saint. but i mean it's tough. >> johnny: sure it's tough. >> rob: we have beaten ourselves so many times on the errors and the pitching. you can't blame the coaches for that stuff. that's stuff that's happening out between the lines. johnny johnny got it going. called third strike. willingham strikes out looking. we go to the top of the eighth. plapap and it's a 3-1 ball game, cincinnati up by two. ♪ ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) ♪ who's watching... (announcer) it's right here. it's easy. ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ it's the money you could be saving with geico.

. >> deb: we're back at national's park, manny acta's nats trailing the reds by a score of 3-1. just about five hours ago the nationals drafted highly touted pitcher stephen strasburg out of san diego state and the question is can he live up to all the hype. and manny acta thinks he has the right make up to deal with it. >> the main thing is what he's going to do after he signs. it's always going to be pressure when you're drafted number 1 overall because people are going to be expecting big things and comparing you with a lot of people taking first overall and all that. if he can stay away from all that and just be himself and if he is as good as advertised right now i don't think he'll have any problems. >> deb: and tonight's steven's college coach at san diego state describes him as a hard working humble kid who gets it

and he wants to play big league baseball. >> and he said the same thing about rob dibble too. he said the guy always has humble. he did. >> rob: i was never humble. >> johnny: scoreless relief in each of his last 18 appearances. look at this number. 16 innings only 8 hits allowed, no earned runs, walked seven and struck out six. >> rob: the one thing i like about ron being here is his approach. he knows he doesn't have a good mid-90s fastball ha he had when heame up through the leagues, he has to locate pitches, be very careful about where he pitches some of these hit terse because every hitter now, when you're an older pitcher, is dangerous. >> johnny: as you got older you justed? you had to. >> rob: absolutely. absolutely. >> johnny: and ramon hernandez popped foul down the first base line, nice catch by nick

johnson there on the tarp. that one goes in the stands it's all down. >> rob: not just velocity. no lab ryan, his fastball was  little straighter than it was earlier in his career. here is nick johnson, great concentration, got to the tarp early, hanging on the rp waiting for the ball to do. >> johnny: d he has a is for 3 night, single to center back in the sixth. batting average. a .292 fothan 3 e.r.a. for those 16 games, up around 7, came down considerably. . >> johnny: and you 

in the background who has to be really happy. >> rob: absolutely. and randy sinclair didn't do ththe pitchers to tait upon seto go job. ake it go out there, attack these guys. detwiler 17 first-pitch strikes tonight, doing a great job. >> johnny: jonny gomes with a base hit, súson consecutive. the reds get a n here in thtoofthe eighth inning. plus detwiler looking on. >> rob: went in, probably changed his shirt, put on a dry one, sweatshirt. protect your monemake  some of these young  the play-backsof thgames, neve to bed without a eatshirt on,úyçcover ur arm. >> johnny: detwiler's numbers. >> rob: pretty good night right there. those three walks all came back

to hurt him. >> johnny: six strikeouts. 3-1 ball game, in the eighth inning with jonny gomes at first base, jay bruce the right fielder, and a walk and a follo bergmann to the mound. >> rob: to get back to strasburg, i like what tony gwynn said about him, and he said to strasburg, "listen, you have got to do at the episode of the day call your heart, don't get into a bidding war and negotiations negotiations and let your agent speak for you, at the end of the day it's your career, your life." >> johnny: what about last year, take an example. >> rob: absolutely. absolutely. your agent works for you and sometimes these young players think the agent is doing it out of the love for their kids. no. they are getting their 5% chunk of change at the end of the day

so the more money they make for you the more money the agent makes and here is ron valone right here after giving up that one-outhit comes back and gets the guy hitting .172 off lefties coming in to tonight jay bruce. >> johnny: quickly two down here in the eighth inning. alex gonzalez has singled to right center, base hit tonight, one for three. actually, two for three with a double in the fifth inning. . >> rob: that guy there. >> johnny: he has got it and it's a good inning for ron valone. we go to the bottom of the eighth, still washington with some work to be done. - it's on. - totally on. jimmy, it's on. - it's on. - oh, yeah, it's on. affirmative, it's on. announcer: southwest airlines announces new service out of bwi airport,

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>> johnny: welcome back everybody, johnny holiday and rob dibble back. the nats with a 3-1 deficit to the reds, five different flex plans to choose from so you can enjoy ultimate flexibility. pick your plan, your seats, get a free game. it's that easy. for information on the grand slam flex plan, 202-675-nats or visit.com grand slam. guzman tries to get something going, and arthur rhodes the former oriole has played coming

24 games for the reds. >> rob: look at the numbers. >> johnny: yes. >> rob: been in nine games. 6 walks, 16 strikeouts, got the .45 e.r.a., zero .45 e.r.a. their bullpen is fourth in the major leagues right now in bullpen e.r.a. with a 3.32 so when they do have the lead they are tough to get a run off of. >> johnny: arthur rhodes has not allowed a run in his last eight trips out of the cincinnati bullpen. 62nd on the all-time major league list with 738 career appearances. steve carlson 61st, 741.  guzman the top of the ord the eighth inning, the nats, the reds up 3-1.

andnd both starters out of the ball game. guzman goes swinging pounds it back. against arthur rhodes, pretty tough times for cristian. only one for 11. >> rob: i think there is a lot of guys over, you don't make almost 800 appearances if you aren't pretty good and he threw really hard in his younger days, i think, took 2007 off after a bad year, came back '08, last year, and then '09, and almost like a reverb. >> johnny: went from a targetter to a guy who is come significant coming out of the bullpen. rob error career numbers. >> johnny: 69 and 71, 62 saves. >> rob: been one of the best set up guys for decade when he stopped being a starter.

>> johnny: a shot to left field, that ball is going back and it's gone. >> rob: he he. >> johnny: how about that, cristian guzman leads off the bottom of the eighth and it's a one-run ball game. >> rob: maybe we should talk more about that one run he has given up in 24 appearances johnny. six outs to go.  . >> johnny: and scrimmag gets his 13th, 14th r.b.i. and third home run of the year. >> rob: a cutter on the inner half, down and into a righty and cristian connects with it. good-bye mr. baseball. >> johnny: over the 377-foot sign in left center field. into that cincinnati bullpen. so that lifens up the fans that have come out to watch this ball game tonight in a rain- storm that delayed the start of it for almost two hours.

nick johnson, ryan zimmerman, adam dunn the heart of the national's order up now. nobody out in the bottom of the eighth, the nationals up 1-in. it's two balls and no strikes to nick johnson. nick bounced into a double play in the first. flied out to willie tavares and then walked in the sixth. >> rob: he was hurt the whole year with the mariners in '07 and they let him go in october. >> johnny: johnson takes a called third strike on the outside part of the plate.   ryan zimmerman heads to  plate now. and, in the past, some pretty good selections here, rob, of buys that the nationals drafted leading with detwiler just two years ago, jordan zimmermann two years ago, ryan was first in '05, lannan, stammen and

bergmann also draft picks by this ball game club. >> rob: now zimmerman, jordan zimmermann was the compensation pick for soriano, so that was well-done there. detwiler sixth pick overall in '07. always nice when you draft guys high and they do well. i talked to former orioles general manager ... and he said that very high draft picks pretty much 50:50, 52% make it. so it's not an exact science, it's very difficult to project young men, a lot of them high school kids, to the major leagues three, four years down the road. it's definitely a gift that these scouts have, these evaluate orszagh have. >> johnny: i think when you're

talking about mike rizzo in his days back in arizona, when you look at the nucleus of young guys he drafted and what they were able to do with that ball club when he was out there, i think it speaks for it.  arthur rhodes has served  home to cristian guzman to cut to it 3-2 cincinnati. he has got a three-ball and one- strike count on ryan zimmerman. >> rob: i think when he was with the razorbacks they won 6 championships at the minor league series and then that big one in the world series. got a good man in mike rizzo. >> johnny: you're not kidding. and with the draft of the day of strasburg it's up to the powers that be, stan kasten and the lerner family and mike and everybody else to get involved, they have got until august the 15th. >> rob: a win would put a cherry on top of that.

>> johnny: zimmerman, base hit to left field. ryan will take the turn, go for second. here is the throw and zimmerman in standing up with a double. >> rob: nice.   . >> johnny: and the nats hav got the tying run at second base.  . >> rob: zimmerman gets a fan right here, just pokes it back up the middle but he hits it hard enough into left center field, wind up on second base with a little bit of hustle. so zimmerman hustling all night tonight pays off. >> johnny: we saw him hustle that last time up on that fielder's choice. he was able to beat it out. ryan at second base, one out here in the bottom of the seventh inning. don will be up for the fourth time tonight, he flew out to babe ruth's in right in the fourth inning. 17 homers, 44 driven in.

arthur rhodes delivers and it's low for a ball.   0-9 is dungeons roads. >> rob: ouch. ho ho. well time to either get a hit or a homer. ffer  . >> johnny: the outfield straight away for dunn.  zimmerman off second. dunn pounds it at the plate and the count 1-1. 3-2 cincinnati, bottom of the eighth, that's a 92 miles per hour fastball from arthur rhodes. boy, when he came up with the orioles he could bring it with the best of 'em. now, coming out of that cincinnati bullpen, has had tremendous success. here is the 1-1. for 

that's low for ball t   the run from -- tsh the h run by guzman, the first run allowed, in this, his ninth appearance out of the bullpen. >> rob: well i think with a base open and you've already given up a home run which is unexpected, i'm sure, from arthur rhodes -- >> johnny: david help theres in the bullpen. >> rob: don't want to make a mistake. >> johnny: the 2-1, fouled, popped it behind the stands. opponents hitting only .134 against roads as mike mcdougall picks it up out of that national's bullpen. for   rob, do you think that ro knows that -- >> rob: absolutely. i knew exactly what every guy in the opposition was hitting

off of me. so when you saw that vin section zoclip earlier in the day i knew he was 5 for 5 off of me with two triples. >> johnny: yes. >> rob: when you laid that out, i knew they were trying to embarrass me, a search-run lead in the eighth inning and that was, i had just given up back to back doubles. >> johnny: and they laid down a bunt. >> rob: this was a reason for my dnaness, i knew this guy had my number, jimest jen was the manager, he got canned a couple weeks later so -- >> johnny: i remember jimsy. a breaking ball called strike three.  and dunn, dunn is going  to andy fletcher about that. take a look at this. >> rob: a fastball, gets ahead, another fastball in there, down low, carefully puts a fastball in, another fastball, and a

frustration ball. i don't know, pitch track.  . >> johnny: dusty bake trip out to the mound and arthur rhodes is done for the night. we'll step out, a call to the cincinnati bullpen, we'll be back in just a moment. they let you put whatever you're watching down here, while you check out local traffic, weather, even your news up there. i've got a news flash you're out of mayo. how did you get in here? door was open. you'd have tons of ways for you to search for content: by actor, director, any word at all. what about chicken? chicken's fine. any word. no i mean do you have any chicken? i want to eat some chicken. one of the coolest things you can do with fios... ...is stream your music and your photos from your computer to your tv. slideshows look and sound better than ever. and now is the best time to upgrade to fios all the time. want to tell them why? i do not.

because you'll get up to $150 dollars back and over 100 hd channels when you upgrade to verizon fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v i will now return you to your program and unfortunately for some of you, to cable. yeah! wait, what? . >> johnny: 3-2 cinc the nationals have scored a run here in the eighth inning, on cristian guzman's home run.

the copy righted telecast presented by the washington nationals may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form. the accounts 0 and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without the express written consent of the washington nationals. david weathers has come in from that reds bullpen. he shutout the opponents in 19 of his 23 appearances. 920 career appearances for david weathers. and the nats threatening here. they have got two down and zimmerman down at second base. not happy with that called third strike, for adam dunn, and elijah dukes got a chance to get a hit to tie this baby up. nats' sixth hit, or zimmerman's single, a double. pitch outside and it's one ball and a strike. >> rob: andy fletcher has home plate tonight. he has been generous. we can't just say that that was

again dunn. he gave that same strike zone to detwiler, cueto, he has been very consistent all night. so as a hitter you have to go up there knowing he has been a little loose on the engineers tonight, if it's way outside, a breaking ball, he is dunn. >> johnny: david weathers the third cincinnati pitcher, willie harris witch outside.   the last 10 years d weathers leads all pitchers with 668 appearances. >> rob: a lot of work. >> johnny: a lot of work in milwaukee. >> rob: i was just leaving, i that the sat that who will last year and retired, he was coming up in '96, he would be part of that, you know, florida team

great guy. great guy to have on your team. one of the nicer players you'll ever come across and be consistent at this level for 20 years pitching in the big leagues. >> he strikes out elijah dukes, back to back strikeouts by dunn and by dukes and this is the high point of the inning on guzman's homer, it's a 3-2 ball game, we go to the top of the ninth here at national's park. for



. nats baseball, masn brought to you by southwest airlines, book your next tip at southwest.com. and by affleck. we have got you under our wing.  beautiful picture of our capital here in washington, d.c., johnny holiday in for bob carpenter tonight, alongside rob dibble. 2-6-0 for the nats. of the six hits, two home runs hit by elijah dukes and guzman. verizon if i o's, we break down coming up on nats postgame, ross detwiler's outing tonight, recap a wild and important day in nats park with byron kerr and ray knight and preview game number 2 coming up tomorrow with harang against march tease. the pitching matchups beginning at 6:30 with nats extra. and mike mink doing al becomes the nationals fourth pitcher following jason bergmann, ron villone and the starter ross detwiler.

for  . >> rob: can't allow a r got to tell you're a one-run up. >> johnny: the sixth game with washington, only one unearned run and stranded all three inherited runners when he has come in ball games. came back from syracuse may 29th, a couple of saves and a 3.24 e.r.a. in eight appearances a. >> rob: from the d.c. area,

born right here. >> johnny: likes to pitch inside and francisco cordero goes to work on the cincinnati pen. >> rob: he was given a contract nearly $50 million to bring him over here. he has done a great job for the nconati reds closing out ball games. >> johnny: ground it down to hernandez on first and it is one down. in the top of the ninth.  hernandez on  nick jo. and with one away mike mcdougall retires the first batter he faces a shot up the

middle, a base hit. chris dickerson on with one out here in the ninth. for robob running >> rob: the redsare going to be doing stuff in the next few years that are reminiscent of the st. louis cardinals. [ inaudible ] ... .. get in the swing of things. >> johnny: could be a double play ball, hernandez to guzman, no throw to first base, dickerson came in flying to break up the double play and there is twdown. don't for get,heaving the valley legal stars. come out