a lot of fathers here watching this ball game this afternoon, and to my lovely daughters who brought me a lot of happiness over the years, let's hope the nationals can win a game today, make it five straight for fathers. in attendance today, it's all coming up here today.

>> a beautiful day for baseball. a four game winning streak, trying to make it five. >> they've gotten a couple monkeys off their back. obviously the other situation, never won more than three in a row, now four straight. it's two straight series wins as well, an opportunity for a sweep against a pretty good hitting club, the blue jays. this is the 100th father's day. >> i'm sorry i missed the last

99 to wish you a happy father's day. >> gonzalez leads off and harris finishes things off. >> he hits it to the outfield. he's on first base and willie harris comes up and again earlier in the game he made a great catch and became basically the story last night. willie harris has had a number of so-called defining moments with the washington nationals, but last night was about as good as it gets. >> not only offensively, but defensive with the glove as well. >> he's gotten the job done in center field, which is something this club has lacked. he's described as a super utility guy. he's played second base, third base, left field, right field. center field, he covers a lot of groundout there. basically great anticipation from the crack of the bat, and covers a lot of ground and basically if he can get to it, he'll catch it. >> debbie taylor is on the

field. you've had a chance to visit with a couple of guys josh willingham and adam dunn. they have their sons here with them at the ballpark. >> first of ail, happy father's day to all the dads out there. the nationals have a very, very family oriented organization, and a lot of times we see the sons and daughters of the players in the clubhouse, on the field. we'd got to spend private time with them. through the eyes of our photographer.

>> it's just a good experience for everybody. >> he's going to have that camera on you, look. hold your bat and hit it that way, okay. show them how you can hit it. run, run! come back and slide into home. hit the ball. there you go! that one boy. there he goes. >> just being able to spend some time with him and seeing him enjoy himself in the batting cage down there when we play baseball is special. >> i hope that they got a chance to see the youngsters,

because i think willingham who's two and brady dunn who's two and a half might have a future. let's keep dad in the game, prostate awareness day, and the players will be wearing blue bracelets like this, wristbands, and also blue pins on their jerseys to remember that prostate cancer is a very deadly disease and there's a home run challenge going on. it was this past week through today. every home run hit is going to help raise money for cancer research, in particular for prostate cancer research. so a lot going on today with that, too. gentlemen, back to you, and happy father's day. >> thank you, debbie, very much. these are the wristbands that the players will be wearing today. little insignias that we've got on our coats, and we hope that people will always be aware that you need a lot of funding to fight cancer. >> absolutely. it's the first day of summer,

the beautiful day for baseball. people keep filing in. it's one of those days that gives you time to reflect a lot about your dads. in my case my dad taught me almost everything i know about this game, and certainly without him i wouldn't be here now. >> i feel exactly the same way. we're going to take a break and come back. lots more to come here at nats extra pre-game as the nationals square off against tran toe. they've already won the series, looking for a sweep of the series over the blue jays as boston comes in for three on tuesday, wednesday and thursday. we'll be back in a minute. 

you can see the numbers comparing the two starters, romero there. we're delighted to have on the set the canadian ambassador to the united states, mike wilson. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> you've got your hat there. >> i've got my hat here. >> you've served as ambassador since 2006. >> i'm in my fourth year now. it's a great time to be here, new stadium built. have the folks in quebec gotten over it? >> we still call them the

washington expose. we can't get over that. >> how many games do you get to see? >> i get to see one or two a year. it's a busy job, so i've got to do that. >> did you have a chance to go in the clubhouse and see the guys? >> i met some of the people on the field, but not in the clubhouse. standing beside the batting cage watching the ball coming in practice, it's hard for me to see it. >> did you play ball yourself? >> yes, but not well. >> not at this level. >> not a chance. >> big story yesterday, the canadians were sold. >> yes. >> makes perfect sense. >> it's back to the old days. they were great owners before. hopefully they'll be great owners. i'm sure they will be. hopefully they'll get the success they had. montreal is a great franchise. they've had wonderful teams.

i grew up in montreal. so deep down inside, while i was born in toronto, the canadians were my first team. >> i was in montreal for a sugar ray leonard fight against hearns, i believe it was, back in the 80s. the first time i had been there. wonderful beautiful city, and the people were magnificent. >> it's a fun city to be in because it's bilingual, and there's an awful lot of other people from other countries, other nationalities that are there. so you can get any type of restaurant you want. toronto is a great city too. we're going to have a good game today. >> ambassador to the united states from canada.

debbie taylor had an opportunity to talk to a gentleman that's responsible for this ball field being in pristine condition. >> thank you very much. one of the toughest jobs this season at national park has been being the head groundskeeper, and john royce is the youngest in all baseball, 26 years old. you did play college football at penn state. that's going to help you lead the guys on the field. >> that's correct. i played for 4.5 years. just listening to him every day really helped me be mature and be a leader. >> what's the toughest part of your job? >> monitoring the weather, actually, judging how much water to put down during the day to make sure the field plays consistently for the players. >> got to be a fun job, too. a little bit of hollywood taking place. tell us about that. >> owen wilson was filming in the bullpen for an upcoming movie that's coming out.

>> your cousin is darren fletcher who played with the expo franchise and is part of the blue jays. what's that like? >> me and him hung out on the field. i got to give him a tour, and it was fun having family here. >> the grass is always greener for john on his side of the field. back to you. >> well, the ground crew getting the field in condition and ready for this ball game today. nats have won the first two. we'll be back with more right after this. ♪ ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) ♪ who's watching...

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mike, everyone has seen great fastball, but do you feature anything else? >> i throw a slider and cutter, maybe a rare occasion a change- up, but i haven't thrown them much lately. >> this season has run the gamut. you signed a minor league here and here you are as a closer with the washington nationals. in 2003 you were with the royals, a closer. do you feel like you made it back? >> i never really felt like i www.anywhere.

>>11appearancessofar6 strikeouts, this is obviously the national league. have you really noticed any difference? >> not too much. how long has it been since you've swung a bat? >> since high school. i got one at bat spring training, and i got hit. i've had one at bat since high school. >> mike, it's father's day. did you get that great fastball from your dad? >> oh, yeah. he had a good fastball.

>> four in a row, obviously better than three in a row, and winning is better than losing. do you feel like the club has turned a corner at all? >> i think we've grown confident and we're definitely on a roll. looking good. >> mike mcdougalle, national's closer. here's a little bit more on the two guys sort of like imitating the umpires right behind home plate. >> i'm tim williams. >> i'm joe ferrell. we're going to be your umpires for this evening. we're going to do a called first strike here.

second is a swinging strike and a called third strike with a chain saw. >> how about everyone in the stadium knows is not close at all? >> season ticket holder in tran toe and had an opportunity to meet a bunch of umpires at a restaurant i like to frequent, and they recognized me from the seats. they liked it so much they ended up sending us a few shirts, and therefore second road game yesterday was the first, and we're going to be taking it to new york city when the blue jays play the yankees on friday, july 3rd, 1:00 matchup. tune in. we'll be in the same type of

seat for the yankee stadium. >> lifelong baseball fans, grew up with it. we love umpire and love baseball and like having fun. that's about as simple as it is. that's it. >> they've lost all five games. they did say this is the best reception they've had from fans. >> they're getting exercise, up and down with every pitch. >> i'm a little surprised there's not some issue because they're wearing real umpire uniforms, but obviously they're getting some attention out of this. what's next, a movie? >> you know what they want. they want to get a commercial. this is what they told our people. they would love to get a national commercial.

>> we'll see what happens with joe and the other guy. >> time for the stay in the game brought to you by just for men hair color. we're going to step out and talk a little more baseball with mark getting warmed up, getting set to come in. we'll talk about the center field situation regarding the nationals and kind of get mark's take on who he thinks may be the answer. right now there's no question,

it's willie harris the way he's playing, not only with the bat and glove. we'll be back to visit with mark in a minute on nats extra pre-game. stay with us. n. n. it's on. oh, yeah, it's on. pilot: affirmative, it's on.

welcome back, everybody. starting line-ups today.

this has become a number one issue for them. i think mike rizzo is going to be looking for a center fielder. >> when you look at what this ball club has done, four straight wins, probably played the best baseball these last four. >> pitching and defense, amazing what a difference that makes when you've got good starting pitching seven innings and solid defense. it gives you a chance to win every game as long as you can score a couple runs. >> happy father's day to you. anticipating father's day for you. mark of the washington times. stick around. we've got nationals baseball coming up when they try to go for their fifth consecutive

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