Washington 9 NEW YORK 6 (CBS Sports Boxscore)

Nationals Have Mets In a Slumped Position – The Post

Mike Bacsik, Jr. (have noticed the “Jr.” showed up after he gave up Barry Bonds 756th homer?) had a rough night for the Nationals. He gave up three home runs, including two to Carlos Beltran, in a mere 2 1/3 innings. He was replaced by Joel Hanrahan who lost his rotation spot to Bacsik. Hanrahan gave up a run over 1 2/3, but earned the win. Chris Schroder, Jonathan Albaladejo, Saul Rivera, Jon Rauch, Luis Ayala went the rest of the way and held the Mets scoreless.

At the plate, the Nats got on board with a 2-run Ryan Church homer, his 15th, in the fourth inning. In the fifth, the Nats really got going, scoring five runs. Ronnie Belliard, Ryan Zimmerman and Austin Kearns knocked in a run, while Wily Mo Peña knocked in two. Church doubled two more runs in to finish off the scoring. As noted in the Post gamer, he has actually put together a decent season “hitting .275 with 43 doubles, 15 homers and 70 RBI, all in 466 at-bats,” comparable with Kearns who has 109 more at-bats. That could be very attractive to other clubs out there, so I’d like to see him traded to a team that won’t jerk him around.

Last night’s victory was the 72nd of the season, better than last year’s total.

Hittin coach Lenny Harris had a learning curve (The Post) when he was thrust into the role of hitting coach. Among the things he had to learn is studying videos is more important than playing cards with the players.

Nobody has ever accused Chad Cordero of being a “lights out” closer, but when September rolls around (The Wash. Times), he tends to be “lights on.”

Here is a somewhat misleading headline:

Struggles Cloud Stadium Progress – The Post
The stadium is fine, everything is on schedule — the parking situation however is not. Over 6,500 parking spots need to be identified between now and the end of March. The Navy Yard Metro expansion is also 7 weeks behind.

“These are top priorities of the administration,” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said yesterday. “We’re looking to finish the Metro on time and steer as many people to public transportation as possible. Having parking around the stadium is a critical, critical issue, and we’re working beyond diligently to find as many areas as we can for cars to park.”

Let’s hope they get it figured out and soon. Follow the saga at jdland.com’s ballpark site.

Do you feel like reading some whining this morning? If so, head over the Georgetown Voice column, The Sports Sermon.

Hey Cliff (and RUTS too), the Nats did some heavy lifting for your Fleas this week, but don’t expect the Nats to help out anymore.

I wonder where The Wash. Times gamer is this morning.