>> bob: many, many suspension bridges across all these ri here in beautiful pittsburgh and pirates lead 3-1, bottom of the fourth coming up. it could be more. your assessment of john lannan? he's been rather hittable lately. >> rob: yeah, he's thrown too many pitches in the zone tonight. he neets needz to get farther in on the righties and take more off the breaking ball to the left yits. -- lefties. he's doojd couple of bullets. that's good thing for the nationals. alberto gonzalez on that play didn't hurt the nationals after he went to the plate, but you've got to be a little more head's up. we're going to get our chances against ohlendorf, so you've got to keep plugging away and hopefully john lannan will settle down the second time -- second time through the lineup and give us an opportunity to win. >> bob: first baseman steve pearce leads off for the pirates. his leadoff double led to their first run in the second.

pirates have 43 wins on the year. up until about three weeks ago they were only five, six games out of first place in the central, but they've had a tough, tough stretch. they're 11 1/2 back of the cubs. they've lost five straight. one of the reasons they can't win on the road 17-39 and they're 12 under .500 in their own division. that ball might be leaving and steve pearce has hit his first home run. that's his fifth major league home run and the pirates lead 4- 1. >> rob: we talk about the younger pitchers. john lannan has really come into his own. if you don't locate your secondary pitches out of the zone, there's a big breaking

ball hit it down in the heart of the plate. that was time for an out pitch breaking ball not a strike pitch breaking ball. >> bob: the pirates kept shooting off the fireworks even through the next pitch to the next batter. ok, guys. here is andy laroche who singled a run home back in the second. quickly, the hitter is gone. john lannan needs to keep shooting those things off. >> rob: he's ticked at himself. he knows he's better than what he's been doing the first couple of innings. eths he's really upset and really carries the breaking ball down in and in. >> bob: ronny cedeno will be next. number eight hitter in front of the pitcher. ross ohlendorf base hit last inning got the pirates on their

way to a two-run frame. that's a high chopper that will be a hit. that thing got over zimmerman and then took off. >> rob: see the effort from ryan zimmerman right here. nice vertical. >> bob: i think if i had a bunch of kids on my team and didn't have much power, only the giants and mets have hit less homers than the pirates, i think i'd have a rock hard infield for balls like that too. have those guys hit the ball hard on the ground and run as fast as they can. >> rob: if i had guys with speed especially delwyn young, milledge and mccutchen, i would want it to be like that. they've got a lot of speed in their lineup and cedeno. >> bob: if odd bunch of sinkerball pitchers, maybe you wouldn't want to do that. >> rob: as i said, ohlendorf is

a bat-breaking machine. he grinds it right through the bat. he throws so hard. 92-95 with a great fourth ball. >> bob: he's having a good night, too. he's only thrown 43 pitches in four innings, 30 of them strikes. so, pirates lead 4-1 with mccutchen in there. he singled last time and scored. this kid's a great athlete. down in florida he was one of those high school kids who could do whatever he wanted. baseball, football, track. he was on a relay team that won the four by 100 state title and baseball america ranked him among the top five players in the country prior to the pirates drafting him in 2005. he was in the top three in the nation. he's not a big kid.

he's 5'11", 175 at second base, ronny cedeno. lannan misses on four in a row. he'll face ex-teammate lastings milledge. john lannan's first walk tonight.   >> rob: preston wilson, tha who -- [ indiscernible ] hands kind of low. farther back than eric davis

was. very quiet. i like guys who are real quiet. elijah dukes, if he does come back, we'll see how quiet he is. he doesn't have a lot of movement. his hands straight up and down. >> bob: milledge takes one in the dirt. 2-1. >> rob: a guy like milledge mother-in-law, you have a lot of -- a guy like lastings milledge, you have a lot of stuff going on. flick of the wrist, flick of the bat. he patterns a little bit after gary sheffield. >> bob: rocking that bat back and forth. there it is. >> bob: hit hard and foul. this is a hard infield just like that one in milwaukee the nats just played on and the count is 2-2. >> rob: they watered it down too much the last day there. >> bob: yeah, they de-morgan-ized it prior to yesterday's game. trying to slow down our leadoff

hitter. two balls, two strikes to milledge. lannan goes on a breaking ball. he's way out ahead. we'll talk about this next half inning where we have a little more time when the nats come up, i'll be interested in your thoughts on this outfield situation and will elijah dukes be the man and will he just be given the every day job out there to win? we'll see. i'd like to get your thoughts on that next half inning. that's ball three upstairs. 3-2. runners will be moving. cedeno sat second. mccutchen at first here in the fourth. the pirates have had seven hits in the last three innings. milledge bounces it. adam dunn backs up. he'll feed it to lannan and the fourth inning is over. well, fittingly, the guy playing left field tonight,

willie harris, leads off. morgan and gonzalez to follow and we'll talk about that left field slot. pa announcer: final boarding call... all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com.

 >> bob: willie harris had o great at-bat tonight. he drove in a run. he was thrown out trying to get to third base. a good left center stroke, rob dibble. >> rob: you know he'll supply the power, not willie. ohlendorf takes the 92-mile-per- hour sinker. willingham is going to score

easily. creates a run. always thought when -- starts with willie harris. >> bob: all right. left field. let's say dukes is the man they bring back tonight. that will not be announced till after the game. does he need to play every day and be given that opportunity? >> rob: no, nobody needs to be given the job. i think that's up to jim riggleman and mike rizzo to figure out who they want to see, how long they want to see him and what kind of opportunities are available. you still have caches austin kearns on the bench. you have some guys that are up here. they've been here all year. i think if anybody comes up as an every day player, they want to see them every day. this is the kind of team, there's that opportunity. you want to win some games. you might want to put willie harris out there, austin kearns. would i think if it is diewng elijah dukes, you want to see if elijah is going to be here next year or not.

that's the case they deem let him play every day. show what he can do. you've got alberto gonzalez going through, that anderson hernandez has been given opportunities. >> bob: and you have that speedster roger bernadina who will be an intriguing guy to keep an eye on down in viera next spring. could you imagine -- speed to burn. could you imagine him playing left field next to morgan? a 2-2 to willie harris. that's a little bit high. by the way, i think you're right on your bill metlock. >> rob: i think tim foley might be the second one. >> bob: i think nationals minor league manager tim foley is the other guy on the '79 bucks. willie harris will pop it up out to left. lastings milledge a-corner outfielder with the pirates.

-- a corner outfielder with the pirates and this refers to our trivia. willie stargell hit 32 homers and drove in 82 for that team. dave parker, 25 in '94. bill robinson, 24 in '75. so, they have plenty of punch, but they needed some infielders who are reliable and they went out and got tim foley and billmadlock. well done, sir. >> rob: thank you. >> bob: ball pulled by bard right at steve pearce, two outs. i can still hear that song "we are family." what a pro this guy was. that's world series footage against baltimore. not so sure about the eunice that year. there was -- unis that year. that was the final out the

familiar spot of joe jumping straight up. everybody i ever talked to who was around that guy just adored him. he left us way too young. alberto gonzalez on a 1-0 pitch. john lannan on deck. nats fans are quiet. top of the fifth inning. ohlendorf is a little like lannan. a .500 record on a last place team. lannan has seven of the nationals 32 wins. ohlendorf has eight of the pirates 43. his e.r.a. about 1.30 runs a game higher than john. and gonzalez hits it up the middle for cedeno. nats go quietly and quickly in the top of the fifth. halfway through the game, 4-1,

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 >> bob: a beautiful friday night in pittsburgh. when it's a nice sunday, you can come out to our ballpark and take advantage and have a blast with the family fun pack. for all sunday gaines games, um upper right field terrace tickets $15. lower bowl either side ballpark $25. ticket, hot dog, drink and chips minimum of two tickets per purchase. the kids run the bases sundays. 888-632-nats or nationals.com. hey, rob, isn't there a new pirate movie coming out? >> rob: yes, i think it's rated

rrrrr. that is so bad, but i had to do it. [ laughter ] >> rob: yo-ho-ho, a pirate's life for me. that's not johnny depp. nice setup. that's a very nice setup right there. >> bob: i'm just trying to be ed mcmann for you, johnny. >> rob: more like martin and lewis. i'll be jerry lewis. >> bob: you can be jerry lewis anytime. [ laughter ] >> rob: i think i'm jerry lewis most of the time. all right, jose morales, shut them down. >> bob: jose morales is still with us because nats are 0-.500 since his card came to us. that could be in jeopardy tomorrow night if the nats don't come from behind to win this game. >> rob: yeah, and he doesn't get on camera tonight unless we're winning or we win this game. >> bob: 72 pitches, 47 strikes

through four innings a laboring kind of night for john lannan so far. he makes a good pitch there. unfortunately, garrett jones hits it foul. perry hill is their coach at first base and an old friend of the nats sopt other side of the diamond. there's perry. a little bit outside. a swings and a foul. -- a swing and a foul. well, there's rich donally and they've had some changes here. tony beasely, former nats coach was the coach. rich donally a-long-time pierd pirate guy. john leeland has the honors over there. a good baseball man he is. >> rob: you talk about the

players being traded. the fans are upset. victor martinez traded from the cleveland indians to the red sox today cried at the press conference. he weeped. he did not want to leave. >> bob: where do they play him? i know he's a great catcher, but -- i mean, jason varitek not going away, is he? >> rob: maybe next -- >> bob: maybe next year, but not now. >> rob: maybe next year, but they have a player club option on varitek i think dlartion 6 million, $8 million. whatever it is. victor martinez can play first base not well. he can catch but not that well and he can dh. he can hit very well. i talked to nick on my radio show today and he talked about who is going to catch wakefield if perez goes down when he comes back off the disabled list. neither one is a good knuckle ball pitch catcher. >> bob: called out on strikes there not liking it. garrett jones for the first

out. >> rob: josh bard got a chance to catch that knuckle baller up there. >> bob: that didn't last long, did it? >> rob: 3-2, this is just a hard fastball on the black. grab some pine, kid. >> bob: second strikeout for john lannan. he faces ryan doumit who is 0- 2. good one to the outside corner. the number four and five guys, knock on wood, no damage so far 06789-4, doumit and delwyn young. there was a time this year when the pirate thought that ryan doumit wouldn't play at all. he broke his wrist, had some surgery and they thought he was out. that ball high in the air right center. in the air for a long time for josh willingham. two outs. the nats are here for four and here is the next three with

craig stammen and virgil vasquez tomorrow night. dc 50 joins us sunday. collin balester and paul maholm and the nats come over to -- home to face the nick johnson and florida marlins -- doesn't that sound strange -- on tuesday night. nick johnson hitting .295 for the nats heading to florida. >> rob: i was going to say how good are you if you're jake peavy and you have a blown out ankle, torn tendon. he had a cast up to his knee that was taken off shortly -- short time ago and they traded for him in chicago with the white sox. kenny williams has been after jake peavy for a year and finally got him. >> bob: swing and a miss on a pitch upstairs. john lannan has retired 5-6 last batters.

and that's a pop-up out intoleft center. nyjer morgan is caught -- has caught hundreds of those here and that will do it for the pirates in the fifth. lannan is due to lead off. does he bat or is he done? stay tuned. pa announcer: final boarding call... all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com.

 >> bob: ladies and gentleme there was been an assassination attempt in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. a president versus perogi's replay.

watch teddy roosevelt may be running, rob, better than he ever has before. >> rob: teddy looked like he was going to bring home the victory for the nationals and the perogy took him out. he just -- >> bob: you just can't trust a perogy in pittsburgh. >> rob: that was one of the best cross-body blocks i've ever seen of a president ever. >> bob: here is john lannan leading off the sixth inning. he has a hit tonight. only three other team mates can make that claim. he hits it sharply. well played, ronny cedeno. who does he think he is, jack wilson? >> rob: well, this is highway robbery right here. this is a sharply hit ball. cedeno dives. .360 on the dirt. side wind and perfect strike

over to first base. >> bob: they've gotten used to great shortstops over the years with jack wilson who was here for nine years, and he was a trading deadline acquisition by the pirates. morgan lays down a bunt. what a play by andy laroche! he may be the first guy we've seen throw out morgan on a bunt down the third-base line. that was really good. >> rob: andy laroche right here with the barehand play as good as you can do it takes a hit away from nyjer morgan. that is beautiful. nice stretch by pearce at the end. >> bob: can't tell what you a good play that was. wow. sheer guzman, base hit last time on -- here is guzman a base hit last time.

the nats are going quickly and quite leer here. nats six consecutive hitters and make itself registering eight outs for ross ohlendorf. he's dominating the nats right now. >> rob: don't think he got one right off the left shoulder. a lot of protection over there. >> bob: 4-1 pirates, top of the sixth. ohlendorf getting outs way too quickly right now. the nats have one hit since the third and only two since the second. that's a great fastball. >> bob: breaking ball, guzman gone. nationals gone in the top of the sixth inning. where's the offense we saw in milwaukee?

it's not in pittsburgh yet. 

 >> bob: geico highlights fo you and just about everything for the pirates right now. that was a double down the left- field line back in the second by papers pearce. laroche drove him in and then later steve pearce a leadoff homer in the fourth. john lannan's given up four runs on seven hits and he's out there for his sixth inning of work having just thrown pitch

number 90. lannan started out the ballgame by retiring the first five pirates. three of them on ground balls. we thought he was in for another special evening. >> rob: they don't all turn out to be good evenings. you still want to give your team an opportunity to win. you see ryan zimmerman throwing to first. the first out. you've got it keep working. he was well below his usual pitch count in the 100s and i'm sure that's what jim riggleman was thinking. let's go back out there maybe one or two more innings until we have to use a pinch-hitter. >> bob: andy laroche is next. a bouncer left side to guzman. two quick outs on grounders by john. ronny cedeno coming up. get your head on and come to the ballpark next -- get your red on and come to the ballpark

next tiewft tuesday and you'll receive a free "you know you're a nats fan" t-shirt. be one of the first 10,000 through the gates. nats-marlins. nick johnson will come back with florida at 888-632-nats. visit nationals.com or stop by the box office at the ballpark. here is ronny cedeno, the number eight hitter 1-2. nats fan enjoying sixth inning mid game refreshment and a 2-0 count. marlins and diamondbacks on the next home stand. before the nats head off to atlanta and cincinnati d anybody reach this one? no. ronny cedeno played 40 games at shortstop for seattle in the 59 toald total he played for the mariners. that's a ball club that's

fallen back. they're eight back of the eanls angels now in the a. l. west. they were within a couple of games two weeks ago right there with texas. things need to turn around in the pacific northwest pretty quickly. a pop-up right center. looks like john lannan will reward his manager for leaving him in the game and he may be around for a while longer. top of the seventh. three, four, five coming up. nats need to get busy. high cholesterol. you've taken steps to try and lower both your numbers. but how close are you to your goals? there may be more you can do. only caduet combines two proven medicines... in a single pill to significantly lower... high blood pressure and high cholesterol. in a clinical study of patients... with slightly elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, caduet helped 48% reach both goals in just 4 weeks.

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 >> bob: nationals baseball masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by acura, acura advance. quite a beautiful evening. that's from downtown pittsburgh across the allegheny and the pnc park. at nationals park in the fifth inning against ross ohlendorf on may 18, nick johnson had just hit a three-run homer and ryan zimmerman went back to back. that's his favorite part of the ballpark out there near the red porch. that was a five-run fifth, but that night ross detwiler, garrett mock out of the bullpen who turned out to be the loser gave up a lot of runs. joel hanrahan had a rough night and the pirates beat the

nationals 12-7. zimmerman, dunn, willingham top seven. ohlendorf is having an amazing night. he's averaged 10 pitches per inning through six. >> rob: and he's chickal -- economical and efficient. >> bob: he's walked one batter who he erased with thetwin killing. zimmerman takes that breaking pitch. a lot of fourth balls by this guy. you see that dive down at the end gives it a good sink is that your fingers are separated on the ball. his fastball. he has the same arm action as the fastball so the lack of a grip on the ball shoots through your fingers. about 14, 15-mile-per-hour differentialn our guys. they've within struggling all night.

>> bob: you mention add couple of differe this guy. i think the pirates are that's pitch in the major m 2004. 31ames 2007-2008 all in relief. 1-1 with an e.r.a. around 5.00 those two years. 3-1 here. zin sitting on a 3-1 pitch and see you lae. ay out into the bullpen. zimmerman hit his 20th of the year and the nats are on the board again and aboard -- in a 4-2 game. >> rob: this is live? i thought that was a replay. >> bob: itas similar to the other one, wasn't it? >> rob: wow, that was over the 410 mark into the bupen number 20.

zimmerman ying down some smack em. that's just bangthe ball right there. 90-mile-per-hour over the p fastball, rob. >> bob: 78th home run of zimmerman's career. and ryan is at 20 for the third time. 14 last year because of all the injuries. here is dunn who struck out twice. >> rob: come on, big boy. >> bob: ohlendorf has given up back-to-back jacks to the nats once this year. he's got adam dunn doing a lot of guessing and not much tiemtion timing in the batter's box now. dunn, 2-3 of his strikeouts. >> rob: you see that action in the fourth ball. threw it in the minor leagues, but it bothered my shoulder a lot. you throw it almost pass the

left-handed hitter and it will come off your index finger, shoot over your middle finger and roll over on a lefty kind of like a changeup. it is nasty if you're thinking national. -- fastball. >> bob: even the umpire brian o'nora was dodging on that one. >> rob: i flinched up here. >> bob: and we're way up here. >> rob: the big boy let that ball go. >> bob: jess chavez is -- jesse chavez is throwing for the pirates. cover has only given up five hits, but nobody out here in the seventh. adam dunn looks at ball two. nationals now have hit 96 home runs this year. they are on a pace to obliterate their mark of last season where they had 117 and only the giants with 94 hit

fewer. dunn hit 26   ohlendorf career 9-12. this is his 26th major leag start and he looks more mature than that and a 2-2. adam dunn strikes out for the third time. and the 115k by dunn this year. johnny and ray in the studio tonight. verizon fios brings you "nats xtra" post game a wild trading day for mike rizzo and the nats. they'll sum it up for you and look at labl john lannan's outing which is still in fro

gress -- progress. it will be tomorrow craig stammen and virgil vasquez who is 1-5 with a 6.21 e.r.a. here is josh willingham taking a curve ball for a strike. josh, 1-2 with a base hit. nats now have 65 home runs in the middle of their lineup with zimmerman, dunn and willingham. 0-2 to josh. off-speed. well hit, left center. over to get it mccutchen and

josh willingham is 2-3. he's gone roaring pass the .300 mark. josh willingham did not play in the game yesterday. he's now had eight hits on this road trip playing in four ballgames. suddenly, the tying run to the batter's box with willie harris. steve mccatty likes the way john lannan has turned his night aren't. >> rob: he has to get some of the lefties because i think lannan is fourth. there's things about digging in and pinch-hitting. >> bob: willie harris this year has hit four home runs and jason bergmann is up. >> rob: bergermeister,

meisterberger. john lannan gave the nationals the opportunity to get back in the game. >> bob: he's retired seven straight. >> rob: fourth ball he picked up tonight. >> bob: he's done so well against left-handed batters. guzman has an infield hit. morgan is 0-3. he has instruct dunn three times. -- struck out dunn three times. willie harris has a double in three trips. josh bard 0-2. he's been very good against the nats left- handed hitters. short lead by josh. willie takes it and a good play by ryan doumit to keep it close. the other catcher bard on deck.

that's upstairs, 2-2. >> rob: dooferever ohlendorf in his last starts hasn't gone seven innings. >> bob: willie harris, high in the air right field! it's hooking and it is short of home run distance. fortunately out of play. >> rob: i think it was off the end of the bat. >> bob: yeah, he really got around quickly on that one and the count stays 2-2. >> rob: once this year has ohlendorf in the last 10 games over 100 pitches. >> bob: his last two outings, 5 and 5 2/3 and then he went six

respectively. willie will turn on that one, with you it's -- but it's going foul. nationals showing signs of life here after that missile by zimmerman might have awakened the bat rack leading off the seventh. harris rips another one. >> rob: he's starting to hang the curve ball now and that's a dinger for him. that's one pitch that you start hanging that, very hittable. >> bob: a seven-pitch at-bat by willie harris and the nats have forced him to throw 22 in this inning which far -- by far his

longest frame of the night. mars represents the tying run in a 4-2 ballgame. ball three. it's becoming a very good at-bat. the runner going. that's ball four. what a great plate appearance by willie harris. the tying run is on. it's ohlendorf's second walk of the night and josh bard will step in. when you hear a manager or

coach talk about grient grinding it out. ohlendorf has reached the end of the line here. he was on cruise control one- half inning ago and the nats get him out with a 24-pitch seventh inning in which he's only retired one batter. zimmerman homer, willingham single, harris walked. what's to follow? stay tuned. ( shouting ) anybody want a beer?

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 >> bob: ross ohlendorf, the e came quickly here in the seventh inning. the nats still two runs down and they'll face a young pitcher 25-year-old jesse chavez who was a nemesis to them in the series at nationals park. he made three appearances. he pitched 3 2/3 of scoreless baseball giving the nats only three hits. josh bard is first up. two on, one out in a 4-2 game and bard was thinking first- pitch fastball. that's what he got.

josh 0-2 tonight. a changeup outside. count is even, 1-1. josh willingham singled with one out and then willie harris in a fantastic at-bat and drew a walk right after that. that got ohlendorf out of the game. and josh bard gets jammed and pops it up. it gets to the dugout. it does, but it's pulled back in by andy laroche who makes his second defensive gem of the

night. >> rob: find the dugout. you'll see laroche looking, looking, looking. he'll come over, find it and made a -- make a great play on that ball. snow cone. >> bob: he actually looked a second time. >> rob: nice of his bench to help him out. >> bob: where is everybody? >> rob: what if he falls down. it's one thing if it's the visitor's dug. bard is disgusted. >> bob: usually, you fee five or six guys helping their guy out. here is alberto gonzalez in a big spot for him. he's 0-2. alberto is 1-13 on this road trip. big gap in left center. two-out hit that way.

willie harris could score. he's getting a big lead as pearce plays way behind him and gonzalez rips one straight back. 1-1. >> rob: part of being a major league player is weathering the valley, peaks and valleys, you can have highs and lows. until you come out of that valley that sets you apart, your manager i'm sure rick eckstein and mike ric rizzo want to see this guy come out this have valley intinging. i mean -- swinging. i mean, fighting. putting together some good at- bats. >> bob: he appears to be taking a much bigger swing than we saw him bring back from syracuse after he had been sent down. >> rob: he had shortened up. he was chopping down. hit line drives all over the place. >> bob: 1-2 to alberto.

-- alberta. he's gone. >> rob: overmatched. >> bob: ryan zimmerman's leadoff home run the only nats run in the seventh inning. it was a bomb to deep left center. brine ryan's 20th. it stays now 4-2. we bring fiber optic all the way to the home. um... which gives you more bandwidth than cable. so you can upload faster. so it's like comparing a horse and buggy to a sports car. am i the, uh, horse? (announcer) it's a whole new internet. makes uploading as easy as downloading. because your internet's not fast unless it's two-way fast. 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: nationals baseball on masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by mcdonald's. feeling thirsty, try a refreshing 32-ounce mickey d's sweet tea. i'm loving it at participating mcdonald's. beautiful evening. kind of looks like the river should be running into the ballpark there. beautiful pnc park in pittsburgh. here is our game summary. willie harris drove in the first run with an rbi double back in the second. ryan zimmerman, the other one with a leadoff home run in the seventh. john lannan will go out for his

seventh inning of work since he was not reached by that inning as far as his spot in the lineup. he will take on the pinch- hitter here. it will be infielder ramon vazquez. >> rob: i think they made a movie about that. it's called "a river runs through it." >> bob: it's kind of like the ballpark in san francisco. when you see it from out on the water, it looks like there could be a spillway into the ballpark when in fact it's not even close. it's a beautiful setting, isn't it? >> rob: this is breathtaking. it sure beats the heck out of three rivers. >> bob: yep. that was one of those multipurpose round stadiums t sat rind behind home plate here, first base side inbetween here and heinz field, the new home of the relatively new home

of the steelers. the super bowl champions. vazquez, he's gone. that was a rather passive at- bat by a pinch-hitter. i thought those guys always came off the bench hacking. john has the strikeout here. his third of the night. miller light party night is every friday. next week the diamondbacks will be in town. 20 bucks or $22 for a premium game. predrink at the bar, soda, water or beer, pregame music, post-game fireworks. it's the friday night place to be at nationals park. top of the order, andrew mccutchen a base hit, a walk, a run scored. he jacks that ball. it bangs off the wall some 400 feet away in right center. wow. nyjer morgan couldn't even think about getting back on

that one. roitd. >> rob: this is a talented, young man. right there gets his fastball up. he crushes it. nyjer morgan, who has played this outfield before. plays it right off the wall perfectly. pulls mccutchen to a one-out double. >> bob: here is milledge 1-3 with an rbi hit. he goes up pumping.   john lannan throws it right him inner half for an 0-#

count. obviously john's last inning. >> rob: he's well over 100 pitches now and he's still throwing. he goes 88-90 to 91. that's his top end. >> bob: and northrop grumman with our pitch track is the information systems powerhouse. jason bergmann in the eighth after for the nats with the top of the order to follow. that's a huge run for the pirates sitting at second base. he will jam lastings for a foul ball. >> rob: do you like the hamburgleer or the burgermeister. tough come up with a nickname. >> bob: hamburglar. i think mcdonald's might have a copyright on that one.

>> rob: wouldn't you just do a spot for sweet tea? >> bob: i did. >> rob: well, synergy. the hamburglar needs some sweet tea. >> bob: and a breaking ball off the glove of zimmerman. mccutchen will score andwouldn't you know lastings milledge has 2/3 of his entire season total rbi's against the nationals tonight. he's 2-4 with two hits and rbi's number two and three. rowtd royalty looked like a changeup that lastings milledge goes out and he beats it. it's right off the glove of ryan zimmerman. usually he makes those plays. >> bob: that ball got there in

a hurry. >> rob: yep, couldn't get his arm up. >> bob: garrett jones bounces into one out and the return relay is safe. tonight's copyrighted telecast presented by authority of the washington nationals and may not be reproduced or retransformed and accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without express con sens sent of the washington nationals. so, milledge on the force play. jones at first base. ryan doumit the hitter. john lannan is going to give up at least five runs in this seven -- in his seven innings tonight. garrett jones is a running

threat. he has 5-6. the pirates as a running team, 55 stolen bases on the year. 18 of those by nyjer morgan before he left.   >> bob: well hit to right, willingham right there. a big run for the pirates. after seven, they lead the nats by two. 

 >> bob: nationals baseball masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by pnc bank. pnc, leading the way. >> debbi: welcome back to pittsburgh. nats trailing by a score of 5- 2. a very busy day for mike rizzo the acting general manager of the washington nationals. two big trades today. let's first talk about nick johnson going to the marlins. i know that aaron thompson is somebody you really, really wanted in that deal. >> yeah, it was a prospect that we really sought after. it was the guy we identified early in the process here of the trade deadline and they were reluctant to give him up because he's a talented, young, left-hand pitcher. at the end of the day, they decided they'll make a run for the ploofts and nick is going to be a -- for the playoffs and

nick is going to be a helpful player for them. >> debbi: i understand he's a nik ji, deceptive pitcher. will he be a starter or relever? >> he's a starter. wee believe he's mid -- milled of the rotation guy. he's sneaky and deceptive but 90-92 with his fastball and outstanding changeup and two good breaking balls. so, we feel he's a promising starting pitcher. >> debbi: they say you can never get enough pitching. you send joe beimel to the rockies and get two more pitchers. >> yeah, two power arms. that theus pitched in triple-a. he's one of their top prospects. he unfortunately had tommy john surgery three weeks ago was really the reason he was available at this time because if he didn't, he obviously would be in the big leagues for them or he's one of their top prospects. we feel it was a risk worth taking with him. if he gets back to where he waspre-injury, we have ourselves our top of the game relief pipper -- pitcher and fabian is a big arm guy too,

but he's farther behind. he has a big arm 95-96 miles per hour. >> debbi: how much interest was there in josh willingham and dunn? >> that was lost interest in both players. specifically, josh willingham because he can control him for two more seasons. those are players that we're very reluctant to move. i had in my mind all the time if we were going to get something very, very good for them, we'd have to make a deal. the deal would have been to be superior to make the deal because we control the good players and good in the clubhouse. >> debbi: two more roster moves coming up. thank you can you give as you sneak peek? >> i'm not sure. we'll meet with jim after the game. preel probably bring up a position player and pavinner. >> debbi: thank you. let go back upstairs. >> bob: debbi, thanks. mike rizzo, a busy day. ths for his time on the busiest day of the year possibly for any general manager and nyjer morgan works the count to 3-1 after anderson hernandez comes off the bench and swings at the

first pitch joel hanrahan throws. a pitcher had walks the next guy -- who walks the next guy. nyjer was picked off first base by ross ohlendorf back in the third. it's our coors light freeze cam. >> rob: it was a great move by ohlendorf right there catches nyjer leaning tordz second. quick move, great tag by pearce. bye-bye. you get the coors light freeze cam. >> bob: the world's most refreshing beer. one on, one out, guzman the hitter. now you're seeing why we're shaking our heads at the at-bat of anderson hernandez. he stood a lot on the field tonight behind joel hanrahan when joel had a hard time throwing strikes. >> rob: never too late to send guys back to the minor leagues. hear it season ends first week

of september. can never be too comfortable at this level. you need to be paying attention all the time. >> bob: and nyjer cannot get picked off here. 90 feet duntd doesn't matter -- doesn't matter that much when you're down by three runs. >> rob: exactly. yet, his run is meaningful, but not that meaningful to get picked off for it. >> bob: the good thing about this situation is you're distracting a pitcher who already has control issues. hanrahan since coming to the pirates, 10 strikeouts, three walks in 10 innings. a visit from joe carrigan, fine pitching coach. >> rob: a lot like steve mccatty, i can see just by the expression and the back of joe kerrigan's head, he's not

happy. he wants joe to focus -- joel to focus. one of the things he has trouble doing here. >> bob: and that's meek meerks the right-hander. >> rob: you can't be so worried -- be so worried. you've got to pick up the target and you try to hit the target. we talked about getting j.d. martin. i'm very impressed by the young man. he hit the target a lot yesterday. that's your job. you'll give up hits and things like, that but you've got to hit the target. >> bob: 2-1 to guzman now after he fouls one off. it's a beautiful friday night in western pennsylvania. pnc park, home of the pirates since two-on-one. capacity 38,496 and over 23,300 here tonight. top of the eighth, nats are down 5-2. one on, one out.

zimmerman on deck. guzman looks at ball three. >> rob: remember that question we got in the e-mail about the man stuff? >> bob: this guy a prime example. >> rob: this guy throws 95 miles per hour. throws. wasn't very good at pitching, locating and did not have a command of the breaking ball and the fastball combined. you must. >> bob: morgan running. guzman will serve one to -- serve one to left and it does fall t gets by milledge and morgan will score. guzman to second. a risky play by lastings milledge with a three-run lead. now the nats are within two with a runner in scoring position. lastings troubles in center field and i'm not sure that's the play the pirates were looking for when they've got a nice lead. >> rob: three-run lead. he plays theyth into a double into a single. you lay-up, take the single. would have been first and third instead of a run scored and now

guzman on second in scoring position. >> bob: and milledge evidently is hurt. >> rob: he might have hurt that hand he broke the finger on before. sometimes when you dive like that, your thumb gets caught underneath the glove. you'll snap a thumb off and be out for a while. see the dive. see the glove. he hurt the finger he broke on the glove hand. it's jay bruce, cincinnati just broke his hand or his wrist diving for a ball. >> bob: yeah. >> rob: it gets caught underneath you and your momentum there's no way your body can stop the mcleod momentum. >> bob: this inning is a microcosm of why the nationals traded both joel hanrahan and

lastings milledge. >> rob: they're working on his thumb. he jammed it. ryan zimmerman's last at-bat resulted in a big, big fly. that was ryan's 20th of the year. assistant trainer mike sandoval had a look at lastings milledge and evidently he's ok. a questionable decision on a ball he could not catch. now ryan zimmerman represents the tying run. the nats have collected three of their seven hits in the last two innings and a couple of walks have helped out as well. here is zimmerman against his ex-teammate joel hanrahan.

that's inside. joel just cannot throw first- pitch strikes. that's 11 appearances as a pirate. front door breaking ball. count's even. big man on deck who is extremely happy that ross ohlendorf is done for the night. >> rob: three strikeouts against ohlendorf. he did not like that fourth ball. >> bob: zimmerman pulls that pitch over to the third base side. andy laroche plays it for the second out. guzman to third and the nats

will have another shot with the tying run in the batter eax box, adam dunn. >> rob: that's going to do it for hanrahan. >> bob: they have one lefty in their bullpen donny veal. they've been throwing evan meek. adam dunn will have the game on the line for the nats when we bring you back to pittsburgh. . each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com. is my favorite because it has so much flavor. so i wanted to design a glass that would enhance

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 >> bob: time to bring you u speed with the at&t rapid rewind. nats and pirates trading bunchs punches. willie harris put the nats on top with a double in the second but then the pirates went to work on john lannan including andy laroche with an rbi hit. they would hit for some power as well. lastings milledge has two hits for rbi's. the nats made a defensive lapse there. there's the home run by steve pearce. ryan zimmerman goes way, way yard out to left center. and milledge got another rbi. so, here we are in the eighth inning 5-3, bucs. there is a live pitch to adam dunn. at&t, the nationate eaft -- nation's fastest 3g network, your world delivered. evan meek. adam dunn has fanned three

times tonight. breaking ball gets away! here comes guzman and it's a 5- 4 game! >> man, it went out of here. >> bob: that run will be charged to joel hanrahan. >> rob: meek comes in. throws him a nasty breaking ball. i don't think they wanted hanrahan with that 95 heat facing dunn. makes any young pitcher nervous that has handle like that up there. buries it in the dirt. >> bob: wild pitch. here is done with the count of one ball, one strike in suddenly a one-run game. the pirates do have a pretty good closer if the nats can't tie it here in matt capps who has 20 saves. a

2-1 to dunn. way outside with a breaking ball. >> rob: i'm sure he was told to be careful, very careful. >> bob: a good hitter on deck. >> rob: the hammer. , alabama slammer. >> bob: adam dunn breaks his bat. that ball drops into left field. he's going to round first and milledge will get it in, so the tying run is on and adam dunn has his first base hit of the night. the bat died a hero. here comes josh willingham who is it -- 2-3. >> rob: that's just strong though. this ball is just smacked that bat -- snapped that bat off his hands. he throws it into right field. the bat or 80% of it goes all the way out to the edge of the grass at second base.

>> bob: here is josh willingham. that was a long run for the batboy. >> rob: i'm sure for any young man that's a lot of fun to be in a major league dugout. >> bob: austin kearns will pinch-run for adam dunn. they're holding the runner. that's up and in to willingham. >> rob: it will be interesting -- >> bob: it will be interesting to see what jim riggleman does with first base defensively with dunn out of the game. there's a bunch of guys who can play here, willingham, belliard. that handcuffs josh. >> rob: you think he can play here? >> bob: i know he can. >> rob: what about austin kearns? >> bob: yeah, he could. >> rob: start taking ground balls over there i would think.

>> bob: 1-1 to willingham. breaking ball in there. >> rob: one more of those because that's the kind of breaking ball you can turn and jack out of here.   >> bob: way outside, ball t.   >> bob: kearns inching off. pearce holding him. time given by brian o'nora.

a 2-2 to josh. breaking ball. he couldn't pull the trigger. and the nats are gone in the eighth. they score two runs. they stranded only four tonight. hey mom i need some minutes. i just gave you some at the restaurant. yea i know. i threw them out. they were old so... old! they are rollover minutes. they are as good as new.

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moon, it's almost august, the pirates lead the nats 5-4 as we go to the bottom of the eighth. we'll be back here at the same time tomorrow night craig stammen. a 3. 43 e.r.a. his last three starts. he's 4-5 overall and will take on a pitcher who has lost five in a row, virgil vasquez, 1-5 with a 1.21 e.r.a. we'll get you going with actually byron kerr and ray knight with "nats xtra" at 5. 306789 p.m. austin kearns is in right field. so, josh willingham goes to first base. jason bergmann, the new pitcher. and brandon moss will pinch-hit for the pirates in the pitcher's spot spot here in the bottom of the eighth inning. >> rob: i called hanna

barberria, they said it was ok to -- all right to call him the berger meister, meisterburger. you remember it was sabt santa klaus is coming to town, meisterburger wouldn't allow the toys. >> bob: i thought that was the grinch? >> rob: that's another one. >> bob: 3-1. jason bergmann has to keep this a one-run game because they have matt capps on the way. it's moss, pearce and andy laroche and that's not how to start the bottom of the eighth inning. nope. now steve pearce hitting started for the pirates with a

single, a double, a homer and two runs scored. foul. >> rob: i think got a little bit of bard and a lot of the umpire.   >> bob: we are told tha dukes was pulled out of the syracuse game in the seventh inning for a pinch-hitter tonight. what significance that has we may find out in the next hour. >> rob: pinch-runner or pinch-

hitter? >> bob: pinch-hitter. i think that -- >> rob: either way, i think that's a little telling. >> bob: last report, elijah was hitting around .250 down there. he was up in the high .200s and recently as a couple of days ago. dukes at .288 going into today's action with three homers and 10 rbi's. so, elijah dukes has gone down to triple-a and he has made it a positive experience. guys can go one of two ways. they can go in the tank or they can get it done and that's what he's been able to do the latter. >> rob: no, i have heard and i've asked on multiple occasions how elijah was doing and everybod has said he's doing great. >> bob: the 1-2 pitch missing low and away. >> rob: he needed rest. he needed to play every day.

get his four or five at-bats in the minor league. it wasn't allan ray demotion. more he's the future. justin maxwell is possibly the future. just got down there and have a good attitude and work hard and come back umm here. >> bob: yeah, j. max is hitting .228. >> rob: that's not a good show. >> bob: he has 111 strikeouts. >> rob: he does have 12 home runs, so he's showing the power. there's an 11th strikeout. >> bob: and bergmann gets one by steve pearce for the first out in the eighth inning. >> rob: well, it's that hard fastball throws it -- throws it right by pearce. >> rob: elijah dukes only had

eight strikeouts in 66 at-bats. prey good ratio. >> bob: bergmann whistles in a fastball. andy laroche hitting .266 this year, but better late in a ballgame. he has an rbi tonight. his 38th. they came into this game 2-17 last. younger brother of adam, andy is 25 years of age. >> rob: his brother, adam today, traded back to atlanta from the boston red sox for casey kotchman. >> bob: how about that? >> rob: strange. >> bob: that ball is hit a mile and hooking way foul. that's into the upper deck.

>> rob: kennametal   you know what that is right there? that's a long strike. >> bob: there's a short one. >> rob: i believe some of thesu% either willie stargell -- [ indiscernible ] @>> bob: oh, yeah was' guy who frac language now and then? >> rob: on occasion. they would say play ball, not work ball. >> bob: reaching out and hitting a little pop fly is cristian guzman. two outs. follow the nats

give me another one. >> rob: trying to hit sandy koufax was like trying to drink coffee a fork. there's another one. throwing a knuck ball r stke is like throwing a butterfly with hiccups across the street into your neighbor's mailbox. >> bob: that would be tough. don't try thatat home. imagine the poor fool trying to catch it. >> rob: this is also said by ted williams and pete rose. q prod2t and throw you a round and tell you to think square. that is true. maybe stargell -- stargell suffered from kidney disease the last few years of died of l sort of blood cancer.

wonderful man. >> bob: a true ader of men. breaking ball by bergma after the leadoff walk, he gets a couple of k's. to the ninth, harris, bard, gonzalez against matt capps. it seems i've got three times the bills i used to. and they're getting in the way of things i'd like to do. with the money bar, i can move my money around instantly, so when there's more bills than usual, it's no problem. and i use the wish list to put any extra money aside for anything i want. being in control of my money feels good. introducing the virtual wallet from pnc, a high-definition, online view of your money. pnc. leading the way.

 >> bob: beautiful night in pittsburgh. i'm sure it's been that way in woodbridge, virginia, all week.

it's a 5-4 game into the ninth inning. the potomac nationals would like you to join the party, saturday fireworks are back tomorrow right after the game kids get to run the bases and as always tickets start at just $8. 703-590-2311 or potomacnationals.com. real baseball real close. it's only a half hour away. here is matt capps for the night. he hasn't had a save situation in 13 days, but did he pickup his 20th on july 18th against the giants. he's 14-14 since last blowing one may 15th. >> rob: that's pretty impressive on at that them a -- on that a them a at that doesn't get a lost wins or goes a long period of time without you getting opportunities. that's keeping yourself sharp. >> bob: willie harris has to be like a leadoff guy here. laroche in close at third and

hugging the line. mapp throws a strike. 33 2/3 innings, 27 strikeouts, but 15 walks. willie has been turning on inside pitches all night. >> rob: you said that about when our guys are pitching breaking balls, throwing down and in. only thing you can really do either ground it or hit it foul. sometimes you miss first strike three.   >> bob: 0-2 to willie. he had a fantastic at-bat last time to force a walk in the seventh and got ohlendorf out of the game. looks like the nats are going to pinch-hit ronnie belliard for alberto gonzalez, the third man up in this inning. the pitcher spot follows and the nats are a man short tonight. oh, he's going to call him out

on a national willie thought was up and away for the first out of the night. brian o'nora punches out the nats leadoff man. >> rob: see where it looks on the pitch track a little bit outside. pitcher's pitch. catcher is way out there. it had to be six inches to a foot jim dowd site -- outside. >> bob: josh bard goes up first pitch swinging. that will get -- we must note our cameras here at pnc park, they're probably offset 50-60 feet towards left center field. it's one of the more angular looks at pitches of any ballpark in the major leagues. there's -- there they are. now, look how far off center

they are. it may be the only flaw in an otherwise beautiful ballpark. the 0-1 to bard. they think capps is going to be around the plate which he usually is.   >> bob: they have one batter left to hit in the nine hole and that would be wil nieves if it gets down that far. >> rob: nats have capped five walks in 53 innings. >> bob: beckersly like. >> rob: yeah. >> bob: that's close. if he's going to give him the strike to willie harris on the other side of the plate, he can't give that one. the plate is not that wide.

  >> bob: now alberto gonzale on deck. >> bob: i think maybe if the inning gets that far, jim riggleman likes gonzalez and belliard better than belliard and nieves. they showed ronnie belliard for a few pitches then switched off. >> bob: 2-2 to josh bard who is behind 0-2. he's going to be called out on strikes! the last three nationals batters in this game have all

been called out for strike three. >> rob: this is just high octane outside part of the plate. >> bob: hard to argue with that. >> rob: one of the reasons he may have struggled with the command, may 25 this year, geovany soto hit him with a line shot off his pitching elbow. he was out for sometime. >> bob: there are certain relievers who have a way with that ninth inning momentum and matt capps is one of those guys now. alberto gonzalez the nats are one strike away from lose to go a team that had one of the worst weeks in recent history based on players lost and

transactions. and gonzalez will keep the nats alive with a base hit. he fouled off one and they say when you're slumping try to hit the ball over the second baseman's head. that's exactly what he did. ronnie belliard now. that's the best at-bat alberto gonzalez has had in some time. ronnie belliard goes up hacking. >> rob: that's a little bit tardy on that fastball.

laid out an 86-mile-per-hour fastball gets the bat going a little early.   >> bob: there's a -- that's breaking ball that misses away. they're holding gonzalez at first in a one-run game as they should. this is a ballpark with deep gaps. pirates don't want him scoring on an extra-base hit. belliard will single to left on a breaking ball that was hanging and how ironic is this? it gets nyjer morgan to the plate in the ninth inning, the

former pirate. so, the about ballgame boils down to a hitless tonight morgan 0-# tonight with a walk and a run scored. blinding speed in the batter's box and good veteran speedinbetween. a crowd of 23,363 standing most of them. a pitcher and a hitter who know each other very well.

>> bob: that's low. >> rob: milledge is way in in left field. a chop shot into left field. >> bob: gonzalez will be running on any contact and here is a 1-0 pitch. morgan pops it up! he's going to go 0-4 tonight and the pirates win it 5-4.   the nationalities outhit pittsburgh 10-9, but they strand five runners in the last three innings.   . >> bob: emotional week for the pirates and they win it.

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hi, everybody. johnny holliday and ray knight. "nats xtra" post-game in a couple minutes. rough night for the washington nationals. lastings milledge swung the bat good. hustled hard. had a tremendous stance for them in the triple-a club thra. knows question lastings is a good player. it's a question if he can go out there and be positive all the time. >> a couple of hits. couple of rbi's tonight. we'll talk more about that when we come back. let's send you back to pittsburgh and bob and rob. >> bob: thank you, gentlemen. for rob dibble and debbi taylor and bob carpenter, pirates beat the nats for the fourth time in five attempts this year 5-4. masn 2 tomorrow night. exa "nats xtra" at 6:30. visit masnsports.com for all the latest news on the nats. this has been a presentation of masn. stay tuned for "nats xtra" coming up right now. teddy went down and so did the nats and from the booth, so long for just a while.

welcome everybody, everybody. "nats xtra" post-game, first of four goes to pittsburgh 5-4. disappointing, ray. >> yeah, it was disappointing because you think you're going to beat that ball club as i thought we'd sweep san diego. lannan didn't have it tonight. he was not really effective tonight. 31 first-pitch strikes. he threw 37 pitches opposed to the 41 he's within throwing. that's four more an inning. best fastball was down. several hits you'll see tonight were 85-86 miles per hour. fastballs. he's not throwing his fastball that slow this year, so maybe he's just a little tired, a little dead arm. we're about to the dog days of august.

he's started. he didn't have -- he wasn't as sharp tonight. >> and he threw a lot of pitches tonight, 114. we'll breakdown for you later on. our defining moment in this ballgame, it was a third inning no, out, 1-1 ballgame and milledge comes to the plate and here we go. >> yeah, after two singles, ohlendorf and mccutchen, singles up the middle. ohlendorf scores. the weird play jones hits at second. no way you throw home mccutchen, maybe the fastest guy or top two or three fastest. you have to get an out there at first base. we'll talk about that later. >> there's the line score, 5-9- 0 for the pirates. nationals outhit the bucs tonight 4-10-0. ohlendorf gets the win. gets his ninth. lannan takes the loss. his eighth. zimmerman gets the home run, goes 1-3. guzman a couple of hits tonight, rbi, run scored. lastings milledge, 2-4, two rbi's including the one in the seventh inning which turned out to be the difference in this ballgame and mccutchen goes 2-3

with a couple of runs scored. the first of four. so, milledge had to be pumped up, ray, to go up against his former teammates, the nationals, as did morgan against pittsburgh and he had the shot there at the end and couldn't deliver in the ninth inning. >> hive that happen a couple of times, johnny, when i was traded. it's just extra buzz. golly, you think you're fired up, but then you're playing against a team you came up in the organization with or was traded for and a big part of that. it's hard to control that. i don't know any other situations. parents being at the game. friends being at the game. playing in your hometown or you're near your hometown. there's nothing like going back and playing against a team thattraded you. it's hard to control that emotion because you want to prove everybody wrong. >> sure. >> both these men are proud men. tonight, milledge came out on the upper end of that. >> especially with nyjer coming up in the ninth inning with that guy at second base. that's the tying run at second

and go-ahead run at first base. >> nyjer hasn't failed too much. he's exactly the kind of guy that might struggle in those situations only because he's always geared up. you know, there's really no where else for him to go. i was very similar to that. gibbs was very similar to that. we were always geared up. all of a sudden, you get something that pumps you up a little bit more and you get out of your game a little bit. >> would i imagine back in that pirates clubhouse tonight, lastings milledge is a pretty happy guy. bob carpenter and rob dibble, gets two hits and drives in a couple of runs tonight. bob, obviously can't hear me, but maybe rob can. >> got you now. >> big night for lastings? >> yeah, we saw a microcosm of his nationals career. some good swings, some bad defense and we saw that from hoornl hanrahan as well with the control issues. lastings milledge is an untapped talent. rob, nationals didn't get rid of him because he's a bad guy. he's a kid who at times is a little clueless out there, but there's no doubt he has lots of

talent. >> yeah, he has lots of talent. it was very difficult to trade him. a lot of people questioned why you would trade him. he's a talented, young man. he can hit the ball and hit with authority at times. at times, he makes some bad decisions. you know, right here this is a great hit. it's a changeup. he went down and got it. drives it by a really good all- star third baseman a little later in the game, a case of should i play this into a sing ofle or play this into a double and an rbi situation and he does the latter where he dives for a wall he -- ball he should have laid up for. he's coming off a broken finger and hurt his thumb. bottom line is you like to see guys go somewhere else and do well. you don't want them do well against your team. joel hanrahan came in and got into a little bit of a jam and was taken out of the ballgame. you know, all in all, i think we made out better than -- nyjer morgan is faiveght. sean burnett has been fantastic. sometimes a change of venue is

grate tore both teams n lastings milledge's case, anything can happen for him now. he's getting a shot to play every day. >> when you have the worst record in baim baseball, it's kind of hard to say we should beat this team, but the nats should play better against the pirates. they've lost 4-5 to pittsburgh this year, but the pitcher the nats saw tonight, ross ohlendorf, easily the best of the four pitchers they will throw in this series. >> ok. bob carpenter, rob dibble, back at you guys tomorrow night same change, same time on masn. the one thing about ohlendorf, he struck out four batters. he got adam dunn three times in this game. >> yeah, adam, he got a little discombobulated i think at the plate probably because of pitch was called on him and he's had two or three pitches called on him lately, johnny. ohlendorf is a guy, he has good stuff. he really does. he's able to throw the ball to spots more than anything. we're going to see a little bit about how he was so effective tonight as he comes out there

and he calls out adam on a pitch that probably was down. then, adam comes in and chases that split-finger and that's one thing it will make you swing the bat. ran a little ground ball double play when they start calling pitches on you by the hot josh willingham. just getting one hit tonight and a breaking ball, hanging breaking ball right there and guzman pulls off of it and goes back with adam on that changeup. that's a straight changeup and adam has a tough time with off- speed pitches. they've been throwing him a lot of off-speed pitches. a curve ball in milwaukee. the soft curve balls and changeups and split-fingers tonight. >> if you look at john lannan's outing tonight, the first of five batters. he goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. kind of reeled them off like it was nothing. -- then he got in trouble after that and then he got back on track after that. >> yeah, but he wasn't throwing well. we'll go through his night. retired the first five batters. doubles on just an 86-mile-per- hour bp fastball. then, laroche on an 85-mile-per-

hour -- 86-mile-per-hour fastball gets jammed a little bit and if that's 87 or 88, he didn't hit it over the shortstop. ohlendorf singles to right on an 84-mile-per-hour something and then an 86-mile-per-hour base hit up the middle. i keep giving you these very lossities because of the fact that -- velocities because of the fact none of them were over 87. changeup. bad play. terrible play. you don't make that play home. you play on double play depth and make sure you get an out. ryan tries to go to second but turns a double play. a little ground ball to the left and he ends up finding himself as you said, johnny, he's such a good pitcher he's going to get you out, but then gets a changeup over the inside part of the plate. how many changeups have we seen hit for home runs in the last two weeks? it seems like every changeup is going to throw out. able to strikeout some hitters. weak ground ball to shortstop. fastball at 87 again and he's been throwing 89. gets the ball right here smoked

to right center field by mccutchen i think i said mcclutchen earlier. we could call him mcclutchen. game of inches, johnny. that ends up being the big run right there as we came back and put four runs on the board. >> zimmerman's home run. john goes seven tonight, nine hits, five earned runs, walked one, struck out three, but threw 114 pitches. that is a season high 76 were strikes and 38 were balls. we will take a break and come back and continue with more of "nats xtra" post-game brought to you by verizon fios. we'll take a look at ryan zimmerman's home run, his 20th of the year when we come back. o

5-4 the final in pittsburgh. "nats xtra" post-game brought to you in part by verizon fios. verizon fios over 100hd channels and fastest internet. this was fios an this was big. this was big earlier tonight in

pittsburgh. yes, the presidents from dc, wow. one of the perogies flattens teddy and gets up an celebrates and teddy is flat. watch this blindside. teddy never saw him coming, did he? welcome back to "nats xtra" post game. that took place earlier tonight in pittsburgh. also tonight, nationals have recalled from syracuse, elijah dukes and pitcher jorge sosa. >> he's been swinging great. i thought this would happen. felt like elijah would eventually get up here. i did believe adam needs to play first base. he needs to work hard over there and become a first baseman because he just gives away too much in the outfield. i'm not sure if they're going to platoon he and willie harris or not, but i'm just glad he's back. then, jorge sosa, he's been around nine years, nine

different ball clubs. a guy that's always been able to get people out. he's lights out down here in triple-a as he wasn't giving up anything, johnny. striking out a lot of people not walking anybody. probably be a good addition to the ball club europe going to meng about the guys he pipd for, astros, mets, cardinals, braves, tampa bay, milwaukee, seattle, colorado and now he's up with the big club here with washington. good to see him. >> you know, when a team wants him that batly answered goes to that many clubs -- >> he's obviously a pretty good pitcher. >> he's always been a good guy, middle relief mainly. he has a lot of good pitches. he's durable. very durable. he's been around a lng time. he's a veteran. he's a will the like rivera and ayala. those type guys that you can throw him every night and give you an inning and he doesn't get flustered too much. >> nats came up a run short tonight. they scored four runs. they outhit the bucs 10-9. let's take a look at the nationals offense in the

second. >> second inning, josh gets a single up the middle and willie scorches one out to left center field. nobody with run that ball town as he ends up with an easy double, but then he's out at third base. don't give an out for a run when you've got the run. there was no doubt that run was going to score there. you don't run into a out at third base. we did. that's another out we gave up. then, zim goes down and flat out smokes this ball. line drive out there over the 410. you see that part of the ballpark that. ball carried 430. in the eighth inning, you get a walk, leadoff walk and then little stride by milledge we saw earlier. i don't have any problem with that. i don't have any problem with somebody diving for a baseball. he's got to block it. morgan scores easily. zim hits a ground ball to third. easier out there as we're not able to capitalize in that inning. adam dunn strikes out. actually, scores a run to make it 5-4. then, adage ends up

making the out in the inning. we just end up one run short. >> only a couple of guys got more than one hit. cristian guzman goes 2-4 with a double and drives in a run and willingham goes 2-# 4. a couple singles and scored a run. bard took the collar as did nrgnyjer morgan. done dunn 1-4 with a single and three of those were strikeouts tonight. there was a mistake i believe you commented about this sitting back there watching the ballgame. on defense in the third inning involving a ball hit to gonzalez and he kind of made a middle mis-- mental misthrough. >> you have to know the speed of the runner. you're in double play depth. there's a tapper on one of the fastest runners in the league. he thinks he'll make the play at home. it's not a force play. what you've got to, he's better off trying to go to second base and getting the out at second than he is to try to come home with a guy with this kind of speed. that's like trying to throw luke rock and, ronald floor and those type guys when you're

playing infield. when they're on third base, the ball has to be hit hard to you. you cannot go to home on a p choar. he's off balance. no chance to throw him out. you could have gotten the lead runner there just he hasn't played a lot of second base though. >> he will learn from that, won't he? >> he will learn from that. you've either got to charge the ball shards you can to get your feet under you and throw the guy out or charge it the way he did and get out at at-bat. >> we'll talk with jim riggleman. veal imhents this ballgame when we come back and continue and craig stammen also we'll talk about him who gets the start tomorrow night against the pirates in pittsburgh. they win the game, first game of four, 5-4, tonight. um... which gives you more bandwidth than cable. so you can upload faster. so it's like comparing a horse and buggy to a sports car. am i the, uh, horse? (announcer) it's a whole new internet.

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the trading deadline in major league baseball, the nats made a couple of moves. nick johnson goes to the florida marlins for aaron thompson. joe beimel goes to the rockies for ryan math yus and robinson fabbian. earlier, debbi taylor caught up with mike rizzo and asked him

about aaron thompson. >> it was a prospect we really sought after. it was a guy we identified early in the process here of the trade deadline. they were reluctant to give him up because he's a at that lented, young, left-handed pitcher. at the end of day, they decided they'll make run a for the playoffs and nick is going to be a really helpful player for them. >> i understand he's a very sneaky, deceptive pitcher. is he going to be to be a starter or reliever? >> he's a starter we believe middle of the rotation guy. he's sneaky and deceptive but 90-92 with which is -- with his fastball and outstanding changeup and two good breaking balls of the we feel he's a promising starting pitch. >> -- pitcher. >> he was the first pitch in the 2005 marlins and in jacksonville he's 5-9 this year. >> he's a rot like scott olsen and he throws very good fastball they compared him to scott olsen in their organization. he's one of the reasons they

let scott olsen go because they had him coming along. to be able to get him in this situation shows you how badly the marlins believe they need a left-handed bat. >> that skipper jim riggleman spoke earlier with the media about tonight's moves of bringing up from syracuse elijah dukes and jorge soos. >> we're going -- sews. >> we're going to -- sosa. >> we're going to bring up elijah dukes and sosa for the bullpen and, of course, we lost a possession player in the trade and lost beimel, so we think elijah is ready to come back up here and help us. so, you know, we're glad to have him back and looking forward to seeing sosa pitch. heard good things about him. hopefull, those two guys can help things get going right. [ indiscernible ] >> well, he's going to be in there. you know, every day we've got a lot of good players here.

i'm not going to have anybody sitting for a week or 10 days at a time. he's predominantly going nobody there, but elijah, he gets some aches and pains now and then on that knee and there's just going to be times where he needs a day. he's going to get a lot of playing time. >> your thoughts on john lannan tonight? >> john was good. a couple balls i'm sure that weren't where he wanted them. i think pearce jumped on one and he hung a ball to lastings. the inning that hurt us, the ground ball that the pitcher hit for a base hit and then two ground balls that went up the middle. if those balls are any where else, those are double play balls and three ground balls in that inning were particularly damaging and that's what we want john to do is get ground

balls. >> what do you think of ohlendorf? >> he was real good tonight. yeah, he did a good job. he mixed up his off-speed stuff, his breaking ball, his changeup. he kept us off balance pretty good and was not having to throw a lost pitches to get it done, so we just didn't get to him and that's to his credit. [ indiscernible ] >> what did you think of the guy you saw tonight and was it any different -- >> not really. he's a good player. last sags good athlete. he's a good player. he can turn on the ball well. he can cover ground in the outfield. he has a pretty good arm. so, you know, lastings is a good player. he'll do a good job just like our guys are going to be do a good job for us that we got from pittsburgh. >> so, lastings milledge, couple of hits, couple of rbi's including the one that turned out to be the game-winning rbi.

pittsburgh wins 5-4. there you see the upcoming schedule. masn 26:30 for "nats xtra" pregame and then dc 50 and masn 2 and monday against the pirates again in pittsburgh and marlins come to nationals park on tuesday and wednesday to begin a home stand. craig stammen gets the start tomorrow for the nationals trying to snap this now a three- game losing streak dropping the last two to milwaukee in the first of four tonight against pittsburgh pirates. >> he got roughed up a little bit. 4 2/3 inning, john. five earned runs, nine hits. still no base on balls. he's amazele me only 11 base on balls in his last 10 starts hand five of his last six games he's given up three runs or less. he's been very, re good for us. virgil vasquez, 27 years old. pitched five games with detroit in 2007. they put him in that starting row taip taition. he's not been that effective. 37 hits in just 37 innings pitched. he has a big curve ball and elevates his fastball.

>> he lost his last five starts. you see the numbers between vasquez and stammen. virgil, 1-5. scraig 3-56789 we'll step out for a couple of seconds and come back and john lannan has thoughts about his outing tonight against the pirates when we continue. pa announcer: final boarding call... all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com.

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so maybe i'm better with money than i thought. introducing the virtual wallet from pnc, a high-definition, online view of your money. pnc. leading the way. "nats xtra" post-game show on masn brought to you in part by verizon fios. verizon center orp fios over 100hd channels and the fastest internet. this is fios and this is big. john lannan loses his eighth game of the season. he admits tonight was a strug. >> i had it bad out there. took positives though. the third inning it could have got out of hand and had to battle just to keep it at three. in the seventh, i left the pitch up that lastings hit and that was a difference maker. >> do you feel like you were laboring out there? >> not laboring. just trying to keep us in the ballgame as long as i could.

we went through -- went through seven and just had to battle tonight. >> kind of a strange day for with you nick and joe being traded today. >> yeah, but you knew that they were -- something was going to happen. nick is a great ball player and joe helps the staff. things like that are going to happen. today was the deadline. you knew things were going to down. didn't affect my mentality. >> done a lot of the hitters in the lineup because they've made a lot of changes in the lineup? >> yeah, i've faced mccutchen and pearce before. i faced a lot of them in that they give up -- i mean, i knew most of those guys. >> middle innings, did you feel like you made adjustments or settled down in anyway? >> yeah, i mean i felt great in the inning. third inning, ground balls got through the hole. took some who has and sometimes those balls hit right at somebody, you know. they didn't, so i had to keep

on going out there and battling. in the middle innings, i felt the same as i did in the first. >> you set a real high bar for the last three months in what you've done. do you feel like on a night like tonight it wasn't a bad outing by any means, but it wasn't maybe up to the way you kind of establish yourself now? >> yeah, i mean, last year i mean that kind of start might have got out of hand i wouldn't be able to hand it. just going to take positivity out -- positives out of it. i kept it as close as i could with the best stuff i had. >> today, the trading day deadline. nats sent a couple of guys packing. jake peavy traded from san diego to the white sox for a pitching prospect. >> for prad, their number one prospect and richards, two other guys. they did pretty well. >> so, we'll see you guys tomorrow. make sure you joins us -- join us at 6:30 07b masn for the second game this have four-game series and craig stammen will oppose virgil vasquez as the nats try to get back on the

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bullpen to start the game, he's to go to the dugout, and get a different handshake to every guy on the team. it sounds corny, sounds hokie, every guy says. >> he'll bring that to the red sox. >> i think from the front office perspective. they love the versatility that he brings. not only this year in terms of dealing with things like if youkilis got hurt, you could step in. if jason varitek were slumping. they could catch victor martin martinez. and it seems like some of the at-bats you shift youkilis over to third base. and big picture going forward. a very affordable contract. 7.5 million for next year. if they decide they want to turn

the page on jason varitek, they now have a legitimate option that they were searching for all last winter. >> and thehehe a little bit of room for martinez at first. they send adam laroche to atlanta. they get in casey kotchman. >> laroche is going to help the braves. >> going to talk to mike lowell, maybe david ortiz, and now your manager comes in. and guess what, victor martinez is going to play. >> is that what you on do? you call to say the dynamic has changed? how does that work. >> i don't think anybody does it as well as terry francona? but you take each case. start with authority, and the respect he has for the veteran players of the there's going to be enough bats for everybody. and the thing you saw at the end of the day we're going to have a better chance to win a world championship with victor martinez. and the guys that don't say i'm in, probably aren't going to be there anyway. >> darren washburn goes from the mariners to the tigers.

very interesting what they did at this deadline. they were buyers and sellers. they got jack wilson to play shortstop. and they sent washburn to the tigers for luke french and robles. and washburn is having one of the best seasons for a pitcher in the american league, now he's headed to the a.l. central. >> they were disappointed and he's one of the hottest pitchers in baseball. only three earned runs allowed in the last five starts. they talked to the mariners briefly. didn't get anywhere. they did it well. and they were both surprised in the end they wound up trading them to detroit. this makes detroit excellent when you're talking justin verlander and jared washburn throwing the ball so well. >> this is a very interesting point you brought up. talking about what you get back in terms of getting guys that have major league experience. the bonus is already paid, things like that. there is a lot of money in there we don't see. >> french goes right into the rotation. he's not established like washburn. he's having one of the top years in the american league. a guy with background.

having had success in the american league, you don't worry about him coming over. but they acquire two players. you keep him. let him become a free agent. they don't have to deal with scott werth as an agent now. they can sign him at the end of the year. but you would have gotten two type a free agents back. now you get these two guys. don't have to pay their bonuses. you can't go into the draft and make sure you can bring two guys back like the mariners fought back for washburn. at the end of the day, they could end up with washburn and the two picks and they didn't have to pay money for the picks which would be close to 3 or 4 million to sign them in the june draft next year. >> they send jarrod washburn off. but give their fan base something to feel good about in terms of the direction the fan base is headed. >> they have to hole to fill. a hole to fill in left field and third base. but they're buying and selling at the same time.

they understand we're not going to beat the angels with the team we have right now. but if we get enough people we might beat the angels next year. >> here we are, and roy halladay is still a blue jay. >> you're jp, and you're asking a high price. no, then it's not a surprise. and that's exactly what happened. yes. they talked extensively with the texas rangers about guys like derek hall and justin smoltz. they talked to the boston red sox. they talked to the dodgers. didn't get anywhere. by the way there are a lot of stories that the angels made a late run. they got close. that was not the case. there's no question that at 4:01, halladay's trade value went down dramatically. i suspect they'll go into the next season with him on their roster. >> between now and september there will be a very mean aingful trade made after this trade deadline. once they get through waivers, a

lot of guys will get through waivers and you're going to see some very impressionable guys that are going to impress people during -- during the pennant race. i think you'll see good people trade. >> you agree a lot of guys are going to move? >> no question. we saw the economy. teams dumping money. not a lot of teams will put claims in because they're worried about getting stuck with contracts. you'll see a lot of guys pass through the waivers like we haven't seen in years. >> recharge your cell phones. we'll see you back here in the morning, no? >> i'll be back. >> we'll see you midnight eastern on espn for "baseball tonight." guys, back to you. >> we'll get you more from baseball, and how it impacts te race. and tom brady back with the patriots and how that impacts

the team. getting back to the super bowl and tiger woods. plays his best round of the year. but still not good enough to be in first place. in firs(announcer) what does greatness taste like? round of miller lite. (announcer on call) ...here it comes... watch this now... advocate.

finally, susan page is the regional director for southern and east africa for the national democratic institute. from 2005 to 2007 ms. page directed the rule of law program for the united nations in sudan and she has advised those and fossum both the cpa and the door for peace process. senator lugar. >> i thank you mr. chairman for calling this hearing and for your very thoughtful opening statement, which in a comprehensive way sets forward many of the problems. i joined also in welcoming our distinguished witnesses. i appreciate that general gration has taken time to join us today. i know that he understands congress's deep interest in this issue and i applaud the appointment of a special envoy, underscoring the president's intentions to provide international leadership on the darfur crisis, but time is perhaps not on our side.

the crisis now in the sixth year, the prospects for peace in the region appear to be little better than they were when the international community first responded with the massive humanitarian intervention. in the face of direct instruction and willful delays by khartoum, these humanitarian efforts probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives. but, millions of refugees continue to be at risk of violence, malnutrition and disease. in khartoum government's expulsion of 13 humanitarian organizations that were providing roughly 1 million people has exacerbated conditions for the displaced. the safety net of organizations now operating in darfur is doing its best to shoulder more responsibility, but the sheer number of displaced and the difficulties presented by the rainy season are straining their capacity. in july 2007, hopes for security

were raised by united nations security council approval of an enlargement of the peacekeeping force in darfur to 26,000 troops. unfortunately two years later the peacekeeping force still lacks elements key to its success. the force does not have sufficient helicopters, other types of equipment that are essential to achieve mobility and deliver humanitarian supplies. moreover the overall stability of the region depends on full implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement between north and south sudan. with the referendum on independence of the south due in 2011, most indicators are that voters will choose to separate unless some formula for stability can be constructed, the tensions between north and south will be highly volatile and could inflame the entire region. general gration is charged with one of the most difficult diplomatic assignments in our

government. given that president bashir has been indicted for war crimes and his government has demonstrated little interest in resolving the political situations, the darfur problem does not lend itself to straightforward diplomatic negotiation. any successful strategy is likely to involve building broad international support for measures that pressure the khartoum government to accept a settlement to the darfur crisis. such a settlement should allow refugees to return to their homes, establish procedures that guarantee their security and extend some level of autonomy to darfur. the united states must lead in finding ways to address these political and logistical shortcomings. the obama administration is conducting an ongoing review of sudan policy and i am hopeful this review will soon yield a plan that clarifies and galvanizes the united states policy and encourages far

greater multilateral support for a resolution of a crisis that has produced immense suffering. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how united states plans and efforts are progressing and what more we can do. i thank you again mr. chairman. >> thank you very much senator lugar. general, and mr. administrator thank you for being with us. general gration would you leadoff please send your full statement will be placed in the record as if read in full, so if you could give us summaries, that will help the committee members and they will have a chance to dialogue with you. >> chairman kerry, ranking member lugar, members of the senate foreign relations committee i want to thank you for this opportunity to discuss their strategic objectives in sudan and sue ellen what we are doing to make them a reality. mr. jimminy greatly appreciate your leadership on these issues, your commitment to resolving the significant challenges we find

in sudan. in of this commitment is shared by all members of this committee. we sincerely appreciate the dedicated efforts of senator feingold chairman of the africa subcommittee and senator isakson, the ranking member of that committee. i just returned as you noted from sudan last week and as a visited darfur, abiye in the south i was reminded again of the great humanitarian tragedies that have occurred in that country for the many people in sudan have suffered terribly from the pain and loss that conflict brings zilaitis for these people, for future generations of sudanese that we are striving to make a difference. let me tell you what we want to achieve. we won a country that is governed responsively, just undemocratically, a country that is at peace with itself and its neighbors that is economically viable, the work together with united states in common interest. we want an inclusive, and durable peace in darfur. we want full implementation of the comprehensive peace

agreement. we bonn appeasable's referendum, whether single and united or a sudan that divides feasibly and hortatively into two separate states. p1 only what is best for the sudanese people. that is our vision and to make it a reality we are using all elements of national power, diplomacy, defense, development. we are engaging with all relevant parties inside sudan to bring peace and stability to that country. we have weekly discussions with leaders from the two parties of the government of national unity, the national congress party and the sudan people's liberation movement as well as regular talks from representatives from critical parties, the other party than movements in civil society. to accomplish our goals were also engaging with sudan's neighbors and the international community and that is why i have traveled to chad, to china, egypt, chad, norway and the united kingdom to meet with key

leaders to share our common concern. we want to work together with us on shared objectives. we are dedicated to carrying out our division-- vision of success. i report to the president's secretary clinton about the progress we have made and i visited kamras to exchange views with you and a number of your colleagues. i look forward to speaking with you many more times in the weeks ahead. let needy till simmon the specific aspects of our strategic approach. most urgently we seek a definitive end to the conflict in the gross human rights abuses in darfur and in justice for its many victims. we can never forget the lives lost over the last five years, the million to continue to be displaced, the family still crowding into makeshift housing in idp camps, women continue to gather firewood in fear, children are growing up without a hope for a better tomorrow. that must end. to resolve the humanitarian

tragedy we are striving to facilitate a negotiated political settlement between the government of sudan and all parties to the conflict. our goal is to conclude an agreement that will bring a sustainable peace to darfur, that will allow people back to their home villages are places that they desire to move to, to resume their lives in safety and stability and security. the second aspect of ours dred cheat focuses on sustaining the fragile peace between the north and the south. sudan as he said will hold elections in eight months in the referenda in january 2011. our timeline is so very tight, our task is so very great but we have no option but success. the third aspect is to prepare the government of sudan and the government of southern sudan for the post referendum. immunity or in peaceful coexistence, our strategy seeks to find a delicate balance between improving security forces and developing the social governance and economic

infrastructure required for growth. the last vestige of our strategy seeks to increase and enhance cooperation with the sudanese government to counterterrorism, to promote regional security. i believe we have a golden opportunity now to make a big difference in sudan and is he can see we are aiming high in thinking big and we are expecting much. failure cannot be an option. we must proceed with boldness with hard work, to make this proactive and preventative approach work right now. mr. chairman and members of this committee i thank you for your leadership, for your support to end the suffering in sudan and thank you again for allowing me to be here today to discuss these issues and concerns that need urgent attention, critical problems that must be resolved for all of the people of sudan. >> thank you. mr. administrator. >> goodman-- good morning members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to

update on you our support for comprehensive peace and stability in sudan and on humanitarian issues. >> united states government has provided more than $6 billion in assistance to the people of sudan since the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005. our overarching goal into dan has always been to help those affected by conflict and to establish a just and lasting peace. we have saved lives and we have improved conditions for millions of sudanese. but with less than 24 months left in the cpa bowed back for consolidating peace and with the continuing challenges of darfur, our most critical tasks lie ahead. usaid is doing what it can to support the establishment of just accountable, democratic governance that are able to deliver basic services whether the people of southern sudan and abiye choose unity with the north or independence in 2011 referendum. however the time for achieving

such substantive improvements and governance is running out and the critical window during which we can contribute to a genuine transformation be it the cpa roadmap will soon close. in southern sudan development gains have been slow. and their recent fiscal crisis has highlighted that many fundamentals of good governance still need to be established. infrastructure remains extremely underdeveloped and the burden is on international donors to foot the bill. for years after the cpa's bunning our collective contributions are a drop in the bucket of what is needed but considering the state of development in the south in the three areas when the war finally ended our work has just begun and it will take decades to cement our progress. ..

we look forward to the day when the 2.7 million persons driven from their homes by this conflict can voluntarily returned safely to their villages. you say it will not deviate from its responsibility to safeguard

the rights and protection of displaced persons and we call upon the government of sudan to support the operations of the u.n. high commissioner for litigious and international organization for migration so they can undertake the vital task of certifying any returns and paprika and voluntary. the violence we've seen recently in darfur recently in pockets of the south are a jarring symbol of legacy of negative trends that develop for saddam conflicts and persist to this day. the absence of common good governance and abundance of weapons and unresolved grievances. we must strengthen government and community's ability to deal with tension constructively at non-violently. the alternative is a failed state where chaos will brain. before concluding on behalf of usaid i want to express appreciation to senator coffman, member of this committee who recently in a statement on the

senate floor paid tribute to john grindle, one of 91 agency employees who have lost their lives in the performance of their duties overseas. in honor of john grenfell usaid is replacing the stuff carow word which will recognize usaid employees who make significant contributions to the morale and agency staff. in addition of the john grindle secondary school is due to open this fall in sedan's blue nile state. john had a special attachment to the state in the fact that a school is being built in his name with support and cooperation of the u.s. government, the sudanese government and the end of southern sudan as a fitting memorial to a man who dedicated his life to helping saddam's people. thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member lugar for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of usaid. we appreciate your continued

dedication to the sudanese people and commitment to peace and stability throughout. >> thank you very much, administrator gast. general, share with us a few well your perception of the situation on the ground. the dynamics on the ground and are for now particularly the current status of activities of the principal rebel groups. >> yes, sir. we are doing now is trying to cope with a situation that is very donner and very severe. obviously the camps and continue to have great problems and we are trying to ensure they have the basic necessities to ensure the essentials of life. on the ground we still see instability and insecurity and we are trying to do right now is to achieve a lasting and durable peace. to do that, we have got agreements from the government

of sudan will to put a unilateral cease-fire. we are trying to reduce the tension between the chad and sudan and reduce the cross border rebel activities that has continued to stir and stability, and we are working with the government of sudan to come up with a plan to disarm militias that have been put along the border by the government of sudan, and we are working on a plan calling all enforcement-type of plan to insure war lords who sponsor janjaweed and other people that continue to terrorize populations are dealt with. this is a tough problem and it needs to be done comprehensively and that is it is very important. >> jim i.t. is still receiving

support from the tad and across the border and a cross border fashion? >> they are currently operating out of sudan. but it is true they get medical support and other support still from within sudan, i mean which had. what we are working with is the government of chad to reduce support and even quieter support in terms of logistics to this movement. >> the government of chad would argue that part of their supports stem from the fact the government of sudan has been supporting efforts against them and you get this back-and-forth. can you comment on that? >> yes. it's very true that jim has been threatening khartoum and it's also true that sudanese backed the chadian forces have been close. what we are trying to do working with the libyans and other leaders around the region is to reduce the support, to stop the proxy war, to get rid of the sarah gets better destabilizing. we are also working to come up

with a monitoring agreement and so that the cross border areas are monitored so that forces can't go back and create damage. >> what conclusions have you been able to draw about the current relationship and structure between the government in khartoum and the janjaweed? >> it is very clear in the beginning of the government of khartoum used janjaweed to destabilize the population to reach catholic. it is now my view that some of these groups have gone on thomas. some are not totally controlled by the government although i believe that there are still linkages we have to pursue. we are taking a look at this in a comprehensive way and we look at what motivates them and how can we stop them both from the government support and also a local law enforcement. >> what happens when you raise that with khartoum officials? >> initially there was the

denial that they had anything to do with them. now we are getting more acceptance. they have a role in fixing this problem, and we are making progress on working together with a government of khartoum to stop the support. >> what would you say to the committee is the level of violence in darfur itself today? how would you describe on the ground situation with respect to killing and raids and so forth? >> is getting significantly better but that doesn't mean we have to stop our efforts. last month there were 16 people that died a violent death, and 12 of them were from criminal kind of things, so we need to keep working. bourn death is too many from violence, and we will continue to work with law enforcement agencies and we have been able to reduce the violence because we've been able to turn off to a large degree the proxy war and

some of that happened when the government of sudan bloodied the nose of gen. so that resulted in a decreased activity. >> it was my perception as i met with and listened to the various representatives and factions over time and looked at the situation on the ground that some of the group's are withdrawn from a major kind of activity that over the last year or more there have been a significant reduction. i think of leaders i met with were saying to me there were maybe a total of some 500 folks over the course of an entire year that lost their lives and many of them were criminal activities as you described. so, where does that put us in

the context of ed debate people have about the event of 2004, 2005 and the genocide colin powell and myself and others have referred to the atrocities that took place and the status we find today? is there a distinction? is it is a distinction without a difference or does it matter how we affect the policy in your judgment? >> i believe just looking at the fact is there is significant difference between what happened in 2004 and in 2003, which we characterize as genocide. and what is happening today. we are working very hard to make sure that we can close the gap and in the violence. right now as we speak we are working to reunify the rebel groups from -- people to come together and work for a comprehensive peace and to be part of the solution.

you're exactly correct the level of violence that we are receiving right now isn't a cord native violence, but it is a violence we must end, and in fact there's other eight areas of sudan where the violence is considerably greater. >> which raises obviously our deeper concerns about the north-south peace and the cpa. a last question quickly and my time is up. well, i won't ask it. we have a lot of senators and need to get through this. so senator lugar. >> general gration, the sudan program group was created in the department specifically with complex issues associated with sudan and originally was focused on the 30 year north-south conflict. now it appears to be focused on whole of sudan. i have three or four questions which i will ask and ask you to bring us up to date. first of all, is the sudan

program group still independent of the african bureau at the state department and if so what the rationale is there for the continued independence? what role does your staff play in the sudan program group and are you adequately staffed? third, what bureau and office handles the day-to-day diplomatic affairs for the united states with regard to sudan? >> we are now separate from a f. although johnny carson and i are close friends, we coordinate all the time and make sure because we bump up against chad and everything else that johnny is working. we have to be in very close coordination, and we are. but we are the sudan desk. we've taken of the administration responsibility. we've taken over all those kind of things where we support the state department and so, yes, we

are independent, and i think right now until we get the situation stabilized, and i believe that will be in to 12,011, we should remain as the sudan desk in the state department focusing on a comprehensive approach but integrated with johnny in a way that makes sense. we are working to get more staff. right now i believe we need more present on the ground and sudan. our activities and darfur are for pronged with the rebel unification, political process, pulling together civil society, with working with unimed. we need more staff. in the south you probably know we are working on 12 areas and reached agreement between splm and spc on things like border demarcation and wealth sharing and those kind of things we

probably need a presence to make sure that stays on track. we need more people and ask the state department to help us get more people. >> so you've made that request within the department and have you outlined how many persons were sort of a battle plan for what is required now? >> yes, sir, we have gotten through the israelis and comments i think we have filled up our personal staff and office staff. we have made a request porphyry more full-time equivalents and may request if we couldn't get that to use contractors both of those turned down but we are in the process of raising them to the next level >> i appreciate that and that is one value of these hearings are used to the next level of consideration generally because we all describe the comprehensive dilemma but you have to get into the nitty

gritty who does the job, who physically is there how many persons in a vast area apart from a variety of topics. so we would like to be supportive and i raise the question to make certain we all understand the importance of that. second, getting outside the united states for the last four years we've had ) a share with great britain and france on sudan issues but much poor coordination with china, russia, the arab league, african union and the slaughter actors have considerable opportunity obviously. for use with sudan government. when additional policy tools are available in diplomacy that is working with these actors who may have disparate views with regard to sudan, a loss or their

role in this the discard the international situation and its promise or difficulties. >> exactly correct. we have unity there and that is what we try to. we have several initiatives before i go to the specific ones. we activated the troika and i was just in oslo in the two weeks ago to meet with the u.k. and with the norwegians. the was a very important process bringing about the cpa. we have a contact group that we've elevated to again get inputs and help work issues but more specifically i was in beijing the month and a half ago and the ambassador was a great friend we served in africa in the early 80's and we've been able to work that and now the chinese are working with us so we are not building roads in parallel but putting one in front of the other coordinating humanitarian assistance. russia, we are working on a

conference possibly in the first part of october. when we will get together in moscow, but there is an effort to bring these players and. we now have what we call the envoy six, countries with permanent on voice that to get together on a routine basis. we have a bigger group were countries that have representatives in addition we have 15 people that get together periodically and to try to work these issues. we said so in support to the taha process, ought on voice came into washington when we had our forum so we continue to build that team in the international community and you are correct is so important that we do that together. >> what is the situation at this point of oil delivery to china cracks in the past, allegations have been made that the chinese were less interested in cooperation because the unusual ties they had for energy needs in china.

those needs continue and perhaps the flow of oil. can you describe the situation is on that front? >> the only get about 6% of their oil from sudan but it's significant. from the south gets all their income from oil proceeds and so, we'll is significantly important to the south and even to the north and so china and the united states and other members of the committee who have investments or responsibilities and sudan have exactly the same agenda. we want security. we want stability. they want to protect their investment. we wanted because the people and future of that region and security and prosperity of the region. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, senator lugar. senator feingold. >> first, thank you, mr. chairman, for holding this hearing and i want to note the trips to the fate taken and senator isaacson have recently taken to the region.

it's overhaul helpful to keeping this country on the agenda and i felt for a long time and singing for a long time as you know that we need a coordinated approach all sudan shoring up the cpa lost the central component of policy and pleased the administration has made this priority. at the same time special envoy integration as you know from the meeting in the letter i do have concerns and questions about the administration's strategy. thus far in public statements you have pushed a relatively new approach to the government of saddam emphasizing engagement and incentives. i'd like to know if this approach is linked to a detailed strategy that's been agreed to by the inner agency and has this approach been selected because khartoum has demonstrated actable willingness to cooperate and little to its or is it just alternative options? >> we have been in the process to come up with a comprehensive

and integrated strategy. the national security council was leading the process and of course we have had input as have other agencies in the department. we anticipate within the next few weeks we will be able to have a rollout of the strategy and he will see from the strategy that is very comprehensive and based on what we are trying to achieve which is a better life for the people. we are trying to achieve peace and security and stability and economic viability and the things you talked about, the cpa, peace in darfur making sure the region is secure and the strategy includes incentives and pressures and includes ways to judge if we are making the progress that we all want to make. this isn't just about my judgment. this is about coming together making sure the united states objectives are being met and we

are doing it in a way that makes sense for our country and we will continue to coordinate with the command process come ander agency process to make sure that we stay on track and will certainly consult with congress to ensure your views and inputs are incorporated. >> i am pleased an attempt is being made to create a strategy but it appears to me the constructive engagement approach was engaged in prior to this process were being done and ready to go. so i have some concerns about leading with the before the interagency process is complete. i would like to know specifically what tangible evidence have you seen that khartoum is acting in good faith? >> let me just step back and explain what happened and why we started this process. when i became the special envoy the ngos have just been kicked out. my mandate was to get the 13 ngo's backend.

was clear we were not going to be able to do that the president also gave a mandate to save lives in an effort to save lives, we work to get new ngos and to restore the capability, but not only to restore but create an environment that would be significantly better than it was on the fourth of march. but this meant to things. if we were going to get this we needed a relationship so we could discuss with khartoum. also i realized if we were going to solve the issues we have to have a relationship with both, which we had and khartoum. we needed a foot in both camps if we were going to solve the problems along the border with chad we have to have a foot in khartoum and an geneina so it became very clear that at some point we had to have a relationship to discuss options and that is what we did early but that doesn't preclude or negate anything the strategy is trying to do. it gives a foundation for the

strategy and the strategy builds on having relationships not only within sudan but with its neighbors and international communities. >> but of course the concern is the message is possibly given to khartoum that they don't have to do much tall to have that kind of constructive engagement so i would like you to say more. you have a limited to this about the stick side and not just the carrot side. i realize you may not be able to go into specifics specifics but can you ensure the administration is assessing the viability of meaningful punitive actions and preparing them in the event of the government sudan continues its historic foot dragging and of course that has been the hallmark of their record. >> there's no question and i would be happy to come out and review and the more secure environment on what those are. but i believe we have a very balanced approach that includes both incentives and and put

pressure and in many ways the lack of incentives is turning out to be a pressure. we will continue to use all methods, all incentives and pressures in a balanced way, but one thing i would like to say as a coffee out is what we are finding out is that as you already know this is a very complex issue and there is a lot of multiple things happening at the same time so we are having to take a look at this not in terms of specific actions and sticks and carrots and things like that associated but then in concert with everything else that is going on in the country. so we are looking at an integrated approach that looks at whether the actions being done on the cpa and actions being done on the humanitarian front, what are the actions being done to put together political process so people can have their well-known and carried out and what is being done to increase security for the whole region and that is what we are judging the song,

not on specific but more of a general way. >> i agree that should ideally be the approach will you commit to briefing us on the sort of punitive stick side of this in the appropriate setting? >> i would be happy to. >> i think it is very important. we are in a tight timeline with southern sudan scheduled just 18 months away and we have to make sure those mechanisms are as much or more in place as the other things you mentioned or i am quite sure khartoum will follow their historical pattern. >> i agree i would be happy to brief you on these. >> thank you. >> senator corker. >> mr. chairman thank you for having the hearing and a general and mr. gast, thank you for what you do. i am jury appreciative we have heightened efforts. senator isaacson and ii know as have been mentioned we are in khartoum and also in the region

not long ago but i want to get to darfur in just one second and comprehensive peace agreement seems to be the most crucial issue that exists now and if we in fact are not successful, all of us, sudan and all of those who care about the region, it seems to me all of the games that have taken place are out the window because the cpi are reaching and not a good something i think that causes the entire region possibly to include. so i appreciate you putting effort and appreciate the efforts the chairman and others. there's been discussion about the humanitarian efforts already so i won't go into that and the 13 ngo's that have been expelled. one of the things i think is the most striking in the ip camps there is an darfur is the lack

of security for women. here they exist and in a home mom of us would call a home, a little area on the sand. and yet they are confined to those areas because the gender based violence taking place and we are talking about an area smaller than the area between you and i right now where sometimes what cattle is kept and they themselves are there and they cannot wander outside of that area especially if they are a young woman. without being concerned about gender based violence and i wonder if there are security measures that we might change in slide these camps which are already and believably in desirable places to be. is their something we might do that is more tangible than what is occurring today? >> or ex mex the correct. it is something that bothers me

and when i was at columbine cast i learned that the sudanese can't even go in those camps. the government and security is in sight when. i think there is one holton the answer and that is to be able to have a security over the country and stability of the country so these people can be returned to their homes and live in dignity with respect but how do you draw the dots between where we are right now and will we are trying to achieve and that is tough so what we've been doing is working with unimed to come up with a plan underneath the overall cease-fire secession of hostilities we are trying to get and we are trying to make concentrated cease-fire in zones and corridors so people will be able to go out and collect firewood so they will be able to start farms so they can start an alternative form of getting food as opposed to just getting handouts and it's going to start

by moving in rings or oblong corridors that start where these camps are some people can start moving out in safety but you're exactly correct the situation we face today is unacceptable. the gender based violence is acceptable and we are working very hard with humanitarian groups, ngos to stop this because it's not right and it has to end and that is a high priority for me. >> the unimed forces were able to accompany us inside these camps. when we went out to actually meet with them at their headquarters, which i know their efforts are more out in their region trying to control the rebel groups another mandate is being reviewed and right now, and in listening to them regarding their mandate one would have to say it is an

incredibly weak mandate. the things they have to do today to counter the rebel activity out there by the time they get through going through all the particles the rebels oregon. it seemed like a no-brainer that mandate would be changed to allow them to be far more productive to do the things you just mentioned and i want to ask one more question if you could briefly. >> we submitted our suggestions to the unimed mandate that was in july and we are now working to come up with a better mandate in anticipation of a political process that ends up in a comprehensive cease-fire and a cessation of hostilities and at that point the mandate is going to have to include more things like monitoring the cease-fire, like working the borders and working as ounce in your exactly