The Nats offense reignited on Saturday following a game where Jordan Zimmermann pitched so well that the offense never even had to light up to earn the win. The Nats ran Reds starter Mike Leake from the game early en route to a 6-3 victory, a series win, and an opportunity for a four-game sweep in Sunday’s day game.

Dan Haren helped his own cause early on the offensive side of things. The Nats hitters took Leake into a number of deep counts in the first two innings. Both Ian Desmond and Anthony Rendon walked in the second before Haren drove Desmond home with two outs on a flip of the bat that dropped over first baseman Joey Votto in right field giving the Nats an early 1-0 lead. Denard Span then hit a grounder right back through the middle, scoring Rendon and expanding the margin to 2-0.

The Nats bats wouldn’t let up in the third inning. Bryce Harper led off with a single on a first pitch curveball, and Jayson Werth moved him to second on an infield single. After an Adam LaRoche popout, Desmond drove in Harper. Then, Kurt Suzuki hit one toward Jack Hannahan at third who dove and made a nice stop, but he made a poor throw to second that sent the ball into right field scoring Werth on an error and giving the Nats a 4-0 lead and contributing to the end of Mike Leake’s start, who didn’t come back out in the fourth.

That didn’t matter to the Nats offense. Reds reliever Alfredo Simon didn’t start much better than Leake left things as Span singled to start things off, and Espinosa reached on a fielder’s choice avoiding a double play. Harper brought himself and Espinosa home with his ninth home run of the season, which crashed into the back of the Nats bullpen. The homer gave them a 6-1 lead. Later, in the sixth, Harper walked in his fourth plate appearance, helping him end today’s game with a remarkable 1.236 OPS.

The Reds started to get to get to Haren in the sixth with a leadoff home run by Shin-Soo Choo above the out of town scoreboard in right, and Zack Cozart singled. On a blast by Joey Votto to the Reds bullpen wall, Denard Span traveled at least 70-75 feet to make a leaping grab to rob Votto of at least a double. Haren got Phillips to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and Haren’s best start of the season.

The Nats bullpen certainly didn’t make it an easy final three innings. Zach Duke had some bad luck to start as he came on in relief of Haren. Jay Bruce tapped a slow grounder to Espinosa, who threw it over Adam LaRoche’s head and into the Nats dugout for his first error of the season. Duke further complicated things by walking Xavier Paul. He retired back-to-back hitters before being replaced by Tyler Clippard to face pinch hitter Todd Frazier.

Clippard didn’t make the inning easy on himself. He gave up a hit to Frazier through the left side of the infield, scoring Bruce, and making the score 6-3. He then walked Choo. Cozart then lined a ball to center, which was fading away from Span. That didn’t matter as he closed in on the ball with his impeccable acceleration to record the final out of a tense inning. Davey said he thought this catch was the more impressive of Span’s two great catches today saying, “I didn’t think he had a chance to catch that ball. He outran it.”

Drew Storen came in to pitch in the eighth, and he didn’t have the smoothest outing, either. After getting Votto to ground out to Desmond, drawing an expletive and thrown equipment from the Reds first baseman, Storen allowed back-to-back hits to Phillips and Bruce. On a hot shot, one-hopper to Ian Desmond, he, Espinosa, and LaRoche turned a flawless double play. Desmond had Phillips running in front of the play to make it more difficult, but it remarkably had no effect. The Nats averted another rough inning behind great defense.

Rafael Soriano decided he was going to lock down his seventh save of the season with some quick work in the ninth. He struck out Cesar Izturis, got Devin Mesoraco to line out hard to Desmond, and got Frazier to strike out to lock in the win for the Nats.

The Nats are 13-11 on the season now, and they’ll go for the four-game sweep on Sunday at 1:35 pm with LHP Ross Detwiler (1-1, 1.38 ERA) matching up against LHP Tony Cingrani (1-0, 2.25 ERA). It’s amazing how big a difference just a few days make. It took just three days for the panic to subside among the Nationals faithful.

Jordan Zimmermann was a superstar on Friday night. Throwing the second complete game of his season and his first career shutout, he propelled the Washington Nationals to a 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Nationals’ pitching has been superb in the last two days, allowing only two hits in 18 innings, 17 of which were thrown by Zimmermann and Gio Gonzalez. The back-to-back one hitters from Gonzalez and Zimmermann were the first time the Reds have been held to one hit or less in consecutive games since 1900.

Zimmermann cruised through his nine innings, throwing 91 pitches and facing the minimum six times. He gave up just one hit – to Xavier Paul in the third inning – and one walk, with four strikeouts.

Manager Davey Johnson said Zimmermann’s outing was the best he had seen since becoming the Nationals’ manager in 2011, according to MLB.com.

Zimmermann’s impressive performance comes as little surprise, as he has been one of the Nationals’ most successful pitchers from the beginning of the season. His 0.86 WHIP and 2.67 ERA are best and second best among Nats pitchers, and four of five of his pitching appearances have been quality starts.

The strength of the Nationals’ pitching in the last two games showed a glimpse of how they were able to maintain success last year when their offense started out similarly slow. Though Nats hitters only managed to score one run off Homer Bailey – who pitched a similarly strong game, giving up five hits with six strikeouts in seven innings – Zimmermann made sure that was just enough to take the game and at least split the series.

Overall, the offense had six hits, seven strikeouts and left a man on base nine times. The one time they were able to bring him home came in the bottom of the fourth inning after Bryce Harper’s first triple of the year, which Jayson Werth followed with an RBI single.

Adam LaRoche continued to struggle at the plate, going 0-for-3 with a walk on Friday. He hasn’t had a hit in his last 13 at-bats with seven strikeouts. Though his bat showed some life in the series against the Chicago White Sox, LaRoche has always been a slow starter in April. He is batting .217 in the first month of the season through his career. Luckily, there are only a few more days left in April, and LaRoche’s career batting average ticks up to .246 in May.

The Nationals will go for the win of the four-game series on Saturday at 1:05, when Dan Haren looks for a shot at redemption against the Reds.

The Nationals had lost four straight games entering this Reds series, and the offense had been deplorable. The entire 25-man roster decided today was going to be the end of that, as they put a hurting on the Reds in all aspects of their play in the 8-1 victory.

Gio Gonzalez got things started on the right note, and he never let up for the rest of his outing. He was perfect through the first 11 batters of the game before giving up a home run to Joey Votto. It was an opposite field shot that barely made it over the wall.

From the first pitch, Gio was locked in with his fastball between 92-95 mph. He continued to attack hitters deep into his outing, throwing a lot of fastballs and working in breaking stuff. He didn’t have the best command of his curveball, but he was able to use it to change speeds and the hitter’s perspective to use his fastball effectively.

He finished the game with eight masterful innings under his belt in what was his best start of the season by far. He gave up just one hit on the Votto home run in the fourth, walked two batters, and struck out seven. It was the exact kind of start the Nats needed from their starter to break a rough stretch of games.

The Nats offense helped allow Gio to do that though, giving him a bit of a cushion early. In the second inning, Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa got back to back to get things started, and Espinosa drove Desmond in for the first run of the game. Denard Span later knocked in Espinosa to give the Nats a 2-0 lead early.

The offense really broke free the very next inning. Bryce Harper led off the third with a massive home run, his eighth of the year, to the grass in deep center field, giving the Nats a 3-0 lead, but they were nowhere near done in that inning. Jayson Werth singled, and on an Adam LaRoche tailor made double play ball, Werth got in the way of Joey Votto’s throw but was in the base line, so both he and LaRoche were safe on third and first, respectively. Desmond drove in Werth on a groundout, and then Espinosa showed up again, hitting a two-run blast into the Nats bullpen and giving them a 6-0 lead. 

In the sixth, Gio walked his first batter of the game, Devin Mesoraco, which is a great improvement for him from his previous starts. Bronson Arroyo popped up a bunt and was unable to move the runner over. Steve Lombardozzi made a couple nice picks at third to get two of the three outs in the inning, and Gio got around the leadoff walk without trouble.

The Nats weren’t quite done pouring on the runs, though. In the eighth, Desmond got picked off of first base, even though he clearly got back safely, but then Kurt Suzuki walked, and Roger Bernadina, pinch hitting for Gio Gonzalez, recorded his first his of the season. Span then drove them both in with a triple to the centerfield wall over Shin-Soo Choo’s head, giving the Nats an 8-1 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

This game was exactly what the doctor ordered after a terrible few games for the offense. With the eight run showing, they scored more runs than they have in the last four games combined, and it tied for second their best offensive production of the season. It also tied for the best run differential (+7) of any game this season. They have three more games to play against this very good Reds team at home, and they’ve moved back to .500 on the season at 11-11.

After being swept in the previous series to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Washington Nationals (10-11) will continue their home stand by facing another tough NL Central opponent, the Cincinnati Reds (13-9).

Being swept by the Cardinals dropped the Nationals’ record below .500 for the first time since 2011, when they finished the season 80-81. In order to bring their record up, the Nats will look to reverse their fortunes against the Reds in this series, after losing the last match-up 1-2 in Cincinnati.

Both Nationals’ hitting and pitching fell flat in the last series, as they were outscored 27-10, highlighted by a 15-0 blowout in which the Nats pitching staff gave up six home runs. But the Nats will try to capitalize on home-field advantage during this series in a less homer-friendly park. They are 6-6 at Nationals Park, while the Reds are just 1-5 on the road.

Offensive Woes

It’s no secret that the Nationals' offense has been struggling lately. In the last six games, they have combined to hit just .188 and have scored only 12 runs.

Manager Davey Johnson is assured that his Nats are putting in the effort; they just still have not found their rhythm.

"All of them are so motivated and driven to be so good, it's kind of hard for me to berate them or get on them because I know they're grinding," Johnson said, according to MLB.com. "They come to play. We've just to ride out the rough times. Last year we started … really slow offensively…but the pitching was our mainstay early on, kept us in ballgames. It's showing little signs of life coming around, so now we just need to wait on the offense. It's tough waiting."

With the pitching also struggling, it has been harder for the Nationals to win games this year than it was last year. Despite scoring only 74 runs and hitting .266/.304/.328 in April 2012, the pitching staff struck out 195 batters and posted a 2.33 ERA, the best in the majors, to give them a 14-8 record that month. This season, the offense has scored 76 runs and is batting .253/.299/.402, and the pitching staff has a 3.99 ERA, 10^th in the majors.

Johnson is going to try to mix up the lineup to see if that helps get some offense going, while he waits for the pitching to start performing to its potential also.

Reds Pitching

The Nats’ offense is going to have to try to start succeeding again against a very successful Reds pitching staff. The Reds’ starters have had quality starts in nine of their last ten outings, and haven’t allowed more than two runs per game in the same period. This recent string of success has given them the fourth-lowest ERA (2.99) for starting pitchers in the majors.

"I'm impressed by it," Reds manager Dusty Baker said, according to MLB.com. "It means they're throwing a lot of pitches, though. I'm not impressed that we've had an equal amount of strikeouts on our side. That's unimpressive."

The Nationals pitchers, who have struck out 153 batters, ninth in the National League, will have to try to best the Reds pitchers, who have struck out an NL-best 201 hitters, though their offense has struck out an NL-worst 187 times.

Checking In With Rendon

Third baseman Anthony Rendon, who was brought up to replace Ryan Zimmerman when he went on the DL, has failed to provide an offensive spark. He hit .375 with four home runs in Spring Training, and finished the spring with a higher on base plus slugging percentage (1.287) than Bryce Harper, though he had 12 fewer at-bats. However, he has not has the same level of success in the bigs, with only two hits and five strikeouts in 15 at-bats through his first four major league games.

In The Zone

Ross Detwiler (SP). Each of his four appearances this year has been a quality start, and he continues to have the lowest ERA of any pitcher on the Nationals pitching staff.

Who’s Hot?

Shin-Soo Choo (CF) .524 AVG, .688 OBP, .762 SLG, 8 BB, 1 3B (last six games)

Joey Votto (1B) .300 AVG, .389 OBP, .500 SLG, 2 HR, 5 RBI (last seven games)

Who’s Not?

Brandon Phillips (2B) .214 AVG, .324 OBP, .250 SLG, 0 HR, 6 SO, (last seven games)

Zack Cozart (SS) .222 AVG, .276 OBP, .370 SLG, 1 HR, 3 SO (last six games)

Probable Starters

4/25, Gio Gonzalez (1-1, 5.85 ERA, .240 BAA, 20 SO) vs. Bronson Arroyo (2-1, 3.54 ERA, .231 BAA, 16 SO)

4/26, Jordan Zimmermann (3-1, 2.67 ERA, .230 BAA, 15 SO) vs. Homer Bailey (1-1, 3.24 ERA, .220 BAA, 26 SO)

4/27, Dan Haren (1-3, 7.36 ERA, .376 BAA, 15 SO) vs. Mike Leake (1-0, 3.81 ERA, .276 BAA, 18 SO)

4/28, Ross Detwiler (1-1, 1.38 ERA, .258 BAA, 13 SO) vs. Tony Cingrani (1-0, 2.25 ERA, .233 BAA, 17 SO)

With their disappointing loss yesterday, the Washington Nationals are now 10-11, under .500 for the first time since 2011. While it is April, and it is of course, very very early, it is still a blow to the excitement that the start of this season held.

Being a Nationals fan at one time meant having guarded enthusiasm, wanting to be proud of a team that loses 100 games is never easy to do. Then, in the last two years, it had meant having guarded confidence, we were a franchise moving in the right direction, but it was still hard to believe that it would actually come to fruition. Then, this year, the local and National media told us it was ok to wear our Curly W with pride, to boast to everyone that Washington was the favorite to win the World Series in 2013. It was a freeing feeling, not having to justify your fandom to anyone else, to have others envy your team’s prospect of playing into deep October. Being a Nats fan meant being excited.

While not much has really changed since Opening Day for the Washington Nationals or their fan base, the one thing that is gone, at least for now, is that feeling of confidence that was soaring high in mid-March. The 10-11 record isn’t as daunting as the truth that the team just isn’t playing well, and that the functions of the team that we thought were its strongest pieces, are actually the parts that are falling apart. That’s just a scary truth that is hard to combat.

Yesterday afternoon’s 4-2 loss was a perfect microcosm of everything that has Washington fans scared this April. The club had their ace, possibly the best pitcher in baseball on the mound in an effort to put a stop to a losing streak that threatened to drop them below .500. Stephen Strasburg, the head of what was thought to be an invincible rotation, gave up three earned runs, all in the first inning, putting the Nats in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.  For the 24-year-old, it was the fourth straight game he’d given up 2 or more runs, and the third game out of five total that he’d allowed three or more. He now has four straight losses.

It’s becoming more and more evident that as Strasburg goes, it seems so does the Nationals.

But what’s most interesting is that even though Strasburg has lost four straight games, he hasn’t pitched horrendously. He still has a 3.16 ERA, and has 28 strikeouts to only 8 walks. The problem for him has been, as it has for the entire Nationals team, is that he is clumping together spurts of bad luck, bad defense, and bad performance, into short but horribly timed failures that are costing the team games. And that’s just been the story for the entire Washington team this year.

You can look at the numbers and say that the bullpen has been bad, the defense has been awful, and the offense has been streaky, but what it really just feels like is that everyone on this squad, perhaps even the fans, are still in a terrible hangover from October 13, 2012.

Someone get me a cup of coffee.

It was an ugly one offensively once again for the Nationals as they were shut out by the Cardinals at home. Davey was frustrated following the loss, indicating it was time to “get a little mad” and that there would be some changes in the lineup for Wednesday’s afternoon game. Hopefully, it’s enough to give the Nats a boost. Until then, the Nats have to sit on a 2-0 loss as they fall to 10-10 on the season.

Ross Detwiler continued his early success by facing the minimum in the first, second, and third innings, despite allowing a base runner in each inning, by getting a Cardinals hitter ground into a double play to end each inning. He got out of the first on a broken bat roller by Matt Holliday and a 6-4-3 double play, the second on a nifty 4-6-3 double play started by a Danny Espinosa backhanded glove flip to Ian Desmond, and the third with an unconventional 2-6-4 double play on a failed Adam Wainwright sacrifice bunt attempt.

The fourth inning was a bit less smooth for Detwiler. He allowed hits to the first four hitters he faced, allowing the Cards to tack on two runs. Unlike the hits in the first three innings, none of these were cheap. Each batter made solid contact. He was able to get out of the jam by retiring Yadier Molina, David Freese, and Matt Carpenter to end the inning without any further damage, though.

As if one crazy double play wasn’t enough, in the fifth inning, Pete Kozma, once again, singled. Wainwright tried to sacrifice him over, and Rendon threw it to first for the easy out. Kozma, however, attempted to catch the Nats sleeping, going first to third on a sac bunt. LaRoche threw a bullet to Detwiler, who was covering third, to record the unusual sacrifice 5-4-1 double play. Got all that? Good.

Detwiler finished his day with a with a nice line: six innings, two runs, eight hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. Four Cardinals grounded into double plays on his watch. While you’d rather not see eight hits and two walks in six innings, he was able to manage and minimize the damage. It was up to the Nats offense to try to help him avoid an undeserved loss.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Nats had their first offensive opportunity of the game. Kurt Suzuki led off the inning with a single and, following a Roger Bernadina strikeout, went first-to-third on a Denard Span single. Jayson Werth sent a pop up to second on the first pitch of hit at bat, but Bryce Harper, the Nats only baserunner before this inning, drew a walk in a very patient at bat to load the bases for Adam LaRoche. LaRoche quickly fell behind 0-2, but he got the count back in his favor before striking out for the third time in the game to end the rally.

Henry Rodriguez came in to relieve Detwiler, and he pitched exceptionally well. He allowed just one base hit in two innings of work. He struck out two batters in his second inning, and though he committed a balk to advance Shane Robinson to second, it caused no real damage. He’s been pitching much better lately. He’s only given up a run in one of his last six games, and he now has a very reasonable 3.24 ERA.

The Nats tried to threaten again in the eighth. Steve Lombardozzi, who is now hitting .357 on the season and is doing his best to find his way into the lineup more often, dropped another broken bat single over the first baseman. A nice slide by Lombo and Span’s speed broke up a double play, and Span advanced to second on a wild pitch. Werth wasn’t able to get the job done, though, grounding to short to end the inning.

Harper wasn’t ready for this game to end without pulling out all the stops in the ninth. He singled down the right field line to lead off the inning on what, for any other player, would probably be a single. He stretched it into a double, though it was a very close play at second. It probably wasn’t the best decision given the circumstances, but he made it work.

Adam LaRoche stood as a statue as he struck out looking, his fourth strikeout of the game, and Ian Desmond popped out to second. Chad Tracy took the first pitch and flew out to right to end the game, ending the final attempt at a rally for the game.

It’s hard to draw positives from a game where a team got shut out and mustered just four hits, but there are two things to take from it. The pitching was absolutely great, and the defense showed no signs of wavering. They turned four double plays successfully, including a couple of non-traditional ones, and LaRoche made two great plays at first, one in foul territory and one pick on a grounder to end the eighth.

Offensively, though, the Nats are just pressing. The hard hit balls, and there are a few, are going right at opposing fielders, and good, patient hitters have stopped taking pitches and are rolling over terrible pitches. The Nats hitters will work their way out of it, but it is not fun to watch in the mean time.

I've seen lots of reaction from people about the Nationals disappointing start this April. With all of the expectations surrounding the Nats entering the 2013 season, people have taken to extreme levels of concern over this season's struggles relative to the feeling of last season's success. The Nationals, as far as record, got off to an extremely hot start in 2012. They were 12-4 by this point last year while they're 10-9 so far this season. However, there are a host of reasons why, despite your inclination to panic, you should step way, way off the ledge.

- Run Support: Last season, Nats scored 74 runs in all of April. So far this year, they've scored exactly 74 runs, and there are still eight games left this month. The Nats are going far eclipse their runs scored last April, and some are still concerned about last of run support. Imagine how concerned they'd be last season, a season when the Nats ultimately won 98 games, if the pitching wasn't quite as good in April.

- Strength of Schedule: Last April, the Nats started the seasons with the Cubs, Mets, Reds, Astros, Marlins, and Padres. Every team except for the Reds finished below .500 out of that crop last season. This April, the Nats started with the Marlins, Mets, Reds, White Sox, Braves, and Cardinals. Of those teams, just the Marlins and Mets finished below .500 last season, and the Mets are off to an extremely hot start this year, scoring 25 more runs already than the Nationals have, and they're currently sitting in second place in the NL East.

It makes sense that the Nats have a worse record than they did last season at this point. They're playing better teams. April is arguably the hardest month on the Nats schedule all season, and May is no slouch either. Things get a lot more friendly as the summer wears on, so unlike last year, the Nats may not blow their competition away with a huge lead early in the season.

- Strengths (Temporarily) Became Weaknesses: The reason the Nationals had such a dominant April was certainly affected by their opponents, but pitching was also historically good and the defense was nothing like it has been so far this season. The offense struggled a whole lot last April, much worse than this year, but they were able to get by on that pitching and defense.

This year, the pitching hasn't met expectations early, and the defense has committed the most errors in baseball. Both of these things will work themselves out as the season wears on. It may not be possible for the pitching to be as good as it was in 2012, but players typically, except for a few outliers, simply don't forget how to play defense. Those numbers will even out in a big way.

Only a few players on the 25-man roster, including Bryce Harper, Ross Detwiler, Jordan Zimmermann, have actually met their elevated expectations this season. With most of the guys on the team, including Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren, Ryan Zimmerman, and a bunch of bullpen and other position players, the best is yet to come. Being frustrated after a loss or a string of losses is natural, but claiming the season is over in April with 143 games remaining and a team that has a better than .500 record is not.

Ever since the Cardinals unceremoniously disposed of the Nationals in the 2012 National League Division Series, this series had been circled on many Nats fans’ calendars. There were story lines of redemption not only from the team, but from one player in particular, Drew Storen. Only Storen was able to get that satisfaction, though, as the Nats dropped this one 3-2.

Pete Kozma took over right where left off last October, dropping a ball over the head of Danny Espinosa for a single in the first inning. Matt Carpenter walked after a couple pitchers that looked like strikes were called balls, and Allen Craig laced a ball that sent Denard Span crashing off the centerfield wall, but he was unable to make the catch. It was a two RBI double that gave the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead.

In the third, Kurt Suzuki walked to become the Nats first base runner of the game, and he stole second and got to third on an overthrown ball by the catcher. Despite the Nats catcher trying to generate some momentum with his legs, something you don’t hear often, Dan Haren struck out on the very next pitch, which was followed by Span rolling over a first-pitch fastball to quickly stamp out any thought of a rally.

The Nats offense came to life for the first time in 13 innings of baseball in the fourth inning. Jayson Werth led the inning off with a single, and he scored on a laced double to center field by Ian Desmond. It was Desmond’s 12th extra base hit of the season. Anthony Rendon, in his home debut, logged his first career MLB hit, a line drive opposite field double, that scored Desmond and tied the game at two.

Haren had a solid first five innings, giving up just two runs, but the wheels fell completely off in the sixth. He hit Matt Holliday to start the inning, followed by back-to-back singles by Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina, who drove in Holliday, making it at 3-2 game. He then walked David Freeze to load the bases.

Craig Stammen entered into an impossibly difficult situation, bases loaded with none out, and miraculously, he didn’t allow a runner to score. He got Jon Jay to ground back to Adam LaRoche for a 3-2-3 double play, and the Nats chose to intentionally walk Kozma to get to the pitcher, who Stammen struck out to get of the inning unscathed. He pitched a great seventh, too, completing yet another outing by the versatile righty reliever.

The Nats looked to have something going in the bottom of the seventh with two outs after a single by Danny Espinosa and a walk by Suzuki. Chad Tracy blooped a ball in to shallow right center on a broken bat, and Cardinals CF Jon Jay went a long, long way to make a very nice grab to end the inning.

Span got something going early in the eighth with a leadoff infield single. Bryce Harper walked following a Werth strikeout, but neither Adam LaRoche nor Desmond were able to get anything going. LaRoche rolled over a first pitch against Trevor Rosenthal, who was having trouble finding the zone, and Desmond took two pitches, the first and last of his at bat, right down the middle of the plate.

The best thing to happen in this game for the Nats is what took place in the top of the ninth inning, though. Drew Storen entered the game to face the Cardinals for the first time since last October’s Game 5 meltdown, and he would face Pete Kozma to lead off the inning. Storen struck Kozma out looking, perhaps ending a very unfortunate chapter in Storen’s young career.

Storen finished a 1-2-3 inning, but the Nats were unable to come back in the ninth as they dropped their second straight game and fell to 10-9 on the season. Both the Nats and Cardinals will have, arguably, their best pitchers so far this season on the mound tomorrow. Ross Detwiler (1-0, 0.90 ERA) will take on Cards ace Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.48 ERA) at 7:05 pm at Nationals Park.