National Record

The Washington Nationals continued their recent slide by falling to Barry Zito and San Francisco Giants on Sunday by a score of 6-3.  The Nationals got off to a decent start, scoring the first three runs of the game but they just couldn’t hang on.  The loss drops the Nationals to 25-39.

Garrett Mock made his big league debut on Sunday for the Nationals.  Mock held the Giants scoreless through the first four innings but the Giants got to him for four runs in the fifth inning.  Mock took the loss after striking out nobody and giving up seven hits over 4.1 innings.

The Nationals took an early 1-0 lead in first inning on a Lastings Milledge solo home run.  Milledge singled in another run in the third to put the Nationals up 2-0.  Milledge, Cristian Guzman, and Wily Mo Pena each had two hits for Washington.  The Nationals helped to kill a few of their own rallies by grounding into a pair of double plays.  They managed only one hit in four innings against the San Francisco bullpen.

The Nationals and Giants will wrap up their series on Monday night.  Tyler Clippard will start for the Nationals as he attempts to pick up his fourth win of the season.  Game time is 7:10pm.

The Nationals were looking to improve to 4-1 last night in St. Louis.  After spotting the Cardinals a 5-1 lead they fell just a bit short.  They rallied for three runs in the 7th to cut the lead down to 5-4 but that’s how it would end.  The Nationals are now 3-2.

Odalis Perez made his second start of the season and just wasn’t as sharp as he was on Opening Night against the Braves.  Perez lasted just four innings and allowed 12 base runners (8 hits and 4 walks) while allowing all five runs and taking the loss.  Perez is now 0-1 on the year.  The bullpen however remained impressive, shutting down the Cardinals.  Chirs Schroder, Joel Hanrahan, and Saul Rivera combined for 4 innings of shut out ball and gave up only one hit.

The offense got off to a sluggish start but got the club back into the ball game with their three run 7th inning.  Cristian Guzman got his first home run of the season to help spark the Nationals in the 7th, it was his only hit of the game.  Ryan Zimmerman, Austin Kearns, and Ronnie Belliard each had 2 hits, but the line up was plagued by leaving men on base.  When it was all said and done they ended innings with 13 men left on base.  They had their chances but just couldn’t push another run across the plate.

The same two teams are going at it on Saturday afternoon with Matt Chico getting the start for the Nationals.  Chico got a no decision in his first start of the season in an 11-6 win over the Phillies last week.

Baseball America took a look at what they think are the Nationals top ten prospects and at the head of the class was 2006 first round draft pick Chris Marrero.  The outfielder/first baseman got off to a nice start at Hagerstown but lost some of his power when he made the jump to Potomac.  Still, the kid has some definite upside and he won’t turn 20 until July 2 of next year.

Number two and three are both pitchers.  Ross Detwiller came in at number two and he was the Nationals first round draft pick this year.  The sixth overall pick was dominating in the Gulf Coast League but then he struggled a bit when he was bumped up to Potomac.  He even threw a scoreless inning for the Nationals.  Number three is right hander Collin Baester, who was the Nationals top prospect last year (at least according to BA).  Baester had a decent but not great season splitting time between Double A and Triple A.  Still, despite his season last year, Baester projects to make the rotation next year.

Rounding out the top five are outfielders Michael Burgess and lefthanded pitcher Jack McGreary.  Both were chosen in the 2007 draft.