8th. slider low and away. we arrive at the 10:00 hour. ballgame's just over two hours old after a 37 minute rain delay that got us under way at 7:47 at land shark stadium. bob, rob and debbi and our masn crew here on masn 2. johnny and ray are straight ahead with "nats xtra." but a very important out to get here in the 8th inning. and it's taking a while. bases loaded. 

 >> bob: third base, ramirez doubled, all of this after two outs. cantu walked intentionally after the count went to 2-0. and then uggla who doesn't walk much, the bases are loaded with two outs for cody ross and he's 0 for 3. cody ross has three grand slams this year. so does hanley ramirez. who has hit two in the last week and a half.

>> rob: sometimes you don't have to tell everything. >> bob: but if tavarez doesn't throw any strikes, a bases loaded walk will be a dagger as well. >> rob: wil nieves goes out for a little chitchat. manny acta will go out and have a little chitchat. what's going on. one of the biggest outs of the game right here, julian. >> bob: rain starting to fall again.   >> bob: this guy's almost unstoppable when a count gets

to this point. >> rob: i don't think he's ever been put out at 2-0 and bases loaded. >> bob: that's ball three. julian tavarez has been in the big leagues for almost 20 years. he knows nibbling in the late innings gets you in trouble. the marlins always find different ways to beat the nats. not even close. four hitters ago there were two outs and the bases were empty. and now the marlins get a huge insurance run and lead 4-2. there's just no excuse for what

manny acta has to watch here in the 8th inning. and these are two veteran guys, villone and now tavarez. joe beimel. ronny paulino could put this game out of reach. hot shot, zimmerman knocks it down. and how they got the runner at second i don't know on a really bad throw by zimmerman. when this shoe store added aflac to its employee benefits package no direct cost the company... it was a perfect fit. find out more at aflac!...

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 >> bob: let's have a look at our coors light freeze cam, brought to you by coors light, the world's most refreshing beer. listen to somebody holler got 'em when ryan zimmerman hits the ball. he centered that one, and the coors light freeze cam centered that one. that went into the second deck. and now it's a souvenir. run around, they'll get it. got a little jack from dunn. that was funny.

>> bob: diaz is a stays in to replace coghlan in the left field. with the rain falling, top of the ninth. dan meyer, a rather inexperienced closer. especially has one major league save. it's for the marlins this year. >> bob: it's possible he could get the first two hitters, then nunez could come in to face zimmerman because he's warming up. fredi gonzalez is mix and matching his bullpen here with matt lidstrom on the d.l. >> rob: he loves room service. >> bob: 27-year-old lefty.

two games for atlanta in 04, oakland in 07-08. guzman flies one out of play. cristian guzman has to lay off of that pitch. he's not going to hit it out of the ballpark. the nats need him slashing ground balls and line drives. >> rob: don't help this kid. he's going to throw one chest high to you, let it go. >> bob: you don't need a home run to tie the game here. >> rob: need some base runners. you need at least one base runner to tie it up. >> bob: nick's been good against left-handers. then there's zimmerman. right side, and two, to the pitcher. the top of the order tonight, the top three hitters with nick johnson coming in, 0 for 11. in fact, nick's the only one hitting the ball out of the infield on three flies. one to each field.

this is frustrating. even when you get a really well pitched game, the nats have not been able to solve the marlins. if johnson takes one -- johnson takes one way upstairs. one out here in the top of the ninth.   >> bob: nick johnson drills a base hit to left center. got jammed a bit. fought it off, and as much as you can hope for is to get the

tying run up in the ninth inning and it's coming with ryan zimmerman. we'll see if fredi gonzalez counters with leo nunez, but now barring a double play you could bring nunez in, he would end up facing adam dunn and i'm not sure fredi gonzalez likes that idea. >> rob: i don't know, but that was the 30th hit this year off lefties in 84 at-bats for nick johnson. of those 30 hits, 11 are extra- base hits. he's hitting .357 against left- handed pitching. >> bob: here's zimmerman, 1 for 3 with a home run. in the dirt, and a good slide by ronny paulino. nats are not going down without a fight. that was their first base hit since josh willingham singled off bonifacio's glove back in the fourth inning.

a span of 14 consecutive hitters. but in this game, some bad times can disappear in a split second with a big swing. that's not going anywhere, to right center. brett carroll for the second out. it will be lefty-lefty now with meyer and adam dunn. probably a thousand people in the ballpark, the marlins are last in baseball in attendance. they don't turn out here to see one of the more entertaining teams at times. there is in the national league. >> rob: they are a very young and talented group of kids. it's just sad. there's less than 500 people at

this game. >> bob: it makes you wonder if a new stadium down here would make any difference. >> rob: i think if you put it downtown, put a roof on it, people would come. >> bob: adam dunn fouls one off. and the marlins are two strikes away from their 7th consecutive win this year over the nats. their 8th in a row in this ballpark overall. the nationals against the east this year, 6-27. and that guy's ball club a big reason for it. breaking ball way outside. you'd love to see willingham get a chance here in the ninth. he wouldn't be facing this

pitcher.   >> bob: dunn drills one under the glove of uggla. nick johnson heading for third base. the nationals are still alive. even against the shift. adam dunn hit the ball hard enough to get it through the infield, by the second baseman, and here's willingham with two on, two outs in the ninth. >> rob: this might knock meyer out of the game and bring in nunez. fredi gonzalez making his way to the mound. this is a shot past the shift by adam dunn. they will pinch run for adam dunn.

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 >> bob: adam dunn keeps the nationals alive. right-hander leo nunez looking for his third save, and he's facing josh willingham, the nats hottest hitter. 2 for 3 tonight. tying run is at first base with alberto gonzalez.

>> rob: high home e.r.a., 6.27 for nunez, road 1.2. >> bob: willingham, nine home runs, 16 rbi's this year. nick johnson singled with one out. then scampered to third on the base hit by dunn. gonzalez running for adam. an extra-base hit could tie the game. willingham foul tips it. and it's come down to the final

strike. >> rob: this kid's got a great arm. 96-mile an hour fastball. this league combined hitting only .216 against nunez. >> bob: willingham getting time from bill welke. and willingham out to deep center field, but it's a big ballpark and the game is over. two hours and 30 minutes, a great pitching battle until the end. and the marlins beat the

nationals again, this time it's 4-2.

you talk about one ball club having the nationals numbers. that's the florida marlins. >> what are they, 22 wins and 3 losses. >> eight straight now in miami. >> you can't explain that stuff. we're in the ballgame. we pitched well. all of a -- olsen, hat off to him. >> we will try to explain it as best we can when we come back. >> bob: johnny and ray always explain it to us. we wish we could come up with something of why the marlins continue to master the nats. for rob dibble and debbi taylor, tomorrow night 6:30 with "nats xtra," johnny and ray. then the nats and the marlins

with craig stammen. this has been a presentation of masn. as advertised, welcome back. "nats xtra post-game." along with the silver fox, ray knight, johnny holliday. happy to have you with us. a game looked leak the nationals were going to finally stop that streak of winless games against the fish down there in the sunshine state, but not to be. walks came back to haunt this club. >> bullpen a little bit. early offense jumped out there, then not able to sustain it. didn't have a lot of offense after that fifth inning. he's pitched really well, in all the games but two that he's started.

he has the ability to punch people out. threw a lot of pitches in good spots. they pitch extremely well. we hit some balls decently, just not enough offense. they were able to put it together and do something. >> you talked about, walked nobody tonight. defining moment in this ballgame came in the 8th inning. it was a 2-2 ballgame at that point. wes helms facing ron villone. >> nolasco gets a 3-0 count, he works himself back to get the 3- 2 pitch. right down the first-base line. ends up going to second base. they pinch-hit de aza, coghlan sacrificed perfectly to first. get the runner over, get him in. sacrifice fly deep enough to be able to put that runner on the

board. tavarez walks cantu, he walks uggla, then he walks cody ross, as you're going to see right here, three walks. hanley ramirez ends up scoring, that was all she wrote. the two runs makes it 4-2, they get eight hits, we get six hits. we scored early, set the two spot in the second inning. looks good at scott olsen pitched very well. >> nolasco had beaten the nationals the opening game of the season. scott olsen had lost to florida in the second game of the season. nolasco continues his mastery. he gets his fifth win. nunez gets the save. villone 3-5 now, tagged with the loss for washington. ramirez and bonifacio had good nights for the florida marlins, they win by a score of 4-2. so

close and yet so far. >> all 'boils down to hitting. we just hadn't sustained an offense tonight. >> scott olsen pitched pretty good. >> he really did. he threw 66 strikes, mixed his curveballs and fastballs up. he averaged 13 pitches per inning. when he left he had thrown five straight games that he had 20 pitches plus per inning. it was taking him too long to get to that out pitch, but tonight he was very effective, very efficient and did a heck of a job for us. >> let's go back down to the stadium down in florida. bob carpenter and rob dibble are there. i can hear you. scott olsen, wasn't that funny, scott olsen -- >> live television, johnny. >> don't you love it. scott olsen really did a heck of a job tonight. >> yeah, if the nationals get what they got out of scott olsen down the road on a

regular basis, we're in for something special. you could not have asked other than a shut-out for much more than what he did tonight. >> and he went out there and he showed why the washington nationals traded for him. he dominated after being out for almost two months with a shoulder injury. throw a 90-mile an hour fastball, great off-speed change-up and he just mowed down the florida marlins. the bright spot is olsen. this is in the a playoff caliber team. the bullpen's had its struggles. this kid is one of the future cornerstones of the starting rotation. you saw seven innings, a couple of runs, the six hits, but more importantly it's how he feels tomorrow and how this kid played after being out for two months. you saw how rusty john smoltz was against us after being out for a year. this kid was out for basically eight of john lannan's starts. he's the kind of guy that needs to back up john lannan.

john lannan went out there, pitched his butt off yesterday. olsen comes out, pitches his butt off today. hopefully stammen can do that tomorrow night. the bottom line is, we lost the ballgame, but the great news was seven great innings by a 25- year-old kid that had been on a disabled list. we have a lot of young pitchers, we have three rookies right now. this is a rebuilding ball club. you're not going to win all of these ballgames. in a couple of years if they continue to progress, it's going to be a very solid rotation. >> one of the disturbing things for you and rairks the nationals bullpen cannot be successful this year against this ball club here for some reason. >> they're really erratic. you are around the ball club more than anybody. we're building up on pitching. if you had a position player both of you, that you were

going to acquire, what position out there do you think is our most dire need? >> i would think maybe a front line catcher, but you have one in jesus flores. that's a heck of a question, ray, because third base is okay, shortstop okay for now, first base okay for now. >> you've got a to bof outfielders, you've got a ton of youth. elijah dukes when he puts it all together is going to be fantastic. the defense has gotten better there. i think it's too early to start worrying about what you're trading for when you don't know what you have. if you don't sign this strassburg kid or you do, then you know moving forward you have some of the best young pitchers that money can buy. i would trade for a great young guy just like the marlins did with hanley ramirez. you gave up josh beckett, you

gave up a mike lowell. if you look out there on the field who the best player is, it's a double-a kid named hanley ramirez that the bosm said we'll give up this talent for some pitching and a third baseman that nobody really wanted. he should be a great minor league prospect, that you can get and steal and be like a matt wieters or somebody like that, but possibly in the field. >> okay, have a pleasant evening. we'll see you guys tomorrow night. >> all right, guys. >> look forward to stammen tomorrow. >> thank you. as you look at this ball club now, what area would you go after to maybe solidify it, make it a better team? >> i think because flores is coming back, i would look at a shortstop that had more range than guzman. i just don't think that he's getting the balls up the middle that he should. you've got to have a

centerfielder, willie harris is great, but on an ideal ball club, he's going to be a guy that's going to be a utility guy and shore up everything. if you could get a centerfielder that could go wall to wall, go gap to gap, charge the ball hard with a good throwing arm, that gives you tough at-bats. i don't see the professional at- bats that we need to have in the middle of the batting order in order to drive in those runs in key situations. >> and the nationals only put two runs on the board tonight early in the ballgame. the offense really kind of generating around that second inning when ryan zimmerman connects for his 13th home run of the season. >> he got all of this one. he seems to love this ballpark. that's center cut. starting a little bit away.

adam just missed that ball. i don't know if he hit it on the end or not. willingham doubles hard to center field. he hit that ball 420 feet. then after hernandez grounds out on a ball that gets in on him and advances willingham to third, nieves hits a chopper past the mound. look how hard he's getting down there. >> great hustle by nieves to get on base. there's the inside the box score. guzman 0 for 4. in fact, you look at those first five hitters, only three hits out of 16 at-bats. >> the big home run from zimmerman being the big blow, but you can't say much about nye. we didn't have that many opportunities to drive in runs tonight, so it was basically