A night after falling below .500 for the first time in over a month, the Nationals got back to what had made them successful in the first place, having a lights-out bullpen.

Despite Craig Stammen allowing six runs (four earned) over 5.1 innings pitched, the Washington bullpen took over in the sixth inning and allowed only one hit while striking out five and walking none en-route to a 7-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles. With the win the Nationals improved to 22-22 and found again the winning formula that has turned this into their most successful season; timely hitting with a shutdown bullpen. no comments

Nationals top hitting prospect, Derek Norris, was sent to the hospital last night after being struck in the head with a fastball. According to reports, Norris laid motionless for nearly 10 minutes after the beaning.

Nationals.com writer Bill Ladson tweeted today that Norris is doing okay now, but will miss five-to-seven days in recovery.

Luckily Norris was wearing the new S100 helmet, designed to protect hitters from fastballs up to speeds of 100 MPH:

Norris was wearing an S100 helmet, which became mandatory for all Minor Leaguers this season following a spate of beanings in the Majors last year. Manufactured by Rawlings Sporting Goods, the helmets feature enhanced protection from a composite insert and an expanded liner made of Polypropylene, a hard, supportive material that is also used in some industrial and bicycle helmets. According to Mike Thompson, Rawlings senior vice president for sports marketing and business development, the helmet can withstand a pitch up to 100 mph.

Analysis:

Poor Norris. The kid can flat out hit, but he can't seem to stay healthy this year. He has produced well the last three seasons in the lower-level minor leagues. Turning 21 this season, this was supposed to be the year that Norris rocketed himself through Single-A, past Double-A, and hopefully earn himself a cup of coffee in Syracuse.

Things have not gone the catchers way so far this spring, however. An array of injuries has kept the super-talented hitting catcher to only 13 games on the field. The inconsistency of his playing time (due to said injuries) had led to poor results initially on the field. He was finally starting to put it together as he was batting .317/.472/.439 in Potomac before the beaning.

Now he will have to wait another week before he gets on the field again, and then, he has to battle the mental demons that can hurt a hitter after such a vicious beaning. One has to look no further than David Wright to see what a fastball to the head can do to even the most talented hitters.

For Norris, it's an uphill battle, but it's one that the 21-year-old future star must overcome if he wants to make it in a Nationals uniform.

Hello everyone. First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates throughout this past week, it's been a crazy transition period in all of our writers lives, and sort of combined for a perfect storm of business.

For those of you who don't know, all of the writers on this site are either college age or are just out of college, so when the month of May hits we are either relocating from school to home, starting new jobs, or something of that sort. Personally,  I just started a new job and it has been very challenging for me this past week, but with that now under control we can focus on the future.

For the first time since the season started, all of the writers on this blog are now living in D.C. Sam Farber just graduated from Duke University, Ted Youngling (a native New Yorker) is spending his summer in D.C as an intern for our site, Bryce Stucki just graduated from Virginia Tech and I just moved back in town after a year long internship with the Columbus Blue Jackets of the N.H.L (and Phil, who's been here, is going to keep providing great content).

Together in D.C., I have a lot of plans for what we can do to help bring you the best Washington Nationals experience possible. From webcasts, to press credentials, to meet-ups, to crazy promo gigs, it's going to be a fun summer. So fasten your seat-belts and lets help those Nats make a playoff push!

As a reminder, here are all the great ways you can follow our blog!

Facebook, everyone has it, don't pretend you don't! We post all of our stories on our fanpage so all you have to do is check us out when your on the site anyway. Be a fan, or "like" us today.

This is the first season where we have been actively twittering. It's a lot of fun. Follow us not only to get updates on the site but to enjoy in game commentary and hopefully entertaining tid-bits about the game.

Have an RSS reader? Subscribe to our feed and have our content come right to you. In my opinion this is the best way to follow the blog, because you can include us with all your daily news that you can read in one place, your reader.

Have an iPhone/iPod Touch or an Android? Why be bored on the Metro ride to work or in the waiting room for a doctors appointment? With The Nats Blog iPhone and Android applications you can have our stories automatically stored on your phone so you can read us whether you have internet connection or not. The App is free, so download it today.

With all of the uncertainty surrounding the Mets future, Mets Blog wonders about what's in store for Jose Reyes and David Wright.

It wasn't too long ago that Wright and Reyes were signing extensions to their contracts and were the kings of New York...How the times have changed. I realize Reyes has been out for a year and is still "rusty" but ultimately, it is quite obvious these two core players are not what we thought they were. Reyes has suffered major setbacks in his development and Wright has not shown that he can carry this team on his back. Even with Omar surrounding the two with incredible talent like Francisco Rodriquez, Jason Bay, and Jeff Franceour (to name a few), they just have not been able to put anything together, and the Phillies success doesn't make things any easier.

Beer Leaguer recaps the gutsy Phillies win over the Cubs with the ancient Jose Contreras coming through in unfamiliar territory.

Who needs Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson when you have Danys Baez and Jose Contreras? The thing that separates championship teams from everyone else is that they can insert anyone into a certain situation and have them deliver. Contreras had never had any closing experience until now, and so far he hasn't disappointed. The Phillies are starting to get a stranglehold on the division, which is not good news for the four other teams. As we head into the dog days of summer, Philadelphia could find themselves with the division pretty much wrapped up by August. Who knows though, it is completely possible that Contreras and Baez have a bad week and all of their recent success is forgotten. Both pitchers are vulnerable to breaking down which should be a concern to Charlie Manuel, who should keep a close eye on their workload.

Watch out everyone! Here come the never say die Atlanta Braves.

Talk about a miracle finish. Earlier this season it was the Reds who were getting all the walk off victories, but now they have just become another victim to the Braves resurgence. I've been saying it all along, this team has talent and there was no reason for them not to be competitive in the division THIS season. Sure they had a 9 game losing streak earlier this season, but guess what, the Mets had an 8 game winning streak this season as well, and look at them now. It's not just the fact that they have won all these games, its HOW they have won these games. Literally staring defeat in the face, the Braves put together unquestionably the greatest comeback in their 135-year history! Brooks Conrad of all people. If that doesn't give him confidence for the future, then I don't know what does.

Fish Stripes reports that Hanley Ramirez has apologized to each of his teammates individually following the "jogging" incident in a game against the Diamondbacks.

Alright, so Hanley apologized individually to his teammates, good for him, the only question I have now is were these apologies sincere or was it done just to put the issue to bed. Its only May so its not like he could have let this go on for the entire season. This whole scenario is so bizarre you just hate to see something like it even happen. Florida had the potential to be a surprise team this year but now they will always have this issue following them like a dark cloud. The best way for Hanley and the Marlins to completely move on from this is to flat out win. Winning simply put is the cure for anything and everything, but does this team have it in them to overcome this unnecessary controversy?

Believe it or not were already a quarter of a way done with the baseball season and with the school year finally coming to an end for many, Federal Baseball did us the honor of filling out the Nationals report card.

After tallying up all of the grades, the average came out to be a C+, which seems to be surprisingly low considering the expectations this team had coming into the season. I was also surprised to see that Tyler Clippard didn’t earn an A with his performance thus far. What else does this pitcher need to prove? He has established himself as one of the best relievers in the game and has finally found a home in Washington after being cast off by the Yankees of all people. Clippard also leads the team with 7 wins and has an astonishing 87% strand rate! Sure he walks quite a few batters but that should not take away from his career saving performance in the first two months of the season.

Brian Bruney was never really very good.

A career ERA of 4.52, K/BB rate of 1.35, and FIP of 4.73 is not the line of a good pitcher. Even in 2006, his beast season, he was extremely lucky. His worse-than-average 4.57 xFIP doesn't jive with his pristine 0.87 ERA, which is better explained by his absurdly high 97.9% of runners left on base in that year.

But whatever luck Bruney had ran out in a big way this year. Bruney's LOB% plummeted to 58.8%, his BABIP shot up to 0.372 (perhaps attributable to a slower fastball), and he was dishing out the walks left and right. Though Bruney's failures may be partly attributable to Stan Kasten's preseason castration of the middle reliever, even if Bruney were performing up to his career standards, he would simply be average.

Bruney's replacement, Drew Storen, has great minor league statistics and should be an improvement over Bruney. And if the bullpen continues to perform at its current pace - which implies performances much better than the career averages of its members - then Bruney's demotion should be a real boost for the Nationals.

I wouldn't bet on that happening, though.

It hurts me to say it, but expect the Nationals' bullpen to begin blowing games at its normal pace soon. When your bullpen is composed of very average players, average performance is what you should expect from your bullpen. Unfortunately for Bruney, his bad luck had to come at a time when fortune was taking a liking to his teammates, making Bruney, by comparison, look awful.

Sorry about that, Brian. Oh, and if I were you, I wouldn't place any bets anytime soon.

Mets Blog shares his thoughts on Mets COO Jeff Wilpons recent trip to Atlanta.

Upon hearing this news, many Mets fans were quick to assume that Manuel was due to lose his job if the team struggled on their current road trip. Its funny how not too long ago the Mets were in the midst of an 8 game winning streak, but now a few weeks later Jerry Manuel is on the verge of losing his job. At this point, I think it would be best for the Mets to just keep Manuel for the remainder of the season, because if they were to fire him he would likely be replaced with Bob Melvin, and lets be honest, Bob Melvin is not the answer for the team. I keep thinking about what things would be like if Bobby Valentine were to return to New York. He is the only option available that I feel like knows how to handle the type of things that would be thrown at him in New York.

Fish Stripes is blogging about…what else…Hanley Ramirez’s benching.

Any baseball fan hates to see this happen to a young superstar, it seems as though Hanley is beginning to get a big head. If one things for certain, either Hanley or manager Freddi Gonzalez will not return to Florida in 2011, and my gut feeling tells me its going to be Gonzalez who will leave. Think about it, with Bobby Cox leaving after this year it makes prefect sense for Gonzalez to return back to Atlanta to take charge of the Braves. I do believe that the foul ball off of Hanley’s foot was a legitimate injury, but I also think that when going after the ball in the outfield he over exaggerated how painful it really was. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with not just the Marlins management, but also the (few) fans that they have.

With Pat Burrell recently being cut by the Rays, Braves Blast wonders why Atlanta shouldn’t take a chance on him.

Although he makes some valid points, I just see the whole idea as unnecessary. Ever since Burrell left Philadelphia he has fell of the face of the earth, which is shocking considering how much he meant to the development of the Phillies we know today. If the reason for Atlanta signing being to “kill the Mets” or other teams in the East, I just wouldn’t bother, there has to be someone in the Braves system they can call up or another option they can call upon. This season is a great time to give some young players a chance to perform in the show, so why roll the dice on a washed up player hoping to strike gold?

Following another Roy Halladay complete game, but this one coming in a loss, Phillies Nation compares the durable pitcher to a toy…just trying to play with it as much as you can without breaking it. no comments