John Lannan took the mound under the arch in St. Louis Friday night looking for redemption.

Following a start that was arguably the worst in his career, the lefty pitched purposefully with his parents looking on in the stands. Allowing only three hits and one run through the first seven innings, Lannan looked like he would cruise to his ninth win of the year.

With one out in the bottom of the eight however Lannan lost focus, even if just for a moment and fell behind to weak hitting Khalil Greene to a 3-0 count. Underestimating Greene’s bat Lannan threw a meat pitch across the plate for a taken strike one. Confident now that he could just place strikes in the zone against the career .246 hitter, Lannan hung a slider over the heart of the plate. The ball sailed over the left field fence as Greene tied the game with his sixth homer of the year.
  

Going into the top of the ninth Elijah Dukes smacked a one out double to right, which was feet from leaving the ballpark. However with the back of the order at the plate, both Bard and Gonzalez were retired in order and the Nats entered the bottom of the ninth still tied.

In the bottom of the inning Riggleman opted to put Jason Bergman in and not Nats closer Mike MacDougal to face Albert Pujols who led off the inning. On a 2-0 count Bergman hung a slider to the best hitter in the game, and the entire ballpark knew immediately at the point of contact that the game was over. Pujols had launched his 41^st homer of the season, and it was a walk off bomb for the Red Birds. 

Despite Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn’s career years, it was arguable up to this point that centerfielder Nyjer Morgan was the team’s MVP this season.

While it may be hard to argue that someone who was with the team for two months could possibly be the teams season long most valuable player, all you have to do is look at the Nationals season to understand. Before Morgan arrived the Nationals were 22-54, since they have been 24-28. His impact was felt offensively but in large part felt as the anchor of the outfield defense. Since his arrival the Nationals have allowed less earned runs, recorded less errors, and given up less hits.

Since Morgan’s arrival he has been the equivalent of Ichiro Suzuki for the Nats. The centerfielder batted .351, on base at .393, and slugged .435 since his Nationals debut July first. He has been a stolen base machine for the Nats as well, and a non-risky one as he has stolen 22 bases and only been caught seven times.

Ichiro 2009: .359/.389/.468, 24 SB, 1 Run per 1.8 games
Morgan with Nats: .351/.393/.435, 22 SB, 1 Run per 1.4 games

While Morgan helped spark the Nationals, it appears the Nationals helped spark Morgan as well. For Pittsburgh Morgan only batted .277/.351/.356 in 71 games for the Pirates. Clearly, hitting in front of Guzman, Zimmerman, Dunn, and Willingham, is a bonus.

Voices from around town:

“Nobody on the Washington Nationals can run as fast as Nyjer Morgan, steal as many bases, cover as much ground in the outfield, drop down as many bunt hits, or cause as many headaches for opposing pitchers. But somehow, the Nationals now must replace their leadoff man and center fielder.” – Chico Harlan, Nationals Journal

“Nyjer Morgan’s season ends four months after Nationals season ended” -Nationals Enquirer

“When Nyjer Morgan was at the ESPN Zone last week, he was asked at least twice about his penchant for the head first slide. Emcee Charlie Slowes asked him if he wouldn't please consider the feet first variety.

"Nah, not happening," Tony Plush said. "Headfirst, I just feel like you get dirty a lot quicker," he joked.” Dan Steinberg, D.C Sports Bog

The Nationals suffered a big blow to their already painful season, as Nyjer Morgan will be out for the remainder of the year with a broken hand.

The centerfielder suffered the injury Thursday afternoon while sliding headfirst into third base in the first inning. Morgan had reached base after drawing a walk from Cubs starting pitcher Randy Wells. He stole second and third base before scoring on a Cristian Guzman double.

Riding Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn home runs, the Nats hung on to win a 5-4 game, giving them the series win.

However the story of the game clearly belongs to Morgan and his injury. Morgan has been the sparkplug that has ignited the Nationals turnaround this season. At the plate he has been the catalyst for the Nationals at the top of the line up, batting .351/.393/.435 since his arrival while snagging 24 bases. In the field he has successfully anchored an outfield that had been lost before his arrival.

Morgan’s downfall came however when he broke his hand, which occurred when he broke a cardinal baseball fundamental.

YOU NEVER MAKE THE FIRST OR THE LAST OUT AT THIRD BASE.

This is something all baseball players learn in high school. When you are on second base, you are in scoring position. This means that any base hit should be able to drive in a runner on second, assuming the runner has average speed. Of course Morgan doesn’t have average speed, he has Nyjer Morgan supermaxwheels.

 There is no benefit for him to be on third base, especially with no outs. Percentages say that Guzman will get a hit at least 30 percent of the time, which will score him from second. If Guzman doesn’t get a hit odds are good that he will either hit a groundball to the right side or a fly ball that is deep enough to safely move Morgan to third with one out.

On the other side of the spectrum, imagine Morgan had been thrown out at third. It would have been an immediate inning killer to take a runner out of scoring position and instead add an out.

So Morgan’s injury was a result of a play that never should have happened in the first place. I always thought that I was being hyperbolic when I said the Nationals lack of fundamentals was dangerous, but alas, here we are. 

Livan Hernandez returned last night and earned a no decision in a Nationals 9-4 loss against the Cubs.

Just like vintage Livan, the old Cuban pitched six strong innings of junk, allowing only five hits, and two earned runs, while striking out six. While the sight of our former ace back in a Washington uniform was a sight for sore eyes, seeing him leave the mound was a sight to be dreaded.

Hernandez left the game at the end of the sixth inning with the game tied at two runs apiece, it didn’t stay that way for very long. Jason Bergmann took the mound and in one inning of work allowed two hits, and let the third run for the Cubs cross the plate as Milton Bradley reached on a unsuccessful fielders choice.

With the game still in reach, the Nationals entered the top of the eighth down one with a chance to tie it up. Despite a Ryan Zimmerman double with two outs, the Nats could not convert with the heart of their order at the plate.

The bottom of the eight was where the wheels fell off for the Nationals. The Cubs exploded for six Jorge Sosa runs and the game became out of reach. Cubs won 9-4.

In other news:

Rob Dibble goes on a Twitter Blocking Tirade! Apparently MASN color commentator Rob Dibble blocked two prominent Nationals bloggers, Miss Chatter and Nats Enquirer on twitter, and according to them, neither had said anything deserving it. Miss Chatter said:

"For someone representing the ballclub who is supposed to help fans understand the game and remain faithful to the club, this is surprising to me and something I would consider a clueless act when it comes to social media. You don’t publicly pick fights with fans of the club you represent for one (which he has done, but then deleted later)."

Aaron Gleeman from Circling The Bases looks at a poll done on Sports Illustrated which asked 380 major leaguers to name the player who got the least amount out of the most talent. Of the top five are four Nationals:

1. Wily Mo Pena
   
2. Daniel Cabrera
   
3.  Elijah Dukes
   
4. J.D Drew
   
5. Mike MacDougal
   

Bill Ladson of MLB.com reports that the Nationals will be in the market for a long-term veteran pitcher:

Riggleman acknowledged that the Nationals had interest in veterans such as right-handers John Smoltz and Vicente Padilla when they became free agents recently, but those two pitchers wanted to play on winning teams. Padilla signed with the Dodgers, while Smoltz signed with the Cardinals.

Some people will be really against this idea. Many think it is a waste to give innings away to pitchers who’s careers are dwindling when you could be giving them to a young pitcher who can learn from them. The Nationals do have a lot of those laying around….

It makes sense on the part of the front office however. Pitchers like Smoltz, Glavine, or Padilla would have provided some relief and leadership from the chaos that was the 2009 Nationals starting rotation. They could also make the argument that these pitchers would be a good influence on the young ones, but most importantly it would probably give them 5-10 more wins a season….whether or not those wins matter is up in the air.

Alex Rodriguez’s contract signed in 2007 locked him up for 10 years at $275 million. The contract also included a $30 million marketing agreement based on home run milestones:

$6 million for reaching each milestone of 660, 714, 755, and breaking and tying the major league home run record.

Alex Rodriguez is currently suffering arguably his worst year as a pro and many are wondering about a possible decline for the slugger. In 2007 Rodriguez hit 54 homers and drove in 156 runs while batting .314. Those numbers dropped to .302/35/103 last season, and are down to .267/22/68 this year.

While his off year is may have been expected following his surgery and the drama from the offseason, its questionable whether or not he’ll reach those $6 million milestones. Back in 2007, when he signed the contract, Bill James listed the probability of him reaching these milestones:

600 Home Runs = 90%
700 Home Runs = 50%
756 Home Runs = 31%

Rodriguez currently has 575 dingers on his career. 

Following the Nationals 15-6 win over the Cubs last night, Milton Bradley, who rejected the Nationals for the Cubs this offseason, was quoted by ESPN Chicago as saying:

“We got a Rodney King beatdown tonight.”

A lot of crazy things have come out of Milton Bradley’s lips through the years, such as:

“…It’s not funny to Milton Bradley.”-Milton Bradley

“I want people to say Milton Bradley was a pretty good ballplayer and a pretty good person. Anybody who is going to stand between me and getting there, then they need to be eliminated.”-Milton Bradley

This one may take the cake as the craziest of all time, and that says a lot for Bradley.

I think Duk’ from Big League Stew put it best when he said:

"Raise your hand if you ever thought the '09 Nats would ever be compared to the '90s LAPD! I'd say that Bradley's comment was insensitive — King suffered a broken face, a broken leg and countless bruises during that incident — but in an age where a portion of this country sees no problem in comparing the President's healthcare campaign to the Nazis' extermination of millions of human beings, I have no idea where that line is anymore."

It has been a week of crashing parties, as the Nats couldn’t resist but ruin Carlos Zambrano’s comeback by busting out offensively in a 15-6 victory Tuesday night.

This very well may have been the best night at the plate for the Washington Nationals this season, as the club combined for 15 runs on 14 hits. Most notably it was a great night for two hitters who had recently been struggling, Josh Willingham who went 4-4, and Elijah Dukes who hit a grand slam.

Nats batters last night:

-Willie Harris 0/4, 1 R
-Cristian Guzman 1/5, 1 R
-Ryan Zimmerman 2/3, 3 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HR
-Adam Dun 1/4, 2 R, 1 HH
-Josh Willingham 4/4, 5 R, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 2 HR
-Ronnie Belliard 3/5, 2 R,
-Elijah Dukes 2/3, 1 R, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HR
-Wil Nieves 1/4, 3 RBI

Nats fan Kyle wanted us to show Zimmerman’s support for another local team:

As we reported here last night, Livan Hernandez is back with the Nationals for the rest of the season. To make room for him on the roster the Nats sent down Ballester, who had been struggling. While Livan is hardly a big name pitcher, and really probably isn’t any better than the pitcher’s we’ve been throwing out there this season, people are excited because of what he used to be, and what he meant for this franchise.

Dan Steinberg of DC Sports Bog went back to the archives to look back at some of the old righties best memories:

"Last night's Livan Hernandez re-signing immediately made me scroll through some stories from April of 2005. Not that long ago, really--the stories are still on the Web, which really ruins the image of a dusty trip to the archives--but golly, does the tone conjure up a different era. Everything was soft and gushy and optimistic, bathed in that sweet RFK sunshine and the mild aroma of glorious stadium decay."

More info on the Hernandez signing is available here at Nationals Journal.

In other news, Mike Rizzo talks to Bill Ladson about Adam Dunn’s improving defense at first base.

"He has improved a lot over at first base," Rizzo said. "He is still a work in progress. Although he is working out in batting practice, it's hard to take live balls off the bat."

Bill Ladson reports tonight that former Nationals ace Livan Hernandez has resigned with the team after a two and a half year departure. Hernandez was rewarded an unconditional release by the Mets six days ago.

Hernandes’s career is basically over at this point, as the righthander went 7-8 with a 5.47 ERA for New York this season.

In honor of his resigning, here is an ode to Livan that Poppa Yoder often used to sing when he was on the mound:

Livan wears his curly W like a crown
His catcher’s name is Jesus
But it aint pronounced the same
And he throws him the slowest junk in town

Livan pitches cuz Livan likes his money
He made a lot they say
Spent his days eating
 Until his belly got in the way,