After watching a four-run lead slip away in an extra-innings loss to the Atlanta Braves on Friday night, the Washington Nationals were anxious to come back and shut the Braves down on Saturday afternoon. But Tim Hudson, Evan Gattis and an untimely error proved to be too much for the Nationals to rally against in the 3-1 loss.

What we learned today:

Zim isn’t invincible: An error from the Golden Glove winner was a significant factor in the Nationals’ loss, again. Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing error yesterday allowed the Braves’ tying runs to score, and today an E6 again put Atlanta in a position to score. Zimmerman’s throw to first was short, pulling Adam LaRoche off the bag and leaving Justin Upton standing on first base with two outs in the third. Instead of ending the inning, that miscue brought Gattis to the plate, and he capitalized on the Nationals’ misfortune by blasting a home run to left, making the score 2-0. Zim said he wasn’t worried that the errors were products of his previous shoulder injury, which he had surgery on in the offseason. It was just unfortunate that the Braves were able to take advantage of his mistakes.

Ramos pulled his hamstring: In the eighth inning, Wilson Ramos tried to leg out a grounder, and stepped gingerly off the field after being called out. Davey Johnson called Ramos’ injury “the heartbreak of the day,” as he will likely miss several weeks after just fully recovering from the knee injury he sustained last May. Kurt Suzuki will take over as the everyday catcher, and Triple-A catcher Jhonatan Solano is in line to be called up if and when Ramos is put on the disabled list.

You don’t run on Bryce Harper: Dan Uggla made the mistake of testing Harper’s arm today in the second inning. With two outs, Hudson hit a ground ball single to left field, which Harper promptly gunned home to throw out Uggla as he attempted to score. Though Harper went 0-for-3 at the plate, ending his six-game hitting streak, he made his contribution from the field.

Danny is heating up: Danny Espinosa hit his first home run of the year, a solo shot to right, which was also his first hit in two games. After Espinosa hit .333 in Spring Training, Johnson was surprised he’s had a slow start to the regular season, but hopefully his 1-for-3 effort today is a sign that he is finding his rhythm again.

Strasburg is still the ace: Though he threw a lot of pitches and struggled with throwing his breaking balls for strikes in the first few innings, Stephen Strasburg did his part to put the Nationals in a position to win on Saturday afternoon. He lasted six innings, and gave up five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts. Strasburg retired the last seven consecutive batters he faces to finish his outing strong.

Tim Hudson is also an ace: In the Braves eighth straight win, Hudson shut down the Nationals offense, throwing 90 pitches in seven innings. He faced the minimum in five inninigs, gave up just four hits and no walks, and struck out three.

The bullpen was better today, but still not great: Zach Duke and Henry Rodriquez both pitched scoreless innings, while Ryan Mattheus allowed one earned run in the ninth. Duke was sharp, and had a 1-2-3 inning on 12 pitches. Rodriguez showed why Johnson feels he still needs work, walking two batters, striking out one, and eventually escaping the inning with no harm done. Mattheus struggled the most of the bunch, giving up three singles and allowing the Braves to tack on an insurance run with a ground out by Jason Heyward.

Scoring against the Braves must be done before the eighth inning: Eric O’Flaherty needed just six pitches to retire the side in the eighth, and according to the 106.7 radio broadcast, he continues to boast a 0.00 ERA against the Nationals. Craig Kimbrel was fantastic as usual, throwing ten pitches to face the minimum and earn his fifth save of the season.

Tomorrow is a chance for redemption: Gio Gonzalez, whose bobble head day drew a sellout crowd of 41,992 on Saturday, will take the hill tomorrow at 1:35 on Sunday. Though they already lost the series, the Nats will try to avoid being swept for the first time.

A wise movie once said that baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Friday, it seemed like all of the above both happened and failed to happen in the course of a few hours, and it’s maddening. But this is the game we love.

The Washington Nationals blew their third save of the season, giving up six runs in the final four innings to the Atlanta Braves, en route to their first loss of the year at home. The club had entered the top of the seventh with a commanding 4-0 lead behind a stellar start from Ross Detwiler, but a run here, a homer there, a walk or two, and a seriously bad throwing and catching play in the top of the ninth kept the Nats from earning a Curly W.

It is too early to consider the Nats’ bullpen a serious problem. The season is 10 games young, and the team has won 70% of their games. It is fair to say, however, that the bullpen has had a rough week. Since the club’s sweep of the Miami Marlins the Nats bullpen has allowed 27 runs in just 7 games. The fact that the team is 4-3 when their bullpen has been averaging nearly four runs per game  in that span is remarkable.

The Good News:

-       Ross Detwiler allowed just four hits and one earned run in seven innings pitched on the night. The lefty struck out five and walked two, proving that he can keep the pace that made him one of the team’s best assets last fall.

-       The Nationals scored runs early, which is what this team was built to do. Ideally the Nats can score early, ride their great starting pitching to the sixth or seventh, and had it off to the bullpen to put it to bed. The Nats had four runs in the first two innings.

-       Bryce Harper hit yet another home run. This one a laser to the opposite field in the first inning.  He’s now hitting .400.

-       Interestingly, the Nationals were more aggressive on the base paths against the Braves than they had been all season. The team stole four bases on Gerald Laird, who was eventually replaced behind the plate by Evan Gattis.

-       Ian Desmond was 2-4, he now has hits in seven of the Nats 10 games, including the past six in a row. He has had multi hit games in three of the past four games.

-       There’s another game today. 

In the first series of what promises to be a fierce rivalry this season, the Washington Nationals (7-2) are set to face off against NL East competitor the Atlanta Braves (8-1).

After the Braves finished four games behind the Nationals last year and kept pace with them in a close race toward the division championship, Atlanta is likely to be the Nationals biggest competition this year. The Nats have a 73-72 record against the Braves since 2005, and finished 10-8 against them in 2012. However, Atlanta won the teams’ final four matchups. The Nationals don’t want the Braves to become too confident about their most recent successes, which is why they would like to use this series to remind them that Washington still holds the NL East crown.

"The Nationals already sent their message last year," pitcher Dan Haren said, according to MLB.com. "They have to come knock us off. With that said, they got off to a great start. It looks like they are playing really confidently. We are not going to take them for granted by any means."

Like the Nationals, the Braves also swept their first faceoff with the Miami Marlins, and swept the Chicago Cubs before that. Atlanta will ride its six-game winning streak into Washington where the Nationals, who are still undefeated 6-0 at home, have the momentum to end the streak after coming off their own three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox.

Bro Power

After balancing out what was a predominantly left-handed lineup with right-handed acquisitions B.J. and Justin Upton, Nationals manager Davey Johnson feels the Braves are in a better offensive position this year. However, right fielder Jayson Werth thinks the match-up between the two teams is still fairly even.

"We'll see. We have some good pitching. That whole team strikes out a lot and we have strikeout pitchers. So we'll see how we match up, " Werth said, according to MLB.com.

There is no doubt that the Uptons have already proven to be assets in Atlanta, though. Justin Upton leads the National League with six home runs and a 1.365 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging), and both brothers have shown that their value in the field elevates the Braves’ outfield to among the best in baseball.

Though B.J Upton has had a slow start to the season, with only three hits and 12 strikeouts in 29 at-bats, his career slash line of .254/.335/.420 suggests that his slump will not last long.

In the Zone

Ryan Zimmerman (3B) 1-for-2, hit a two-RBI double after White Sox pitcher Dylan Axelrod intentionally walked Bryce Harper (4/11)

- Friday will be Zimmerman’s 1,000^th game

Who’s Hot?

Justin Upton (LF) .353 AVG, .395 OBP, .971 SLG, 6 HR, 9 RBI (nine games)

Evan Gattis (C) .391 AVG, .440 OBP, .826, SLG, 3 HR, 6 RBI (six games)

Who’s Not?

Jason Heyward (RF) .071 AVG, .257 OBP, .179 SLG, 2 RBI, 7 SO (nine games)

BJ Upton (CF) .103 AVG, .212 OBP, .207 SLG, 1 RBI, 12 SO (eight games)

Probable Starters

4/12, Ross Detwiler (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 SO, 6 H, 6 IP) vs. Julio Teheran (0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2 SO, 8 H, 5 IP)

4/13, Stephen Strasburg (1-1, 4.38 ERA, 8 SO, 12 H, 12.1 IP) vs. Tim Hudson (1-0, 3.27 ERA, 10 SO, 9 H, 11 IP)

4/14, Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 0.82 ERA, 12 SO, 6 H, 11 IP) vs. Paul Maholm (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 13 SO, 7 H, 12.2 IP)

The Nationals successfully swept the White Sox with a 7-4 win in the final game of the series, and they remained an undefeated 6-0 at home on the season. It's another key win as the Nationals prepare to host their main rival, the Atlanta Braves, this weekend.

Dan Haren had a chance at redemption on Thursday after having a disastrous Nationals opener in Cincinnati in what ended up being the worst run differential in team history. He struggled quite a bit. His first home start was a different story. He gave up three runs on 10 hits, but not many of those hits were well struck. Haren allowed a base runner in each of his five innings pitched, but he did a nice job limiting the damage. Davey said about Haren's performance, "He's throwing the ball good. He's got good velocity, which is one of the things he was missing last year, but it's command. It's all about command, making your pitches. He was up a lot today."

The Nats offense decided to come alive once again, but this time with no long balls. It was well placed and well timed singles and doubles that got the Nats to score their seven runs. Adam LaRoche drove in Jayson Werth in the first to take an early lead before Haren gave up a run in the second to tie it up. Then, in the third, Span singled and stole his first base of the season, eventually scoring on a Bryce Harper single, and Harper later scored on an Ian Desmond sacrifice fly.

White Sox starter Dylan Axelrod really struggled in the fourth inning after Dan Haren smoked a double to the wall in right center field. Werth moved him to third on a single, and then Haren scored on a wild pitch that White Sox manager Robin Ventura thought hit Harper. It didn't, but then, for some inexplicable reason, Ventura decided to walk Bryce Harper intentionally to get to Ryan Zimmerman. Big mistake. Zimmerman smoked a double to right field, scoring Werth and Harper.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Nats got a rally going with Denard Span and Werth. Harper got another RBI, driving in Span, but Werth was thrown out going to third on the play to end the inning. It may have been an ill-advised decision to go to third, because you never want to make the third out at third, but on replay it looked like Werth was safe, despite the ball getting there way before Werth did.

Defensiely, Span made a few really nice running plays in center field, even as the wind kicked up more and more throughout the evening. He's shown his value at the plate so far early this season, but his defensive strength cannot possibly be understated.

Ryan Mattheus made a two inning appearance in relief of Haren and looked very good. He gave up a run on two hits, but he struck out three. It was a big spot for him, and he kept the Nats exactly where they needed to be. Tyler Clippard threw a perfect eighth inning, and Rafael Soriano looked good again, despite giving up a hit to Paul Konerko, as he earned his fifth save of the season in the ninth.

This weekend brings the big series for the Nationals, as the Braves come to down, but they certainly handled their business with the White Sox this weekend as they improved to 7-2 on the season.

In the Washington Nationals' Wednesday night matchup against the Chicago White Sox, Jordan Zimmermann gave up a run in the first inning but was otherwise extremely sharp. He was able to keep his pitches down in the zone after the first inning, he didn't walk anyone, and he averaged just one hit per inning. As he finished the seventh inning getting Tyler Flowers to pop up to Ian Desmond near the left field line, Zimmermann had just thrown his 90th pitch with great location on a warm day.

Nonetheless, Davey Johnson pulled his starter in favor of Drew Storen for the eighth inning and Rafael Soriano in the ninth. They're the guys he's comfortable with in the late innings, and Storen and Soriano both looked very good closing out the win for the Nationals.

Similarly, on Opening Day, Stephen Strasburg was cruising through seven innings. He was even more efficient than Zimmermann was on Wednesday, throwing just 80 pitches. The temperature was much cooler, and it was the first game of the season, so Johnson pulled Strasburg in favor of Tyler Clippard and Soriano. It was the first game of the season, Johnson said, so he didn't want to overwork his starter that early in the season.

I understood why Johnson pulled Strasburg on Opening Day, until he didn't pull him in the 114 pitch outing against Cincinnati on April 7, just six days after he didn't want to send him back out for the eigth inning with 80 pitches. Strasburg was at 92 pitches through five innings in Cincinnati. In the sixth inning, he came out and threw 22 pitches to record just one out.

These are just a few examples of concerns I have about how the starting pitching has been dealt with early in the season. What's more, I'm also concerned about overuse in the bullpen. Now, let me add my usual "it's early, and things can change" disclaimer here. The Nats are 6-2, and they certainly won't maintain a .750 winning percentage on the season, which means the back end of the bullpen should get a few more days off as the season rolls along.  However, Rafael Soriano has thrown five innings in eight games and Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard have each thrown four innings already.

If you recall, as the 2012 season ended and the postseason began, the Nationals bullpen became less effective. It's reasonable to believe that arm fatigue was a factor, largely because no Nats starter broke 200 innings pitched during the regular season. Starters were removed early in games, sometimes out of necessity, but sometimes because Davey likes certain relievers in certain roles.

Unfortunately, if you're with a team that hopes to win 95-100 games this season, you can't possibly have your seventh, eighth, and ninth inning guys finish every single one of those games. Clippard threw 91 and 88.1 innings in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and I thought his arm might literally fall off. Besides that, neither Soriano, Storen, nor Clippard have thrown more than 75.1 innings in a season in the last three years, and they shouldn't have to. They're all on pace to break that mark early this season.

I don't pretend to know more about baseball than Davey Johnson, who might end up a Hall of Fame manager and is one of the smartest guys in the game. He was using advanced stats before sabermetrics became a widely accepted way to evaluate players, and he's forgotten more about baseball than I will ever know.

Still, I worry that decisions like ones to remove Strasburg on Opening Day and to pull Zimmermann on Wednesday will hurt the team over the course of the season, especially when, in the example of Strasburg's two starts this season, there didn't seem to be much consistency in the decisions, even though I'm sure there was a good reason to Davey. Innings pitched from the bullpen in April take just as much toll on the body as they do in August, just like wins in April matter just as much as wins in August. It's a fine line, and I hope Davey ends up on the right side of it.

It was the warmest day of the year in Washington, DC as the Nationals and White Sox started game two of their three game series. The game started 16 minutes late as the umpires arrived to the ballpark late due to DC traffic, in your fun "Only In DC" moment of the game, but there's a lot to look at from the park. It was just the preface to a 5-2 win as the Nationals improved to 6-2 on the season and a perfect 5-0 at home.

Jordan Zimmermann's performance didn't get off to the most ideal start. He gave up a run in the first inning on back to back hits by Jeff Keppinger and Alex Rios. No further damage was done in the inning, though. He cruised through the second and third, and in the fourth, he gave up two singles. The first was to Alex Rios, but he was picked off by Zimmermann after he got a huge, ill-advised jump. In each of the next two innings, he gave up a hit to the leadoff batter, but it only cost him a run in the sixth inning. It was overall an excellent outing from the great, young pitcher.

The Nats middle infield put together a couple of impressive plays during the game as well. Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa turned a spectacular double play in the fifth inning to negate the leadoff single in that inning, and Espinosa had a couple of nice plays in shallow right field on the extreme shift against former Nationals left fielder and first baseman Adam Dunn.

The Nats offense looked to struggle through the first three innings, mustering just one hit. Bryce Harper, as has been his way this season, brought the offense to life to lead off the fourth. On the first pitch of the inning, he destroyed a baseball way up the second deck in right field for his fourth home run of the season. It appeared to come just a few feet from hitting the facing of the third deck. Desmond scored another run later in the inning after doubling and being driven in by Espinosa to give the Nats the lead.

In the fifth, Jayson Werth singled and went first-to-third on a Harper single. Then, Ryan Zimmerman singled, scoring Werth, and Harper went first-to-third, giving the Nats a 3-1 lead. In the sixth, things got off to a quick start. Desmond tripled, which brought the infield in on the grass. Espinosa hit a hard grounder down the first base line for a double, scoring Desmond. Espinosa later scored on a Denard Span single, giving the Nats a 5-2 lead.

Drew Storen pitched a nice eighth inning in relief of Zimmermann. He gave up a single to Dewayne Wise to start the inning, but it was a soft roller up the middle. He retired the next three batters in order in a pretty clean inning and a welcome sight for Nats fans. Rafael Soriano didn't have a clean inning, like Storen, but he looked just about as good. He pitched with much more accuracy and didn't give up a run for the first time in two outings.

The Nats will look to sweep their second consecutive home series to start the season on Thurday evening with Dylan Axelrod and Dan Haren looking to go for the Sox and Nats, respectively.

Some thoughts:

- I disagreed with Davey Johnson's decision to remove Zimmermann after throwing just 90 free and easy pitches through seven innings, and I think it's just one example of some interesting pitching decisions early in the season. Plan to read more about this topic on the site very soon.

- Nationals PR noted that with Zimmermann's win tonight, he is 7-0 in his last 13 Nationals Park starts with a 2.91 ERA. The last time he earned a loss at Nats Park was on May 17, 2012. Say what you will about pitcher wins, and I've said a lot, but that's impressive.

The Washington Nationals survived yet another poor bullpen performance last night en route to their fifth victory of the season, a 8-7 win over the Chicago White Sox.

It was a sloppy game overall for the Nationals. While they officially only committed one error in the game, multiple mental mistakes both in the field and at the plate cost them throughout, making the team that was picked by some to win a World Series in 2013, look a bit unpolished. There are certain plays that championship contending teams just do not make. For instance, Gio’s only earned run came in the first inning when he stepped off the rubber with the wrong foot with the bases loaded, a balk was called and the runner was allowed to score. There were also other silly defensive miscues.  Such as Ian Desmond attempting to bare hand a ball he likely could have made a play on with his glove. Or at the plate, with Bryce Harper trying to take second base with two outs and Ryan Zimmerman up behind him. 

Of course, it is April 9. A lack of polish can very easily be a result of too much rust. These are not plays that the Nats were making last summer, and we will likely see less and less of them as the season goes along. Right now though, when they have less than spectacular outings like last night, its important that their confidence stays high. When you are this good of a team, the biggest kryptonite is a sense of doubt.

While Gio coasted through five innings, giving up just four hits and one run, the bullpen struggled mightily this game. Craig Stammen gave up three hits and a run in the sixth, allowing the White Sox to tie the game up. Tyler Clippard gave up a three run dinger in the seventh to Paul Konerko, which pretty much erased a rally the team had made at the plate a half an inning before, and Rafael Soriano nearly blew a second save in a row, as he gave up a two run home run to Alex Rios in the ninth.

On the bright side, Drew Storen pitched a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts.

The silver lining in this game is that the Nats bats continue to roll. In total the club tallied eight runs on 13 hits, three walks, and four home runs. Six guys had multi-hit games on the night, with only Ryan Zimmerman and Danny Espinosa going hitless.

A few thoughts:

-       It was good to see Adam LaRoche return from his brief two game stint on the bench  due to a back injury. LaRoche had started the season hitless in his first four games, but swatted two home runs last night.

-       Gio Gonzalez again struggled to command all of his pitches, especially early. The 27-year-old threw over 30 pitches in the first inning, roughly a third of his total pitch count. In total he threw just 57 of 99 pitches for strikes, a big reason he only lasted five innings last night.

-       The home plate umpire tonight was a little inconsistent. Jake Peavy who lives on his two seam fastballs, was catching the outside corner on everything, at least according to the home plate umpire. The Nationals, however, identified this problem and adjusted. Case and point, LaRoche struck out his first two plate appearances, then hit two home runs.

-       The White Sox 1-4 hitters combined for nine hits, seven runs, six RBI, and two home runs. Clearly the team needs to be more careful at the top of the order. 

After a short road trip to Cincinnati, the Washington Nationals return to Nationals Park to play host to the Chicago White Sox in their first interleague series of the season.

This American versus National League match-up comes much earlier than in years past, as a result of the new schedule that spreads interleague games throughout the entire season instead of isolating them to May and June. The Nats will not face another American League team until May 7, when they play the White Sox’s division rivals, the Detroit Tigers, at Nationals Park.

Last year, the White Sox finished three games behind the Tigers to come in second in the AL Central.

The Nats have played only six games against Chicago in their nine-year history, and have won just two of them, none in 2010 and two in 2011.

Dunn Deal

The White Sox’s designated hitter, Adam Dunn, will play in D.C. for the first time since 2011, which was his first year with Chicago after leaving the Nationals for a four-year, $56 million deal.

Dunn posted great numbers during his two years in Washington, hitting .264/.378/.533 with 76 home runs and 208 RBIs through 2009 and 2010. After suffering a terrible season-long slump in 2011 when he hit just .159/.292/.277 with 11 home runs, he bounced back last season to hit 41 home runs and 96 RBI.  Though his slash line remained low (.204/.333/.468), Dunn effectively returned to career-standard form in 2012, showing he is back on track to have a strong season in 2013.

Because Chicago cannot use a designated hitter in the series and Dunn is left handed, he will not start the first game against lefty Gio Gonzalez. However, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said he would probably give Dunn at least one start in left field during the series. Dunn played 84 games in the Nationals outfield in 2009, and he said it would be comfortable and “kind of fun” to play in the outfield there again because he feels like it is his home park.

Back At It

First baseman Adam LaRoche will return to the Nationals’ lineup on Tuesday, after missing the last two games with back tightness. With the off-day Monday, LaRoche had three days to rest his back, and said the time off plus muscle relaxers helped him feel better today.

As always, having the Silver Slugger winner in the game will benefit the Nationals, and especially so against the White Sox, whom he has been successful against in the past. In 27 career plate appearances against White Sox pitchers, LaRoche has a slash line of .286/.444/.762 with six walks, six strikeouts and three home runs.

In The Zone

Kurt Suzuki (C) 3-for-4, 3 RBI, 1 HR (vs. Reds 4/7)

Who’s Hot?

Alex Rios (RF) .364 AVG, .440 OBP, .773 SLG, 3 HR, 1 SB, 22 AB

Alexei Ramirez (SS) .333 AVG, .364 OBP, .571 SLG, 1 HR, 2 SB, 21 AB

Who’s Not?

Jeff Keppinger (3B) .048 AVG, .048 OBP, 2 SO, 1 H, 21 AB

Alejandro De Aza (CF) .167 AVG, .160 OBP, 6 SO, 4 H, 24 AB

Probable Starters

4/9, Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 S, 6 IP) vs. Jake Peavy (1-0, 1.50 ERA, 6 SO, 6 IP)

4/10, Jordan Zimmermann (1-0, 1.50 ERA, 1 SO, 6 IP) vs. Gavin Floyd (0-1, 3.00 ERA, 5 SO, 6 IP)

4/11, Dan Haren (0-1, 13.50 ERA, 5 SO, 4 IP) vs. Dylan Axelrod (0-0, 0 ERA, 3 SO, 5.2 IP)