the following is a presentation. >> bob: last night bass a chance do renew old acquaintances. once the lines were drawn, it was down to business. good friends were in control. each allowing just two runs. the bullpens determined the outcome and florida closed the door in the ninth. will the nats catch the marlins and even up the series? craig stammen gets another chance to prove he belongs in the starting rotation.

  >> bob: tradewinds are bl in south florida tonight. it's the napt nats-marlins in game two. gm mike rizzo has been on the phone. he's been busy the last 24 hours or so putting together a two for two with the pittsburgh pirates. bob carpenter, rob dibble. receipts talk -- let's talk about who is leaving with troubled layers in this organization. it's lastings milledge and joel hanrahan to the pirates. >> rob: well, lastings milledge has been demoted to the minor leagues out right now with a broken finger. joel hanrahan has a ton of upside. throws in the mid-90s, upper 90s. he's getting in trouble with off-speed stuff. they were sent over to pittsburgh. you know, we get nyjer morgan in return also sean burnett a- very good reliever. we got speed. can fly on the base pads. he's got i think 18 stolen

bases so -- so far this year. more importantly on the defensive side t-makes our outfield a little better. in the bullpen, burnett has a lot of appearances and been very successful at the major league level. so, we gave up a couple guys that maybe don't fit into our future. here the future is now with nyjer morgan and sean burnett. >> bob: morgan 18 steals, number five in the national league, sean burnett, six saves, in the bullpen kind of an unusual situation. nats have three lefties. >> rob: it's ok. doesn't matter to me as long as they're going to do the job. usually, lefties get out righties better than righties anyways. the whole should we fwli a righty or lefty. if a guy can throw strikes and get people out, he'll a lot -- he'll have a lot of appearance. he fits in perfectly. we get a couple of guys that right now can help this ball club win games and i tawkd talked to neil hufntington the general manager of the pirates. he said they still feel

lastings milledge at 23 years old and nyjer morgan who is 28, 27-28, who is a little bit older, that lastings milledge fits into their plan more so than these other two guys. >> bob: then there are the starters who had to get it there. john lannan was outstanding in baltimore over the weekend. scott olsen, he was outstanding here in florida last night. jordan zimmermann goes tomorrow. ross detwiler still looking for his first big league win. tonight, it's craig stammen's return to the rotation. ú

 >> bob: nationals baseb masn brought to you in part by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by aflac, we've got you under our wing. nationals tried to break a hemsky that they are under -- hex that they are under here in south florida having lost eight straight here in this ballpark and maybe new blood injected into the ballpark will help even though those guys will not be here until tomorrow.

big news on the trade front today. now, rob, let's talk about the top three starters lately starting with john lannan. amazing sunday in baltimore. >> rob: we know lannan slanl our ace. he has treemd yupous stuff, huge heart. he's so competitive, he can go up against anybody's best guy. the guy who backed him up last night, finally somebody pitched behind john lannan after a great outing. scott olsen was out there dom nait nant for seven outings and jordan zimmermann, this kid has a-1 stuff. eventually, he will be the ace of the staff, 95 plus-mile-per- hour stuff and a huge heart and smarter on the hill. then, you have craig stammen who will make the start tonight. a couple starts ago, he was a master out there on the mound against the new york yankees and he had a tougher time against the boston red sox. between stammen and detwiler, final two pieces of the puzzle may be in place. maybe not. shairon martis went down to the minor leagues, but tonight an audition for possibly staying in the rotation. >> bob: with more on the

rotation, debbi taylor. >> debbi: bob, craig stammen has faced tough lineups, the giants, mets and the yankees. i asked manny acta how much of a confidence booster that can be for him. >> i believe he has. the fact he has pitched against those clubs and what they will do to give us enough innings, give us a chance to win, i think it can only help them. i think it helps these guys haven't seen him. if he can get out there and pound that sinker in the strike zone like he's done in the past, he could give as you good outing here. >> debbi: manny would like to have him improve the second and third time through the lineup. opponents are hitting .250 and 4 -- .415 against him. craig told me he's work on his mental approach and intends to pitch backyards a -- backwards a bit. >> bob: hope three no, more3-2 changeups to power hitters. when know when the pitching is better, the defense is better. it might be the wizardry of zimmerman or the good play combinations up the middle even

willie harris up the middle. manny loves it when they play great d. over last three games, i'm not kidding, folks, nationals have played errorless ball. how about four in a row in florida tonight. 

 >> bob: marlins take the small crowd. another cloudy and sometimes rainy day here at land shark stadium in south florida. marlins are 40-39. nats are 22-5 # and trying to win a ballgame here for the first time in a long, long time. the nationals starting lineup brought to you by southwest.com. ryan zimmerman had 14 homers all of last year. he is going to at least double that mark this season. hit a blast here last night. ryan is 9-26 over his last seven games. i wouldn't say the experiment is over with willie harris, but with willie not in the lineup tonight, it's pretty much guzman, johnson, zimmerman and dunn, top four as they had been most of the season. sean west is huge.

this kid is 23 years of age. just had a birthday june 15. he's 6'8", 240, a former imen compensation pick, 44th player taken overall back in 2005. >> rob: well, you know, he's a lot like our young starters. he's having a rollercoaster ride of success this season. it will be interesting to see what he features tonight. let's give you the pnc bank scouting report on sean west. obviously, intimidating presence. he's 6'8", a huge left-handed pitcher. it's his eighth career start at the major league level and obviously fredi gonzalez and the marlins are looking for consistency. a couple outings ago against the yankees, five earned runs. against balm, no earned runs. they'd like to see a little more like the orioles start. >> bob: marlins defensively, third worst team in the league and the marlins just ahead of the nats and the arizona diamondbacks. cody ross can get them in center. they have a young kid, chris coghlan, playing left field these days. jeremy hermida back in the lineup tonight.

all the other regulars and john baker, a left-handed-hitting catcher killed the nats in the first week of the season. since then, hasn't done much against anybody else. he'll be catching sean west. cristian guzman steps in. it is 7:11 in the miami area and we're under way with strike one. cloudy skies and here in the evening down to 82 degrees. very muggy tonight. it was up around 90 today in town with the sun peeking in and out, but mostly cloudy conditions. wub one ball, one strike to guzman. 0-9 still hitting .325 ninth best in the national league. from the right side, cristian at .320. over to scoop it immediately, emilio bonifacio. cristian guzman still having an 0-for for this series. tim welke, the crew chief. a 26-year veteran behind the plate. ed rapuano will have the plate

tomorrow. james hoye and bill we will key around the bases. marlins -- which will cee. here is nick back in the number two spot maybe where he needs to be. he's 1-# 1 last. the top of the lineup last night had two hits the entire game. zimmerman's homer in the second and a nick johnson flare for a base hit in the ninth. good breaking ball by west. nick still hanging in there at .299. there's a ball breaking in there. >> rob: he's a fly ball pitcher. he gives up about 12 fly balls per six innings versus about seven or eight grownls ground balls. he's going to let the ball fly around the park.

>> bob: sharply hit right at hanley ramirez and two quick outs. ryan zimmerman batted cleanup last night. so, when he went deep, rob, he was leading off the second. >> rob: he has just been swinging the bat really well in the last few games because he's cutting it loose. right there, he gets it on the sweet spot. probably didn't even phil feel it he think so well on thesecond deck. you heard somebody yell "got him." you know when he got it that quick, he got awful it. >> bob: so, that was his 90th hit. he's sixth in the league with that. i like the symmetry to his numbers. when he got his 90th hit, he scored his 50th run. count is even, 1-1.

fly ball pitchers giving up fiv home runs in his first 41 major league innings. zimmerman rocks that one to left. probably hit that ball as hard as he hit the home run last night. he's aboard for adam dunn with two outs in the first. >> rob: for west, he's lucky it wasn't a little bit on the upperpart of the bat or it would have been a home run. every time a guy hits a ball hard, it's just a fragment or a fraction of a millimeter or milliliter from being a home run. people say i just missed. no, it's on different parts of the bat. lower part, it will be a ground ball. on the upperpart like that, it will be a home run. you try to hit line drives and he's got that line drive swing going right now. >> bob: adam dunn now. he goes up and jacks one. this ball slicing away from coghlan in left. it will hit near the line. zimmerman being waved home by pat listach ands he will score.

1-0, nationals on dunn's 54th rbi. in this ballpark, left fielders will plate hitters pretty far off the line. well, that time -- >> rob: that was a little too far off the line. this guy is over in left center field. coghlan takes forever to try to track it down. when you have a shift on and you see ryan zimmerman, two outs running on contact, come on, ryan. come on. you can do it. scores easily. very nice. a couple of two-out knocks right there. >> bob: with that run, marlins have given up 55 runs in the first inning this year more than any other frame. that's the hall mark of having some young pitchers on your staff. here is josh willingham. josh put good swings on the

ball last night. 2-4, flied to center. hit the ball pretty solidly, but that ended the ballgame with two men aboard in the ninth. nothing like two-out hits. maybe the nats can cash another one here. josh has driven in 16. over his last 18 games, he's hitting .407. look at that hit streak averaging almost two hits a game. he's hitting ..33 over his last seven games. -- .333 over his last seven games. that ball well hit to right. and moving over to cover the ground is jeremy hermida. so, nats get a zimmerman single a-dunn double with two outs in the first to get on the board first. s your final boarding call. all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 miles per hour. almost as fast as you.

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 >> bob: bottom of the fir marlins 10th in the league in hitting. their southwest.com lineup. we feature cody ross tonight on fire here at home. three home runs, seven rbi's in 10 ballgames. getting his numbers up to the .273 range. he's a very good outfield we are speed. former soccer player who might have some of the best feet in major league baseball. he puts his bat to good use lately for them. craig stammen, here he is whack in the -- back in the rotation, robment just 48 hours ago, we thought he would be a about

giet guy. >> rob: yes, we did. it would have been a good choice because he's very tough the first time through the lineup. you heard debbi taylor talk about it. then he starts to struggle and the average goes up. that's a little bit of just working your pitches and knowing how to work a count. >> bob: facing a free-swinging florida lineup led off by chris coghlan, the left fielder hitting .261. he had an rbi base hit and a sacrifice last night. bonifacio and ramirez. they have a couple of jackrabbits who bat ahead of hanley ramirez who is now the number three hitter here after several years of leading off. stammen batting average .265 trying to get that 9.45 e.r.a. down. he has a 3-2 strikeout to walk ratio. in his first -- actually, 2-1, 20 over 10, in his first major

league innings. that will help a bouncer to the right side. alberto gonzalez very versatile playing second base tonight. >> rob: give you the pnc bank breakdown on am craig stammen. he has a great road e.r.a. he's amongst the rookie leaders in that category. finishes strong especially against the red sox. three perfect innings. he's got to pitch a little more consistently like the new york yankees and keep the beat. olsen following lannan. it would be nice to see stammen follow those two guys and throw another gem. >> bob: emilio bonifacio with a seven-game hitting streak had a bill big triple last night and a sac fly. continues to hurt the nationals while hurting few other teams in this league. batting .240 against the rest of baseball and .346 against the nats. >> rob: unbelievable. >> bob: rob, i know you wouldn't mind seeing a pitch up

and in to him sometime this year. >> rob: for different reasons, but this kid is way too comfortable and way too confident against one team. you don't want him to just take in -- take that to another level where he thinks he can stand up there and take batting practice. you've got to rock him back on his heels. make him uncomfortable. make him do a little dance. >> bob: most of his hits have been on pitches away especially when he bats right-handed. elijah dukes in center field with willie harris out of the lineup. gonzalez replace hernandez. wil nieves back in there after he swung the bat pretty well last night. here is hanley ramirez. runner goes first pitch. no chance for nieves. bonifacio swipes his 17th. he's just really playing rather arrogantly against his old ball club. >> rob: absolutely. he's confident. we don't make him not confident in the batter's box and on the

base pads. maybe once in a while especially with a guy like that, that kind of speed, just pitch out on the first pitch and gun the guy out. 167th stolen base of the season. he's way too cocky for my taste. >> bob: sheer ramirez who had rbi's in eight consecutive games. last eye in, we saw him just hit the ball up the middle to get one. stammen a-long look at bonifacio. he bounces the breaking ball and during something like that, rob, a lot of hitters will go ahead and step out. that was a long wait. >> rob: what he was doing was taking bonifacio stop. you don't want that -- want that guy to get a walk lead. as soon as you turn your head, he takes off and steals third. that won't give your catch arrest chance. if you get the guy to stop, he'll be flatfootedded and take off and do the steal at third base and do that kind of try. you have to concentrate on the hitter. you don't want a big inning right here in the first inningwhen you put a one spot on the board. >> bob: a lot of hitting room

jiet right side with gonzalez cheating toward the bag. that was a hanging breaking ball that zimmerman knocks down and still has time, but he throws it away. bonifacio is trying to score! nick johnson not going to get him. if nick makes a good throw -- what is it about emilio bonifacio the nats cannot stop this guy? everybody else can. >> rob: well, first of all, you have a very fast hanley ramirez running. he should have just ate that ball. he tries to make a super throw. throws it away. nick johnson gets over to the ball, throws it. bonifacio scores easily. the bottom line is you don't want a big inning here in the first inning and there goes your errorless streak. >> bob: yep, another throwing error on ryan zimmerman. >> rob: bottomline is you've got to make good choice. that isn't a god choice of you

just teeth right there. there goes ramirez. >> bob: looks like they have not given ramirez a hit on the batted ball. >> rob: he gets a walking lead. i mean, stammen never looked over there. as soon as stammen looked towards home plate, he took off. >> don: on the -- >> bob: on the previous play, if they don't give ramirez a hit, they have to give zimmerman two errors for the errant throw and -- i guess they don't have torques but i guess they could say bonifacio scored on the throw, but that could have been two errors. an e-5 all the way and the marlins tied the game that quick lie and now -- and now they have the lead run on base. this is not the way you want to come out and play after a tight ballgame last night.

  og cantu nine home run year, rvn ave gven zimmerman  for knocking dw  the tho that allowed bonifacio to score. that's a good pitch there. a breaking ball had him pulling off. nick johnson has it, two outs. so, ryan zimmerman gets o %% >> rob: he's tter than that though. this is just -- you need to make smart choices and better choices, know the situation. it's early in the ballgame. you know, throwing him out at first is not going to save the ballgame t wasn't a do or die play like he thought and he cut it loose and ended up let -- ended up letting bonifaci

>> bob: or in this case runners would still be there. another runner going. got to get him that time. hanley ramirez as the marlins are playing rather arrogantly against the nats thinking they can steal any base out there. wil nieves guns him down, inning over. ♪ ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) ♪ who's watching... (announcer) it's right here. it's easy.

♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ it's the money you could be saving with geico. what is it to lead? at pnc, it's doing what most benefits our customers. whether that's building more certified green buildings than anyone on earth. creating online banking tools for the next generation. or making a 10 year, $100 million investment in kids. it's how we've always done business. and will for a very long time to come. pnc. leading the way.  >> bob: tocchet second, o score. nats outhitting the marlins 2-1 and two washington errors in

the first inning. if you just joined us, maybe you just finished up dinner, got home, new additions. nyjer morgan and and sean burnett. nationals have a center fielder they've been coveting a while with speed, 18 steals and a left-hand reliever that gives them a -- landed reliever that gives them a triple barrel option from that side of the bullpen. you might be surprised who the nats dealt away, joel hanrahan and lastings milledge. here is elijah dukes top of the second. >> rob: put that in perspective. our entire starting lineup has six combined steals. >> bob: tonight. >> rob: morgan has three times that. right away, that gives us at the top of our lineup or even if he hits in the eight hole a lot of speed and once he gets on base and he's got a very good eye. 3.9 pitches per at-bat. there's a ways hit -- base hit by elijah dukes. >> bob: there's extension on that one. >> rob: he'll fit in our lineup. >> bob: the nationals, 3-4 last hitters hitting safely now.

another note on morgan. he brings his 18 steals to a team that has 26 total. only the milwaukee brewers, and they're a power team station to station, have fewer steals with 24. the nats will start climbing the charts in that department. here is alberto gonzalez. the two new ball players will be here in time for the day game tomorrow. pirates are in pittsburgh and the ironic thing for joel hanrahan is the pirates are here friday. they're playing the cubs, scoreless in the second inning. so, joel hanrahan, when i talked to him this afternoon, didn't know if he was going to be leaving to go to pittsburgh or just stay here until the pirates get here. joel did tell me he's got some friends on the pittsburgh team. he got to know john grable very well duns during the wvc and he's good friends with andy la roach and nose to a certain extent his older brother. 's