good pitch count for one out in the 8th inning. >> rob: that home run in the first inning, the first one in june for ryan zimmerman. >> bob: we're almost halfway through the month. tried to pull that breaking ball away. and evan longoria never could get the handle on it. i don't know why he would peak at nick johnson, now they've given the nats a chance to get back in this game with adam dunn coming up. but he won't be facing the right-hander. >> rob: well, you can't take your eye off the ball. you saw him there. he peaked at nick. trying to sneak a peak at nick and it cost him and error. >> bob: i think that's a classic example of making a play more complicated than it was because the nats are down by five and nick johnson is not going anywhere.

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>> bob: andy sonnanstine solid night. only one walk and five strikeouts. at one point he retired 15 consecutive nats from the third through the 7th. lefty, lefty match-up. adam dunn against randy choate.

in eight games recently, opponents are 1 for 21 against him. >> rob: you have to hope that he'll try to throw a sidearm curveball. >> bob: is this where a guy should be moving up in the box? >> rob: not necessarily on choate. for am add dunn who has pretty much separated the entire batter's box. he's got a lot of coverage. you want this guy to try to throw a breaking ball on the inner half. but if he tries to run a sweeping curveball around, that's when adam is in control. he can turn that thing around. 8-3 rays. top of the 8th. one run in, two men aboard. still only one out. trying to make the longoria

error hurt. that's a fastball that misses. 2-1. >> rob: it's going to be an 88- mile an hour fastball. look at that thing i'd arm. you talk about a left-handed specialist. >> bob: adam dunn hits a double play ball. the nationals get an unearned run and into the bottom of the 8th.  we like looking at the world through safety-colored glasses.

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>> bob: the anatomy of a pickoff play. that was back in the fifth inning as jordan zimmermann picked off b.j. upton. >> rob: right there, that's the first move, didn't work. second time they tried to get him later in the game. watch this tag. cristian guzman, gets the glove down before he can get the hand back. so the high tag the first time on the arm, by hernandez. didn't work. the second time cristian guzman got the coors light freeze it, freeze frame. >> bob: coors light is the world's most refreshing beer.

julian tavarez against michel hernandez, reid brignac and b.j. upton for the rays, bottom of the 8th. >> rob: julian tavarez worked a couple of innings for his 50th win in the major leagues. >> bob: guys like mariano rivera, hoffman, wet they ares on that list. >> rob: i think arthur rhodes is on that list. >> bob: threw his bat at the ball. it will be uncatchable down in the bullpen. >> bob: is that ludacris? >> rob: throwing his bat?

that's what you call throwing the bat head out there. literally. >> bob: the line on andy sonnanstine who will go 7 1/3, six hits, a walk, five strikeouts. he threw the same number of pitches in 7 1/3 that jordan zimmermann did in five innings, 92. did he go? the appeal takes forever. paul shriver finally says no. >> rob: check this out from the side view. he may have held up. >> bob: that bat broke the plane. look at zimmerman. he always starts the glove down low and then sweeps it up right

into the ball. beautifully done for the first out here in the 8th. >> rob: imagine this score is a one run ballgame, this would have been an amazing play. still amazing. you're down five runs. this is after taking thousands of ground balls, being able to time that short hop. >> bob: it's amazing how on target ryan is with his throws when it's bang-bang and he's on the run. he is a definite believer in the do or die play. ryan will always charge those. >> rob: you have to cut that ball off. if it takes one more hop, he probably doesn't make the play.

>> bob: reid brignac, he's been on base four times in this series. >> rob: any infielder is susceptible to getting a little bit too relaxed on a routine play. you don't have the greatest mechanics sometimes, you drop down and you'll airmail one. but when you have time to think and you just got to do a habitual thing like that picking the ball up off the turf and throwing it. ryan zimmerman is one of the best. >> bob: there's a big difference in the two leagues right there. the number nine men in the line- up is 3 for 4 tonight. 

>> bob: breaking ball to out b.j. upton who is 1 for 3 tonight with a sacrifice. >> rob: even when you have a young team, you still have to have lots of things go right and certain guys having career years to win like the rays did last year. b.j. upton right now is hitting 60 points below what he did last year. and he hit .273. he hit .278 in the division series, .321 in the lcs and .250 in the world series. maybe the two most puzzling

lead-off guys in baseball this year are b.j. upton and jimmy rollins. both on championship clubs who played each other in the series last year. completely overmatched on a sinking diving fastball. let's go back to the sixth inning, the nats went into the bottom of the inning ahead 2-1. you see longoria, then pena against the shift. then the big swing rob by ben zobrist. >> rob: you get behind on guys, but with zobrist it was the first pitch he would see. then gross on the inner half, it's supposed to be away. hernandez, upton. longoria again. the wall. b.j. upton will come around from first. they put a seven spot up in the bottom of the sixth inning, right now it's 8-3.

>> bob: i'm in shell shock all over again. lsu got a couple of runs in the bottom of the third leading virginia now at the college world series 3-1. >> rob: we said yesterday, this is a good stretch of two weeks to really gauge how you are or how you're doing, because it's going to be a test every night. you got to bring your a game. >> bob: that ball well hit to right by carl crawford but kearns is there. we've got a guy there. p - oh, it's on. - it's on. - it's on. - ( music playing throughout ) - it's on. - oh, it's on, all right. - 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, with three daily nonstop flights to new york laguardia

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>> bob: tropicana field petersburg. nats down by five. a guy who had a pretty good run as a closer earlier this decade in st. louis, jason isringhausen. before injuries got him, taking over. trying to keep his career alive. they might need a guy like him down the stretch, because troy

percival is finished. >> rob: last year they had to put him on the mental dl, couldn't cope. a couple of guys on it now. a social anxiety. andy sonnanstine this year, his 12 starts coming into tonight, he had to face the yankees, indians, red sox, orioles, marlins. >> bob: so his 5-6 might be perfectly understandable if he gets the win tonight. >> rob: absolutely. new york second in the american league in offense, cleveland third in offense. he faced those who teams four times already this year. red sox, fourth overall in offense in the american league. florida marlins, fourth best in the national league in offense. >> bob: i had one young nationals pitcher tell me today that he thought he might like pitching in the american league

because he wouldn't have to bat. i told him, i said, young man, be careful what you wish for. >> rob: i brought it up last night, i'll bring it up again. seven teams in the american league have over 300 runs scored already. only two in the national league. big disparity in run scoring. >> bob: isringhausen was known for having a killer curveball, in the prime of his career. >> rob: excuse me, .306, the colorado rockies have the third highest total in the national league now. >> bob: elijah dukes 0 for 3. he's popped up three times tonight. the rays are trying to go two games over .500 and eight over here at home. willie harris is next, then austin kearns, here in the

ninth. a reminder, the nats are coming home to play the blue jays and the red sox in the next home stand. give a call, order some tickets for toronto and ask them if they have any left for boston. broken bat, base hit center field for dukes. elijah now 2-8 in the series.  >> bob: next up is will

harris who is 0 for 3 tonight. and willie will break his bat, right field, easy play. gabe gross, one out. johnny holliday and ray knight, "nats xtra" presented by verizon fios, starring those two, straight ahead. i know this has to be frustrating for ray, because for several weeks he has just like you have, and me, too, that this ball club was just on the verge of better things. it's just very slow coming together here. pitching has been good, bergmann had a nightmare in the sixth inning tonight. other than that it's been a solid week for the pitching

staff. here are the nats now. if they don't score any more runs tonight it will be 13 runs in their last six games. >> rob: the pitching is really starting to come around. you could throw out that sixth inning, maybe jason bergmann didn't have enough time to get loose at the end of that inning. but the starters are getting better quality starts. in the last week to 10 days. it's going to be a process. >> bob: kearns is locked up and overmatched, two outs. one more note, they never have gotten that game going in philadelphia where it's delayed by rain after the red sox got five runs in the top of the first, and here in florida

we're down to the final out in the top of the 9th inning. corey patterson will make an appearance hitting for wil nieves. making his return to the major leagues after hitting .302 in 39 games at syracuse. corey has always been an intriguing combination of power and speed, but in my opinion much more on the speed side, and there have been times when he's fancied himself a home run hitter. he's hit 104 career homers. >> rob: everywhere he's gone, they've wanted him to be a lead- off top of the order type table setter. then he gets into a mental perception of i got to hit home runs. no, he's got amazing speed. you want high on-base

percentage so you can get on for all the hammers in the middle of this line-up. in chicago, dusty baker was the manager, and they wait add few years for him to come around and he never did. >> bob: that ball is just foul down the right-field line. we talked about anderson hernandez, alberto gonzalez when he went back and came back. short chopping swings, put the ball in play. anderson hernandez has been fantastic tonight. tried to slap a hit by the pitcher. knowing what your role is will definitely help this organization move forward. >> bob: corey put all those things together for baltimore back in 06 when he hit .276 and it 45 stolen bases. and he still hit 16 home runs. jason isringhausen totally lost the handle on that ball and he's hurt himself. he just told them in the dugout

to come and get him and i don't know what happened, maybe with his hand there. but something is very wrong. >> rob: i think it's his elbow. >> bob: he is right off the mound here with the count of 1- 2. now the rays will have to warm up somebody, and this could take a while. >> rob: you're going to watch the ball take a right turn here when it leaves his hand. means it's the arm. immediately he calls the team out. you never want to see anybody get injured out here. >> bob: lance cormier will get up. they'll just bring him right out to the mound and we'll just

see how long it takes him to get ready. >> rob: after an injury you get as many warmups as you want, bob. ú - oh, it's on. - it's on. - it's on. - ( music playing throughout ) - it's on. - oh, it's on, all right. - 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, with three daily nonstop flights to new york laguardia for just 49 dollars one-way starting june 28th. grab your bag. it's on. - ( ding ) - book now at southwest.com. grab your bag. it's on. welcome to chili's. something new is on the grill. try chili's new fire-grilled quesadillas, starting at just $6.99. like our bacon-ranch chicken quesadilla, flame-grilled tortillas layered with all white meat chicken, applewood smoked bacon, jack cheese,

and ranch dressing. they're crispy on the outside, melted to perfection on the inside. you've never tasted quesadillas like this before. new fire-grilled quesadillas, starting at just $6.99. only at chili's. >> bob: we're back here a tropicana field. jason isringhausen just did

something, was physically injured. anderson hernandez has had a fantastic night. first at-bat, actually that was the second at-bat. this is the first at-bat. he's going to bunt for a base hit right here. no chance with that speed. just when you think he's going to play some small ball on you, he's going to jack one off the left center field wall for a double. anderson hernandez having a great night at the plate. >> bob: we like that kid a lot. he's an intriguing player. great speed. my only criticism of him defensively is that on routine plays he probably needs to charge the ball a little more. that will come with experience. he's quick on the double play, good quick hands. here's the veteran lance cormier. he'll let home plate umpire know when he's ready. one out for the rays to win this series and put themselves

in position for a sweep tomorrow. >> rob: isringhausen who was hurt before we went to commercial, had elbow problems in the past. i know a lot of guys, especially that are getting up there in years and throwing a lot of pitches, sometimes that adrenaline, just too much for your skeletal frame. >> bob: a reminder that the cal ripken collegiate all-stars will host the valley view stars in waldorf. catch the stars of tomorrow, before they launch their careers. or you can see it live on masn

hd at 7:05. one out to get for lance cormier. the count is 1-2 on corey patterson in his nationals debut. >> rob: to finish the thought on corey, even with that speed, his career on base percentage .291. with a lifetime .253 batting average. best year with the cubs .329 on- base percentage in 03. >> bob: he hit .298 that year. the game is over on one pitch. so the rays have won the series, two hours and 49 minutes to win the game 8-3 tonight. rob and i have final words before "nats xtra post-game"

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