>> he played here. >> the ballgame got underway at 12:11. we are at 3 0-0 hour now with a 19-minute rain delay. so it's been a slow-moving ballgame, even without the delay. here we are in the bottom of the 7th tied at 3. cody ross the latest florida villain. mets are flying home tonight, day off tomorrow. braves in for 3. well hit. belliard cradlesles it against his body and ronnie will lead off in the top of the 8th inning. 9, 1, 2. harris and guzman to follow. 

 . >> bob: well, they got soak add little bit there, no worst for wear as we go to the 8th inning here in florida. now coming up at home on friday night. ross detwiler, 0-4, still looking for that first big league win. he will take on kenshi quack mi of the braves. a note of it. first pitch is 6:35 on friday

night. here is ronnie belliard already in the game as a second baseman replacement. he takes a fastball right down the middle. belliard, 18 for 37 with a 137 with a .1231 batting average. does not bite on the slider. >> rob: come on, ronnie, if there ever was a time to jack one out of here. now is the time. >> bob: tried to pull that slider. hanley ramirez on the wet track, throws low and it's picked out by ross gload who

saves an error. follow the nats on your iphone, your ipod touch, mlb.com. 2009 featuring play-by-play video highlights and live audio. visit nationals.com. that will be it for brian sanches who retires all three as he throws against his former team. nats are deeper into the florida bullpen in a tie game in the 8th inning. since 1873,

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 . >> bob: nationals baseball on masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip on southwest. things are looking better from downtown miami. that may be 15-mile south of us. a vast area. this is dan meyer who has one save in their bullpen by committee. he scored the last out for nino nunez monday night.

the nats, two hits since the 5th. got him. i guess the count was wrong. i thought it was 0-2. >> rob: no, the first pitch was a ball. >> bob: trusted the scoreboard. >> bob: willie with a good take and nothing but breaking balls to willie. maybe guzman needs an at-bat. >> bob: the top of the order

has gone stone cold except for willie harris today. and that's a borderline pitch. willie is great on this count. not just walking but getting hits. >> rob: three of his four homeruns. >> bob: that's not even close and he is aboard. the nationals get their 7th walk of the day and debbi taylor, for some reason, when they are about to travel, the nats have been very good this year. >> bob: they have. they are 9-7-1 on getaway day and that one tie coming against houston since visiting krity field, they are 9-4-1 and their last get away days, they have been 3-0 3-0. >> bob: one of those stats for which you have no explanation whatsoever. unfortunately, most of them have not been games where you

are winning a series but trying to salvage one. there have been a couple of series wins in there like new york. >> rob: new york, toronto, back to back. >> bob: yes. guzman 1-for-4. he showed bunt, bringing bonifacio maybe a step or two i . might have been a good iota before that. bonifacio playing deep. not to forget that every ball that a fielder picks up will be

wet. so hitters may take advantage. ball 1. willie and ross gload were together in chicago for a while, weren't they? let's check with that. >> rob: i think you are right playing with the white sox. >> bob: yes, they were both on that 2005 team. >> rob: ross gload is little chaty kathy over there. i think a lot of first basemen do that to try to distract the base runner. they are friends. hey, your shoe's untied and he will try to get you out.

>> bob: 1-2. >> rob: the only thing that meyer can throw a change-up. >> bob: 3-3 game, top of the 8th. one on, one out. >> rob: willie already has a stolen base today. >> bob: i robbed him of one there. he is 8-for-9 this year. >> bob: guzman hitting well with runners on and at crunch time. he has a chance here for his 30th multi-hit game of the year. i'd love to see him guide one through the right side. he has to take what the pitcher gives him, though, behind in

the count. come on on join us for the weekend. the braves are coming in. friday night fireworks, mini flags on saturday, family fun day on sunday and don't forget about the amended starting time, 6:35 friday and 1:05 saturday. then the usual 1:35 sunday. runner goes. strike 3. throw high. willie safe. guzman's gone. 22 outs in the 8th. >> rob: now, willie harris is 9 out of 10 this year. >> bob: hard to believe that guzman would take a pitch right down the middle to strike out. >> rob: the 1-2 count here a good runner's count. breaking ball, takes a little bit longer to get to home plate. pretty good snap tag there by uggla. >> bob: oh, that was close. >> rob: that was a little close but we have a runner in

scoring position. two outs. >> bob: that looked like a meat slider that guzman looked at belt high and he is not a guy that usually takes pitches. >> rob: he is in a hill bit of a slump right now and last at- bat, swings at the first pitch and now he takes swings at a slider. does the pitching coach ever say to the umpire, we are buying time for nunez? >> rob: i don't believe so. because i don't think that's what they are saying. they are saying, watch for this breaking ball that he can slice into left filed because that's what nick johnson has done this entire season. >> bob: nick has been very good against lefties this year. on base twice today with a

single, a walk. he walked right after the rain delay and was the second runner to come in to score on willingham's two-run hit. nick versus lefties, .357. a .450 on base percentage. >> bob: you know, if the nats go to houston and win that suspended game in walkoff fashion, guess who the winning pitcher will be? >> rob: joel hanrahan? >> bob: yes.

and nyjer morgan could possibly play in that game. we could have two players play in the same game where they have been traded. that thought struck me as debbi was reading the numbers. >> rob: i half because you can hear things because there are about 3500 people in the stadium. >> bob: some of them have left. they announced a crowd of 27,032 which is beyond belief. how many did they say? >> rob: 27. >> bob: which would be 2/3 of the baseball capacity. nick johnson takes one up and in and now it will probably be leo nunez against ryan

zimmerman. so nick on base again flashing his selective. ryan is on right now, 0-for-4 but he is hitting left handers better than right handers. >> rob: and you also have adam dunn coming up. we if i person nunez, we could go extra innings. >> bob: i amer man .333 against right -- zimmerman .333 against right hander this is year and nowhere near .300 against lefties. >> rob: that explain why ryan is .200 at home and .325 on the road.

>> bob: nasty breaking ball from the lefty. generous call. >> rob: very generous. >> bob: for a pitcher who just walked two of the last three hitters. >> rob: i'm sure he had rapuano is seeing the clouds coming in from filed that are black. >> bob: he needs to worry about balls and strikes and not clouds and precipitation. let the crew chief worry about that. that's tim welke at third. 1-1 to ryan.

3-3 ballgame, top of the 8th. nats trying to salvage one here on getaway day and beat the marlins for the first time this year. give these guys something to think about until they come to d.c. early august. and zimmerman, easy flyball to right for bret carroll. now, the nationals have stranded 13 runners today in a 3-3 game. 

 . >> we're going to have to work on -- we have to shave all that on. we don't want to go too low, though. we don't want to leave you bald. >> go low, i don't care. >> we have to work on the sides. i don't know what you want to do with the front but the sides, we have to work on something. see that receding hairline like i do. >> bob: nyjer morgan seems to be very amused at scott sol son giving grooming tips to pat listach. bottom of the 8th, bonifacio, gload, probably a one-batter

appearance by sean burnett. when you look at the percentages, marlins are better off with bonifacio batting right handed. he batted 100 points better from this side of the plate. 1 ball, 2 strikes. that's a high strike on the inner half. chopper. guzman, trouble. out on a close play. cristian guzman playing it

perfectly, straight in. he had the momentum towards the bag that zimmerman did not. >> rob: i'm just enjoying that. >> bob: you don't like that guy a whole lot? >> rob: not very high on bonifacio. he has too much nicks on me. great play by guzman on a very fast player. doesn't look like he got him but we'll take the out. >> bob: pretty close. bonifacio out of the box. probably cost him a hit looking at cristian guzman. >> rob: had he put his head down and dug for first, he probably would have had a base hit. >> bob: game still tied. days. how come? well if you're hurt and can't work it pays you cash... yeah to help with everyday bills like gas, the mortgage... ...and groceries. it's like insurance for daily living. so...what's it called? uhhhhh

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 .  >> rob: tavarez has had a couple of days where he has not contributed but for the most part, the more we use him, the more that sinker moves down in

the strike zone. >> bob: right down the middle. ramirez's rp i total now at 58. he has gone roaring by adam dunn, brad hawp, mark reynolds. he is in the top 5 in the league now. afternoon baseball upped way. here is mike macdougal. baltimore leads boston 5-12 notice 7th after their miracle tomorrow back last night and toronto leads tampa bay 5-0 in the 9th. hard to believe the boston team we saw last week could give away a game like they did last night. they were up 10-1? >> rob: uh-huh.

>> bob: mets underway in milwaukee, scoreless, trying to break a five-game losing streak. 2-2 to ramirez here in the 8th. checked swing. nats want it to be fair but tavarez stumbles, throws it for some reason and that's a base hit. that's when you are going well. >> rob: this is not the worth thing. ramirez has done a lot of damage to the nationals. tavarez realizes, he had no chance to get ramirez on that play. >> bob: that was jaws little late. >> rob: yes. >> bob: i'm just glad tavarez

threw the ball towards first base. that could have been bad. >> rob: disastrous, absolutely. >> reporter: here is ross gload. and ramirez used to be a leadoff guy. he still does some running, not as much as he used to but he has stolen 12 bases this year in 19 attempts. outs of play to the left side. dan uggla has done no damage in this series. 3-for-9 with a couple of singles. he is another one of those guys you make a mistake and they put one over the scoreboard before

you know it. >> rob: well, bob, you have a new toy. we go back home and play on thursday, our new x-mo or newly updated x-mo camera will basically be 7,000 frames per second. >> bob: you are kidding me? >> rob: nope. we will be able to break down the player even more. >> bob: 7,000? >> rob: yep. >> bob: man! is it okay if we do that on friday, not thursday? >> rob: you do that on friday? >> bob: i don't want you to show up on thursday looking for the x-mo. friday when we return against the braves. we are there. the x mo will follow.

>> bob: it's been a wonderful teaching tool for rob and some of the guys in our ball club and i think that's a fully entertaining addition to masn as we bring you x mo. a look at baseball like we never have before. breaking ball, base hit. that was hanging. first and second, one out. it's dan uggla coming in. there is manny acta coming in to make the switch. and julian tavarez is not doing a whole lot in this series to endure himself to