boss: no, no. we can do this. gecko: oh dear. vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.  >> jim h.: here is an update on the voting of today's at&t player of the game. oscar salazar a surprising leader. voters not impressed, 19%. still time to text in your votes. tom and rick will have the results on "o's xtra." back here at orioles park. orioles need two to tie, the closer for the nats has come on. mike mcdougal trying to close it out an get john lannan a win.

>> rob: mike has done a great job since coming back up. pitched in middle relief, setup role, now he's assumed the closer's role. got his first save hins kansas city the other night. 2 for 2 so far in save opportunities. throws mid 90s. he's going to bring the heat. >> jim p.: reimold is right- handed along with scott coming up. >> rob: great kid. they've had to turn over the bullpen earlier in the season. a lot of they throw maybe a few too many strikes, but they've done a much better job since they turned over the bullpen. this is part of this transition. >> jim p.: are they 19-4 after having a lead after eight innings, 0-40 when they're trailing after late.

gives you an idea how hard it is to come back and win games. it goes back to that 8th inning whenaubrey huff teststhe arm of elijah dukes this guy wou meone a chance to tie it. ballgame. play in this >> m h.: reimold ove r >> rob: this is what you the orioles have not homered in this game er hitting t but it'

>> jim h.: ball two. reimold, good man to be leing off in the ninth inning, because when you need to get the tying run to the plate and the tying run is still on deck, he's a very patient hitter, and he knows right now a walk is as good as anything. >> jim p.: it certainly is. you just need to get on some way. of course mcdougal knows exactly that. if manny acta and earl weaver was his manager instead of manny, he said, hey, can't get beat until you get somebody on. of course or they can't tie it up until you get somebody on. real negative-positive things. >> jim h.: there's that batting average. >> jim p.: and i know he's an orioles and i know we're doing both games, but have you seen a loft young, he just identifies that breaking ball and that's a pretty good breaking ball. >> rob: he does a fantastic

job. you talk about batters eyes. this kid as good as any of them. >> jim p.: i guess on friday down at the cage, i was talking to nolan, i said, were you always like that way. hitting instructor said, well, most guys will learn how to hit for power once they get to the big leagues, he's already figured that out. watch him get back on his right foot. and that little toe tap. that's the smoo.thness of the swing. reimold down on strikes. >> rob: that last one was a 96- mile an hour moving fastball. hitters will let you know how you're throwing. that ball just runs away and down. you can't hit a two run homer with nobody on base. >> jim p.: that reminded me a little bit of sean green from the mets with a little more

velocity. >> jim h.: luke scott now. >> jim p.: it's kind of interesting the way they try oh go after nolan reimold. a pretty good fastball hitter. at the end of the day what did he come back to. >> rob: fastball. >> jim p.: his best pitch. >> rob: absolutely. if he hits a home run, you're still up a run. that's the kind of stuff we've been talking about. think about it before you walk up to the plate. what are you looking to do. you need to get on. somebody needs to hit a home run to tie the score. if you're pitching, you have to think the same way backward. >> jim h.: willingham in on it as it hung up. orioles down to their final out. >> jim p.: that is why your bullpen coaches with a young pitching staff is constantly saying, hey, be prepared, watch the game, pay attention. because when you come in, it's usually in clutch situations,

especially when you're trying to win ballgames. the late l. rod hendricks, he was here for 38 years, 39 years, he would just make the guys pay attention and focus. >> rob: what's your bread and butter. whether a change-up, curveball, fastball, but what is your bread and butter. if you're going to get beat, get beat with your best pitch, not second or third or i don't want to throw this pitch and you've got second thoughts. >> jim p.: i think that's just a cut fastball. >> rob: he didn't try to cut but it threw it so well, it just did. >> jim p.: a lot of the scouts said his spine angle, head angle maybe changes his release points. >> jim h.: outside 1-2. want to thank you for all of your insights here, jim and i have

enjoyed working with you and bob carpenter, as the masn families come together. >> rob: speaking for bob carpenter, i totally and thoroughly enjoyed it. it has been a lot of fun. >> jim h.: always good to have our cousins from d.c. visit. you're an honorary member of the palmer hunter family. >> rob: bob and rob thank you. it is bob and rob. >> jim h.: 2-2 the count, two men down. >> jim p.: it's really robert and robert. >> rob: and jim and jim. >> jim h.: james and james. james alvin, james dennis. and a slow ground ball to short. and a toss to first. that ends it. the nationals salvage the finale in this three-game

series. nationals win 5-3.   >> jim h.: both these teams head back to league play tomorrow. scott olson on the mound against nolasco. coverage begins. the orioles stay home, they'll welcome in the red sox. now for bob carpenter, jim palmer, rob dibble, amber theoharis and debbi taylor and our entire masn family, jim hunter saying so long. johnny holliday, ray knight. the nats salvage the last game

of the weekend series. the nationals finish 6-9 in their 15 ballgames. >> tonight lannan, he's going to be our stopper. they tacked on two runs there, but just three runs in the seven-plus innings. >> and gets his fifth win of the season in doing so. >> evens that record. i've always felt he's going to be a 15-game winner. if he has a big second half, that could happen for him this year. >> defining moment came in the fourth inning, the nationals down 1-0, then they get on the board with one big swing of the bat by adam dunn. >> it was set up by this double, as he takes the fastball down and rips it down the line to set adam up. then he tried to get a fastball by him, down in the strike zone. he just exploded on that ball. it bounced one time. you're going to see it i think hit the building back there, the warehouse. there you go. so they had it at 446.

he just has that picture perfect swing, all that torque build-up and doesn't lose anything. he stays back on that ball and extends that bat. >> that was the 50th home run hit onto utah street, the first by a nationals player. and it went anywhere from 442 to .500. it was off the back of the wall of the warehouse. we know that. >> it was a bomb. >> it was a shot. 19th of the year. there's the line score. >> josh willingham today a. good ballgame. stolen base, his first of the year. i believe something like 1 t in his major league career. salazar for the orioles goes 1 for 4. an dino goes -- andino goes 1 for 3. good ballgame, good pitching. a nice way to spend a sunday where the nationals win. >> it's always nice to win and it makes everything so much

easier. we played good defense. lannan kept us there. bullpen came in and certainly mcdougal threw the heck out of the baseball. turned a couple double plays, and just all around very solid ballgame. >> shall we go back and take a look at john lannan's game today. first inning he breezed past, then you pick it up from here. >> he walked reimold. he actually had three walks today, which is not generally what he does. he throws him a breaking ball there 3-2. scott comes up behind him and gets a high hanging breaking ball that he rips down the right-field line, ends up second and third. salazar then comes up, and puts him in a situation where he hits a ground ball through the left side. scores a run. it could have been a lot worse than that. he ends up getting wieters to hit a ground ball to first, then ends up being a double play. then he got andino to ground out right back to the catcher,

short little dribbler. so kind of like our game last night. they had an opportunity to put a lot of runners on, didn't do anything. he walks huff to start the third off, but he gets reimold lined to second. anderson can't come up with it. that would have been an he's iscy double play. scott then flies out as willie gets a great jump on this ball. >> he's quick. >> then we're going to see a run of ground balls here as he start that had sinker working. he threw 63 strikes, 39 balls, he had the sinker working. there's another good sinker, a chopper. trying to pull the ball. there's no way to pull that ball. seventh inning, starts off with fly ball out there. a little confusion, but they worked it out pretty quickly. then ends up base hit, actually out. so he gets the two outs.

then wieters comes up, strikes him out. he went out for the 8th. i got one inning behind. first time i've ever in my life. then manny makes the decision that, hey, the kid's gone out there, he's given me 7-plus innings after the ground ball to third. he brings in beimel, gets this to the right side. then as i said, manny came out there, took him out. they scored two runs off of him. so he gave up three for the day. got it rolling. >> he did. 7 1/3, six hits, three earned runs, walked three, struck out two. john started off the year 2- 5:00 now he's 5-5. look at the last five quality starts. complete game against the mets.

8-plus against the yankees, 6- plus against the red sox, 7- plus against the baltimore today. >> there's no question he's the ace of this staff. he knows how to pitch and he's gotten there quickly. last year he had a great year. today was just indicative of what he does. he normally doesn't walk three guys. he's just able to throw strikes. he threw 75% fastballs, which it seems to me that they're doing more of, forcing the fastball. we only had him recorded as six change-ups, sometimes they put that in there wrong and it could an breaking ball. overall he threw 27 breaking balls to 65 fastballs. >> it's almost to the point now every time he takes to the hill, you know you're going to get six, seven, eight, maybe a complete game out of this guy. >> your number one starter, the number one criteria is that he's going to give you seven

innings every outing. if he gives you 35 starts, he's going to push 230, 240 innings. he's on that pace to give you 200-plus, no doubt about it. he's one guy that i don't believe manny acta will shut down. >> adam dunn today with career home run number 297. ♪ xxúú ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ (announcer) it's right here, it's easy... ♪ always feel like mebody's watching me. ♪ ...it's the money you could be saving with geico. ♪ who's watching? ♪ i always feel like (announcer) it's right here, it's easy... ♪ somebody's watching me. ...it's the money you could be saving with geico.

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traffic is chaotic, so be careful when you go out. ♪ from the degree men absolute protection line... comes new degree men v12 special edition. protection for the ride of your life. nationals 5, the orioles 3. let's go back to camden yards, debbi taylor standing by with today's winning pitcher, john lannan. >> thank you very much, johnny. john, you started the first four innings with the lead-off batters getting on every time, then it seemed like you settled down after that. >> first couple of innings i was struggling with my two-

seamer on the outside part of the plate, the last four i felt pretty good. i had to battle through that second inning. glad we got the win today. >> seemed like everything was working for you later in the game. >> yeah, i mean, i was just throwing like i have been throwing. the first couple of innings wasn't myself. i was kind of picking at the corners and my two-seamer was running off that plate, so i told him to set up a little more middle so i could set up my pitches a little bit more. >> what did you think that have? >> they did great today. they put up five runs and really can't complain about the way they hit today. >> finally, it seems like you guys seem to do well on getaway days. heading to florida now? >> i just love playing a getaway day, a plane trip or bus trip is always better when you wayne ballgame. >> sounds good. thank you, john lannan. let's go back to johnny and ray in our studios.

>> our congratulations to john lannan, winner of his fifth ballgame this year. you caught something talking to debbi taylor. >> it's a part of leadership. he told wil to move to the center of the plate because he was just missing with his fastball. that's the first time i've heard the assertiveness, but i've seen the assertiveness from john for the last probably month. there's just a different attitude. i don't know what it is. we always call it that it. he has it. he has it on the mound, that special something. he's starting to express it. even in the way that he talks, he's developing, i don't think it's an eric but it's a very positive oh aura or attitude about his confidence as a pitcher. he expects to go out there and win. >> a confidence swagger maybe would be the term? >> i like that. that's why you get paid all the big bucks. confidence swagger. >> shall we talk about the nationals offense today. they did score two, came up in the fourth inning. they scored another run in the

sixth and that wasn't all. they scored another run in the seventh and they win it 5-3. >> fourth inning, zimmerman doubled. fastball down, 2-1 count. as he ripped that ball to left field. his 20th double on the year. then adam dunn on his usual pace to hit 40, hits his 19th somewhere out there, i know it bounced off that window on the warehouse. then zimmerman singles again, a little infielder. gets the ball by third baseman there, and hits the ball hard. willie singles to left. he's been swinging the bat well. dukes hits the fielder's choice. this could have probably been a double play, but third baseman ends up touching the bag. didn't set himself. some of the guys were saying that he was out, but he pulled him off the base. a sweet stroke by anderson right back up the middle.

willingham running really hard, he's out at the plate. wieters drops the ball as adam jones threw a seed there. don't throw it. fastball moving right back to the middle of the plate. see ya. for his fourth home run of the year. he has that short, quick stroke. >> third home run the last nine games for willie, too. hard to keep him off the bases. >> when he gets it rolling. we saw that last year. a guy that had maybe four home runs in his career, ends up hitting 14. >> you got to keep him in the lead, at the lead-off numbers he's got today. willingham, we talked about in our pregame show, goes 3 for 4, anderson hernandez goes 3 for 4 in this win. >> i'm not managing and i didn't have that much success when i did, but i do know this. he is our best centerfielder, we're only going to be as good as our defense is with these young pitchers.

he makes us better defensively. leading off he can fill a base, he can swing a bat. he has some pop. he has a better on-base percentage than guzman when you look at comparing walking. he knows how to play the game. yes, i would leave him right there, but manny's the big boss. >> scouting report for the orioles says if you're manny acta, matt wieters has trouble throwing runners out. i think he's thrown out one runner so far up into the ballgame today. he got one but the nats got a couple on him. >> but it's not because he can't throw. he threw 95 miles per hour at georgia tech. his ball's tailing back a little bit, not quite on top. their instructor is here though. you see with him gunning the ball there. he's 6'5", he also falls back when he throws as opposed to following the throw. as he got hernandez there. willie harris gets a great

jump. this throw, it's right there, but willie just beats the throw. this kid's going to be all right. borderline. that ball couldn't be played in a -- placed in a better spot as we see a different angle. how about this, josh willingham choosing to steal third base. wieters throws the ball away. we're able to get an easy run there. josh willingham, you mentioned he stole 90 bases i think in college. that's just a ball that got away from wieters, no chance to get him out there. >> look at the smile on dunn's face. there was a deal today the nationals pulled off. ryan langerhans moves to the seattle organization, in exchange for mike morris. >> anytime that you can get middle infielders, you do it. morris is a middle infielder. i think the key there is that, as our crack producer told us,

the connection here is that jim riggleman was in seattle, so he saw this kid play, likes him, and we're just guessing that might be where this trade stemmed from. makes sense to you? >> it does make a lot of sense to me, raymond. 474 games for langerhans, 107 for morris, .300 batting average. >> ryan, you hate to see him go. he's a right kind of player. he always gave everything he had. good defensively, ran the bases well. but there's just no chance to even play here. he'll probably go up there and he'll be an excellent fourth outfielder coming off bench, pinch running and pinch- hitting. change is good sometimes and he's changed around a lot lately. >> langerhans, a former member of the atlanta braves. a pretty good pitching performance for tommy hanson today. we'll touch on that.

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we take you down on the farm today. syracuse and pawtucket, 6-2 chiefs. >> that's three in a row he hasn't given up anything. only one earned run in his last 17 innings. >> first of two between harrisburg and erie. erie leading 4-2. let's take you back out to camden yards, rob dibble and jim palmer standing by. what did you guys think about the series this weekend? >> thanks, guys. well, jim, that was a great series. we get the finale, but really the last two games were much better than the first game where it was kind of a blowout. >> it's kind of interesting. the nationals had beat the red sox, full houses in washington. the orioles had gone down, they scored one run in 20 1/3

inning, get swept down in miami. we have adam jones hitting .200 for the month of june. so the orioles needed to win on friday, but they end up 11-1 but it was a very close game until the 6th inning. on saturday night, again, a early lead by the nationals, the orioles come back, they hit three home runs, the hanging change-up that one of the better young players for the orioles nolan reimold hits off of martis. so this is a situation where today you have your best left- hander going out there and the orioles didn't do a whole lot of things wrong on friday and saturday. the nationals seemed to take care of it. >> you saw a lot of our young guys. you saw detwiler the first night, martis, second time, third time through the order is a lot of difficulty getting outs. today lannan was masterful the second and third time. as you go along in your career,

how can some of the younger pitchers that were in these two series really start focusing the second and third time through the batting order. >> i think if you paid attention today, a lot of times your jam could come at any particular time in a ballgame. lannan gets in trouble, they get a walk, a double, a single, one run in. all after sudden scott doesn't make a very good base running decision. he gets the double play, then the out. if i'm a young pitcher and i'm looking at john lannan with what he's the veteran of the staff, with 50 starts. i'm going, what did he do that i need to do? i need to command the ball. so i think something very insightful for a lot of the young pitchers. if you look back at the last 23, 24 games, a huge step not only for lannan, but i think for the entire pitching staff. >> that's going to do it from here at camden yards. now back to you guys. >> rob, thank you very much. 5-3 the final today. inside the series, two wins fo