matt Capps had a terrible 9th inning.

-Lannan was the most valuable pitcher with .207 WPA

-Willingham was by far the most valuable hitter with a .313 WPA

-Matt Capps escaped with a .030 WPA despite his roller coaster performance, but that's only because he made big outs, despite the fact that he was the one who put himself in the high risk situation.

-Entering the 9th inning the Padres had a 3% chance of winning. At the worst of Matt Capps' performance, they had a 47% chance of winning. That's the opposite of a closers job.

The Washington Nationals (24-24) enter their series against the San Diego Padres (28-19) desperately trying to regain control over their season. The club has lost nine of their last 14 games dating back to their series with Colorado, and have been struggling to stay at .500 for the better part of a month. But as the arguous second half of May comes to a close, the Nationals find themselves facing a daunting opponent in the San Diego Padres, who enter tonight's game in first place in the National League.

The Padres, like the Nationals, finished 2009 in the losers column, but have seen an emergence in 2010 which Washington would love to match. The rejuvination of the Southern California franchise has come abruptly, but the Padres fans who had prepared themselves for a long rebuilding process have had a pleasant surprise to start 2010.

San Diego has not done it with the bat however. Their leading hitter is, no joke, David Eckstein with a line of .297/.356/.384. The rest of their everyday players are hitting below .280, and their golden boy, Adrian Gonzalez, is having a modest year so far hitting .268/.386/.470.

A day after roughing up two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, the Nationals defense and bullpen in the seventh inning combined to doom their attempt at taking the series, losing 5-4 to the Giants.

After Josh Willingham's sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh increased the Nations lead to 4-2, John Bowker led off the bottom of the frame against starter Craig Stammen by reaching on a fielding error courtesy of Adam Dunn. With Bowker on first and pinch-hitter Bengie Molina at the plate, recently promoted Carlos Maldonado let a ball squirt by him that allowed Bowker to reach second. Stammen would retire Molina on a groundout, but Bowker would advance to third on the play. Nate Schierholtz pinch-hit for pitcher Santiago Casilla, and Riggleman answered with lefty Sean Burnett for the favorable match-up.

However, Schierholtz promptly singled in Bowker for third, followed by a double from Andres Torres and Burnett was pulled in favor of Tyler Walker with the tying and go-ahead run in scoring position. Freddy Sanchez, who came into the game batting .192 since being reinstated from the disabled list earlier this month, rudely greeted Walker with a two-run single to give the Giants the lead for good.

For the Giants, the damage was done by Sanchez, Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe. The three hitters combined to go 7-10 with a homer and four RBI. The rest of the Giants line-up contributed only two hits, the pinch-hit single by Schierholtz and the Torres double in the seventh. Barry Zito also had one of his poorest outings of the year, lasting 6.1 giving up all four Nationals runs on seven hits and five walks, raising his ERA on the year to 2.94.

On the bright side for the Nats, Craig Stammen was able to put together a nice start in what has otherwise been a rough year for him. His last previous three starts, Stammen had gone six innings or less and given up four runs each time. Tonight, Stammen went 6.2, striking out none while allowing two earned runs on five hits and three walks.

Also, Josh Willingham continued his torrid hitting as of late. He went 2-3 with a homer, his ninth of the year, and two RBI. Dunn added a homer of his own in the first inning, his tenth of the year, and also had a double in a 2-5 day.

The night after Washington made Todd Wellemeyer look like Tim Lincecum…Tim Lincecum sure looked a lot like Todd Wellemeyer in his shortest outing of the year as the Nationals toppled the Giants 7-3. The two-time defending NL Cy Young winner earned his first loss of the year by going 4.2 innings giving up 6 hits and 6 runs, all of them earned, and walking five. Luis Atilano bumped his record up to 4-1 and went a solid 5.1 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, yet did not walk anyone or record a strikeout.

The game stayed scoreless until the Nationals broke out the bats in the third, when Adam Kennedy drove a pitch to center field that resulted in Nyjer Morgan running through his third base coaches stop sign to score standing up, while literally tripping over home plate. Later in the inning Josh Willingham put another run on the board by smacking the first pitch he saw for a double to center, scoring Kennedy. Shortstop Ian Desmond tallied on the final run of the inning by knocking in Adam Dunn in a play that ended up ending the inning as Willingham was thrown out at home for the final out. But the damage was done, Lincecum’s fastball was weak all night, all 3 run scoring hits in the third were off his 4-seam which didn’t reach any higher than 94 mph.

The Nats continued to get to Lincecum in the 5th, led by the “blazing speed” of Kennedy. During Ryan Zimmerman’s at bat, Kennedy not only stole second, but swiped third as well as Zimmerman was issued the free base. Now with a runner on first and third and nobody out, who better to have up in that situation than Dunn? On the second pitch of the at bat Dunn got the job “done” by bringing in Kennedy on a sacrifice fly to Aaron Rowand. The wheels continued to fall off for Lincecum as Zimmerman stole second and Josh Willingham was hit by a pitch, all leading up to a two run hit by Ian Desmond, giving him a total of 3 RBI on the night.

With a commanding lead, the Nationals bullpen did a good job at not allowing San Francisco to make a significant comeback with appearances from Doug Slaten, Drew Storen, and Tyler Clippard, who came in to close out the games final 2 innings. The play of the game has to be Ryan Zimmerman’s play in the 9th. With Juan Uribe at first, Bengie Molina scorched a grounder down the line which Zimmerman grabbed and literally flung it perfectly to Alberto Gonzalez who then got it to Kennedy at first in plenty of time for the double play. It was vintage Zimmerman, who likely secured his second consecutive gold glove on the play. The Nationals come into the rubber game of the series sending Craig Stammen against Barry Zito. Hopefully with their steller performance last night, Washington will have the confidence to get to Zito early and often, as the team finds themselves only 3 games out of first place.

Brooklyn Met Fan wonders if the Subway Series games between the Mets and Yankees has lost some of its mojo in recent years.

This is not the first time I have heard someone point this out. The Mets and Yankees have now been meeting six times a year since 1997 and once in the World Series. Personally, I have never understood the argument as to why people do not like Interleague play, what's the big deal? Don't you get tired of seeing the same teams every year, why not change things up every once in a while and have your team play in a city it rarely goes to? Of course some of the passion is gone from the Subway Series because the Mets haven't been very good, while the Yankees continue to rack up championships. Naturally there was a lot more excitement in the beginning because it was the first the two teams had faced each other...you can't expect that type of hoopla to last forever.

With the depleted Phillie bullpen riding Jose Contreras as long as he can take them, Beer Leaguer is waiting for White Sox GM Kenny Williams to begin shopping JJ Putz and Bobby Jenks.

Caught in a downward spiral during the most recent week of MLB regular season play, the Nationals were unable to right the ship Tuesday night with their most reliable starter, Livan Hernandez, on the mound.  Joining the likes of David Hernandez and Jeff Francis, Todd Wellenmeyer becomes the latest mediocre pitcher to place a stranglehold on the Nationals' lineup, allowing just four hits and two runs over six innings of work.  Meanwhile Wellenmeyer's counterpart, Hernandez, fell apart in the fifth inning, allowing the runs that propelled the Giants to a 4-2 victory in San Francisco.

For the first four innings of the game it appeared as though the game was a pitching duel with neither pitcher allowing the bats of either team to do much damage.  Livo looked especially strong, locating pitches well and dropping some nasty hammers with his curveball, which he threw 12 of last night.  The turning point of the game came in the fifth inning with two outs and the pitcher, Wellenmeyer, at the plate.  Wellenmeyer was able to get a piece of a Hernandez forkball and blooped it along the right field line.  Suddenly the Giants' hitters began to realize Livan's game plan, making their hitters reach for pitches away.  San Francisco's lineup began looming over the plate and started sending balls flying all over the field.  Andres Torres followed up Wellenmeyer's blooper with a shot up the middle of the infield and Edgar Renteria tapped a ball in front of Josh Willingham to bring the first run of the game home.  The wheels began to fall off when Freddy Sanchez lined a double past Roger Bernadina to score two more runs.  Pablo Sandoval followed suit by reaching for a changeup that sailed over Nyger Morgan's head and brought home the fourth run of the inning.

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Batter of the Week - Chris Marrero, 1B, Harrisburg

For quite some time, Chris Marrero has been considered one of the best prospects in the Nationals farm system.  Marrero struggled to begin the AA season, though, and it led many people to believe that he was turning into former GM Jim Bowden's latest failed endeavor.  Minor league baseball is a fickle sport and it is hard to judge a player based solely on such a short period of time.  Chris Marrero proved this last week why a single month should not be enough evidence to write off any prospect, especially one with the skills he possesses.  In 8 games last week, Marrero was 12 for 28 (.429 AVG) with a double, four home runs, and seven RBIs.  Before his leg injury two seasons ago, Marrero was well known across single A for his ability to come up with the clutch hit.  Last Tuesday versus Reading, Marrero once again delivered with the game winning single in the seventh inning.  For the season Marrero is batting .259/.308/.437, but those numbers look to be trending upwards.  While his bat is what will one day carry him to the big leagues, the plate patience remains a problem as he sports an 11 BB:35 SO ratio.  Additionally, the question that has plagued him since early in his career of "where will he play in the field?" continues to persist.  Once an outfielder and now a first baseman, Marrero has failed to distinguish him as a reliable defender at either position.  His frequent miscues at one of the least demanding field positions in the game have many folks wondering if he might be nothing more than a designated hitter in the big leagues.