the home team kept figh back. in the end a borderline strike called sealed their fate in a disappointing loss. tonight shairon martis goes for the win. can he complete the task? find out now on masn. 

and tonight at nationals  game 2 the middle game of 3 against the cincinnati reds. bob carpenter taking a couple of days off. johnny holiday. getting the 26 jersey today putting on the cap. great to have you folks with us tonight as the nationals try to get back in the winning track after losing the opener last night. the bullpen was outstanding. yeah. >> we're drafting guys right out of college were bullpen guys in college. the bullpen record over the last 16. come paired to the 665 that's enormous. what a great cut do you know. the home ranas loued -- home

ranas loued 1-14. they brought this guy back. ron villone comes in after that. he nails down the 8th. huge strike out there. then mike macdougal goes out there keeps it a one rung ballgame. as far as the reliever, did a great job. wil nieves did a great job catching the out at. we want to give them credit even though we got the loss last night. they're being well pitched. that's a lot of it, has to do with the bullpen. >> kind of quiet last night. guzman late in the ballgame last night. first pitch on the way. we'll see the nationals can get the second game to go their way tonight againsts cincinnati. like to have verizon fios. these are your widgets, they let you put whatever you're watching down here, while you check out local traffic, weather, even your news up there.

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nationals baseball is

brought to you by south west airlines. book your next trip at www.southwest.com. and by aflac. welcome everybody. nationals baseball. johnny holliday, rob dibble. threatening conditions here tonight. let's hope the clouds continue to go west to east past the ball park. right now you can see a whole lot in the park. tonight it's going to be sharon martis against the reds. they started the season 13-5 p. what about the longest run of the season, this guy has been untouchable, 17 scoreless innings this season tied for first in major league baseball. as you can see, the clouds hanging over nationals park as you take a good look.

got to feel good about this ballgame. this has been a good day for drew storen. we'll look at the lineups tonight. hairston leads off at 3rd. brandon phillips at 2nd. laynce nix, notice the way he spells his first name. bruce in right. martis on the mound for the nationals. he's 5-1 with a 5.31 earned run average. >> let's give you the scouting report before i get zapped by lightning. three runs or less in his first starts. has not allowed double figures in any of his starts. not 10 runs or more. 9 or less in all of his starts.

after three bat start, 17 run, 4 home run, went out there threw a nice job against the new york mets and allowed one run. hopefully the worst is bemonday shairon. >> guzman at short. johnson at 1st. dunn, duke in center. willingham will have his first career start in right field. >> they don't want to keep moving dunn around to left one night, right the next and 1st the next day. >> i played growing up. i was center fielder, leadoff guy. i switched left, right, used to

be able to play every outfield position. >> johnny: fouled up, one quick out. first pitch at 7:07 tonight. 77 degrees here at game time this night. hairston went 1-3 last night. i noticed how you got all state in soccer without missing a beat. >> rob: i had to prove i had skills. you know how they do the little -- i wasn't all that good. i was 180 pounds back then. >> johnny: that's minus a few now. no balls two strikes to willy. line drive to left.

dunn has a beat on it. two quick outs here in the top of the first. hernandez will be working behind the plate. we wish him well. scott at first base. andy fletcher will be working at 3rd. did you see eckstein come out of the dugout? he was after andy on that call on kearns last night to end the ballgame. two down quickly in the top of the 1st. cincinnati 30-27. they're starting rotations in 35 ballgames, bullpen 5. brandon phillips the 2nd baseman. comes in hitting .275.

>> rob: the kids would enjoy this. they looked back at the video on eckstein going after andy. he did not swear at him once. he was a gentleman saying you weren't doing a consistent job. >> johnny: quick one, two, three first inning. the nationals coming to bat. know -- no score here at nationals park. 

you heard the expressio ominous. these are ominous clouds. starting lineups tonight. let's look at the nationals. guzman leads off. johnson at 1st. zimmermann left field. dukes center field. willingham first career start ever in right field. batting 7th josh bard. on the mound tonight aaron harang for cincinnati in his 12 12th start. 89 hit, 76 and 2 third innings. >> rob: he will go out and give you a ton of innings.

>> johnny: out of san diego state, right hander. >> rob: he's big and tall. >> johnny: quickly ahead of guzman. 2-4 night last night. r bi. dukes are a home run, his 6th. ryan misses out side. when you compare umpires and look at hernandez, he's not one to take a lot of lip off batters. >> rob: no he's not. he's been consistent coming into the major league. that's what a lot of umpires try to do. i'm going to be consistent whether i'm lenient, tough, a little more reserved. he's always been tough and consistent at that.

i think, you know, you might not like him, but you respect him. >> johnny: line drive to left field. base hit for cristian guzman to lead off the bottom of the 1st inning. >> rob: last start 200th of his career, 201. derrick lee was the one thousand strike out victim. >> johnny: guzman kind of getting back in the swing of things. he's 4 for his last 9 now going back to sunday's ballgame. 2-4 against the reds last night. 1-4 against the mets. 1-4 in this ballgame. coming in hitting .330.

that's 7th in the national league. nats have the first hit of the ballgame. harang dealing to johnson. >> johnny: nick has been consistent too. 30 driven in, five homer, .320 batting average. >> rob: he's 8 right now in between brandon web. 875 strikeouts. >> johnny: in his last outing against st. louis on thursday, he 8 innings, gave up 8 hits. struck out 4 and gave up a home run. he took the loss in that ballgame. the pitch to johnson. guzman running -- fouled back

. >> rob: you look at harang. 07, 16-6. still a decent era almost every year, well over 200 innings. >> johnny: johnson, 1-1. guzman at 1st. fouled back out of play down to the left. zimmermann adjusting the batting glove. he'll be next. they've had success against cincinnati. they've won six out of the last seven meetings aside from last night. johnson, a line drive to right.

one down. we'll take a look at that time cincinnati defense tonight. hairston at 3rd. gonzalez at short. phillips at 2nd. hernandez 1st. ryan behind the plate catching. bruce in the out field. >> . the corner out fielders will cover the most ground. >> johnny: harang had good days in oakland didn't he? >> rob: yes, he did. >> johnny: came over in 03. since he's joined the reds ball club, he leads in almost every statistical category. 68 wins. >> rob: he didn't pitch an awful lot in oakland. he was one of their top process

ticket if -- prospects. definitely worth the trade. that pitch there, that should be a strike, used to be a strike. now you've got to make them bring it in another six inches. >> johnny: it's tough to stand up there and take a 3-2 pitch these days. >> rob: absolutely. that was the one thing fletcher had last night. as a former pitcher, can you -- i can work with that. 3-2 if it's anywhere close, you've got to be hacking. we've been complaining about the zone all year it's been tight. it's tough to complain the opposite way when it's loose. >> johnny: fouls it out.

1-2 in the nationals 3rd baseman after a strikeout last night. >> rob: it's been a frustrating year for everybody. they've got to keep plugging away. it was a well pitched ballgame last night. >> johnny: it seemed it wasn't that long enough we were talking about the nationals batting exploding. now the pitching has caught up and the bats are silent these days. >> rob: yes. that's going to happen. peace and valleys for the bullpen and starting rotation. the really solid teams are consistent throughout the year winning close game, saving a lot of close games. >> johnny: zimmermann fouls trough 2-2 pitch. take a look at that time guys

that lead the national league. orlando hudson 74. a couple of players are tied with 71. they're among the best in the senior circle. 2-2. >> rob: he's been playing defense the entire defense. even when he's not having a great night at the plate, he's great with a glove. >> johnny: that fouls off the 1 1st base mine. hernandez going back toward the rolled up tarp that we hope they don't have to use tonight. >> rob: a lot of people don't notice when guys are playing great defense. i do. it doesn't mean the runs are going to come. it will give these young pitchers when they do make mistakes a lot of confidence your corner infielders are

going to eat it up. whether cristian, gonzalez, hernandez out there, once they play more, the younger guys will get more consistent. >> johnny: nice running catch by bruce in right field. two down. guzman retreating back to 1st. we talked about adam dunn and the success he had in cincinnati. well documented. he just hit cover off the ball as a member of the team. >> rob: yes he did. you see the camouflage that i love. he lits -- hits it right out of the stadium. >> johnny: he's picked up where he left off at cincinnati here in washington. >> rob: six straight years of 40 40 runs or more. >> johnny: dunn pops up to

gonzalez. nationals are retired in the bottom of the 1st. no score after 1. we head to the 2nd. knit, delicate, permanent press... the ocean doesn't care. so grab your bag. ♪ (tucci) more bars in more places. at&t. the best coverage worldwide. get the blackberry bold

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a lot more. johnny, rob. >> thank you very much. >> johnny: nix, hernandez and nix to face martis during the top of the 2nd in this scoreless ballgame. first pitch right down for a strike. >> rob: we told you last night some of these guy versus a lot of home runs off right handers. this guy has a lot of pop. >> johnny: didn't play in last night's ballgame. 7 homer, 18 driven in. when you compare the two team's batting averages, the nationals have better than the reds .250. >> rob: a lot comes down to close games. they're the top five bullpen. when you have a bullpen like that and you're playing a lot of close game, you're going to

win the bullpen. they spent an awful lot of money on him. sometimes for a specialized position like closer, you're going to have to fork out big bucks. >> johnny: the thing you like about him storen, he understands. he wanted to get this signed and out of the way. he wants to play baseball. he doesn't want to linger with these negotiations. >> rob: that will get him a lot of respect around baseball especially when he goes today minor leagues. the earlier he got there, he wanted to start playing ball. all the way up to the people at the major league people, that will matter. >> johnny: laynce at 1st hit by a pitch. the nationals right hander looking for his 6th of the

year. popped up out of play. to give up 1 run and 3 hits in the ballgame. active today. it's a wired wednesday. we'll have an opportunity to visit the nationals skipper in a couple of innings. >> johnny: skies it high. johnson coming trying to make the play. out of play behind the nationals dugout. manny will be along with us in the bottom of the 3rd inning brought to you by our friends at verizon wireless. >> rob: i'm using a verizon wireless card now.

check it out. that's where my call came from i guess. i didn't realize that. next you're going to tell me all state basketball, wrestling -- >> rob: no. i told you i was a wiry kid. >> johnny: we had great pictures of you last night. i'd like to see some wiry ones come in. >> rob: with the muletas -- mull let likes to say, business in the front, party in the back. >> back. she said had she met me back in those days, she wouldn't have married me. >> johnny: i understand that.

3-2. shot to 3rd. great stop by zimmermann. he's out. johnson came off the bag. what another tremendous play by ryan zimmermann. would you come to expect that? >> rob: absolutely. i wouldn't expect anything less than what he does at the plate. check it out. all the way, checks the runner. over to nick johnson, nick makes the tag. this is absolute picking it off. you have to be like a hockey goalie at 3rd and 1st. it's a reaction position. you can't follow the pitcher -- >> johnny: nothing he can do. that's gone. two run shot. above the nationals bullpen to right. >> rob: that just saved a run. that's number 14 in 15 on the

year for this 14th off right hander. knowing that, martis might have been more careful. that's mistakes you make as a younger pitcher. hindsight is 20/20. there you see a breaking ball. that's why he's got 14 of his 15 home runs against righties. >> johnny: he's hitting a lot. take a look at this pitch location. >> rob: i think johnny, you could have hit that ball out. way too much up in the zone with an off speed pitch. that will be something mr. strasburg when he gets here will learn. making mistakes like that in college, you might get away with it. >> johnny: