you saw him get the base hits that were clutch. he is actually powering that fastball here to hanley. he fouls it off. i wish he would have come inside again, tighter, because hanley is going to hit everything away from you. when he is late on the fastball, that's going to put him right on time with the breaking ball but he came right on back, foul ball, ground ball pop-up. he is the real thing. double play there. nice play there. an opportunity for -- we've got a one-run lead. bull pep was not able to hold it. as burnett gave up the homerun to ross and he ends up getting a no decision. >> johnny: you look at the numbers there, one groundout and nine flyouts in this ballgame. >> ray: you know why? his fastball was so good that

any time you are late on the ball, you hit it in the air. ray was a pretty good third baseman playing for the orioles, for the mets. we'll talk about ryan zimmerman's problems in this series. now everyone has the fastest upload speeds. and we're giving them a mini netbook. well, i'm sticking with cable. so's ted. (voice) no i'm not! he's just goofing. (voice) no i'm not! (sighing) ted has betrayed me. (announcer) switch to verizon fios tv, phone and internet today and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities

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. >> johnny: nats post-game xtra brought to you by verizon fios. >> yes, he finally did it. stay fair, stay fair. stay fair. let's go. let's go. let's go. what was he hitting the beginning of the year in like .470? now he is hitting.250? for as good as he started, he went on a run the opposite way.

just as bad. don't worry, you're still fast. >> keep doing that, bonnie. thank you for coming >> yeah, how about that, dude. that's our best pitcher. they have the bullpen up already. >> johnny: you saw olson cheering on zimmerman getting his first rbi in the first part of that clip there. that's really interesting when we wire the players and manny and the coaches and you learn a little more about the guy's personality. >> ray: you learn more about the personality. you see john lannan sitting there. they are forming a bond. and they are challenging each other to do that. by john lannan going eight innings, it forces them to go eight innings or better. >> johnny: let's talk about

the nats' at-bats. >> ray: freddie gonzalez decides he's going to let the pitcher beat him and he does. first hit, two rbis. this goes to show up, we are not driving in runs with our big boys, dunn and zim last night. nick johnson walks, 3-2 pitch away. guzman to second. after zimmerman flies out, 3-2 pitch to dunn, and the big hit that i talked about willingham. and what they alluded to, the ability to hit the clutch hit. we have soon him do it several times in the last month. he hit solo homeruns. he gets those big base hits when it counts. >> bob: inside the box.

>> johnny: one for willie nar ritz, cristian guzman. nieves did not and ryan zimmerman went 0-for-5. nationals had some golden opportunity, had at least one runner on every inning and just could not take advantage of it. >> ray: i'm going to us a word for manny. frustrated. you get these guys there. guzman chops one to first after the harris single. johnson then gets sawed off. we left 13 runs on bases. zimmerman swings at a bad slider away. then 2nd inning. guzman swings at a bad ball, slider down. 32nd inning, second, third, one out. single by zim, double. hernandez gets a pretty good ball to hit, just hits it on the ground there.

then in the 4th. guzman grounds to 1st on the very first pitch, johnny. and then johnson sinker away. he hit the ball so well the other way during the course of the season early. pulls a ball. that's a total of nine runners left on base already and ground ball to third, nice play by bonifacio there. 7th inning runs. willingham just missed the ball. i thought it had a chance. it must have gotten on him. 8th inning, same situation. ball gets in on zim. we had them on there, 1, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2. i'm counting the runners left on base. 2-for-14. that's hardly an attack. we did get the 8 hits. we had four guys on via the walk, 12 base runners. actually, 14 base runners but it's the same old story, same old song. we have not hit well with runners in scoring position all

year long. surely, that first month and a half was an and racial. was it? i mean, we swung the bat well, didn't we? and we drove in a lot of runs and we averaged five runs a game. it's not going to be enough, gentleman, three runs a game is not going to be enough. we have sat here and watched some sensational plays by ryan zimmerman at third base. i cannot think of a series where ryan made three errors in a series as he did against florida. can he at he figure it out. i'm sure nobody can't. >> i think he must have went in there uncomfortable. i don't like the way he is throwing the ball. i don't like the way he gooses the ball. you call it goosing. he has something either wrong bothering him in his arm, last night, same deal. he boots the ball, gave him an error and threw it hard and then threw it away. hanley, his speed beats that runners go on.

you start to get uncomfortable, let it get in your hand. we are not highlighting zim. he is the best defensive play we have. >> johnny: yep. >> ray: it looks like t he had a bad series but he is having a tough time throwing the baseball. either something is bothering him in his arm, either a tenderness or tightness somewhere or he is feeling that strain of not feeling comfortable throwing to first base. i never had it, thank goodness. but i saw macey sass do it. and then a catcher. he would throw i the ball to centerfield. you moved him to the outfield, his control was great. pitcher for the pirates, he was out of baseball because of his inability to throw over the

plate. some people go to psychologists. it is starting to bother zim. i would rather it being a sore arm. i did have it in '86 when i was coming back from solder surgery. i was throwing the ball at a different angle but that's because my arm was hurting. >> johnny: we're going to get to the ballpark on friday. why don't you talk to ryan about that? see if he can explain from his own perspective and see what's going on. >> ray: i will be glad to talk to him. they have a lot of coaches down there that probably know more than i do. you can't lob it over there. >> johnny: how about the starting pitchers for the nationals, hitting in this series, at-bat 7, hits 3. zimmerman had an rbi today. back in a minute. video. ...for under $2000. we told her... you find it, you keep it. - i'm a filmmaker. - this is a fast processor. for video editing, that's going to help you a lot. for under $2,000, this is the best apple. it only has 2 gb of ram.

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. >> johnny: welcome back, everybody. nats xtra post game. welcome to washington. nyjer morgan arriving today at land shark stadium earlier. he will be in that starting line-up on friday. he will have sean burnett

arriving today. morgan drafting in the 2003 draft. 18 stolen bases this season, five triples, tied for second in the major league. his birthday is either coming up tomorrow. >> ray: tomorrow, i believe. >> johnny: happy birthday to nyjer. he got himself an inning and a work did sean burnett in florida. >> johnny: 2-for-14 in this ballgame, losing 5-3 to florida. manny acta was asked about that. >> we had plenty of chances the right now, our situational hitting flatout sinks. it's killing us. we could have won both series here and in baltimore. we have not been able to do it. we got 02 in. we have to have a better plan. >> debbi: initial impression

of sean burnett? >> he threw the ball well. threw the ball okay. he gave up the homerun to cody ross. we like what he have seen. but that's just 1 1/3 inning. >> debbi: jordan zimmerman, he has pitched well? >> this kid has pitched well for us. over the past two months, he has been lights out. we like the fact that this guy goes out there and does not walk that many guys, just goes after guys and gives us a tremendous effort again at the plate, drove in a run run. >> debbi: manny, that's not the proper baseball thing to do but did you consider walking hanley ramirez? >> no, not in the 3rd inning. we respect hanley a lot but i don't think we'll do that early in the ballgame. >> would he have come out if there was not the

7th inning delay. >> no, he was done for the day. >> the clutch hitting situation is even aggravating because you had a top pitcher on the ropes and you could not even get more. >> it was not even clutch hitting. we had runners on first and third, second and third with one out. clutch hitting is when you get a hit with two outs. >> johnny: nats lose their 29th game on the road. ross detwiler tries to stop the slide friday night. 6 0-0 our show on masn against the atlanta braves. we'll come back in a minute. i need to change my southwest flight. 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.

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. >> johnny welcome back, everybody. verizon fios the fastest internet. this is fios, this is big.

ross detwiler against kawakami. >> ray: he is down three runs or less in the last 10 outings, throwing a lft strikes. he doesn't walk anybody. big. >> johnny: i'm sorry, go ahead, i you want to talk about ross detwiler? >> johnny: no, i want to talk about the big weekend series after you talk about detwiler. >> ray: detwiler, big young right hander throwing strikes. >> johnny: for ray knight, i'm johnny holiday. see you friday night right here on masn.   úaltim

below .500. we bring in john kruk. with the red sox, what went so wrong? >> their fulmer. they struggled.

that will happen. they have a smoltz was locating his fastball. and the rain comes. he has to come out after 4 innings. sometimes relievers are not prepared to pitch in the 5th inning. i am not making excuses. they pitched poorly. i think josh beckett realized they could swing the bat. >> they had a comeback of 3 own today. they bounced back today. in a division of a tight race, though, is this more than one game losing something like that? >> not really. you understand these things happen. it's how you bounce back and react to it. weak-minded teams will let it bother you and lose 5 in a row. the boston red sox have been there and done that. a couple of years ago they had a big comeback win against the baltimore orioles that got their

manager fired. they know about coming back on teams. they know teams can comeback on them. >> you did not mention papelbon. is there concern here with him over the last few weeks? >> well, he's still throwing 95 to 97 miles per hour. a lot of pitchers especially young guys like him, they will go through a period where they have a little dead arm. sometimes when you go through that period, your location is awful. john smoltz was throwing 92 or 93 miles per hour but he was located and baltimore could not hit him. papelbon was throwing harder but was not locating. he will be fine. he would be the least of my worries in the red sox bullpen. >> the yankees are hot on their heels. winning 6 straights. what has gotten them going? >> offensively melky cabrera is

an every day player. they had garden to start the season. melky cabrera took over with clutch hits. johnny damon has been phenomenal. we knew mark teixeira wasa a slow starter. it correlated with alex rodriguez coming back. being that presence, that force in the middle of the line-up. teixeira gets hot. i think that's what turned this team around. i think their bullpen got a lot of help when they moved phil hughes and put him in the rotation. that didn't work out. throw him in the bullpen. his velocity went up 5 miles per hour. his breaking is sharper. i think it solidified the bullpen and made this a team that i thought wasn't going to contend for the playoffs. now they can contend for the world championship. >> they jumped a jig saw puzzle if front of girardi. he put the >> he's done a fantastic job. there are still a couple of issues with the catcher.

some pitchers are not happy pishing to jorge posada. he can be tub stubborn. >> here comes the rays. they open the season as if last year was a fluke. they were on the longest current winning streak in the majors, 7. peter gammons thinks not only will tampa win but they will run away with it. >> he dropped 10 and slipped it back to 5. here's the issue with the rays. they don't have a closer. troy percival is out. bal4 isn't good at all. they are using a miss match of guys to finish games at the end. after a while they will get cas mir-- kazmir back. he is a 6 inning pitcher at

best. they will need bullpen help to get through wins with him. i think the bullpen will be the reason they don't get into the playoffs. >> you are not sold on them? >> they can score and defend and steal bases, but i think in the end, the team with the bad bullpen doesn't get in the playoffs. >> they do have 100 home runs as a team. offensively they are remarkable. 42 and 38 is nothing to sneeze at. toronto, are you giving them a chance to get back in this? >> vernon wells has to be an mvp much in the 2nd half of the season. he hasn't been good. he hasn't been producing runs. scuturo has been great and aaron hill has been great. rowland has been phenomenal. romaro wants to be the rookie pitcher of the year. he was outstanding against the

phillies and today against tampa bay. i think in the end that all of that young pitching they had that were so good early, i think teams will get a book on them. they will be incontsiftent. i don't know if vernon wells can be the mvp 2nd half player that he has been in the past. >> romero fabulous today. shutout the tampa bay rays. that rookie going strong for them. you are not buying the rays or the blue jays. that leaves the yankees and the red sox. heading into the all-star break? >> i think the red sox. they are a more versatile team. they have guys they can mix and match. youklis can move to 3rd base. he is a gold glove defender which makes him special. jd drew is the ski for the team. he has to be a guy with david

ortiz struggling, they have to pick up with lowell being out. >> more from john kruk tonight on "baseball tonight". thanks for joining us. >> coming up here, roger will prove who the true tennis giant is. andy roddick fighting to stay alive in wimbledon's final-4. an update from the all england club coming up.

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