. >> bob: the mats were in position to win last night. craig stammen helped his own cause. adam dunn made a lot contribution but the marlins fought back. hanley ramirez provided the two big hits. and then the rain washed away any opportunity to respond. today, jordan zimmerman tries to deliver the win for the nats while josh johnson has other ideas for the fish. ♪ jiets' another salvage

operation for the nationals. welcome to land shark stadium. a lot of kids on hand. camp day at the ballpark. sean burnett, first one out of the car. there is nyjer morgan. burnett getting out of the car. he could be available to pitch today. and morgan could be the starting centerfielder on friday. >> rob: the bullpen has and the achills heel of this franchise all year. 29 blown leads of the season and that leads major league baseball. craig stammen could not hold on to the lead and then the bullpen could not hold on to the rest of the lead. bottom line, got to get the job

done. a lot of moves have been made in this organization and because guys cannot get the job done. you have to throw strikes, get ahead, throw people out. >> bob: nationals a slim lead on monday night, a three-run lead last night. the bullpens, no comparison. >> two runs by the marlins and 7 runs by the nationals. i know some teams have your number but enough a enough. you have to go out there and hopefully jordan zimmerman can go six or seven and then when the bullpen gets in there, let's stop them. >> bob: he hopes that start number 13 will be enough for him. 

 . >> bob:  nationals base

masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com and by pnc bank. pnc, leading the way. welcome back to florida for the series finale, nats and marlins. jordan zimmerman about to make his 13th career start. what did you know about you as a pitcher that you didn't know a couple of month ago when you got to the big leagues? >> i mean i was a little leery. i want tonight to say leery. don't want to say nervous either but coming up here and pitching against these guys. i mean, they are the best of the best. i knew that i found the strike zone. i didn't foe what my outcome would be if i had to mix up more balls and more strikes. i have found the strike zone and everything has been working so far. i'm just real happy. >> bob: a bunch of young guys on this staff.

what did it mean for you guys to watch what scott olson did here monday night? >> he did great. he pitched well, gave up two runs and, unfortunately got the no-decision. he did great and the weather was hot. i mean, he was out there battling the whole game. that was good to see after his little heyoff there. >> bob: there are a lot of young guys on this staff. do you communicate with each other? and when someone does have success, does that affect the other young guys in the staff? >> i think so. i mean, you ask the other guys, they're going to say the same thing. when one guy goes out there and goes 7 or 8 like lannan usually does, all the other guys want to match him or one up him. that's a competition between all of us. we just push each other and try to go out there and battle and go as long as possible. >> bob: marlins tough in this

ballpark. pound the strike zone with your good fastball. >> work the fastball and try to put them away with sliders and offspeed change-ups. i'm going to throw a lot of strikes and see what happens. >> bob: thank you, jordan. hopefully we'll all be smiling on the airplane. >> we'll try.   . >> i'm scott olson. this is wired up wednesday on masn. light. woman over phone: no problem. you know, maybe other people are content to sit around and wait. wait for something to happen. for business to pick up. but for you, it's time to kick it in gear. time to get going. time to get tough. take control. you're not gonna run and hide. because backing down's not your style. grab your bag. it's on. ( ding )

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 . >> bob: it's a series a day game here at land shark stadium. nationals trying to do something to solve this domination, this jinx, whatever you want to call it, against the marlinsings especially here in this ballpark. we have some game notes for you. of course, some big deals today. we'll get into those as the day goes on. adam dunn hitting great on the road. for some reason, not that great at nats park. jordan zimmerman has been stingy lately. josh johnson, 14 out of 16 since coming back nearly a year ago from that elbow surgery. he has as good a rehab and a return to the big leagues as anybody. there is nyjer morgan. for you uniform buffs, he is going to be wearing number 28 -- i'm sorry. number 1. he is 28 years old. and sean burnett will be

wearing number 17. good to see him in the dugout. for today, willie harris and cristian guzman behind him. guzman, a great ratio to the 59- games he started. remember, he lost a couple of weeks early on the season on the d l and he is fourth in the national league with those multi-hit games. but a disappointing month of june for the nats. it's the 1st of july and they have a tough assignment on the first day of this assignment as josh johnson brings a 7-1 record with a 2.76 e.r.a. >> rob: yes, he has been tough since coming back from tommy john surgery. 14-2 since coming off surgery but the team, 23-7 since then during his starts.

14 ground balls against the yankees, 12 against the toronto blue jays. as we go back to the first start this year or back in may against colorado, 17 ground balls. he is a great team guy. he is definitely the ace of this staff. >> bob: marlins, 19 errors, and not much of a change except for first base except that ross gload will get the start. zimmerman -- and willie harris leads off. first pitch from josh johnson and a ground ball under the glove of uggla. >> rob: nice. >> bob: so at 12:11, under partly cloudy skies, extremely muggy, temperatures in the mid- 80s, willie harris swings at the first pitch and gets aboard. feels like 93.

the humiture, as they call it in some plateses. breeze blowing but usually the breeze is not a factor in this ballpark because it's totally enclosed. it's hard to hit one higher than the grand stand here. >> rob: johnson is very difficult to hit off, 28 walks, 94 strikeouts. >> bob: the nats know they have to go up hacking, don't they? >> rob: yep. he is going to be around the strike zone, just like our man, jordan zimmerman. >> bob: by the way, that's the first base hit in this series by either a number 1 or a number 2 hitter. top 2 in the line-up mixing it up with johnson, guzman and harris 0-for-16. he had rapuano has the played, james hoye. tim welke, crew chief, and john

welke the bases. low and inside. last time the nats faced josh johnson in this ballpark, it was an 8-3 ballgame, shut out the nats on i go hit. they the nats faced him a week after that and got a whole bunch of runs off him in the 1st inning and could not win the ballgame. with the runner moving and the throw is out of the glove of hanley ramirez as willie harris takes a hit at second base. the ball appeared to be there in time. you have to keep running. you have to make the catch erythro a great throw to second base. >> rob: you saw the drop. ball's down in the dirt, tough one to catch. jump up and pick it up and hanley ramirez cannot hold on to it right here. so the more we run, i think the better chance of winning ball

games we're going to have because you can manufacture runs and it makes the catcher and pitcher worry about your team speed. that's one of the reaps why nyjer -- one of the reasons why nyjer morgan is now on the nationals. >> bob: i'm thinking that's a 1-1 count for ed rapuano. do you think that willie harris is sending a message to manny acta? and manny said, regarding to willie harris, he said, believe me, this guy will play. he will get a lot of innings. he understands his role on his team with nyjer morgan coming on board. manny is adamant that nyjer will lead off and playing

centerfield starting friday. >> rob: and there are others who are not playing and swinging the bat as well as willie. and willie needs to understand that. he is going to play infield position, outfield position but nyjer morgan's speed and versatility in the line-up will put him at centerfield almost every day. >> bob: elijah dukes now sent back to aaa, the outfield logjam has been eased a little bit. austin kearns is probably the fourth guy right now. and then manny is going to mix and match with harris. wow, the bat went right by josh johnson and he throws out willie harris. the ball almost cracked him on the gloved hand as he reached down to get the ball. that will be 1-5 on a fielder's choice and a good choice he

made. >> rob: he just gets inside and jams nick, smashing the bat, comes right back at him. he stands there, catches the ball. that's when you have no fear. catches the ball instead of the bat. hell of a play by josh johnson but not easy right there. willie sees the ball go on the ground but right back to the pitcher, didn't get through there. he is toast at third. >> bob: here is ryan zimmerman with two outs now. i don't know what it is about the nationals with runners at third and less than two outs. they cannot hit a flyball. everything lately has been on the ground. several bases leaded double plays. and rick eckstein has to be frustrated because he has those guys drilled to approach those at-bats but that's a matter of execution. >> rob: and it's a matter of

selection. you know this guy is is a ground ball pitcher. you want to look anything that can be hit in the air. very important to try to get the lead against the marlins. >> bob: ryan -- out of play right side. 1 ball, 2 strikes. let's look at ryan's hot april. hotter may and rather cool june. still, three three months of season, ryan simmer salesman batting .3021. we all would have taken that, ryan and us included, if you said he would do that halfway through spring training. that's a little bit low, 2-2. nats, by the way, 9-17 in jubes, more wins in any month, 5-16 in april, 8-20 may. 9-17 june. every single month, they should have won more games than that. zimmerman gone. his hitting streak of 8 games

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a high definition, online view of your money. pnc. leading the way.  .  >> bob: good first inn josh johnson, 13 pitches, 8 strikes. now the marlins come up against jordan zimmerman. hanley ramirez is going crazy.

five homes and 22 batted in over the last nine games. are you kidding me? 56 rbis on the year now ties him with adam dunn for 6th in the national league. maybe not the protection he usually has today but the way he is swinging, i don't know that he needs anybody behind him. chris cog lon 2-for-6 with a couple of runs in this series. rob will give you the scouting report momentarily on the hard- throwing right hander and that's how hard he can throw. first good heater of the day, 92. >> rob: i said what he said during the interviewrks i'm going to throw a lot of strikes and see what happens. >> bob: would a starter say anything else going into it? >> rob: he is a very confident young man. i love him. he thought he needed to throw a few more balls. that's not what we were talking about earlier in the year, change the eye level and his last start, he was fantastic. he was challenging guys, here is my 95, see if you can hit it

at eye level. you can't. and maybe a 95 fastball off the corner. >> rob: exactly. you don't need to waste pitches at all. >> bob: when i -- there is strikeout number 1. >> employee at the month h a fantastic june, with a lower earned run average in the major league. his average goes down. we talked about craig stammen, batting averages second, third time through. batting average goes down, too. >> >> bob: what does he get for employee of the month? >> rob: he gets a better check than he would have in syracuse. >> reporter: nice. >> rob: hess e.r.a. for the month of june was 1.90

earned runs. >> bob: five starts without a w until he got the strt against the red sox. bonifacio riding an 8-game streak. 2-1. fashion ?rawls done nothing against this guy all year to move him off the plate and he has just stood in there all season long and stroked up the middle and opposite field hits. zimmerman picks what one off and then throws it away. ryan zimmerman's throwing continues to be -- to say the least -- he if you befuddling. that time, he popped up and threw without setting himself. >> rob: if you check out the replay. that's a shot. he has plenty of time to throw

over there even though bonifacio has world class sprinter speed. you see him will. maybe it is very wet, humid. >> bob: ryan zimmerman will not throw a fastball to first base but throws change-ups. i think a third baseman needs to gun the ball. >> rob: i agree. >> bob: when it's bang-bang and he has to do it, he is fine. bonifacio is running. they're going to get him by a mile. what is he thinking? >> rob: he is not. >> reporter: that's the third time that the marlins have arrogantly tried to steal third base.

i i albert pujols has been ridiculous. >> bob: he is on another planet. >> rob: he is like michael jordan on that space jam. but hanley ramirez started so slow he was scuffling last time we saw him but he has been on fire ever since. last 10 games, 22 rbis, 33 in the month of june. >> bob: rob, the thing i noticed about him in the series, when he gets a chance to just hit a ground ball for a base hit, he does, it up the middle right field. bonifacio took it away. woman over p.a.: this is your final boarding call. all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 miles per hour. almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. starting august 16th, fly southwest airlines from bwi airport to boston logan

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now maybe this means we're a little set in our ways. but we know a few guys who will drink to that. coors. the banquet beer.  . >> in 2006, they used to them in our dug out. and then girardi came. they were 11-31 and they said, no more and ever since, we did good. yeah, gooden news yam. yes. you love baseball. >> go nats. >> bob: you know, that's a famous story because the legend around here is that the marlins' wives didn't like the dancers in front of the qugr

dugout. i can see joe girardi, a no nonsense guy kicking them out. >> rob: i like the wives' theory better. >> bob: yeah, that hold more water. >> rob: i don't think the wives would like hot young girls dancing in front of their husbands. >> bob: especially if they are not wearing a lot of clothing. >> bob: johnson goes up and away with an 0-2 fastball. nats have hit 72 homeruns now, 8th in the national league but as ray knight mentioned, only 15 in the month of june. a power outage. the runs were down. so, through two months, the 15 as w] hit runs and warmed up in june. very puzzling. úthat's when the homeruns are  hanley ramirez is, 12 rbis in april, 11 in may and 33 in

june. >> bob: wow! >> rob: when we saw him the first time, he just wasn't -úúclicking. úúnow, he is. úú>bob: back to my  -úúdid hit a homerun la úú>rob: oh, no, y gra pont. >> bob: his three rbis, one was a base hit up the middle and then a ground ball through the right side. he knows the situation. >> rob: joe em  his 88 mcaway fm hanley ramirez will get slapped through the infield. he is f@not going to blow aw out for the 86th time. is >> rob: i'm going with adam. of course, ed rapuano thinks that's a strike but adam does not. >> b:  wilnhm faa unos

ts rapuano has, yduñty, a getaway day zone going. >>rb:  ave te bring out there for zimmerman. just beconsistent both ways. if that's the way it is, it's  both ways. don't just v t  because he  another pace ball. >> bob: that's nasty. 95, hard-sinking action. >> rob:   that  91 but locating tt that level is very hard to hit. that was nasty. 97 at the knees, ball.