NATIONALS 6 PIRATES 0

Day’s Start Provides Relief – The Post
The Nats got just what they needed last night — strong pitching and timely hitting. The second start of the Zach Day reclamation project went better than could be expected, with him shutting out Pittsburgh through seven innings of work. He got stronger as the game went on too, a very encouraging sign. This was probably Day’s finest performance as a Nat, with only one exception coming to mind. This was why I was ticked off at Jim Bowden when he traded Day for Preston “nothin’ from nothin’” Wilson last year, I knew Day was capable of this kind of pitching, hopefully he can build on this outing to become a solid pitcher again.

The hitting was atypical last night with the Nats getting their first 4 runs off of a mere 3. 1B Nick Johnson had 2-run homers in the 1st and 8th.

The Nats stink on ice six days out of the week, but on Friday nights they seem to have their act together, winning the last three Friday night games and little else. Sure, this one was against the lowly Pirates, but it evens out since the guys in the red caps are the lowly Nationals.

More from The Wash. Times: For once, everything goes right for Nats

Boxscore – ESPN

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– The Post
Now let us toast to the tragedy of dreams come true, SS Cristian Guzman will not see the field at all this year. He has a SLAP tear in his shoulder that will require surgery. Apparently, torn labrums are more contagious than bird flu in the Nats clubhouse.

More from The Wash. Times: Guzman to miss entire season

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What else did we learn last night?

Bo Derek is apparently a Nationals fan — the camera found her or someone who looks strikingly like her sitting in the lover level with a blue Nats cap on.

That MASN backdrop you see when the camera is on Bob Carpenter and Tom Paciorek is apparently nothing more than a picnic blanket. When the cut to the booth late in the game to show the hats that are being given out tonight there were to guys holding the blanket up.

MASN’s Web site is useless, so much so that I will not even create a link for it. I wanted to get the proper spelling of Paciorek and all I could find there were pleas for me to help them do Peter Angelo$‘ evil bidding instead of useful information.