Giants at Nats

[Jollay]

Cain versus Strasburg tonight. Should be a fun weekend with the Nats' season ticket holder picnic, cooler temps, and pretty good pitching matchups, especially tonight.

Giants are hot, having just mauled the Brewers for a series in Milwaukee. If the Giants' bats stay hot with their pitching they're a shoo-in for the playoffs.

Could be 20 strikeouts between Cain and Strasburg tonight.

[Jollay]

Unusual lineup tonight with Willingham and Pudge out against Cain, a tough righty. Hope the Nats' lefty hitters can get it done tonight.

[Jollay]

Nats demolish Cain and win game one 8-1. Adam Dunn with two bombs to give him five in the past 50 hours.

Oh, what a treat.

With Strasburg, it seems other teams are well aware of his pitchcount and try to extend at-bats as much as possible. Strasburg still goes six and gets the win....

Nice to have some run support for once for Stephen.

Saturday is talented lefty Jonathan Sanchez (7-6 3.15 ERA) versus Craig Stammen.

[Jollay]

Justin Maxwell will likely join the team today from AAA to start against the lefty Sanchez. If Mike Morse plays, I hope it's Maxwell in center, Morse in right.

Maybe Riggleman will rest Adam Dunn. That would be smart...

Atilano is being sent down but will be back after the break, or so they say. He wasn't going to pitch in the next ten days anyway with the break coming up.

[Jollay]

Nats get rolled 10-5 as Stammen, and then Clippard fail. Clippard came in with a 5-4 lead in the seventh, and the next thing you know it's 8-5 Giants.

Finale today with Madison Bumgarner, another good young Giants pitcher, against Livan. Nats are now 6-6 on this stretch against playoff contenders (Braves, Mets, Pads, Giants).

Good, but not good enough, especially with most of the games at home.

I'll have a recap of the season ticket holder picnic and the series tonight. Off to the Park!

[Jollay]

Nats lose the series and finish the break 39-50. Not so good.

[craig01]

Nats lose the series and finish the break 39-50. Not so good.

Keeping this in perspective from where the Nats were the past couple of years, 39-50 isn't bad at all.

They have a chance with a strong second half of finishing with 75 W's.......it'll likely be less though, and the water mark should be around 70.......unless the rotation is either full of surprises or completely collapses.