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welcome to tropicana fi in st. petersburg. the nationals on top 2-0 here in the top of the fourth inning. -- will foul it off to the right side. we will give you the highlights you need to see shortly. we can tell you that ryan zimmerman has both nats rbi's tonight, a third inning ground ball, andy sonnanstine for the rays and jurisdiction pitching beautifully so far for the nats. nieves just got a piece of that 0-2 breaking ball. bob carpenter, rob dibble, byron kerr here. we will bring you up to date. we can tell you that jordan zimmermann, no runs on two

hits, five strikeouts, one walk, and a big double play ball shutting down the major league's leading run producing offense so far. 0-2 to nieves. got him, and the top of the fourth comes to a close. ú oof! i hope he has that insurance. aflac! you really need it these days. how come? well if you're hurt and can't work it pays you cash... yeah to help with everyday bills like gas, the mortgage... ...and groceries. it's like insurance for daily living. so...what's it called? uhhhhh aflaaac!!!! oh yeah! that's it! aflac. we've got you under our wing. a-a-a-aflaaac!

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>> bob: bottom of the fourt coming up. >> rob: two rbi's so far by ryan zimmerman, that one on a home run, and then the story's really the elbow of jordan zimmermann, five strikeouts, 95- mile-per-hour fastball, great breaking balls, you saw that last 3-2 change-up to evan longoria with a man on third. the nats other run came on a bases loaded ground ball in the third. nats had the bases loaded, nobody out, settled for one run. so ryan and jordan doing quite well, andy sonnanstine giving up another home run. he's given up 14 of them this year. so now you're up to date and carlos pena hack as foul ball. to begin the bottom of the fourth inning. nationals by the way have austin kearns in the line-up tonight. you might have heard by now that the nats are without josh willingham. byron kerr will have more on that shortly. a tragedy in the willingham family, and josh left the ball

club this morning to go back to alabama. we'll check in with byron shortly. pena, disoab rift, burrell. that ball is going to leave the yard, way out of here. almost to the scoreboard. and pena's 20th of the year gets tampa bay on the board here. he becomes only the fifth player in the major leagues with 20 home runs. >> rob: this is going to be a 95-mile an hour fastball down and in, it's supposed to be down and away. that's what happens to those pitches when you throw them down and in to a lefty. you throw that hard, you're going to give up home runs. shake it off, come right back. attack the strike zone some more. >> bob: the rays have hit their 82nd home run, starting the day third in the american league

behind the 99 of the yankees and the 90 of the rangers. ben zobrist, the second baseman. and the count's even 1-1. very late swing again, deflecting off catcher -- nieves. >> rob: carlos one of the first strikeouts of the night. he struck out the side in the first inning after an error, then a walk. struck out longoria, pena and zobrist to get out of the first inning. >> bob: carl crawford walked

after upton stole second, then j. zimmermann really went to work. >> rob: you saw the first ball that he fouled down the right- field line, knew he better get the bat head out early. got to get that bat going early, when a guy's throwing 95. >> bob: that ball well out of play. byron kerr, bring us up to date on what josh willingham and his family have been through for the last 20 hours or so. >> byron: john willingham, the younger brother of josh, 27, died in owe know a car accident in alabama yesterday. manny acta said josh has left the team early this morning. they're giving willingham full support. he said it puts the game and life in perspective and that willingham is a great guy and an outstanding teammate and they're thinking about him right now. >> bob: manny was visibly shaken this afternoon when he got together with the media. to give us the details of what had taken place, so our very

best to josh, his wonderful family. and a very difficult weekend for them, losing josh's younger brother john. here's pat burrell, the dh. >> rob: our thoughts and prayers go out to the whole willingham family and the clubhouse. i've been in touch with a lot of guys from the angels when nick adenhart was killed earlier this year. that's the kind of thing that can really pull a team together. it's never easy when one of your own loses a young brother like josh. josh willingham is one of the nicest people i've ever met. number two, when you lose a family member that quickly it's difficult to even feel like you can do anything about it. >> bob: willie harris under that fly ball, and two outs. >> rob: so we just have to support josh willingham and his family right now. >> bob: the nationals have called up corey patterson, who

was hitting .302 in 39 games at syracuse, with six home runs and 23 rbi's. corey patterson, 29 years of age. we know him well. he was with cincinnati last year, the orioles two years before that and six years before that with the cubs. interesting left-handed bat with some power and some speed. to serve as a fourth or fifth outfielder right now. gabe gross the hitter, struck out swinging first time up. so the nats bench got a little older and a little more experienced here. bases empty, two outs. beauty. 95 on our gun. but -- >> rob: it's so difficult for a guy that's hitting. you also have to look for a slider, breaking ball and change-up that jordan has been featuring tonight also,

throwing them all for strikes. >> bob: the nationals had to make another move, too. because putting josh willingham on the bereavement list an bringing up corey patterson necessitated removing somebody off of one dl to the other on the 40 man roster, so terrell young goes from the 15 day to the 60-day dl. you can only have so many players on that 15-day disabled list. two balls and two strikes to gabe gross. we've seen a lot of emergency hacks in the first four innings. >> rob: they've been keeping the rays off balance, soft

stuff, nice change-ups, hard sliders in, and then that 95- mile an hour heat. one mistake so far tonight. >> bob: breaking ball missing. >> rob: i think the major concern was jordan's elbow. anytime you get soreness, not always an injury, but you don't want to force him to go out there. so he missed eight days, basically a start. >> bob: severely jammed him. >> rob: you could say it. severe jammage. >> bob: that is the baseball term these days, jammage. >> rob: i like it. severe. >> bob: this kid is a 6'2", 220- pound powder keg. just had a birthday at the end

of may. jordan zimmermann 23 years of age. he didn't miss by much. >> rob: he's throwing so well. that the tail of that just broke so much, it came out of the strike zone. >> bob: that's hernandez, the catcher. >> rob: two outs, last thing you want to start doing is walking people. this is just 3-2 with a lot of movement. when you throw that hard, they don't all go where you want them to. >> bob: he overpowered hernandez first time up. hit a ground ball to second. for the second or third time tonight, a foul ball slams off the gear of wil nieves. take a listen. >> rob: yep, that's a wake-up call right there. >> bob: catchers need good orthodontists. they've got to have strong

fillings. a swing and a foul. and very late on that one. >> rob: hernandez barely fouled off the 93, then he barely fouls off an 87-mile an hour slider. i'm sure he's guessing right now what's coming next. some high heat. >> bob: or a slider in the dirt. >> rob: you know i don't like those to the bottom of the order though. no home runs, this guy's got one home run. >> bob: the block, the ejection of the mask, then pouncing on the ball. >> rob: that's high. >> bob: nice crowd here in st.

pete tonight. ludacris will be starring in their post-game concert series starting tonight. so there's probably 25 to 30,000, maybe more. not too many empty seats except way up in the top. straight back it goes. the ballpark here seats for baseball 44,000. they only had 18,273 last night. they've probably come close to doubling that tonight. we'll let byron kerr tell you tomorrow how the concert was. gabe gross at first, two outs and a 1-2 again. zimmermann trying to close out this inning and hernandez, because of that walk to gross, has been very pesky here. >> rob: i don't think jordan

was real comfortable whatever they were going to throw here. i've talked about this. when we were playing in our day, if you didn't want to throw it, step off, reyiewp, throw what you want to throw. be convicted and throw the heck out of it. does he have like a sidearm curveball he could drop on this guy. >> bob: i don't know, but a fastball up and in usually puts the end to some of these foul balls. >> rob: exactly. looked like he tried to drop down three quarters, a little lower. get rid of this guy. >> bob: some pitchers breaking balls really get flat when they do that. >> rob: another breaking ball. >> bob: hits it fair near the bag. anderson hernandez knows he's got time with the catcher running. ♪ ♪

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>> bob: st. petersburg, florida, is a beautiful town here on tampa bay.

not the greatest ballpark in baseball, but it is nice to have a roof when it's 90 and muggy every day here in june. anderson hernandez tries a little slug bunt. he dragged the bunt for a base hit first time up. one out here in the fifth. byron, some speculation today because of media report regarding the status of manny acta. >> byron: yes fox sports.com saying that jim rig he willman would become the manager and manny acta would be fired sometime in the future. i spoke with the team president before the game, edsel not comment on media reports. he is perplexed by this bad start and he's looking for all solutions to try to figure this out. jim riggleman said before the game he hadn't even heard about this report. he fully trusts manny acta, he's a heck of a manager. >> bob: we know kenny rosenthal, he's a very good reporter.

he must have some source he feels is strong enough to go sub with such a report. at the same time, he evidently knows more than any of us who are with the ball club every day. >> rob: exactly. >> bob: i'll tell you right now, i like manny acta, i think manny acta is an excellent manager and he's not been given enough horses to win. you've got four rookie pitchers out there. your most veteran pitcher has 50 career starts under his belt. >> bob: to me the big perplexing thing about this ball club is the bad defense by veteran players. these aren't kids. guzman, nick johnson, very shaky defensively lately. and of course as a team very shaky all year. averaging an error per game. is that the manager's responsibility? probably, is it his fault? no. >> rob: no, he can't execute for the players on the field.

>> bob: guzman hacks a one hopper to evan longoria. >> rob: as far as preparation, getting these players ready, all the coaching and manny acta have done since i've been here. yes, we talked about taking more infield. they've done all of that. they've done more of that. and the hitting has been there the entire season. it's going through a little bit of a valley right now. the pitching has gotten much better. i don't feel at all that a managerial change needs to be made. right now is not the time. they're actually playing much better baseball. >> bob: sometimes the results don't catch up with them for a couple of weeks. >> rob: we've talked about this. it took 10 years for the tampa bay rays to get to where they are now and now they're a consistent solid ball club. but it took putting all of those great prospects and salient together over a decade. it's been basically two and a

half years for mike rizzo and stan, mike rizzo the acting general manager, he needs to be the full time general manager. they have a great staff. so that's someone from the outside looking in, and i love kenny, but this team has never quit. they've never given up in any game that i've watched this season. there's mike on the phone. >> bob: according to byron, stan said he wouldn't comment on media speculation. that stopped short of saying the report's not true. time will tell. two balls and two strikes to nick johnson. that ball out to left center. carl crawford speed to burn, he was waiting for it. 

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>> bob: here's the at&t rap rewind. at&t, the nation's fastest 3-g network. your world delivered. those are basically your long ball highlights. a little bit of pitching by zimmermann so far. a well-played, well-pitched game so far. >> rob: right now jordan zimmermann is holding the best offense in the american league in check. i think it's a great job of the young catching and the young pitchers going out there and doing what they can do. they're executing right now and it's fun to watch. >> bob: so jordan zimmermann goes back to work, continue to try to be convicted on every pitch that he makes here in the bottom of the fifth inning. got the top of the order coming up after the first hitter here.

brignac. >> bob: rigoberto alpizar rigoberto alpizar, the shortstop, then it will be carl crawford. >> rob: puts them on the defensive with a strike one. makes your job a lot easier. >> bob: the one concern for zimmermann would be that pitch count. nobody out in the fifth inning and he's right at 80 pitches with this coming delivery. >> rob: with all the strikeouts, this could be his last inning, if he's fortune enough to go. maybe a quick 1-2-3, but there's no reason to push him. everybody's in the minor leagues. >> bob: guzman and he can't

quitget it. a the grand slam . five different plan top of the order, b.j. upton, 0-4 reaching on an error and a sacrifice bunt. andy sonnanstine in contrast has gotten himself through five innings on 60 pitches. fastball to b.j. upton who