run tonight. i'm not sure i've ever seen three called third strikes in such a situation. boy, that camp, his ball moves all over the place. so does tavarez when he's throwing well. these two former teammates with a championship ball club in st. louis. they know each other pretty well. calgary stampeders, by the way where vernon wells, ii played. >> rob: did somebody e-mail you that? >> bob: no, i found itmyself. i don't have the stats, so

don't ask me. [ laughter ] that's a good slider just off the plate. 2-2. wait something adam lind and then alex rios here right off the end of the bat. guzman there. oops. guzman's ninth error of the year. nationals second of the night. 63rd of the year in ballgame number 65. we really don't want the ball club to come home from a good finish of a road trip and play like that. >> rob: well, he had a little too much time. we talked about this with ryan zimmerman waiting, waiting. you should be charging the ball. you wait with an open glove and

it drops right in front of you. >> bob: tavarez deserves better. he pitched 1 1/3 inning. he should have retired five batters in a row. nats deeper into their bullpen now with ron villone. 

>> bob: well, the momentu shifted just a bit. we'll see what ron villone can do about it. a adam lind up and a runner aboard. nobody out in the eighth.

lind is 0-3. ron villone, a scoreless third of an inning in new york last night with a strikeout of matsui and a walk of jorge posada. and then tavarez came in, got a big out and nats went ton a 3-0 lead -- on to a 3-0 win. when the nationals gave up the run in the sixth inning, it ended a shut tching they hadn up a amon's solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inningwednesday night. adam lind fishing upstairs.

1-2.  alex rios next.   >> bob: th will  out behind anderson hernandez

and then dukes will come in to call him off. that ball took a while to come , wn. "nats xtra" all weekend long from here at the ballpark. a very good outing by jordan zimmermann 5 2/3 tonight. only a run on five hits. manny acta's post-game thoughts and a preview of game two featuring ross detwiler still hunting that first major league win. ross will make his seventh big league start tomorrow. here is alex rios. >> rob: took craig stammen five starts into his sixth start to get that first big league win against a very tough yankees offense. hopefully, ross detwiler can do the same now against the toronto blue jays. get up for the competition, so

to speak. nice job last night. >> bob: last time a team pitched that well in new york against the yankees was the rangers at the end of june last year. they gave up three earned runs in a series winning one -- one run in each game and the nationals did just as well and took 2-3. no runs last night. two runs on wednesday. i think the nats also gave up two unearned runs in game one the night before. this ball will be out of play to the right side. alex rios, 0-3 tonight.

 >> bob: that's a go low strike. the count is even #-2 with one out. >> rob: just at the knees from josh bard. sometimes when you put the -- pull the ball back up, the umpires won't call the strike because you moved your glove too much. >> bob: 19 runners stranded in a 1-1 game. first team to breakthrough and gate two-out hit is going to win this thing. we'll see now if cito gaston starts scott rolen who i mentioned earlier is a very good base runner. >> rob: backdoor slider right here by villone a little too far outside the box.

rios hitting .232 on the road this year and .324 at home. one home run on the road. eight at home. >> bob: rolen holding on a foul ball. >> rob: where barajas loves the road, rios doesn't. >> bob: and joel hanrahan who hasn't pitched in many close games lately. >> rob: john lannan's roommate we learned last night thanks to debbi taylor. i don't know if i'd lit her go through my drawers and stuff when i was a single guy. >> bob: 3-2 pitch. that's trouble. right-field line. scott rolen heading for third. dukes makes a good play to cut it off. it will be second and third, one out. now the error really hurts.

that's quite an at-bat by alex rios. >> rob: 3-2 fastball away. rios goes with it. good peet piece of hitting by him. he's trying to stay alive. nice job sliding to cut that ball off. get that back in as quickly as possible. >> bob: when you couple this together with the bottom of the seventh, this has been a rough 20-25 minutes. nats had the bases loaded one out after second and third, nobody out. now the blue jays a similar situation here in the top of the eighth. >> rob: you can't give good teams extra chances. >> bob: front door breaking ball up and over to lyle overbay. he's 0-1 with a pair of walks.

  >> rob: hitting against left-handed pitchers this year. all the power against right- handers. seven home runs against righties. one against left-handers. >> bob: that will be foul. strike two.

right-handed hitting rod barajas on deck. that's why hanrahan is ready. lefty-lefty matchup here as the nats try to get a big second out.  >> bob: 2-2. >> rob: barajas i against left-handed pitchers and only .250 against righties. 28 strikeouts versus five. so, i doubt that villone will face barajas. ron villone. one of your last pitches of the night.

make it a good one. >> bob: hitter and pitcher taking their sweet time here. >> rob: i talked to ron villone a lot about this. he likes to slow the tempo down f it's a very slow game, he will speed it up. he likes to control the tempo. make it his own. >> bob: 2-2. that's a fastball up and in. if you can get this out, you have the number eight spot and then, of course, cito gaston's hand in the number nine hole. he only has right-handed batters left. the way shawn camp was throwing the ball, wouldn't mind seeing him later this weekend and no more tonight. he struck out dukes and bard. here is a 3-2 to villone to

overbay. ball four, bases loaded. now you've got to bring in the right-hander and quite frankly a right-hander who has struggled mightily lately in pressure situations, joel hanrahan. so, only one out registered by villone. double switch coming. 

>> bob: how you guys doin

tonight? it's a nice night. it was moving along. bases load, one out. patterson will come in on the double switch and play right field. the pitcher is batting fifth and poorlts ninth. the pitcher is -- patterson ninth. the pitcher is joel hanrahan. high e.r.a., five saves, but four blown and a 32-1 strikeout to walk total. -- 32-12 strikeout to walk total. >> rob: last pitched on the 12th. a couple of hits, one strikeout, no runs through 0 pitches. before that, against cincinnati on the 10th an inning of work. nothing after that. so, really 31 pitches in the last week. >> bob: being hittable has been the big thing. .29 329 opponent's average. he's given up 40 hits in 20

innings. strikeout to walk numbers, not that bad. 32 over 12. here is barajas, corner infield even with their bags. middle infielders, double play depth. a badly-needed strike one. ground ball, zimmerman home for one. that's a great decision. safe, first base! and the nats cannot buy a close call and manny acta wants to talk about it with just james hoye. >> rob: i think we got the dude at first. we got barajas. i think that's a makeup call even though he got the call right earlier on cristian guzman this is a great play

right here by ryan zimmerman. he noas knows the play is to home. cutoff the go-ahead run. yeah. this is pretty close. i think we got him at first. great play by zim. great throw. >> bob: ryan knew that ball was hit too softly to turn a double play the conventional way. >> rob: yes, so he took the sure out at home to at least cut off the go-ahead run and try to double up the slower running rod barajas. well, joel hanrahan, you got that big second out. now you need to gut get yourself and your team out of this jam. >> bob: against a very experienced man who knows about baseball in these parts. former red sox are and oriole, kevin millar. >> rob: a very clutch performer right here. you're joel, you want more work, you've got to get some outs. that a boy. pump it in there. get ahead. >> bob: kevin millar this year

is 0-7 as a pinch-hitter, .428, four homers, 28 rbi's. rios at third, overbay at second and barajas, first. 0-2! he's been great in situations like this. i'd say most of those numbers did not come when the count was 0-2. fastball fly ball. got to be caught. willie harris and joel hanrahan might have just saved the game in the eighth inning. we shall see. >> rob: nice. ange my southwest flight. woman over phone: no problem. you know, maybe other people are content to sit around and wait. wait for something to happen. for business to pick up.

but for you, it's time to kick it in gear. time to get going. time to get tough. take control. you're not gonna run and hide. because backing down's not your style. grab your bag. it's on. ( ding )

>> rob: we're back here a nationals park all locked up. toronto blue jays-washington nationals at 1-1. follow the nats on your i-phone and i-pod touch with mlb.com atbats2009. visit nationals.com on your i- phone or i-pod touch to purchase. this is the bottom of the seventh inning. bases load, no outs.

3-2 pitch to zim. got him. the 2-2 pitch to dukes, got him on the break. and then the high 3-2 pitch to josh bard. you sought earlier strikes -- you saw the earlier strikes were thrown by camp. now jeremy accardo comes in the game. >> bob: that save was yesterday in philadelphia. accardo has been hurt part of thisser year -- part this have year. he has 38 major league saves. 30 of them with the toronto blue jays when he was lights out. four wins, 2.14 e.r.a., 57 strikeouts, only 24 walks, but he's had some injury issues since then. he had a forearm strain last year that took him out. the remainder of the season after may 10. it's been a road back for thisonce very hard thrower. >> rob: a lot of times if it's just some kind of little mechanical flaw or injury to another part of your body, it can start breaking down your

arm. that's what happened to accardo over the last few years. >> bob: let's see if a big confidence boost for joel hanrahan can turn into a nats victory here. bottom of the order, harris, hernandez and patterson. interesting these three hitters are all similar, aren't they? left-handed hitters, speed to burn. willie harris takes a fastball in there. >> rob: they've got to make him stop. he's a quick worker and will try to get ahead of you and then go to the fourth ball. make him work at your pace when you're hitting. already ready up on the mound.  >> bob: willie harris 1 tonight a-double and a walk caught stealing in the sixth. >> rob: this goes back a couple

of years, but in 2007 against 124 left-handed hitters, held them to a .161 average with that fourth ball and no home runs. righties because he can't throw that fourth ball hit .250 with four homers in 124 at-bats. >> bob: that's a hard breaking ball down and in. >> rob: it got him. >> bob: almost a cutter -- >> rob: it might have been a cutter. guy used to throw high 90s and that is a cutter. >> bob: sheer hernandez. >> rob: holding the ball offcenter throwing it just like a fastball, but the grip makes it slide out like a football. that's exact -- third base that's exactly what we left up there when mariano rivera only made one appearance. >> bob: a bunt, but it's too close to the pitcher. two outs.

>> rob: nice idea though. he continues to impress me with his thought process and his approach at the plate. he knows we need a run right here. >> bob: and the last time the nationals scored an earned run after the fifth inning was thursday june 11 in a 3-2 win over the reds in the final game of the last home stand. manny acta's offense has totally disappeared in the second half of ballgames. since then, one unearned run after the fifth inning of any game. two outs, bases empty. here is corey patterson. a pitch up foul. >> rob: this would be a great time for corey patterson to break out that big whipping stick for a home run. >> bob: he's done it 104 times in his career. this may be a situation more suited for that approach than usual. >> rob: two outs. guys way ahead of you.

nobody on base. that's a great swing. >> rob: that a boy. >> bob: corey patterson with his second bathe base hit as a nat. >> rob: that's as good as a double. >> bob: he could be running. this is interesting because guzman steps in. he's not a patient hitter. if you're going to send run aer, you have to send him early in the count and then you have a left-handed batter and a right arm of a catcher real close to each other. >> rob: we talked about this with corey patterson. he can stick with his ball club especially on his defense. he hits a little bit, he'll be in the lineup. goes the other way really well with that pitch. that was a great approach. >> bob: it was. he can fly. he's inching off. holding. and a generous strike call. cristian guzman 1-4 tonight with an infield hit. we thought the nats were in

business when he beat it out with the pitcher. hayhurst slow covering in the seventh. nick johnson covering, bases loaded with one out and nats didn't score. runners startened -- started, then stopped. now it's 0-2. >> rob: now you don't want to distract cristian guzman. good pitch to run on right here, but cristian has to try to put the ball in play. best case scenario, nice double down the line either way. >> bob: no care what the situation is. send the runner. make him put two good throws together. >> rob: that is afn excellent percentage right there. -- an excellent percentage right there. >> bob: 0-2. he's running. up and away with a pitch. he is in there. >> rob: yeah, nice job.

>> bob: how about cristian guzman taking a pitch on 0-2 that didn't miss by that much and helping his guy get to second base. >> rob: as you said, cristian not a very patient hitter. does take an 0-2 pitch right there. you can't teach speed. it never goes out of style. that throw just came up right there which actually helped corey slide under the tag. >> bob: guzman with a tapper foul. corey patterson just two years ago stole 37 bases for the orioles. the year before that, he stole 45 and tied for third in the american league with ichiro. he was the fourth oriole to ever steal 40. he's had speed. only apachrio and bumbry had

done that. he got some hash on that. >> rob: a little too close to the unmentionables. >> bob: 1-1 game. this would be huge. nats warming in the bullpen. hanrahan is in the game beimel is throwing. he changed up on him and struck him out. the nats are having contact problems here in the second half of this game. 1-1 into the ninth.