Sportsgroove Seam Head Report: Nat's Fall to Birds - Again

Ron Bailey, Publisher

Despite only three hits, Orioles best Nationals

May 24, 2009 – The Washington Nationals continued their hard luck ways, falling to Baltimore 2-1 before an announced paid attendance of 31,833 last night at National's Stadium, aka Nat's Town. Once again, they proved the difference between prevailing and tasting defeat to be small and ever shifting.

The Orioles (18-25) first scored in the third inning, when right fielder Nick Markakis (.314) banged in catcher Gregg Zaun, himself on base due to being walked, then advanced via balls on base and a ground out. Obviously with one less free pass (two in the inning), he doesn't score via Markakis' single.

In the seventh, first bagger Aubrey Huff (.261) drove in short stop Cesar Izturis via a triple. Inzturis reached base on a fielder's choice.

Washington's National's (12-30), moved the score board a click through shortstop Christian Guzman's fifth inning homer. It was Guzman's second such hit of the season, a campaign to date seeing him hit .360.

Highlighting the tenuous line between victory and defeat was ironically the strong play of starting pitcher Ross Detwiler, a rookie who in six innings allowed just one hit, one earned run, and a quartet of walks and strike outs. For the year, his ERA is 2.45.

Pitching has been the bane of National's manager Manny Acta's existence, though not today. "You can't complain" responded Acta afterward, when asked about the effectiveness of his pitching battery, specifically the relievers, and particularly Ron Villone. "They were able to keep us in the game. You are just not going to win many games when you are able to score just one run".

Does he see a rift between pitchers and position players brewing on his team?

"No, we have good characters in our lineup, and it's not going to affect them how the pitching has gone" responded Acta to the question. "The pitchers have been throwing the ball better, so that's going to pick up their confidence. So we have to just grind it out, stay positive with these guys and tell them things are going to change, and we need to work and things will change".

Today, the Nats finish their interleague excursion with friendly regional rival Baltimore - no real enmity seems to exist between the franchises on-field personnel, or fans - at 1:30pm.

Dubbed the Battle of the Beltway's, today's game sees Washington attempting not to be swept in three games by a team with the second worst record in the American League. When you trail the National League and entire majors in the win-loss column, small victories mean a lot.