The Nationals called up Roger Bernadina from Triple-A Syracuse to help with a banged-up bench, while optioning lefty Jesse English to make room. Bernadina got the nod after going on a tear, he's batted .377/.426/.541 in 61 at bats in Syracuse while stealing two bases.  English on the other hand had been very effective in the bullpen, posting a 3.86 ERA in seven appearances.

General Mike Rizzo told Bill Ladson:

"We told him, 'This is not a demotion. This is a strategic roster move, because we feel that we need to get a healthy position player in there. He didn't get as much work as we wanted to. We want him to go down there, pitch and get more work."

Analysis: This is exactly the opposite of what we suggested earlier this week. The Nationals extra inning loss to the Cubs on Monday was a direct result of having an exhausted bullpen. Clippard, Capps, and Batistia were seemingly unavailable and Brian Bruney was forced to pitch in a situation he obviously wasn't comfortable in, resulting in the walk-off-walk. We at The Nats Blog suggested the Nationals bring up Storen or perhaps a Triple-A starter to throw in the bullpen until the starting pitching gets more stable. Now, instead of getting more help for a bullpen that has had to chew up a lot of

For the fourth time this season Livan Hernandez put the Nationals on his back and carried them late into the game, giving them a chance to earn the victory. With early run support, Washington was able to do just that, defeating the Cubs 3-1 and nipping a one-game-losing streak in the bud.

Throughout baseball, the aces of pitching staff's are called stoppers. They are the pitchers who managers, GM's and fans feel comfortable putting in every fifth day to make sure that no losing streak gets out of control. That's exactly what Livan did for the Nationals last night who had just fallen to .500 on a disheartening extra-inning loss, capitalized by a walk-off-walk to Aramis Ramirez. A loss tonight would have been difficult to swallow for a team that has struggled so hard to stay at .500 or above, but with Hernandez on the mound, he did everything to make sure that didn't happen.

The 35-year-old tossed 99 pitches over seven strong innings, allowing only six hits and only one walk. None of the hits allowed by Hernandez were for extra bases, and he forced the Cubs to strand eight runners on base. The performance built on his already stellar start, improving his record to 3-1, with a 0.87 ERA, and a .176 batting average against.

At the plate the Nationals got off to an early start as center fielder Nyjer Morgan hit a lead-off triple (.088 WPA). Ian Desmond immediately followed by going the other way for a single to right, driving in Morgan (.040 WPA). Cristian Guzman then tripled to center driving in Desmond (.106 WPA) to give the Nationals an early 2-0 lead.

The Cubs scored their only run of the night in the second. Alfonso Soriano hit a one-out single to right (.028 WPA) to start the rally off for the Cubs. Mike Fontenot followed by singling to center (.068 WPA) advancing Soriano to third. Geovany Sota then hit a grounder to third, which Soriano was able to score on due to a botched double play attempt by Guzman at second (.012 WPA).

The Nationals would score once more in the eighth after Ian Desmond singled in Nyjer Morgan from second base (.098 WPA).

Notes:

-The Nationals stole three bases but also got caught stealing twice.

-Cristian Guzman's error was his second of the season

-While Maxwell was 0-2, he walked two times.

In the 13th game of a stretch where the Nationals play on 15 consecutive days, the last thing Washington needed was a an extra-inning game. Despite a quality start from John Lannan, and timely hitting from the Nats batters, the club couldn't hold on and lost 4-3 in the bottom of the 10th at Wrigley.

In the end it all came down to a worn-out bullpen. Brian Bruney looked absolutely gassed in the 10th inning, his second inning of work, walking two batters including a game winning free pass on four pitches to Aramis Ramirez with the bases loaded. Bruney's final losing pitch was his 25th of the night, the most he had pitched since Apr. 5 in a 1-11 loss to Philadelphia.

But what was manager Jim Riggleman to do? Capps and Clippard were both unavailable because they had pitched previously on consecutive nights, Miguel Batistia had pitched three innings only two nights before, and the only arm left in the pen who was fresh was Jesse English. Not wanting to waste his last arm he left Bruney in to see if he could finish out the inning, instead the reliever gave Chicago the win on a free pass.

A breakdown of bullpen use during the 13-game streak

Capps: 6 appearances, 7.1 IP, 2 back-to-back appearances 
Clippard:  6 appearances, 8.1 IP, 2 back-to-back appearances
Bruney: 7 appearances, 7 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances
Batista: 4 appearances, 10 IP, 1 back-to-back appearance
Burnett: 5 appearances, 2.2 IP, 1 back-to-back-to-back appearance 
Walker: 3 appearances, 6.1 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances 
English: 3 appearances, 4.2 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances

The overuse of the bullpen hasn't exactly been Riggleman's fault. As you can see above, he has done a good job of evening out the innings between the pitchers, but poor starting

David hasn't been getting many hits early on in the season batting a weak .222, but he is tied with Jeff Francoeur for the team lead in RBIs with 10 and is also the team leader with a .405 OBP. His 19 walks lead the team, so as long as he is getting on base that's the important thing, but obviously we would like to see his batting average higher. It is clear that Wright has been tinkering with his swing this year. As shown by the graph he used to keep his hands and bat much higher but has since dropped them down to shorten his long swing. Wright already puts an enormous amount of pressure on himself as he has embraced his role as the "face" of the franchise, which also means he has been the face of failure due to the Mets struggles in recent years. Lets just hope if this new swing doesn't work out, he has the mental toughness to come up with another solution.