pnc. leading the way.  last night in baltimore, the orioles and the nationals renewed their rivalry and the birds had their bats going. 16 base hits and an 11-2 win. tonight it's the rematch, can't we all get along. up next on masn. >> big crowd on hand at orioles park at camden yards as the orioles and the nationals renew the battle of the beltways. tonight it is game two of this weekend series. hi, everyone. jim hunter with jim palmer. bob carpenter and rob dibble coming up as well. as a former pitcher, you had to love last night. >> i think what dave trembley really liked about it is bergesen wasn't on the top of his game.

again, if you hang around long enough and the orioles comes up with eight runs in the sixth inning, they get 16 hits with ties their high for the season, but the important thing, one run in 20 innings down in florida. they get swept, they come back here, they love to play at home, they're five games over .500. >> so bob and rob, it's all about trying to get a series to do that the nats need to bounce back tonight. >> they'll try to do it with a rookie pitcher, he's been in those streaks where one pitch or one inning has been deciding his wins and losses. >> he has to go out there and battle for a team that pretty much destroyed his team last night. it was more like a battle of the belt loop last night. the nationals need to come out strong tonight or they're going get swept under the rug again tonight. >> manny's defense not that great lately. cristian guzman dh's tonight. >> alberto gonzalez is a great contact guy.

he can get on base, he can do a lot of things. then you get speed behind him. then you get to the meat of the order. >> all right, can the nats stop a hot hitting baltimore team? we shall see. opening lineups and first pitch from camden yards straight ahead. 

 >> jim h.: it's a big crowd on hand tonight on nick markakis t- shirt night. orioles park at camden yards and beautiful weather night as the birds try to make it back- to-back wins. southwest airlines starting lineups for tonight for the nationals, coming in at 21-50, willie harris, guzman, zimmerman, josh bard the

catcher, red-hot. belliard at second, kearns in right field. >> jim h.: take a look at our pnc scouting report. 0-1 lifetime, has yet to beat the nationals. don't hang 'em. he is tied for the most home runs in the american league. again, not very good at night. 3-1 in the daytime. and we do have a twilight. you don't want to think it's a night game tonight. >> jim h.: do you really think about those kind of things as pitchers? >> jim p.: i'm just trying to come up with something. there it is. >> rob: i like the nighttime. >> jim p.: i couldn't see at night because of my vision. i liked to pitch in the day. >> rob: myra ra is better in the day. >> jim h.: with jeremy guthrie,

the important inning, you could probably say this about every pitcher, but especially guthrie, the important inning is the first inning. the breaking ball down and in. 1-1 on harris. >> rob: there's willie harris from georgia, by the orioles. he's been around a long time. he can play every position, except maybe pitch. >> jim p.: he came up as an oriole. jim, you did the interview with him where actually he played, what, second base and brian roberts played shortstop. >> jim h.: a base hit into right field. yeah, they were both drafted in 99. brian was a settlemental pick, and willie went in the 24th round. they were both at delmarva. 

 >> jim h.: the toss to first. willie has blazing speed, six steals on the year. he's been caught only once. >> jim p.: you don't run a lot on guthrie. i'm not sure that will be the case here. as you mentioned, you want to try to get runs on the board early, make it a little better for a young, martis is what, 21 years old? >> rob: yeah, he's 21, 22 years old. he hasn't won in six weeks, and it would be nice to take a little pressure off of him tonight, get a couple of runs, or at least one run across early. >> jim h.: cristian guzman batting at .33. he's tied for 8th in the national league in base hits, fifth in batting. the thing about guzman that i really like, regardless of if

he's right or left, he really slaps the ball. >> rob: that's what i love about him. he doesn't overswing. he doesn't do too much. he knows his limitations, so he tries to just put the ball in play, use his speed. i think a lot of hitters could learn from a guy like cristian guzman. the more you put it in play, you put pressure on the defense, you use your speed, guys throw the ball away. >> jim p.: last year he hit a home run off jeremy guthrie, tried to come up and in, and didn't settle for just giving him a single which he does so well. >> rob: a couple nights ago against the red sox to put the game on ice, he came up in a situation with runners on, first and second, i think one out, and he hit a triple, and he hit it into the gap. he won't do anything that's unexpected. he'll be a good situational guy. right here he's probably going to try to hit-and-run in between first and second. >> jim h.: quick toss to first. harris diving back in. >> jim p.: they've only

attempted four steals all year long, and when you look at jeremy guthrie, a lot of starts, snap throw, just hold it. if you go to 3-2, then you know harris is running. >> jim h.: he doesn't go and there's a ball hit to center field. adam jones will play it on a hop. so here come the nats, back-to- back singles to begin the first inning. >> rob: that was about a half a swing, kind of like a slap in the water, and that's all he does. >> jim p.: i look at so many guys that overswing and this is not one of them. last year looked like he was on his way to getting 200 hits. ended up with 183. as jim said, when you can switch hit, his uncle taught him to switch hit when he was young. >> rob: a guy that has killed us from the mets is louie castillo, all he does is slap the ball, hit it on the ground.

>> bob: here's ryan zimmerman, the third baseman and the heart and soul of this nationals franchise. >> rob: we saw corey patterson, a tremendous speed. amazing speed, can play outfield. but his on-base percentage is under .300. he overswings. sometimes i think when you hit a lot of home runs as a young hitter, it messes you up mentally. >> bob: when corey was here, we often marveled why he didn't understand that bunting was legal. because he was so fast and take advantage of that. he had that big uppercut swing. >> rob: he just came back up for us for about a week, and did the same thing, overswinging. >> jim p.: you saw the numbers, 1 for 9. guzman was 2 for 10. if you're looking at numbers, you can throw them out the window. i know you were a reliever,

rob. you come out, it is twilight. again, your stuff could be great in the bullpen and you never know how it's going to translate once you get out on the mound. >> rob: i always feel the first thing in the fifth inning and the ninth inning are the three toughest innings of the ballgame for a pitcher. coming out and you don't have your best stuff or you had a bad warm-up, psychologically you're battling yourself instead of the hitters. >> jim h.: it's outside, ball four. so the bases are loaded and still nobody out. >> jim p.: we saw last night what did in the washington nationals was the big inning, the eight run sixth inning. and of course until then it was 3-1. and the orioles were only up a couple of runs. then all of a sudden the orioles put six singles, a double, a couple of walks. the game out of reach. >> rob: if you were in this

situation, jim, would you switch your game plan immediately to try to reduce the damage right here? >> jim p.: of course. and i think the good news and the bad news about adam dunn is you know with one swing it can be a grand slam. the other side of the coin, double play, strikes out a lot, now, he's a good high on base percentage. so there's a lot of bad things that can happen, but if the pitcher, you're trying to minimize damage, there's some good things, too. you're going to see, and gregg zaun talks about it, that jeremy guthrie, he's 96 on the radar gun, but he doesn't command his fastball early on, because i think he comes out, he's all pumped up, adrenaline rushing and he's overthrowing early in the game. the numbers support that. >> rob: you can see right now he's not even picking up his target. he's just overthrowing, not picking up zaun, looking at the guy at second. >> jim p.: that's what really usually happens when you overthrow.

you could see the numbers right there. a lot higher early on, because i think he just tries to maybe get a little bit more radar gun conscious. right there, a curveball, 2-1. >> jim h.: gregg zaun is going to go out and talk to guthrie. nowhere to put adam dunn. >> jim p.: at some point, we can look at the windup, it's pretty simple. again, this is a breaking ball so the head doesn't jerk as much, you have to trust your stuff. right here you have to throw the ball to the middle of the plate and hope it doesn't end there. you've been trying to make good pitches that are not going where he wants to. >> rob: you have to get on the same page here. got to have good communication with your battery-mate. >> jim p.: you know the nationals obviously, they want dunn to either walk, get a base hit, maybe hate home run. and the orioles are looking for an adam ball. one thing about dunn, he doesn't get cheated.

>> rob: no, but he's very patient. >> jim h.: it's inside, ball four. there's a bases loaded walk and the nationals grab the 1-0 lead and still nobody out. two hits and back-to-back walks. >> jim p.: very close. again, when you can see, pulled off the outside corner, even though it's tried to be nicely framed. >> jim h.: so the nationals get on the boards, so they get martis the lead before he takes the mound, as willie harris led off with a single and comes around to score. >> jim p.: another difficulty is josh willingham is going to step to the plate, everybody knows, including jeremy guthrie, that this guy can hit the fastball. we saw that last night. bergesen got in trouble in the second. willingham got a hit on a 2-0 fastball. he hit a grand slam against the orioles in the exhibition game right before the start of the season. so you're out there, you're

pretty defenseless. you can't get your breaking ball over. >> rob: when he's throwing the breaking ball, he's throwing it down in the zone. hitters aren't going to swing at that. so you have to just lay it in there and trust your stuff. trust that the hitter is going to make an out. >> jim p.: when he did get ahead of willie harris, he didn't make a good pitch with his breaking ball and he singled into right field to start this. >> bob: 17 home runs, that is tied for the american league lead. we talked about you want to eat sliders, don't hang them. >> rob: is there a reason why zaun's catching guthrie tonight? >> jim p.: no. >> jim h.: wieters has caught nine of the last 10 games and zaun has not caught since last saturday in philadelphia. >> rob: i'm just thinking maybe he's more a little older, maybe he can try to calm down guthrie if he gets in a jam like he is right now. >> jim h.: he's in a big one

here, 1-2 on willingham, so he gets ahead of another batter. check swing, strike three is called on the inside corner. so there's the first out on a called strikeout by willingham. >> bob: did it get the inside corner? only the home plate umpire thought so. one out in the inning. let's head downstairs. >> debbi: now, josh bard is hitting .385 with runners in scoring position. he told me today that he credits former orioles and his former padres hitting coach for giving him the proper mindset with runners on base. >> jim h.: thank you very much. >> when nobody's on, you feel like you have to hit a double or drive a ball. but he says like when guys are in runners are in scoring position, just hit a single. don't try to do too much and i think that that's helped me to really zone pitches up.

the pressure's on them, it's not on me. so a lot of it's just mindset. >> debbi: bard is hitting .400 for the month of june and he said it's his work with rick that's helped him. rick said he's got a great routine, he simplified his approach at the plate and he shortened his swing which is very difficult to do at the big league level. >> jim h.: all right, debbi, thank you. >> rob: the more he catches, the more reps he gets at the plate, we really see the offense coming out of the bard now. but he's also, like i said, last night calling better games, defensively he's gotten better, throwing people out. so every part of his game has gotten better the more he's behind the plate. >> jim h.: fouled back, 2-2.

>> rob: josh bard has been hitting the ball the other way. he's driven the ball into the gaps and hit a couple of home runs. the only guy with a couple of hits last night. you see him in the last six games he's been on fire. right now it's hard for manny acta to get him out of the line- up. >> jim h.: and he fouls it back. guthrie has five wins on the year, three here at camden yards, two on the road, and his e.r.a. is dramatically better here at home, three runs a game less. >> jim p.: he really mirrors the orioles pitching staff. they're down in the low 40's. he's even lower than that at home. the team e.r.a. very much like the nationals, over six runs a game on the road. that's an awfully good pitch right there. you normally expect to maybe get a guy to roll over. i think the one thing, i threw

a change-up, i learned it pitching one day, threw him a -- i said, boy, that is pretty good pitch. but his change-up varied, at 87. a lot of guys fastballs are at 87. there's not a whole lot of separation. >> rob: not a lot of differential. how can he work on that? >> jim p.: i think it's just the way your grip is. if you're an adrenaline type guy where you have a tendency to overthrow. if the radar gun was your only test, you wouldn't be 5-7 with an e.r.a. of 5 runs a game. it's about making quality pitches. you could just watch tonight, watch gregg zaun's glove and see where the ball goes. >> jim h.: so another 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded. and he fouls it off. so the battle here, and dave trembley before the game in his pregame press conference

talking about guthrie early on said the one thing he was hoping to see tonight was guthrie to avoid a very high pitch count early on. >> jim p.: but he talked about the fact that what the nationals pitchers threw 62 pitches in that sixth inning yesterday. >> jim h.: high, ball four. another bases loaded walk. >> rob: that was his 32nd pitch in the first inning. johan santana up in new york, we got him to throw 41 pitches in one inning. >> jim p.: you have a guy that's only walked 25 coming into the game almost through 87 innings, already three here in the first. >> rob: hour guy last night had trouble pitching on the road. his e.r.a. is enormous on the road. how do you teach young kids to get over the sold out crowd in somebody else's house. >> jim p.: i really never thought about that, to be quite honest. but then again i had the luxury

of rooming with robin roberts when i was 19, having veteran pitchers that led the way. >> rob: we don't have a lot of veterans. our oldest guy in ouroation has 50-plus starts, he's 25 years old. >> bob: here's a guy, you got to go right at him, but he's only walked five times in the year. >> jim p.: watch this helicopter swing. >> jim h.: there's a strike, 2- 1. already bullpen activity. >> jim p.: the last thing dave trembley wants to do is relieve jeremy guthrie. but he's putting him in a pretty awkward position. where you have to get somebody up. >> jim h.: fastball is high, ball three. the two balls put in play began the inning back-to-back singles, since then three walks and a called strike three. now 3-1 on belliard.

sharply hit foul. >> rob: we see guthrie working from the windup. is that because he's uncomfortable in the stretch. is that because he thinks he has better stuff in the windup? >> jim p.: i think he's the starting pitcher and he doesn't think that the runner from third is going to steal. he's just struggling to put a pitch over. you just hope somebody hits something at somebody. to the credit of the nationals, sometimes you have those games, where you make the good pitches and they just foul them off. and you get deeper in the count, then you can't execute your pitches. all of a sudden it's kind of like a merry-go-round. look at those numbers. and this guy could swing the bat. maybe not this year, but in years past. hitting has never been a problem. >> jim h.: hit towards shortstop, andino to second, roberts at first, there's the double play and guthrie gets out of a very in-- gets out of

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8th. >> rob: give you the pnc bank scouting report. he's got to cut down on the walks. 19 walks since he won that last game in the middle of may, it's turned into 30 runs over that time. and he really needs to attack the strike zone and relax out there, because got to get ahead to get to his out pitch which is his change-up. >> bob: shairon martis on the mound. foul ground, gets there and he makes the catch. willingham just sticking the glove out and it came down, so roberone pitch is retired and one away. >> jim p.: a big breezeerat camden yads. we couldn't figurout ónn'th field how it was blowing. the turf here, warning track. >> bob: adam jones looking for

the breakout game and he got it. >> jim p.: arted out with the double, he ends up a single, double, triple. the at-bat he had against hanrahan, part of that eight- run sixth inning. there you go. you can look numbers. havinga terrific year for the kid about to turn 24 years old in august. >> rob: i wonder if pete rose ever changed his hitting approach or style or batting stance, he said, no. % i knew i'd go through slumps, but he said i knew i' hit m% wayout ofslumsso  changeatig >> jimp:whatdid he get, 4300-plus hits? >> rob: yes. >> jim p.: why would you ever be in a slump? an 11o 1,200 hit seas wade bogs use today say, i'm not in a slump. i'm in a period of adjustment.

>> bob: s tsn bae here with one down in the rst inning. >>ro: here'sthe nationals deense. you have willie harris, joh willinghamin leftfield, austinkearnss getting the start inilbe thing tjosh --6@@2 yeavsld, he's got le than 20 starts at the major >>jmp.: had him at 21. e's22.%%-->>bob: he >> jim p.: you look at his numbers. i looked at his numbers today, he must get run support because he's 5-2 with an e.r.a. over five runs a game. he owns righties, they're only hitting .173 coming e game. >> rob: you see his change-up and his running fastball go in on right-handers and away from lefties. but sometimes he leaves that change-up up, almost as if he

gets nervous. in three at-bats in a row to ryan howard in two games, he gave up a grand slam arc home run and a grand slam. so it's -- but also and he gave up some to ibanez against the phillies. you have to trust your stuff. you have to be able to say i'm going to throw this change-up, it's going to dive out of the zone. you're either going to hit a ground ball or miss it. >> jim p.: don't you think for, and i think the orioles went through that in the late 80s when they hit about 209 home runs and gave up about 215. what happens if you don't have a good defense, you start not pitching to contact. you want to strike guys out and you're not a strikeout pitcher. >> bob: willie harris is right there, backs up a step or two. jones halfway back to first. two down. >> rob: that was a very good fastball that ran away from him. and he has to trust the

fastball so that he can get, he's got a good breaking ball, excellent change-up. but a loft times he falls behind. then he'll throw that fastball which is not overpowering right down the middle of the plate. >> bob: another nice crowd here as the orioles welcome in their rivals from the south. >> jim p.: think about the weather change. the humidity went away. if you had weather like this, everybody would want to live in baltimore. in the washington metroplex. you were probably up early out on the farm today, jim. >> jim h.: absolutely. >> jim p.: picking blueberries. >> jim h.: i get those shipped in from new jersey. there was a little garden snake in the garden. >> jim p.: really. >> jim h.: i love nature. >> rob: don't kill it. >> jim h.: absolutely. i was just trying to keep our dogs away from it. >> jim p.: ever since our president took care of a fly,