and if you missed partúxx hi, everybody. happy sunday afternoon to you. nice to have you along with us. "nats xtra pregame" here on masn. as the nationals try to salvage game three of this big weekend beltway, battle of the beltway series at camden yards, after an 11-1 loss and a 6-3 loss last night. kind of an interesting news coming down last night about the situation involving craig stammen who had started seven games, now he goes to the bullpen for the nats. >> i'm really happy for him. i thought he threw well enough to remain up here and i think it was the right decision to make.

he can throw the ball over the plate. he's got the curveball, change- up, that sinking fastball, and i know that he's going to go out there and be able to throw the ball over the plate. he's our first true long guy that we've had here since i've been here. davey johnson used to call him the 6th starter. he was a guy in a anytime the game got out of hand early, you had somebody to come in there and not only eat up innings, but keep you close. i think he can do that. he's had some minor league appearances, with a great earned run average. what was he pitching then? >> pitching, in college at university of dayton. >> and craig was asked about being sent to the bullpen, his reaction, did he like it or is he not too thrilled about it? >> glad to still be here, i guess. obviously you want to stick around as starter, but the guy's been doing this for a while so he deserves his spot

back. but i'm excited. i've been in the bullpen a little in college. >> this bullpen's been struggling and the team is obviously confident you can help make it better. >> yeah, hopefully. i'm going to go in and give it my all just like i have when i was starting. so i'm looking forward to it. we'll see what we can do. >> he had his first major league win against the yankees, shut them out in that 3-0 shut- out for washington, on the biggest stage in major league baseball. interesting, his opening comments, well, i guess i'm going to go down and i think i'll be able to handle this. does that say he's unhappy or is -- >> no, he's not unhappy. i think he may be a little disappointed. the sweet and sour deal. he's happy that he's here, no question about it, because i guarantee, before yesterday i don't think anybody's told him that he was guaranteed a spot here. i i think he thought that he pitched well enough to retain a spot here, as do i. but he's

got to be disappointed, if you're a starter, you consider that a demotion, and if you have any grit about you, any of that tremendous we've been talking a lot about gladiators, fire. >> sure. >> if he's got that in him, he wants to be a starter, so he'll work his way back to that rotation. if anybody falters a little bit, he'll be right there. >> i think i did like his comment talking about scott olson as a veteran, he's been around for a long time, not that much longer than craig, he's not too much older than craig, but he deserves the opportunity to come back to the rotation. he'll be coming off the dl either today or tomorrow and will start tomorrow night down in florida. >> if he comes off today, then that will leave us a pitcher short. here's a kid that everybody wanted to acquire, when he was down there with the marlins. he put together 600 innings, 30 wins, had the second most starts of any left-hander in

the national league, and the third most wins behind kazmir and hamels for a kid that's 25 years or younger. i like the way he competes. manny saw that when he went throughout and gave him six innings when he was a little injured that probably led to him going on the disabled list. raised by his mother. very strong kid. he's high strung. he had some problems in florida with his attitude, but not his attitude because of his lack of desire. his attitude because he wanted it so badly. he would slam a glove or a batting helmet because he expects a lot out of himself. >> four starts in rehab with potomac, syracuse, won a ballgame, didn't lose any. 22 hits. you like the walk to strikeout ratio, 13 to 6? >> well, 2-to-1 is good, 3-to-1 is better. he didn't walk anybody.

he had a little trouble with his control up here, but he normally has been a guy that has a 3-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio and can punch you out. he's had games where he's had 8 to 10 strikeouts several times, but his key is being able to, like anybody's key. he has to get that fastball over early. then he has a really hard 11 to 5 breaking ball that he can throw it anytime. he's one of the best young pitching prospects in baseball coming into this season, that's what he was thought of. there's no reason to think that he's not going to be able to attain that level where he goes out there and gives you 200 innings plus. he won 12 ballgames for the marlins all the way back in 05 when he was a rookie. >> you know he'll be pumped up tomorrow night down in florida against the team he pitched for last year. we'll come back with more of our "nats xtra pregame." ♪

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we didn't get it done. we had a couple of shots there with the bases loaded, less than two outs, or nobody out, those guys, they made their pitches. they got us to hit into a double play and ground balls. they made their pitches. nobody in here is trying to ground out with the bases loaded obviously. but those guys made their pitches. come back out here tomorrow and be ready to go. >> that's my man, willie harris. it's safely six, look at that catch, six of his last eight games. pride and joy of georgia, four for his last 11. guess where he's going to be in the line-up today? would you say leading off? >> that's where i would put him. >> that's what he's going to do. lead-off spot for willie harris, cristian guzman in the number two hole, adam dunn will be the dh today hitting fifth

behind zimmerman, elijah dukes in right field and wil nieves will get the duties today catching john lannan against the baltimore orioles. for the o's, second baseman ty wigginton, six game hitting streak, he's 13 for 26 during that streak. what a game he had against the braves on june 14. he'll be hitting in the number two hole, because adam jones leads off for baltimore, he'll be in center field, wigginton the second baseman, nolan reimold in the cleanup spot who homered last night in left, the dh is luke scott for the birds, third base oscar salazar, matt wieters will catch and robert andino at shortstop. ty wigginton, nine of 18 his last five ballgames for the birds. let's see what they can do

today against john lannan. lannan is about due to get back on the winning track? been pitching as good as anybody on this ball club. >> in his last seven games he has a 2.65 earned run average. over his last 14 starts, take away the first start, he's at 2.98. he can't pitch any better. he's only yielded more than three runs in one of his starts over his last 13, so he's our staff ace, he's the guy that goes out there and makes pitches day after day, it's a continuation of last year. i'd like to see us get him some runs. we're still only scoring three runs a game for him throughout his career. you could have that won/loss record reversed. he's going for his fifth win to even up his record. >> when josh willingham came to the ball clon, willingham -- ball club, he made it clear, i came here it play. now he's producing at maybe the right time as they head back down to florida tomorrow to start a series against his

former ball club as well. >> josh has always been a hitter. you look all the way down to the minor leagues, he's been a guy that led his team in hitting, run production. when he plays every day and gets 500 at-bats, he hits 25 home runs. josh bard, very similar, he hit .338 one year for san diego, the next year he came back and hit .285 and drove in 51 runs in only 300 plate appearances. these two guys add a veteran presence in the line-up. they both are hot, swing the bat extremely well. josh bard, he's taken up a lot of that slack now that he's gotten his batting eye and getting good balls to hit that we lost when flores went out. >> it looks like the florida tooning of bard and nieves is working so far. >> i don't think it's a straight platoon anymore. i think josh bard has earned a majority of the playing time,

and he is swinging the bat well. it's something we need, in dire need of us to be able to have consistent offensive production. he's gotten big hit after big hit over the last three or four weeks of the season. >> one of the reasons josh bard is swinging the bat so good might be the hitting coach of the nationals, rick eckstein. debbi taylor caught up with him a few minutes ago. >> rick, you have had such a knack for being able to personalize your approach to the different individual hitters. how difficult is that to do? >> it's not easy. it takes time to sit down with each individual and go through a game plan and go through an approach, a swing approach, and then the daily maintenance on that, then you go back and make your adjustments and, so it's a constant process of communication and work ethic and putting it together in the games. >> this season has been difficult at times, but some

bright spots, and cristian guzman is one guy who is fourth in the majors in hitting and just what are you seeing with him at the senate. >> cristian is a very good hitter in his own right. he's aggressive and he's aggressive in the strike zone, and, you know, probably the biggest at tribute that cristian does is it never changes. when he's in situations, when he's leading off an inning or coming up with runners in scoring position or, you know, anything, he's always staying mentally the same and physically the same, that's huge at tribute. >> how proud are you of the work that josh bard has done? he has been on fire in the month of june. >> he's done a very nice job for himself. when i first met him in spring training, when he came over to the nationals, you know, you could see in his eye, in the way he talked and went about his day that he is a hard worker, and he's very disciplined to stay within his routine and make the necessary

adjustments. and he's done that. and he's doing a nice job carrying it out. >> thank you very much, rick eckstein. let's go back to johnny and ray. >> thank you very much. rick eckstein, the fifth year with the organization, fourth nationals hitting coach in the last four years, also at triple- a columbus last year. his stature may fool you. don't let the diminish you active nature of rick eckstein cloud the pick, but these guys respect what he does. >> he's got some fire. you look at his brother david, that family has tremendous fire. he's the only guy that i've seen come out of the dugout this year, this isn't knocking anybody else, but on a call to austin kearns on a ball that was definitely down in a critical part of the game, he jumped over that rail and says, what are you thinking? what are you thinking? he's got that fire blowing. he doesn't say a lot, i guarantee you, he's the guy that's going to be in that bunker next to you if you want to be defended. >> that was the same night you reached over to me, slapped the

table, knocked the coffee over, look at him getting out of that dugout. >> we're going to dust off phil wood. you know how much effort it takes to dust off phil wood? he's got something today to tell you about you may not be aware of.

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pnc. leading the way. hi, this is mark zuckerman with today's hot corner segment. following the game, the nationals will need to make a roster move. they decided to bring scott olson back off the dl. the conventional wisdom was had a one of the starting pitchers would be sent down, but they've decided to put craig stammen in the bullpen and let him work out of there for now, so that means one of the relievers will have to be designated for assignment. the obvious choices are colome or hanrahan. in the case of hanrahan, there

still is a lot of interest from other teams and i don't think the nationals would be able to send him down without losing him altogether, not to mention the fact that as much as he's struggled, he's still a young guy who the organization thinks could conceivably put it all together at some point. as for colome, we've seen him here for now three years, he's had his moments here and there, but particularly this year has not been very effective. it would seem to me that's the most logical move to come after this game, but we'll find out once the game is over, i guess. that's it from here. >> thank you very much. there's the numbers comparing jesus colome and joel hanrahan. the big number that jumps out to me is the age difference, hanrahan a much younger guy by about four years, probably the guy they would think about keeping. >> i think so, because mainly hanrahan does not have any options left, with that kind of arm you don't want to lose him. you know that colome is not going to be the back of the

rotation guy, but you hate to see that happen. jesus works as hard as anybody, but i think hanrahan, he hasn't deserved to be here. he hasn't pitched well enough to be here. i think just the circumstances will keep him here. >> phil wood standing by to my right and i think there is a streak that you're going to talk about today as you dust off some diamonds that folks may not be aware of. >> i suspect most people aren't. i know ray can relate to t. but it's all about making productive outs. ryan zimmerman's 30 game hitting streak earlier this season really captured the attention of baseball fans. some balls that are scorched get caught, some bleeders make it past the infield. a lot of those hits go for naught, sometimes you're left tranded on base or -- stranded on base or worse. there's a stat called runs produced which has been around

since 1956. runs produced equals runs plus runs batted in minus home runs. we've known for some time every other consecutive game streak to the consecutive game home run streaks of long, mattingly and ken griffey, jr., what about consecutive games producing a run. thanks to a researcher, we now know the answer to that. just for a bit of recent background, last year lance berkman of the astros led all of baseball with a run produced streak of 21 games. the last washington player to lead the league was ed stroud in 1968 with 11, but the all- time record holder is hall of famer joe crone of the nationals of 1933. that year from the 25th of may, to the 30th of june, he produced at least a run a game. during that streak he scored 34 runs, batted in 45, his runs proud total was 77. we're talking about productive

outs here sometimes. you can go a number of games, without getting any hits, but maybe you have a sacrifice fly, maybe you have hit into a fielder's choice and a run scores on that and there's the rbi, maybe you got on base by an error or a walk and you end up scoring. washington won the pennant that year, another small bit of irony, the all time hit streak record that season also 33 games. close as anyone has come is 24 games by andres galarraga in 1997. the montreal franchise record is 15. but obviously hits are great, winning is better, and runs are much better than that. >> nobody has better diamond dust than phil wood. thank you. time for the stay in the game hold of the day. active holds leaders for the syracuse chiefs, saul rivera with five, jason bergmann and

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new fire-grilled quesadillas. only at chili's. one more coming up today against the orioles at camden yards. the nats hit the road against the marlins tomorrow night, tuesday night starting at 6:30, "nats xtra pregame," then a morning affair, 11:30 wednesday our "nats xtra pregame" on masn 2 from florida. thursday an off day, then back home for a weekend series against the braves. johnny holliday and ray knight with you. john lannan gets the opportunity today to get the things back on track again for this ball club. >> we started to talk about

john lannan, but he can't pitch any better. he has been able to throw the ball over the plate, varying speeds, in and out, up and down, and he has developed that leader attitude on the mound. you see him jump over that mound when he was with the yankees when he got that win. he's our staff ace. realistically if we scored enough runs, he should have 15 wins. hernandez, his first year in the big leagues, i looked over his minor league stats, he blew people away in the minor leagues. he has over 600 strikeouts in 500 innings. didn't walk a lot of people. fastball dominant type pitcher. we'll find out a lot about him today. >> 3-2 at norfolk for this kid hernandez. both guys only 24 years of age, both guys with tremendous up sides as far as looking down the road. >> we saw bergesen first night, and we know that we have four, five, six, seven, when you get

on down to balancister who is pitching lights out down there in triple-a, orioles are building a tremendous young ball club there, too. you look at adam jones, wieters, they have really done a great job in the draft. >> a couple of names have popped up as far as possible trade situations. one, a pirates outfielder we saw when pittsburgh was in town, nyjer morgan, the other jordan shaffer, a braves outfielder. >> i love speed. both these guys have speed, but nyjer morgan, you said to me as we were walking around, you said, how about that guy playing left field. >> does he move. >> i said, he really does. i watched him the rest of that game. he's played double-a in center field. but he can flat out fly. if you're looking at the top of the line-up type hitter, a guy that can get on base, put tremendous pressure on the defense, the pitching, he's really special. shaffer is a guy that started

the season in atlanta, his a home run his first at-bat, then he started -- ended up striking out 60 times before they demoted him. i think the most important thing that we could do is find ourselves a young centerfielder that can go from gap to gap, go to the wall, charge the ball hard and throw people out, because we have to shore up that outfield defense in order it really become a team that's going to be a factor. >> the question is now, what do these clubs want in return for these guys. >> you can bet that they're going to want probably a return outfielder like maybe lastings milledge and a pitcher, every time i look somewhere they're always mentions our young pitchers. they always ask for anybody else. >> stick around. thanks for joining us here at "nats xtra pregame." jim hunter, jim palmer, bob carpenter, rob dibble coming up. nick johnson in the cage a few minutes ago. nats try to salvage game three

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