WASHINGTON 4 Cleveland 1 (ESPN Boxscore)
This post could alternately be titled “Marion Barry crack arrest beats Cuyahoga River fire.”
Yesterday, after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on Saturday night, the Nats came back and took the series from Cleveland with a 4-1 victory. P Jason Simontacchi rebounded from his 10 run performance against Detroit to give up only a run over six innings yesterday. The bullpen held the lead and all was well. Chad Cordero didn’t retire the side in order in the ninth, but he got still got the save. We’ll overlook Ronnie Belliard‘s throwing error in the ninth because it amounted to nothing and 3 for 3. He needs more playing time at second with Felipe Lopez being so awful this year.
Resilient Nationals Top Indians – The Post
Same scenario, different result – The Wash. Times
Cleveland 4 WASHINGTON 3 (ESPN Boxscore)
I missed Saturday night’s game. Actually, after learning about how Nook Logan and Cordero conspired to lose it, I won’t say I actually missed it.
A Ninth Inning to Forget – The Post
Nationals run into defeat – The Wash. Times
There were a lot of roster moves (The Post) this weekend. First, Cristian Guzman sprained his thumb yesterday and is head to the 15 day DL. Out of the bullpen, Jesus Colome has a “soft tissue infection in a right lower extremity.” Okay! Chris Schroder, who was on his way to AAA Columbus was quickly recalled. D’Angelo Jimminez will get the call up to provide another bat in the lineup. My hope for more playing time for Belliard has been granted too — he’ll be at second while Lopez heads to short.
On the pitching, pitching, pitching front, things are not good (The Wash. Times) with injuries to the projected rotation, but surprisingly not horrific with the stopgap solutions like Mike Bacsik. Shawn Hill is going to see Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham for a third opinion. John Patterson has been shut down (The Wash. Times) because his arm still hurts too. The good news is Jason Bergmann is scheduled to start tonight in Atlanta.
The Twins reclaimed Levale Speigner, who was DFA’ed last week, and traded him back to Washington for OF Darnell McDonald who had been at Columbus. Speigner is now on the Columbus roster where he belongs. Nats press release
Thomas Boswell all but says, the Nats are scrappy (The Post)!
My dad will be very interested to learn how they mow the curly W (The Post) into the outfield.