back in '55? that was don newcome, by the way. >> bob: a star-studded series, that was. >> rob: how about yogi berra? he was ridiculous. >> bob: fantastic teams over the years. >> rob: then i think he managed a couple world championship series and lost. he won with the mets. i can't think who the other one was. >> bob: i do remember -- i don't know if he managed the yankees in '64 or not. 2 balls and a strike to belliard. he walked his first time up. dodgers won world series in

'55, '59, '63, '65, in between. they were swept by the orioles. it's been a while. atilano, keeping the ball a down. belliard is the one guy he hasn't challenged yet. >> rob: ronnie comes in hitting .391. if you hit that well, you will stay in the lineup. >> bob: that walk, by the way, was belliard's first of the year two innings ago. that's hacked into the center. nyjer morgan is there. he lost it in the twilight. now the throw gets away. belliard is going to 2nd base. now the nationals have made errors in two straight innings. oh, boy. tough time of the night. nyjer morgan didn't find the

ball until it was too late. >> rob: well, this happens in this kind of twilight. it happens in this kind of home stand. nyjer has to put his hand up and let him know, give adam a chance to catch this ball. once you recognize you no longer have it in your eye line, you have to put your arms up and let everybody know. >> bob: then the throw in missed the cutoff man. belliard went to 2nd base. that's an error. they're going to walk blake dewitt. >> rob: now you put on dewitt to try and get yourself a double play here with a ground

ball pitcher. >> bob: a.j. ellis, only five at-bats this year with two hits and two rbis. right around 8:00 eastern is the danger time. we saw it in the colorado series. the nationals benefited from that a couple nights ago. >> rob: adam dunn hit a skyrocket. well, you need someone to make a play behind him now. knock it down, keep it in the infield. >> bob: atilano gets ahead. >> rob: i like the way he's attacking the strike zone. i like everything about that kid so far.

he's not wasting a bunch of pitches. he's convicted with the pitches. that's something i've talked to mike about. we need more of those in the major league. talk about that pittsburgh game in a second. >> bob: breaking ball. there's a play at 1st. >> rob: beautiful play by willie. that gets an out. the game is tied. loney got a good jump on 3rd. no chance for a force at home. >> rob: you know he has to throw a strike. the bases loaded, great breaking ball, then a sinker. beautiful pitch. swinging bunt. willie harris just makes a terrific play to get on out right there. he got the pitcher. >> bob: first loss in

pittsburgh history. >> rob: they did not hit anybody. they did not knock anybody down. you're not out there to throw batting practice. at one point, it was a 16-0 game. they brought the infield in. you just can't throw your hands up as a pitcher. >> bob: who brought their infield in? >> rob: the pirates. there was a lot of talk on the field about what happened. today, i talked to frank from the braves. that's not pitching. eventually, you have to come and take the plate back when a team is beating you like that. >> bob: fastball in there, 1-2. >> rob: i like this kid. he's attacking the strike zone. he's forcing the action. >> bob: jim riggleman said this afternoon the thing he liked the best about atilano in spring training was he got strikes low in the zone. the pitcher will line one right at adam ken i did.

not a bad job at all considering two hits and an error. boss:hey, glad i caught you. i was on my way to present ideas about all the discounts we're offering. i've got some catchphrases that'll make these savings even more memorable. gecko: all right... gecko: good driver discounts. now that's the stuff...? boss: how 'bout this? gecko: ...they're the bee's knees? boss: or this? gecko: sir, how 'bout just "fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance." boss: ha, yeah, good luck with that catching on!

anncr: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> bob: teddy goes motorized on the president's race tonight. even if he won, he would have been disqualified. abe in a landslide. not even close. >> rob: the knuckle curve is

almost, it's way too difficult for me to throw. it's a one-finger pitch that you're holding on the seam and you're burying your knuckle into it. when you throw it, it'll slide out of the top of your hand and it gives you that big rainbow curve. once again, that was another pitch i couldn't master. i actually, my slider, and i've never showed this to anybody, i buried my slider in my hand. you throw it over the top and you rotate it. you had something on your shoulder and pulling it over. that gave me great rotation. i was able to throw that in the dirt right mine home plate. i was never able to throw a conventional curve ball or slider. not a lot of guys want to throw that because t not consistent. >> bob: dodgers are back even, but not for long.

see you later! adam dunn, and the mets lead 2- 1.. off the facing on the top deck in right field. number 318. one word -- wow! >> rob: this ball is crushed. you make a mistake with something soft. a guy like adam dunn that is just frustrated and ready to crush, gets the meat of the bat and shows you his tremendous strength. i've watched him every day in batting practice. he's been crushing the ball everywhere. it's just a question of squaring it up right. i guess he did it perfect on that one. i'll give it to you, big bad

dunn. >> bob: you like that. >> rob: wow. off the facing of the third deck. honestly, if you're going to give up a home run, that's what you want to see. >> bob: make it majestic. >> rob: make it majestic. you notice he didn't even watch it go. he ran around, hustled around the bases. very classy. >> bob: willingham takes a 3-0 pitch in there. if you're josh, you might be looking fastball here again. see what this guy will do. he throws a lot more than just a knuckle ball, obviously. that thing was runningup and in. watch the glass shake as it hits it right above the rail. >> rob: there it is, right there. he is a large human.

>> bob: willingham lines one well to right field. the nats have effectively hit the ball the other way against haeger tonight. >> rob: that's the wonderful approach. a great approach to a guy that throws a changeup or a knuckle ball. like bob said, watch it, let it come in, get deep into your batting stance, and then just hit it a little bit later. so it's like with 98, you have to get the bat head out. with a knuckle ball, you have to try to make contact wherever you can. >> bob: be cognizant ham -- of the hammer. nobody out here in the 4th.

>> rob: he was leaning. they almost got him. nice move. >> bob: the nats have already had a couple runners picked off 1st this year. they give him this real good move on the first one. >> rob: he's quick to home plate too. he gives ellis a chance to throw out. he just throws so slow at 93 miles an hour, the ball just takes a while to get there. >> bob: pudge struck out swinging the first time. willie harris walked his first time up. nobody out here. bottom of the 4th, washington on top 2-1. rodriguez, that's a

double-play ball. hitting it sharply up the middle. rob is all over our at&t trivia tonight. well done, sir. >> rob: now i'm going to tell you a quick story. my wife's parents lived down in the boca raton area. a woman i met down there actually dated mr. padres back in the day. talked about how he took her to the dodger parties and how wonderful it was to be around the brooklyn dodgers. you know i love those old stories. that's a time that would have been wonderful to just been a part of and watch those games. >> bob: not too many people talk about the giants leaving northern manhattan for san francisco. you still hear stories about people who never went to the another baseball game in their life after the dodgers left

brooklyn. that was the saddest day, maybe, in the history of baseball. we've had deaths in the game, and certainly they get their due. from a team leaving its fans, a devastating day for the burrow of brooklyn. some people have never gotten over it. >> rob: one of the reasons i love this game so much is the passion the fans have for their team. when you hear people say it, 17 years old and they've never watched a game since and they're in their 70s or 80s. it's tough to feel these people were hurt so badly by the dodgers. >> bob: yeah. well, joe tory is a new york

guy. >> rob: i liked what you were saying today, what a great player he was. we talk about frank robinson. i played for lou pinella. he was an intense player. joe was a tremendous player in his day. >> bob: he was an mvp and a batting champion in 1971, i believe. he hit .363 and he didn't get infield hits. >> rob: he wasn't like taveras. >> bob: he had 230 hits that year. he drove in 137 runs for the cardinals who had taken him out from behind home plate and put him at 3rd base. >> rob: one of the classiest people i've ever met. >> bob: willie harris, battling

here. >> rob: you talk to to so many people on a daily basis, and joe tory treats everybody the same. he just has always treated me well. very nice man. >> bob: harris, trying to turn around a fastball. popped it up, right side. uh-oh. i think he caught that right on the palm of his hand. adam dunn goes deep, and i mean deep. the nats lead 2-1 after 4.

>> bob: adam dunn puts the nats on top, his second of the year. his first here at home. because things got so busy quickly with that dunn home run, we haven't had much of a chance to talk about the job luis atilano did to put an end to that 4th inning with some adversity happening in the field. >> rob: he did a wonderful job, first of all, intentionally walking the guy to load the bases. a great play by willie harris. getting the pitcher on a line out, he worked out of a big jam in the middle of the game. >> bob: it's out to left for

willingham. bring the family out sunday. we told you, first family fun day of the year. first 10,000 kids 12 and under receive a free cap. get a family fun pack ticket. it's a seat, hot dog, chips, and a soda starting at just $4 at nationals.com. garret anderson, 0-2 with fly balls to the left side. one to willingham, one to guzman. >> rob: who was it who said they like the way he handles himself on the mound? i like it too. he's very poised for a 24-year- old getting his first start in the major league. >> bob: great mound presence. >> rob: that's one thing to attain, that presence. like nothing is bothering him. this is where i'm supposed to

be. >> bob: jason marquis is going to be out for a while. there's a spot that will be open for some time. you pitch well, you'll stick around. i know the nats thought more than once about bringing this guy north when the ball club left. he's been in the minor leagues for 7 years. nyjer morgan sees this one. it's nice and dark overhead now. 20 minutes after the last one. bases empty, two outs. the way you like to face andre

ethier. 1-2, he's pulled it twice. >> rob: if we can do to the dodgers what we were doing to the brewer, which is bring up ryan brawn and prince fielder with no one on base, i think we have a very good shot of beating these guys and taking the series. that's what you're really working for . it's been a great home stand. >> bob: great offspeed pitch. he had ethier way out ahead. first five innings in the big leagues, very good. what's that sound? [ applause ] shut your eyes. [ vendor ] high life light! high life light here! get your high life light! are they really trying to serve the high life light here? [ speaking french ] this is the home of hoops and hockey. this is sacred ground. trampled upon by a canine beauty contest. it's making me queasy. [ vendor ] high life light here! get your high life light!

should i handle it? handle it. handled. is that a portrait of a dog? as if it wasn't enough to make it with a full third pound... of 100% angus beef, they had the audacity to use a bakery-style bun... and crinkle cut the pickles. there's no denying it, that's a third strip of bacon. have they no shame! angus axiom #39: it's an embarrassment of riches. the astonishing angus third pounders. all angus. all mcdonald's. ♪ ba da ba ba ba >> bob: that's a scene we like to see repeated many times.

the fans are having a good night at the ballpark. beautiful evening, refreshments are flowing. the nats lead 2-1. tomorrow, a bit of a fashion show for nyjer morgan and his alter ego tony plush. from the car to the locker to the shoes. we like it when those spikes are flashing their way around the bases. >> rob: good call, bob. >> bob: bottom of the 5th, here's justin maxwell, who can, himself, fly. what does nyjer call this ball club? the track nats? >> rob: just as long as alevo

isn't behind the plate. >> bob: we were ready to fly him 1st class out of town. >> rob: the ups show will show you why you can't hit a knuckle baller. the whole time there's no rotation. look for the dot on a slider. the fastball is spinning backwards as it's coming in. the one thing about hitting at this level is pitch recognition. now have it not do anything, just kind of flutter around like a moth. >> bob: high strike. that's because justin's 6'5". you know what? that's not a high strike. that is a legitimate strike. >> rob: this is where it should be called. >> bob: maxwell hits that ball

to center. it's going to be caught by kemp. 395 feet away. >> rob: gave it a ride. >> bob: looked like it had a chance. the hitter has to supply every bit of the power against a pitcher like this. >> bob: he crushes it. you're supplying all your own power right there. he does have a ton. a little bit cooler night. the ball isn't really carrying, except for the dunn home run. >> bob: that was a good, oval swing by maxwell. atilano is going to foul off another pitch. quickly 0-2. he appears to be a bit of a battler. we like that. souvenirs. foul off another one.

plymouth, michigan, is where charlie haeger is from. maxwell, of course, from our area right here. he went to the university of maryland. he had a lot of injuries over his two-year period there. batting after him, atilano continues to howl the ball off here. i like this. this is fun. means your guys are up there -- your pitcher isn't giving away at-bats. he tried to sneak a fastball by

him. two at-bats, 14 pitches. >> rob: took something off the knuckler right there. 70 miles on the knuckle ball. he's probably wondering, "why can't i get this guy out?" >> bob: low and away in the dirt. that's his third strikeout tonight. two outs. nyjer morgan coming up. as we get ready to wrap up the month of april, you have until sunday to bring new toothbrushes to the earthquake victims in haiti here at the ballpark. you can donate a box of them, a bag of them at the community desk or the foundation kiosk. that's good tomorrow and

sunday. nats will go on to chicago, have a day off thursday, three in florida, then come back home to take on the atlanta braves. 1-1 to morgan. 1-2 with a triple. >> rob: what a difference a day makes. yesterday you had jimenez throwing 100. now you have a guy throwing 66 to 75 with this knuckle ball doing a big dance out there. >> bob: adam kennedy, if nyjer can extend the inning. that one hit right at loney at 1st. 5 innings in the scorebook tonight.

>> rob: story of want to, 2-1 ball game here. atilano, a magnificent debut. he has only allowed one run. los angeles dodgers just keep beating the ball into the ground. willie harris makes a great play there. luis, doing a great job.

economical with the pitches. >> bob: 73. >> rob: a tremendous job keeping of pretty much a primarily sinker ball pitcher, but keeping the dodgers off balance. they've been reaching out for a lot of his pitches. >> bob: he's averaging 14 pitches per inning. he doesn't throw a lot of four- seamers. that was one of them. he living primarily with the sinking fastball. matt kemp, 0-2, a couple ground balls at short. third time around the batting order here. receptively quick. he did that last time to kemp on two heaters. >> rob: he is in the box, bob. he's tough on the plate. he is all over it. 6'4", 250. look at him. >> bob: left side, willie

harris. guns it over after a couple crow hops. so far so good for the rookie pitcher. >> rob: willie is going to have a little trouble getting out of his glove. a little stutter there. then he throws it over. still makes a great play. didn't panic. when it's a 6'6" guy at 1st, it's a nice target to throw to. >> bob: loney has hit the ball well twice. he later scored the dodger's only run of the 4th. >> bob: quite a ball game in new york tonight.

the braves and the mets. the braves lead it 1-0. they're in the 5th inning. and the 0-2. had him way out ahead. cole hammel will start the phillies at arizona. >> bob: ronnie belliard has been on base twice tonight.

>> rob: nice pitch. three-seam fastball in. try to get it to come back across the place. when you're aiming for the hip, hoping it will come back across the plate. >> bob: over 90 on that sinker. he stays in there and jams him severely. a pop fly out to josh willingham. two outs. >> rob: i like that. >> bob: all right. time to get belliard out. he's walked for the only time this year, then hit a high fly ball to center that nyjer morgan lost in the twilight. >> rob: so before i got here, belliard and guzman, when they were the up the middle tandem, not a lot of walks going on. >> bob: no, sir. >> rob: you couldn't count on

them trying to draw a walk. >> bob: we're talking about on- base percentages that were 10 points higher than batting averages. >> rob: they love to hack. look at all the souvenirs in natstown. >> bob: likes like he gave it to a kid. >> rob: ronnie gives another souvenir. >> bob: there's a fan for life. >> rob: that's fan etiquette. you're an adult, catch the ball, give it to a kid. >> bob: let everybody see you caught the ball then give it up. >> rob: for the fans around him, guilt him into it. give it to a kid, give it to a kid. >> bob: 1 ball, 2 strikes to belliard. target away. >> rob: when you saw ronnie in the lockerroom, what was he doing? >> bob: you want to know? >> rob: i want you to tell everybody. >> bob: he was singing a love

song to his bat. [ laughter ] >> bob: i'm not kidding. >> rob: i love it. >> bob: and his teammates were cracking puppen he was basically singing "i love you" to his bat. he was trying to get in a good mood for his game. i guess that's what happens. >> rob: he's got the average up to .440 now. he must love that bat. you can see the beautiful two- seam. great camera work. when you can see the grip on the two-seam sinker. jammed them, but sometimes when you jam somebody, you make a great pitch that is still a good hit. >> bob: a strike to blake dewitt, who's 0-1. >> rob: i like your term.

the swing back. i never heard that before, but i love it. >> bob: that ball is cracked into the corner. foul by about 3 feet. >> rob: come on back, blake. >> bob: nationals lead 2-1, top of the 6th inning. number 7 hitter, blake dewitt in there. it's 0-2. that someone out over the corner. morgan can't get it. willingham has to get it back in quickly. they will hold the runners at

2nd and 3rd. that was an 0-2 pitch. blake dewitt has a 7-game hitting streak now. good job of backing up by josh willingham. or this game is tied. >> rob: i don't know if i go for the dive here. now we have a better defense. we have a lead. i don't know. you try to play that ball, keep it in front. keep belliard from possibly scoring. >> bob: they could walk ellis again here. sometimes you don't want to try to make a super human effort. number 8 hitter, the pitcher is on deck. there's only one left-handed hit on that bench. i would be surprised if the nats pitch to a.j. ellis. >> rob: well, you also want to

learn something about luis atilano. you want to know -- and yes, you can do the smart play and possibly get a pinch hitter. so you're going get the pinch hitter. now he's saying listen, we want you to get this guy out. go get this guy out. attack it. >> bob: now that casey blake is on deck, you would think the nationals would attack a guy that's had only six at-bats this year. either way, you want to have confidence in this guy. >> rob: he's thrown a great game. even if this high be his last inning, you want him to end on a great note. >> bob: he's ahead again. two grounders to 3rd by catcher a.j. ellis tonight. >> rob: we also love this. we works ahead very well, gets the strike. maybe a little low, but he's been around the plate. that's why he's getting those

calls. >> bob: 3rd base belliard, 3rd base dewitt. atilano is out of the inning. dodgers strand 2. kennedy, guzman, and dunn coming up. see the high life is about celebrating, not separating. we are coming for your vip's and we ain't the paparazzi. we are looking for the little fuzzy rope, uh huh. how you doing, yea we're not on that. i guarantee that. excuse us. thank you so much. paying extra money so other people can't sit next to you. you know where i come from we party together... with a good honest beer at a tasty price.

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>> bob: five and a half innings now. atilano, outstanding through 6. an earned run on four hits. he keeps getting ahead of batters and getting ground balls. adam dunn blasted away for a run in the 4th. this is our ford drive of the game from your washington ford dealers. >> rob: that's a long-distance drive if there ever was one. one of the longest i've witnessed here in nats park. adam dunn the difference here. >> bob: by the way, 10 ground

ball outs of his 18. kennedy went up pumping. >> rob: i was going say, i was saving that for maybe when he was done pitching. what a great debut to come to this ballpark, get hernandez talking to you before the start, and getting rodriguez a gold glove futurer hall of famer to catch you. luis has had a couple guys talking his ear off before. i was told when he was nervous, they were talking to him about it. >> bob: for a guy who's still in this game, he's looking pretty relaxed. kennedy up the middle. that's the first out here in the 6th inning. guzman and dunn coming up.

we're having a friday night miller light party tomorrow night. come early. pregame happy hour. $5 beers at the miller light score board walk. guzman is 0-2. he's going turn around and bat right-handed against the knuckle ball pitcher. >> rob: he says, i've had enough of this stuff from the other side. there have been a lot of hitters over the years who have done this against knuckle ball pitchers. randy jones wasn't a knuckle baller, but a changeup specialist. pete rose, that's the only guy who wept back to hitting left- handed because he was so

frustrated. >> bob: this will be interesting. you'd love to see him aboard for adam dunn. it's to the right side for belliard. the runner is safe. >> rob: i think loney is going to argue this. this is a close play. >> bob: they're going to give belliard an error. and here comes tory. >> rob: james loney made this a close play because he's a great 1st baseman. >> bob: that's jerry crawford, by the way, a 34-year veteran

umpire. looks like a civil discussion. >> rob: ronnie belliard drops down a little bit. the ball starts to dive away from loney. looked like we might need another angle. >> bob: might have still been on the bag. >> rob: we may have gotten a call right there. i think he might have had him. let's see right here. one more look. still can't really tell from that angle. regardless, it was a bang-bang play because loney had the patience to wait on that ball. >> bob: fastball, 83 to dunn who homered last time up. nats get a big break on belliard's third error of the year. adam dunn again!

how far into the night is this one going? >> rob: not as far. high enough. >> bob: bye bye. >> rob: well, talk about breaking out in a big way. >> bob: he didn't sit on .318 very long. >> rob: you didn't think he'd go without a whole bunch of home runs this year did you? a little rough patch. and that's a rough night for a guy who was throwing a great game. >> bob: the nats lead 4-1 and the error is huge, and the call that came with it. the nats have a 3-run league.

the dodger bullpen has been a real problem for them. jonathan broxton, their closer, has one save this year. 2-0. >> rob: i'd say something was wrong. if you get 40 hits -- but they had 40 hits and 28 runs and won one game. somebody failed to do the job for that. >> bob: josh willingham takes his 15th rock of the year. pudge rodriguez the hitter. give the nats some credit. they're on scholarship too. haeger is going to be done after 5 1/3. joe tory will be making a

double switch. two home runs given up to adam dunn, the difference here in this game.

>> bob: nats are look good

tonight. washington 4, l.a. 1. let's have a look at the pitch track. >> rob: he didn't get it quite as well as the first one, but enough to hit it straight into the night. it's just going to get over the fence. >> bob: how about the hang time on that thing? >> rob: awesome. slow motion, catching how happy he is. now they can stop talking about him not hitting the ball out of the park and not getting hits. >> bob: ronnie belliard is going to go to 2nd base. the dodger pitcher is batting 6th. batting 9th, former nat, jamey

carroll. there's a double play ball that will end the inning. adam dunn, though, makes it hurt. the nats on top 4-1 into the 7th.

>> bob: it's going to be a short night, hopefully. 1:00 tomorrow, game two of the weekend series. coming off one of his best outings, stammen will be in. six great innings for luis atilano. tyler clippard takes over here. the nats are warming up will nieves. hopefully nothing happened to

pudge. >> rob: no. pudge will play tomorrow. they were trying to do something with him. he will play tomorrow. >> bob: we assume this is a double switch. nieves is probably batting 9th with the pitcher batting 6th. will nieves takes over behind the plate. three-run lead. >> bob: here's jamey carroll. he hit .251 for the nationals

back in '05. he was traded to the rockies that summer, actually the following summer. he's a .273 career hitter. always reliable, can play anywhere. in '06 when he played in 136 games for the rockies, he made 3 errors the entire season. clippard floats one in there. 80 on the changeup. >> rob: be careful with the changeup with this guy. he's a light hitter. >> bob: top of the order next. >> rob: he would thereof get a hanging breaking ball to put in

play for a single. >> bob: carroll is 36 years of age now. clippard gets him on a pitch outside. took a little bit off, the batter went biting. that's the first out here in the 7th. >> rob: he comes back with a moving changeup that breaks away. it'll work. gets the strikeout. carroll goes chasing. we see all arms and legs coming at you. then 80, when you're looking for 90-plus. >> bob: exaggerated delivery.

rafael is 0-3 3 tonight. >> rob: that was one of the best fastballs i've seen in a while. 93, not as much going on. flailing, arms and legs flailing at the hitter. >> bob: whatever has his eyeballs moving around. it's all about picking up the ball for the hitter. >> rob: there you go. there's the leg. there's the head. there's the glove. you know what? if it's a strike and he doesn't get a hit or gets an out, it's a beautiful thing. whatever works for you. >> bob: kind of funny, in the middle of that delivery, the back of his jersey gets all crinkled up. it doesn't look like his last name takes up 8 letters. it's like finding a vowel here.

1-2 the count. that appears to be the nats third error of the night, after they'd gone five in a row without one. >> rob: gets the ground ball, but it's a hot shot on 93. adam can't come up with it. it will hit off the heel of his glove, off the thumb. >> bob: he moved over to get behind the ball. he actually wasn't little bit too far. here's garret anderson who's 0- 3. >> rob: he may be hitting .172 but he's a lifetime .290

hitter. don't go to sleep on him. he can hit. he may be older and long in the tooth, but these guys are still good hitters. >> bob: sounded like a broken bat. >> rob: that's two outs now. >> bob: willie harris playing well at the hot corner tonight. good crowd, beautiful evening here. nats 4, dodgers 1. two outs now just before the 7th-inning stretch. ryan zimmerman is available to pinch hit, we are told. >> rob: is he talk about talking to one of his teammates

or the ball? we knowbelliard sings to his bat. >> bob: andre ethier, 1-3. he's pulled it every time tonight. it looks to me like adam kennedy is playing him more to pull from his 2nd base position than he was earlier. >> rob: another sign the nationals are a good team is that when you don't have your star player in the lineup and you can still win ball games. you pick up the slack when one of your best guys is out. >> bob: great changeup on 2-0. ethier was all geared up for 90- something. >> rob: well, let's go

flailing. a great 82 changeup on 2-0. will is doing a great job right along with tyler, calling great pitches. >> bob: how about the dodgers getting this guy from oakland back in december of '05? one of the best christmas presents they've ever unwrapped. drafted in the 2nd round out of arizona back in '03 by the a's. tyler throws it by him, 3-2. >> rob: i've been around andre maybe 2 dozen times. he will say hello to you. not much more. if you can get him to maybe do a full sentence, i might fall over from shock. he is a very quiet guy. a good kid, he is. >> bob: 3-2 runner goes.

swing and a miss on a 93-mile- an-hour fastball away. we arrive at the 7th-inning stretch with the nats leading the dodgers by 3. le money on car insurance for over 70 years. and who doesn't want value for their dollar? been true since the day i made my first dollar. where is that dollar? i got it out to show you... uhh... was it rather old and wrinkly? yeah, you saw it? umm fancy a crisp? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

>> bob: all right. 7th-inning stretch time. the bullpen is set up nicely with clippard coming through again. it all starts with pitching, but how about young mr. atilano. >> rob: he was tremendous. we've been waiting for someone to come along, give us some innings, giving quality innings, attacking the strike zone. like you said, he's made a ton of starts over 7 years down in the major leagues. he has the poise and he definitely has the wherewithal and knowledge. it's just a question of getting that shot. i don't think luis is going waste that shot. he went out there with a mission and a purpose. he went and showed people he deserved to get this shot. >> bob: i think the main thing

i saw was his presence on the mound, not standing around throwing ball two, ball three. he was attacking hitters. he was ahead most of the night. >> rob: yeah, and you force the action. they didn't play great defense behind him, but well enough to have the lead. he got a lot of ground-ball outs. he attacked the strike zone. everything you're told, not only by the scouts, but the pitching coach. >> bob: pudge rodriguez, taken out of the game. debbi, what's going on? >> reporter: i talked to will already the game. he was not expecting to play. word now from the clubhouse is that pudge left the game with tightness in his back. we'll have more as soon as he's evaluated. guys. >> rob: all right. well it's tough when you're

carrying a team on your back. it gets sore. kidding. everyone is doing a great job. >> bob: pudge has been remarkable. i'm sure luis atilano will remember his major league debut the rest of his life because he'll be able to tell his family he pitched to a hall of famer. justin maxwell, 0-2. the count is 1-1 here in the 7th. ramon ortiz always works quickly. his finest moment as a national over at rfk stadium in september of '06. he took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the cardinals. he also hit a home run in that game. maxwell, almost hit by a fastball. he'll go to 1st base. we thought something might have

happened on that double play, rob, that pudge hit. >> rob: watch the swing. he kind of shakes his head. as he jobs down the 1st baseline, don't watch him. as he goes by the bag, he's going to grab for his back. you didn't get to see it. i know it happened because i watched the highlights. maybe taking some big swings off a knuckle baller -- and, you know, what? i think pudge is a smart veteran. he'll let someone know it's bothering him. that's a smart move. we need him for the long haul. >> bob: maxwell is a running threat. he hasn't stolen one yet. not since his recall last week. hey, you're up by 3. a right- handed shooter is your hitter. we'll see how the count goes.

if this thing goes to 2-1, this could be a perfect scenario with this runner and this batter for a hit and run. >> rob: you've got belliard up the middle a bit for the double play. he's cheating just a little. >> bob: with that in mind, ortiz will probably try to keep the ball in on the hands of will nieves. will has been good so far. >> rob: including this year, atilano has made close to 100 starts in the minor league. he's definitely qualified to come up here. >> bob: rob, i know you're very relieved that the nats traded

jonathan to get clippard. >> rob: we all had fun with that one for a while. looking at his bio, they have someone else's picture there. >> bob: fly ball to center for matt kemp. >> rob: hopefully he can come up here and get some respect and get his picture on the website. >> bob: who's picture? >> rob: luis. it's some other guy, not him. >> bob: what's that uniform? >> rob: i don't know. it looks like rome or, i don't even know. every seen it. >> bob: that could be rome georgia, way, way back when. >> rob: he did play in rome, but that's not him. unless he's got red hair and freckles. >> bob: could be another guy

from rome. he pitched in rome, georgia, in '05. >> rob: yeah, made 25 starts. >> bob: you know what they say, when in rome. maxwell running, he's in there. a.j. ellis had a hard time digging that one out. the nats have swiped a couple tonight. >> rob: the best thing about the dodgers, they don't have miguel olivo on their team. >> bob: well, we'll see plenty of russell martin this weekend. a.j. ellis having a hard time getting his footwork in order there. nyjer morgan, 1-3 with a triple and a run scored. that's a big helicopter swing

he takes there. >> rob: you never know when the dodgers are going to break out. >> bob: they have four and five coming up in the inning. then belliard. >> bob: 1-2 to nyjer morgan. must be the way the breeze is blowing. the smell of grilled hot dogs is wafting its way into the booth up here.

we don't get that often. >> rob: wafting? >> bob: yeah. >> rob: i know you love hot dogs. i do too. i'm just not allowed to eat them anymore. >> bob: my day will come. 1-2 to morgan. well hit, right field. the nats will score again. morgan digging for two. his 4th rbi of the year. the nationals make the walk hurt and lead it 5-1 here in the 7th. he still has more triples than doubles. >> rob: he gets the breaking ball down and in, try to pull it outside. ethier catches it on the run, but the great speed gets him to 2nd base with a double and ortiz is livid. he's basically cruising right there.

>> bob: nyjer morgan's second double of the year. here's adam kennedy. it's outside to adam who's 1-3 with an rbi. >> rob: if he could get nyjer and dunn going at the same time, man, watch out. >> bob: a healthy zimmerman. >> rob: well, take your time on him. get him right. get him 100%. we talked about that back in new york. >> bob: i don't know. i'm like a nats fan. i want my zimmerman and i want him now. >> rob: it's hard to be without him. i'd rather have him out for two or three weeks than the rest of the year. >> bob: we are so used to seeing him every day. 3-0 to kennedy now. >> rob: that's the problem with hamstrings. you hurt one side, then you hurt the other side.

you're always compensating for that weak leg. he can do it all. look. he's a master juggler. >> bob: i'll tell you what he is. bored. >> rob: that's why it's dangerous saying to him, you know, you're just out for a couple days. if you dl somebody, you know for 15 days you're not playing. >> bob: 3-0 to kennedy. borderline strike call. guzman is next. not easy for an umpire to handle a knuckle ball pitcher for five or six innings either. >> rob: i thought he did a great job. >> bob: the nats have already made a couple defensive changes

tonight. we may be in store for a whole lot more after adam dunn bats again. the nats by 4 here in the 7th. 3-2. kennedy, high in the air, left field line. playable for garret anderson who catches the fair ball. washington gets a walk, a steal, and a nyjer morgan double. is about celebrating, not separating. we are coming for your vip's and we ain't the paparazzi. we are looking for the little fuzzy rope, uh huh. how you doing, yea we're not on that. i guarantee that. excuse us. thank you so much. paying extra money so other people can't sit next to you. you know where i come from we party together... with a good honest beer at a tasty price. a fuzzy rope that makes ya'll feel more important. uh uh. common sense ain't on the guest list. these people know how to do it. that's it, hey!

>> bob: top of the 8th inning. kemp, loney, belliard for the dodgers. the nats have outhit them 6-5. here's kemp. he's 0-3 with three grounders tonight. tyler clippard, his 2nd inning of work. the mets have taken a 3-1 lead over the braves.

ike davis has his first home run of the year. >> rob: congratulations, ike. i was told today he is the son of former relief pitcher, ron davis. >> bob: yes. marlins are just underway at colorado. the phillies are on later at arizona. tyler clippard really got on the hands of matt kemp. rob mentioned earlier, he's right over that inside corner with the hands. >> rob: always bothered me when hitters hands were over the plate. >> bob: upstairs to strike him out. two in a row for clippard. >> rob: there's nothing better than a confident pitcher. right now, clippard, all the

confidence in the world. this is one of the hottest hitters in the major league right now. home runs, rbi, and right by you. >> bob: you know, pitchers get hot too. >> rob: absolutely. >> bob: he faces loney. james with a double in three trips. painting the outside corner. that san diego ball club is about to win. they lead 10-1 at cincinnati. big hook.

strike owe two. >> rob: now he's dropping in 74- mile-an-hour curve balls. >> bob: challenges him. 92. loney was late. the blue jays are at tampa bay. the jays lead that game 6-2 in the 7th. >> rob: the jays have been playing some inspired baseball. they've lost most of their talent. >> bob: minnesota winning again, rob. they're in kansas city. they have 11 wins. tampa bay at 12. the two best records in baseball. >> rob: and loney does the same

thing kemp did. they keep thinking they can get that upstairs fastball. tyler clippard is going to pitch this inning from the second floor the way things are going. hitters don't see a lot of pitches up in the big leagues. they think this is a great pitch as it'scomming in. the rise -- and you see how bad the swing is -- they can't catch that heat up there. >> bob: here's belliard. he's had a perfect night. a walk and two hits. >> rob: he's been featuring with the fastball. then you kick in the curveball, 80 changeup. he is a nightmare right now for

hitters. you see belliard shake his head. you know he should be laying off those high fastballs. it looks like a great pitch to hip into, but then it moves up by their shoulders. >> bob: so don't throw them a slider over the outside corner. >> rob: no. >> bob: fastball up and belliard pops it up. adam kennedy will call it. the nats are now shut down the dodgers for 8 innings, leading by 1. [ male announcer ] looking for a price that starts low

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a price guaranteed for 2 years. we'll even include a free dvr for 6 months. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. >> bob: leading off the 4th inning, this one just as high, not quite as far. it counts for two with a runner aboard. adam's second and third of the year. rbi shooting up to 7. the remarkable pitching of rookie luis atilano is adding up to a nice evening here through 7 and a half. guzman, dunn, willingham.

ortiz is out for another inning. he's always been what you call a maximum effort guy in terms of his delivery. >> rob: there's not much to him. he's about 6'1", 150, would you say? he's got to whip his entire body to get that velocity and torque behind his pitches. that's a lot of stress on your shoulder and elbow. >> bob: the dodgers have a few issues as we mentioned. weaver went on the dl. they called in kuo to come and help out. the problem is, you don't know about your bullpen when you're not pitching with the lead very often in the late innings. the dodgers scored all those runs and all those hits in

cincinnati. they won one of those games. the nats have a four-run lead. possible that batista may be sent out to finish this thing. clippard has thrown two scoreless innings, striking out four. >> rob: luis was wonderful getting ahead of hitters. very economical. he didn't waste pitches so far out of the zone that nobody is going to swing at them. you got a lot of guys off balance, reaching out to try to hit the ball, popping it up, grounding it out. >> bob: the nats pulled him after he threw 93 pitches. breaking up is hard to do, and so is walking cristian guzman. that's his second walk of the year. ronnie belliard has walked for the first time. guzman, his former buddy, up

the middle for the nats, walking for the second time. that's the second one issued by ramon ortiz. here's adam dunn. >> bob: ortiz looks like he wants nothing to do with the inner half of the plate there. >> rob: george sherrill knows this area quite well.

they were wheeling and dealing down the stretch. >> bob: the dodgers made it to the lcs, beat st. louis in the division series. the count is 2-2. they fell to the phillys. they had some bats that went a little bit quiet during that lcs. >> rob: i was there. they also had some poorly pitched games. they were just walking everybody. that phillies lineup is no picnic. >> bob: thanks for the

reminder. we hadn't seen them in a week and a half. i forgot. oh, yeah. it was only eight days ago we were still in philadelphia. oh, well. see you guys in july. 3-2 to adam dunn. this will be a real interesting pitch. the dodgers want to stay in this game. you walk him, you have willingham with two on and nobody out. what does ortiz have in mind here? fastball, low. he's walked two hitters in a row. tomorrow, we're going to sleep fast and be right back with you for craig stammen and kershaw tomorrow. we'll have a 1:35 game on sunday. then on to wrigley field. two night games and a day game

with the cubs. they're going into the weekend with a record of 6-10. a lot of discontent. josh willingham could put a big exclamation point on this game. >> rob: and there's a little chitchat with the reliever. will figured desmond is going to short, kennedy will go to 1st base in the top of the 9th. >> bob: unless willie harris decides he wants to go somewhere else. >> rob: you have so many options. you you can throw willie harris

at 3rd, kennedy at 3rd. that's not your gold glover ryan zimmerman at 3rd. they've all played excellent over there. >> bob: the nationals should be rawlings favorite team. they supply so many gloves. josh willingham, 1-2 with a walk. ortiz, having a hard time throwing strikes. the dodgers come into this game with an e.r.a. of 5.52. that's fourth high nest the league. willingham, thinking home run. it's way out of here, way foul. that'll be on the main concourse out there somewhere.

>> rob: that ball was hit a long ways. >> bob: good speed for guzman and desmond. nobody out here. bottom of the 8th. runners are going. jim riggleman, starting both base runners with nobody out, confident that willingham would make some contact. >> rob: you also have a struggling pitcher who i think riggleman figured, he's not paying a lot of attention to the runners. let them go. they got great speed. you got a pitcher trying to concentrate on willingham at home plate. he's not double taking back at 2nd. go. >> bob: 2-2 now. willingham holds that bat back. the count goes full.

gonzalez for the pitcher next. then he can stay in and play 3rd base. the nats came into this game 5th in the league batting .268. willingham takes ball 4, and the bases are loaded. pudge rodriguez started the night batting in the number 6 spot. >> rob: on that double play, it looked like he went for his back. there you see him go down to his lower back like something didn't feel right. he came out right after that. we hope it's just precautionary at this point, bob. >> bob: four strikeouts in two

scoreless innings as the book is closed on tyler clippard. the dodgers play the infield in. alberto gonzalez, a chance to bust this thing wide open here. that ball was in on his hands, off the plate. playable for brett carroll. pardon me, jamey carroll. alberto thought he had something heck pull, but he really got in on it. >> rob: they were trying to get in there, get in the kitchen. >> bob: here's willie harris with just one out still. the infield is still pulled in. bottom three in their order,

including the pitcher spot first, due up in the 9th. >> rob: i hope ortiz tries to throw one of those sinking fastballs he just did. >> bob: it'll swing back for the left hander. >> bob: right there he starts him out with a breaking ball. you see when your shoulder flies hope and you drop down, you cut that breaking ball and get underneath it and it stays up like that. >> bob: it's the story of three hitters who walked. nobody's hit their way aboard here. 2-0. the dodgers bullpen, e.r.a. is 6.14. harris takes ball 3.

maxwell, right-handed batter, on deck. willie swings on 3-0. first play at home. ellis put on the corner of the plate. that's the second out of the inning. loney coming home for a 3-2 forceout. >> rob: he walked off first back to the dugout. all they had to do was tag him and the inning is over. >> bob: in essence, a bizarre double play to end the inning.

willie harris, of course is safe at 1st on a fielders choice. when wandering off the bag, evidently. jim riggleman, a long talk with the umpire. >> rob: they got the force at home. like you said, it's a fielder's choice. he made a right-hand turn. if he goes towards 2nd, you can tag him out. they're saying he left and was walking off the field and got tagged out. >> bob: ironically, willie is the first defensive player back on the field here in the 9th inning. the nats have the bases loaded with one out. there's a popup and will lee

harris swung at a 3-0 pitch.

>> bob: top of the 9th inning arrives. another look at that. first of all, willie harris w the bases loaded, swinging at a 3-0. loney comes home. no force required. willie harris walked off the bag and gets tagged out.

>> rob: he was never on the bag. willie ran by 1st. it is his right to make a right hand turn. what jerry crawford said, he made the decision he left the bag when he ran over it and went off the field. he doesn't stand on 1st. he runs by it. okay. he goes to the right, starts walking towards the dugout. jerry crawford is basically saying he left the feel of play and he was considered tagged out. >> bob: all right. nationals have different defensive guys all over the place. russell martin pinch hits for the pitcher here. out to short, that's ian desmond. guns it over to the new 1st

baseman, adam kennedy. alberto gonzalez stays in and played 3rd base where willie harris was. ian desmond, as expected, at short. >> rob: i think what they're calling this is abandoned effort to run bases. there is a rule in the book for that. that's what i think jerry crawford is saying. he left the field of play. give belliard credit for noticing that though and tagging him out. >> bob: next up for the dodgers, casey blake.

guzman is at 2nd base. >> bob: and that's 3-1.

>> bob: the nats xtra post game, johnny and ray here at the ballpark. jim riggleman's live press visit after the game, and lots of reactions from the winning clubhouse, it appears. although, batista hits casey blake here in the 9th. you don't want this lineup to get anywhere near ethier. >> rob: you certainly don't want to wake him up. miguel may be a little too pumped up to get the final out of the game. it has been ugly and awfully played ball game by the nationals. you still have a four-run lead. it'll all go away if you win the game. don't start getting the dodgers involved in it.

>> bob: should the dodgers get two men on base, it would become a save situation. jamey carroll will be the next hitter. you just hope you don't get in a situation where you're regretting not getting a run or two in the bottom of the 8th when the nats have the bases loaded, nobody out, then willie harris swung at at 3-0 pitch at a pitcher who couldn't find home plate, then wandered off the bag during the inning.

carroll came into the ball game to play 3rd base. he struck out in the 7th. first batter tyler clippard faced. ground ball, it could end the game. kennedy's got it. nationals win. sweet! >> rob: nice job. >> bob: miguel batista spins the double play ball, and the nationals are 9-8 on the year. rob and i have a brief wrapup before nats xtra coming straight ahead. the weekend is off to a good start. let the celebration begin.

verizon is the nfl's #1 pick. get nfl mobile and watch live nfl draft coverage. plus view real time draft tracker. download it now to get it free through 2010. only on verizon. welcome back, everybody. there's the final score. the nationals knocking off the los angeles dodgers 5-1.

tremendous major league debut for luis atilano. he's going to be 25 years old next month. what a nice earlier birthday presents this. >> reporter: thank you very much. luis, a great major league debut, earning your first win. can you even begin to describe your emotions? >> i can't even say a lot. i can't get anything better like today. pudge catched to me. >> reporter: wow. he got a double dose of the pie in the face. hernandez and lannan. >> i couldn't ask for anything better. i knew it was going happen though. i'm pretty happy about it though. >> reporter: one of the guys that put the pie in your face was hernandez. >> i talked to him a little bit.

he was telling me, be patient. just do what you know to do. everybody talked to me. i'm kind of happy for that. >> reporter: how about throwing to a future hall of famer in your first game? >> i can't ask for anything better. my dream came true. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: congratulations. we're going let you go get cleend up. great job. thank you. bob, back to you. >> bob: luis atilano wins his major league debut. join us tomorrow, masn hd. the nats continue the series with the dodgers. we'll get you going at 12:30. the first pitch is at 1:05. stay tune for nats xtra coming up.

well, they are probably celebrating tonight in puerto rico. john lannan hires a hitman and gets hernandez to help him out. atilano makes his debut a successful one, and a good crowd tonight. welcome, everybody. great to have you with us. this is our nats xtra post game. what a performance.

>> yeah. he came out smoking. nothing but strikes. just relentless to the strike zone, pounding it pitch after pitch with a sinker that moved a good 8-10 inches. a real quick, short slider that they had a lot of trouble with. he spent 8 seasons in the minor league. he gets a chance to come up here and he did exactly what jim riggleman has been talking about doing. >> let's go upstairs. bob, rob had the best view in house to watch this guy. i don't know how many times he got that first pitch across. first pitch for a strike, mind you. >> that's a huge stat, johnny. doesn't mean much if you can't go on to take care of the rest of the at-bat. you talk about it all the time. attacking hitters and having a mound presence that makes them at least think you're in congressman out there. >> i'm sure the dodgers hitters

were thinking, this is his first start, he's going to be nervous. he's going to be erratic. he was none of that. he was in perfect command of himself. that's what was said to me before the game. this kid is calm. he's out there. he's got all the emotions in check. he's able to go out and do his check. you niese need great defense behind him. at times, it kind of let him and each other down. but you know what? you won the ball game. in the future, i'm sure they'll play much better baseball. but when it was tough, he got out of a jam. great job by the young store. the big thing was what mike told me. jim riggleman, the coaches, they're looking for young guys, old guys, anybody who will throw strikes and go after

hitters. it's going to come down to pitching whether or not this team goes to the playoffs. that's what this is about. it's not a rebuilding year. you know you have a good ball club, you just need guys to get on board in the starting rotation. >> not a bad feeling to know you have a rookie making his major league debut. you make three errors, a guy wanders off third base, and you lose a ball in the twilight. all those things went wrong, and you still win the game. >> no kidding. hitting those balls out also helps too. >> doesn't hurt. >> buoy, you're not kidding. we're back at you tomorrow for game two against the series against the dodgers. this ball game was kind of decided early with the two home runs from dunn. >> you're talk abouting a blast. this ball is off the upper

deck. i don't know how far. i thought it was still rising, johnny. right at 500 feet, i'm sure. this ball traveled about 780 feet because it went 390 feet up and 390 feet out. when he gets hot, he can carry a baseball team. >> adam dunn, coming in the ball game tonight and only had one home run. he was trying to get in the groove, and boy, did he do that. it was a 5-# win over the dodgers. the nats did commit three errors. adam, not one shot, but two great bombs. let's go down outside the nationals' clubhouse. i'm guessing a happy adam dunn.

25th time he's had two home runs in one ball game. the sec time here. i don't think we've seen a ball hit further than that first one off the upper deck. >> yeah. they all felt the same. it felt good to timely barrel one and it's been a long year. i'm just -- lopefully it's something to move forward. >> long year. you have a long time to go. we've been talking about how hot you can get. i probably know you better than anyone around here. you have this demeanor that never changes. i'm just so proud of you. was it easier to stay back on a knuckle ball? >> i told myself, i've been out front with everything. tonight was going to be the test with the knuckle ball. i was going tell myself, i will get jammed before i really hit one of the end.

my first at bat, i got jammed and hit one to left. i was happy it didn't roll over. the next two were just -- try to put a good swing on it. made sure i stayed inside it. >> adam, you're surrounded by some terrific teammates. as you look at the line yum from top to bottom, anybody can come through. kennedy had an rbi. more dan had an rbi. you had three. totally different club than we had last year. >> i still don't think we have anybody swinging the bat really well. for us to be a game above .5 00 now and not playing our best baseball is really exciting for us. it should be exciting for everyone because we're definitely not playing our best baseball yet. we're one game over .5 00. >> we always appreciate your time. thanks for joining us. go get them again tomorrow. >> thank you.

>> adam dunn, two home runs tonight. let's go downstairs where jim riggleman is talking. >> i think he seemed very composed. he was throwing his breaking ball, his sinker, mixing a couple changeups. basically, didn't seem like there was any nervousness about what he was doing. he certainly didn't show it if he was feeling it. that was certainly impressive for his major league debut. >> how is pudge? >> he's all right. early in the game he indicated to the trainer that his back was tightening up on him. that last at-bat that he had, i just watching him after he hit 1st base, i felt he looks a little tenner. i checked with him. he said, yeah, it's tight. i think it'll be a day and he'll be back in.

nieves will catch tomorrow. that was going to be the case anyway. >> what was the explanation you got on the play with will lee in the 8th? >> it was a force at home. i went out because i wasn't sure the catcher's foot was on the plate. he kind of swiped at the runner like he wasn't sure. i was going to argue that maybe he wasn't on the plate. the umpire, chris, was ignoring me. he wasn't going to talk with me because time was still in because he was watching jerry at 1st to see what was going on there. i looked down there. by then, i'm not sure what happened. i think willie just vacated the base. by rule, if to you that, you give up your right to the base and they can tag you out. even though you're not in fair territory, your on the foul side. once you go to the dugout,

you're giving up your right to the base. i assume willie thought the 1st baseman tagged the base before he threw home. maybe that's why he left. he thought the inning was over. >> can you talk about atilano's composure? >> he was very composed in spring training, yeah. he's been in major league camp before. that wasn't new to him. you know, we kept him up to the last exhibition game. he was with us trying to make the club. he never showed any nervousness as he was trying to make the club. i think that whole experience helped him. >> he obviously didn't come up from one of the starting spots. was he in the nix? >> we were looking at him as a potential reliever. knowing that if and when we sent him out he would be a

starter. then we could use him either way when the time came. so it worked out well in that respect. >> tonight is one of the most -- is it exciting to watch what he can do for you this year? >> it's one game. i'm just very happy to see him throwing strikes, quality strikes. the ball was sinking decent. that's a very good lineup he faced. number one in the league in hitting, they score a lot of runs. it was very impressive. you know, you can't take anything for granted. you have to shower that one off and get them tomorrow. when he's up again in five days, we hope he throws a good one. >> okay, guys. thanks. >> riggleman as fireworks explode here at nationals park.

we'll take a break and don't break down this 5-1 win.

friday night fireworks. nats xtra post game, hello. nats take it 5-1. interesting tonight as we look at lee wise atilano's outing. he pitched six innings sunday. he went six innings, one run, eight hits. tonight he goes six against the dodgers. he goes six innings, one run, five hits. >> well, that means that triple-

a club was better than the dodgers. >> i don't think so. >> what we have here is a guy that's just throwing a lot of strikes in the strike zone, quality strikes. nice job as he's got a hit on almost every hitter. there's a fastball. his fastball actually runs and sinks. he missed the bag there for an error. belliard singles on to a flyball to center feel. then belliard in the 2nd, the throw gets away. again, willie tries to go home with this ball. the only run they were able to scratch off the young man tonight. he was able to swing that deal

where he gets out there in the 6th inning, coming back. see how much that ball runs out? a nice little slider. he can't take that angle and try to knock that ball down. then a breaking ball. a nice little play as the breaking ball goes away from the hitter. the sinker goes in. very difficult to cover most of those pitches. >> he was called up today from syracuse. he walked only two, struck out one through 93 pitches. most of those pitches, as you saw, first pitch strikes. >> yeah. he threw quality strikes throughout the at-bat. he was able to make a quality breaking ball, curveball, that he threw. he had a little cutter he seemed to throw. there was more of a slider. took something off the pitch

and made it a curveball. his fastball was very, very impressive. he was throwing 88 miles an hour. it looked like the way the hitters were reacting that he was throwing 93, 94. that's the sign of a great arm action. gets real soft in the arm, then great arm action. so good hitters can't see it. >> what was the key tonight to dunn getting those two home runs off a knuckle ball pitcher who can drive a batter nuts? >> wait more. you've got to wait. adam has been pulling off the ball. he kind of reached and pulled out front. he's so strong he can hit the ball from line to line. what i have seen him do over the last two weeks is just throw over a lot of pitches. he staid back with the knuckle baller. you have to stay back. you have to be waiting, be

quick. they say if it's high, let it flow. if it's low, let it go. adam is a great, great power hitter. it's just a matter of time. he's going get them off somebody. >> he got two tonight. that gives the nationals the win. they got off to a good foot. nyjer morgan ripped a triple to set the tone. >> yeah, he did. he got it out in the gap. he's just going to have triples. he's leading the league in triples now. he gets the ball into left feel for the base hit. in the 4th, bomb time. >> i don't know if that was a knuckle ball. >> that was straight up. it might have been a fastball. here in the 6th, this is a deathly knuckle ball as he gets the ground ball to shortstop

there, throws it away. guzman is on and it brings up the big man. another fastball. that wasn't a knuckle ball. that was a fastball. see how it stayed up in the zone? we were thinking knuckle ball. adam normally doesn't swing at those pitches, but he did. a big add on run there after a double. maxwell steals the base. >> so kennedy rbi, nyjer morgan a double and triple, and adam dunn with two mammoth home runs. fans are loving this one. dunn said, if i have a night like tonight, i got to have more face time. when we come back and continue, there he is there. i like talking to johnny and ray, but i'd rather talk to them myself. boss:hey, glad i ci was on my way to present ideas about all the discounts we're offering. i've got some catchphrases that'll make these savings even more memorable.

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and we're back. a good night for the sec time.

adam dunn goes large tonight. that gave the nationals a 4-1 league and the second mammoth blast in the ball game. he has 319 home runs in his career. he was talking a few minutes ago down in that clubhouse about how it feels good. >> it's obviously good. i wouldn't say i'm out of a slump. it felt good. again, i've been feeling good all along. i just haven't really been doing much. hopefully things will start heating up. >> how do you prepare and what was your approach against the knuckle ball pitcher? >> honestly, two thoughts went through my head. first one was, i don't care what happens. i'm just going to try to jam myself, stay inside of it. the other one was kind of revert back to slow pitch softball and try to catch it out in front minus the beer coolers in the dugout.

matt capps through me some knuckle balls today. he's got a good one too. >> how impressive was luis' debut? >> you can't ask for a better one. that's a good hitting team. he pitched great. that's the first time i've seen him pitch. he had a lot of composure. >> you said capps threw you knuckle balls? >> just messing an. he said he had a good one. so i sat in the box. i just watched him kind of just see if he was lying to me, basically. he's not. he's got a good one. i just -- you know, i tried to just see it and make sure i went out in front of it and make sure it's a pitch i can

hit. it's probably hard to -- i can't throw a knuckle ball, but it's probably hard to throw three or four good ones in a row. >> is there any kind of relief or anything? >> i'm frustrated after every game if things don't go well. nothing out of the ordinary. i know it's going to come around. hopefully tonight is the start of that. >> ever throw a knuckle ball when you were pitching in albany? >> i tried. mine didn't to much knuckling. it spun too much. how about you? >> yes, i did. yes. but not during a game. i would never test it during a game. tyler clippard was throwing

knuckle balls, but he comes in and tosses two scoreless innings. we'll talk to him when we come back. about celebrating, not separating. we are coming for your vip's and we ain't the paparazzi. we are looking for the little fuzzy rope, uh huh. how you doing, yea we're not on that. i guarantee that. excuse us. thank you so much. paying extra money so other people can't sit next to you. you know where i come from we party together... with a good honest beer at a tasty price. a fuzzy rope that makes ya'll feel more important. uh uh. common sense ain't on the guest list. these people know how to do it. that's it, hey!

nationals win tonight 5-1 over the dodgers. this is the nats xtra post game. look at tyler clippard's numbers tonight. he just threw smoke. >> down and away. outside. big, high elevated fastball. check this one out. he is punching out everyone. he's a lot of elbows. a lot of knee caption. a lot of gloves, shoulder. very difficult to pick this one up. great deception with his changeup. three great pitches. >> his e.r.a. now is 0.66. willie harris had some thoughts about this win tonight.

>> i'm so happy for him. it's definitely a great feeling for him, i'm sure. for him to come up and do that, hopefully that gives up momentum for tomorrow. >> it's fireworks friday, so probably fitting dunn had two long balls out there. >> he promised me on the bench he was going to go deep. he didn't say twice, but he said he's get one today. i'm happy for him. it's been a long-time coming. hopefully he can continue to get things going. >> thanks, willie. >> the best left hander in the league and right hander in the league. come out and watch that game. stammen, a great outing last night. >> nats win. see you tomorrow.

>> well, eric said in game 3 they had to get into the fight to get into the series. but they lost the fight. now in this 0-3 hole. they don't see the seriousness of dwyane wade's injury. did it on their final offensive possession. and had to be carried off. a long night for the heat, and great night for the celtics. >> let's update you on the spurs and mavericks series. tied at 1 game apiece. that's tim duncan. averaging 26 points and almost 13 rebounds in this series. dirk has eight points in earlt going. back the other way. san antonio and tony parker the floater in the lane. so dangerous. he's got six points at last. where we stand now, the spurs up by a buck in the second quarter. the mavericks, five turnovers in the first quarter alone. not exactly what rick carlisle was hoping for.

san antonio, a blistering 56% shooting in that opening frame. winner of game number three going on to win 75.9% of the time. >> with a chance to close on out the sabres in five games. van he can out for buffalo, even without their leading scorer, the sabres had no trouble getting to rast early. scored on the wraparound here. buffalo scored in every game in this series. unlike the previous games they've been able to hold the lead. set up nicely here by derek roy. through the second period. off the face-off. mike grier scores. sabres win 4-1, game six monday in boston. all right, canadiens and capitals. alexander ovechkin and company leading the series 3-1. first period we are scoreless, puts montreal on top 1-0.

he's got a point in all the games so far in this series. later in the first period, still a 1-0 count. show me the backhand. travis mullen takes a closer look. oh, that's a birdie. canadiens wouldn't you know. up 2-nil. if you had had to finish one guy on the roster, it would be that man. right in front of the net, it's ovechkin. fourth straight game with a goal for alex o. and it's a 2-1 deficit. still plenty of time here till we go to the third. under ten seconds to play. can't get it to go. canadiens force the power play. >> time now, dodgers-nationals, manny ramirez on the 15-day d.l. with that strained calf muscle. bottom of the fourth, adam dunn, on oh, boy. he's got a big bat. second of the year. boy, that's a big bat, i really meant it. crushing that one. bottom six, dunn not done yet.

second of the game for him. he's a big boy. it's his 25th career multi home run game. and the nationals go on to win 9-8 this season. dodgers now won five of the last six road games. and matt kempp was 0 for 4 with a strikeout. second time he's held hitless in 16 games this season. that means he's been pretty good so far this season, just not that good in this game. >> braves and mets went final couple moments ago. highlights first here on espnews. we go right in, and k rod gets prado, representing the tieing run there in the ninth. mets win it by a final of 5-2. and you can't say that very often about the mets beating the braves. as the mets snap an eight-game losing streak against atlanta.

>> the minnesota vikings continue to play the waiting game with brett favre. what's keeping him from making after using rogaine for a while, i went to my stylist and she said hair was growing back... i was like, yes, this works... [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. overwhelmed by the actual performance of the mortgages that were created in the 20062007 period. >> ms. corbet is that some of your position? >> yes in fact standard and poor's was reporting that what they saw was the increasing risk of the housing bubble and throughout the course of 2004 to 2005 through 2007 those analyses and research and publications and teleconferences were provided to the market as well

as with the expected impact might be to the subprime mortgages. >> but you must admit, and by understand for a long time what most people think is aaa and most people think what you do is not what you do but it is fair to say that if you're sending out all kind of advisories and putting all kinds of -- the aaa are rolling off the assembly line that is what affects the investors, right? deneen we have a problem here and by the way i'm going to send another group down the old pike and the argument is kind of like well historically we've really did well and this never happened before. but you had to have some kind of a scene that there is a dark cloud on the horizon. >> when you see those corporations you get up every day kind of thinking about how we are going to make this work and protect the brand and make the money.

and news corbet i know you don't take any part in doing their ratings. do any of you feel a little bit uncomfortable? do you get up in the morning and say we are still reading these things aaa and it doesn't look good mr. mcdaniel when did it hit you that maybe we ought to really take a hard look how we are reaching aaa and not that we are setting up the credit, but what we are actively reading aaa, about when did you start this problem here? >> we endeavor to take a hard look at anything we raise -- regardless of the level. >> but somewhere in here there is a point at which you did something differently.

did this just appear? was there any modification of behaviora you go to anybody on the board working and say look this is a bad situation we ought to start doing something different than what we did yesterday. >> we certainly were aggressively monitoring the market and looking at the performance of mortgages and this is getting the performance with the credit protection levels in these deals. if you are asking what was probably the most important point in time at least for me it was when we saw that the delinquency and default trends for the mortgages originated in 2006 departed from the delinquency and the fault trend

that we had seen in the prior recessions. most recently the 2000-2001. >> when do you think that was? >> the second quarter of 2007. until then they had been tracking almost identically to the default and delinquency trends we saw in the previous recession and we knew that the transactions had more than sufficient credit protection to withstand that kind of downturn. >> if i went back and looked at the aaa of rolling out the door as a percentage after the first quarter 2007 it would have begun to change? >> the credit protection levels were raised and then the market shut down after that. >> when to pull the management team together and say i don't think this is like what has happened in the past we are producing products we to many of the aaa are defaulting we should change the way things are going

>> think it is with its own research that some of the stresses they were beginning to see in the marketplace back in 2005 they began to make earlier testified by the s&p folks they began to make changes in their criteria and credit enhancements and in 2005 and 2006 as well in effect in 2006 the number of downgrades exceeded the number of upgrades for residential mortgage backed securities and a great deal of those were subprime mortgages said the actions were following the research and findings that were being reported to the marketplace. in 2007 following again the two previous credit enhancement again the data was suggesting the performance data was suggesting it was even more

serious than was previously contemplated, and so therefore in february of 2007 perhaps another change and announcement of downgrades to the credit watch, excuse me, for the subprime mortgages. in march we've reported also an a teleconference about what the outlook was in terms of expectations for the housing market and what the impact may be in terms of -- >> the reporting is great but the key -- >> its actions. >> but the key is how many aaa -- how many aaa are we sending out the door that in retrospect we look back on it two years later are not aaa but they are junk. that is the key. i think the -- is corbet were you here for the first panel? >> i was in and out. >> that is not what they said in

the first panel. they said a number of things and what i would like to do is go through them. you said there was incentive. >> mr. mcdaniel, they said there were incentives in the organization and moody's to get more business out the door to not worry so much about what the rating is going to be but just move it out there, quantity over quality i think is the term that one of the gentleman used. why would de -- clearly you haven't raised that as one of the problems. >> ratings quality is paramount at moody's. it has been i think throughout our history. we rate according to the published methodologies. our thinking is as transparent as we can make it to provide the opportunity -- >> basically you just think that there was no incentive problem and insight moody's to be

essentially everything went just exactly as you just said. this is an operation that was being function and there was no -- the incentives to the extent of their work incentives for people to do other things than what you said like a cold eye view of everything used and you had no reports of anyone in the organization saying maybe we are incentivizing people to maybe move one way or another? >> we have many business objectives at the firm. none of those objectives are permitted to compromise the ratings squall the depue get people actively talk about whether our protocols and procedures are sufficient, whether they are best practice should they be changed and if they can be and we can improve ourselves we do. >> so why am just saying in terms of what these gentlemen were up here saying you're not formally there is something that you didn't hear about at the

time, you don't see it being a problem in terms of incentives and that essentially everything was working smoothly from your view as the ceo? >> i was not aware of any incentives being misaligned. >> de drc look we have to be careful that we don't create too many incentives for market share and profits that may be somewhat of an organization like the wrong message and especially when you have the explosion -- of business that you had in this period. can you push chart up the shows how much the business group. this was literally an explosion of business. and what they said was this was a -- yes look at this this is great. that usually happens in business organizations i've been involved

in every business organization i've been involved in people come to me and say hey let's get all the door. let's watch the profit line, let's get dee dee to be competitive. there's stories about the market share where the managers were in trouble and the market share dropped and when checked on why the market share dropped the person said these were bad loans we didn't do them and the manager came back and said look other people are doing it. you dropped three points. we can't have that. do you believe any of that went on at moody's? >> i am not aware of -- i have been with moody's 23 years and i am not aware of any employee at moody's ever being removed or terminated for a market share. >> how about basically saying that with the program? >> as i said, we are interested -- is committed group like this because what would you attribute the incredible growth during this period? great management practices?

>> the growth in the debt markets. that is why attribute the growth to. >> ms. corbet? and s&p -- >> and s&p certainly the growth in the credit market, but also in the three other businesses s&p is involved in, the index service businesses, very large and growing business with indexes in the ets as well as equity research and all for contributed to the growth at s&p. >> i'm not asking about this specifically because it was a long time ago back in 2007 but says analysts from the moody's and chief riss officer analysts -- the content of the pitch by bankers and issuers and investors with reasonable arguments that you can call the credit management judgments sometimes improving other times degrading it. we think we've called during kool-aid.

a couple of strong market share bestows consequent risk of ratings quality you still say that you never had any view on the organization that the incentives and the desire were short term profits had any impact on the ratings? >> i am aware of the passage that you just read, and the author of the passage was talking about that we are gathering information from many different sources in the marketplace. issuers, investors, bankers, all with points of view and that runs the risk of having our thinking match the consensus thinking in the marketplace and

that the strength of the work that we do is to have independent points of view. >> and ms. corbet i didn't get a chance for you to answer the question. when you were the ceo of standard and poor's did you ever run into someone coming to use the and i feel under pressure to do some things may be to build business and increase profitability never once, right? >> no >> one of the men on the first panel had been there a number of years had said the whole time he is worried are they going to see that they are destroying our brand? arn and d.c. by doing this short term we are destroying our brand? mr. mcdaniel, you never felt any problem during this period that what was going on? clearly since you didn't see anything wrong was going to hurt the moody's plant. >> the ability to run a successful business in the

credit ratings industry is first and foremost dependent on having predicted ratings. so the business success is very tightly aligned with the quality of the ratings. >> that is the point he was making. a whole business depends on this. spec and that is why the performance of the sep prime mortgage securities particularly in 2006 and 2007 is so frustrating to me as a ceo among other reasons. >> i don't see why it would be frustrating because basically what happened is we had this housing market blowout and through no fault of our own everything went south. there was nothing -- if not identified a single thing that was going on at moody's other than just you guys got caught in a bad housing market, not bad business but bad housing market. >> there are a number of things that in hindsight i wish we had done differently absolutely.

>> that is really what i was trying to get at with the first question what are some of the things in hindsight you feel you would have done differently? >> there are a number. i think that the macrolevel we were insufficiently rigorous in thinking about trends in housing at an overall system level and even more importantly having thought about that pushing that macroeconomic house in perspective down into the rating committee deliberations. i think that -- >> how would you have on tha the system that you leave out kind of was a very -- as ms. corbet even so i didn't have anything to do with these ratings. i think that your testimony is essentially -- how would you have done that? how would you have in this

system been able to communicate down use a look we are not being more zenith in this analysis. what would make you -- how would you send a memo to everybody and say why we are doing this let's take a look at these? >> what we are doing now is a formal macrorisk perspective series that is updated every six months. this is on a global basis and we are taking the relevant component of that macrorisk perspective and the stress scenario around that and delivering those not only to our own employees but to the marketplace as well and instructing the managers and other leading analysts they should utilize the relevant parts of that makarov analysis -- macroanalysis. we are using in the mortgage sector we are relying on heavily on the work done by a company

that we purchased back and i think late 2005 perhaps early 2006 moody's economy.com, which provides housing and offices nationwide housing demographic and econometric analysis. >> is their anything else -- anything else you think investors -- spec as i said there are a number of things. in addition, we determined that we had to have more cross disciplinary expertise in the reading committees. that there are other elements operating in the markets that may affect housing bringing the different disciplines tabare brings a rich perspective. we have changed the government's practices in the ratings. we've changed our methodologies and enhancements. we have added different types of

research to try and communicate the view as clearly as possible. there is a long list -- >> that's good enough. ms. corbet, anything in retrospect that he would have done differently? >> welcome a similarly to the movies, standard and poor's has taken increased steps in terms of governance and in terms of including in the forecast and the ratings elements of stability that the stability is a leading compatability of ratings -- >> have you thought about the way that you incentivize people within the organization has that been a concern at all? >> historical and i believe that is the case today that analysts have never been incentivized based on -- >> i'm talking about people from the top to the bottom of the organization, the business part of the organization? >> it's always been standard and poor's throughout certainly during my tenure it's always been about the analytical quality of independence for the

ratings of for most and not being compromised. >> i'm sorry didn't hear the first panel. it had to stop at some point and moved to a situation where the business, part of the business -- bayh the reason you don't feel that the hearing we had last week washington mutual same discussion went on is it fair to say? the people involved feel that the incentives for such and the disincentives for such within the organization that things were done they wished they hadn't done and the quality was overlooked. was more about quantities and qualities of it's not just the standard and poor's moody's and sure we will find it from everything i can see that's happened in the organization's there was a kind of things are going great, let's do. we know what we are doing let's just get the stuff out the door. certainly i am saying it is a concern that washington mutual

the head of washington mutual have no idea this was going on while many people and organizations felt that was going on. >> to the extent that was -- i think it is important certainly was the case i believe that s&p that the should have had the ability to raise those concerns with their management team and hopefully others would have been addressed. >> they did and they weren't. >> i have my own opinion that the ceo pay thing is the average pay of a ceo compared to the average working person is grown quite exponentially and that is why people are concerned about that but i think it is more that when these things happen the idea that a buy, one of the smartest people i ever met, robert rubin, the smartest guy, one of the smartest people i've ever met, i am not overstating

that smart from a standpoint of knowledge smart in terms of politics and others is making $30 million a year suffice it of the chairman of citigroup and since i didn't know there was a 49 billion-dollar bond down in the bottom of my business. it's just -- that is what i think people are upset about. upset about the paid up and upset that when these things are going on and things are going down in their business as before and the dedicated and police are not disgruntled employees. they said it almost like they were as upset as anybody else and i know in the company's work with people would have been upset if they feel like the brand is being hurt because people live in it. but do either of you want to comment a little bit on the barbell, the idea that the fico scores, the way that you calculated the fico scores and use averages allow them to kind

of kick the mortgages so that they can take advantage of the average. spectating are billing as the weak and strong fico scores and add to verging the mouth. we do not look at the fico scores on an average basis so that our billing i don't know -- >> you never have? >> i don't believe so, as we don't think that would have achieved what someone might have wanted to achieve psp mcminn corbet? >> i'm not familiar with the term. >> how about stated income loans. mr. mcdaniel, you are familiar with a state income loan is? >> yes. sprick and ms. corbet? yes? >> did you feel at any point it was like an explosion of state income loans. the business explosions didn't

come loans from the data that we have there are many companies that are going starting out as just a small part of the business. >> is that part of the calculation that there's a lot of state income loans in a particular? >> yes, that would absolutely be a credit factor for an analyst or a rating committee to consider. >> do you know if any was? >> i have not participating in the reading committees but i would be extremely surprised if they hadn't. >> ms. corbet? >> i would expect the same. >> anyway, a researcher man -- mr. chairman. >> senator kaufman thank you. >> if we had looked back and known part of the responsibilities that look at what happened at the time when we look what happened at the time we see the huge impact on the drive for the market share

on these companies and there is no getting away from it. the testimony this morning is very, very powerful about it. just to take a look at you of the exhibits. exhibit number 31st in the your book if you would. >> it is august 17th, 2004. importance high. we are preparing the group this week to discuss the adjusting criteria for the rating of ceos of the real-estate assets this week because of the ongoing threat of losing deals. now that is a standard and poor's exhibit of august 2004 of losing ongoing deals.

when you look at the next exhibit, exhibit number two. standard and poor's just lost a huge rbs deal to the credit support level. losing one or several deals due to the criteria is so significant it could have an impact on the future deals. there is no way we can get back on this one but we need to address this now in preparation for the future deals. that is exhibit number two. if you look at exit five, new s&p ratings model could have been released months ago which is called version 60.

and resources assigned elsewhere if you didn't have to massage the subprimal numbers to preserve the market share. preserve market share. we could have done the right thing in other words months ago if we didn't have to massage the subprimal all-day numbers that preserve market share. this is contemporaneous to get this isn't looking back. this isn't looking in the rearview mirror, this isn't a benefit of hindsight. this is what is going on at that time. then you look at the testimony of mr. michalek this morning and former analyst at moody's. pretty compelling testimony. testifies the president of moody's and former head of structure finance brian clark's been he believes was leading a change in culture and moody's away from the more analytical environment to a profit driven one. more to their customer

investment bank instead of the real customers investing in public. but nonetheless, what he says is that the number of bankers complained to mr. clarkson and mr. michalek was asking too many questions and doing a thorough reviews and wanted them removed from the deals and they got their wish on the future deals instead of rewarding mr. michalek for asking probing questions and doing his job, he testified mr. clarkson suggested that he provide an explanation for what was -- what he's doing and he ultimately was then not allowed to work on deals with certain banks. the message is a pretty clear message to employees contemporaneous at that time. and you've got exhibit 11 e-mail

may have 2006 ubs banker rights the s&p. here you are providing your mortgage backed securities rating methodology getting it in punitive on the silent seconds herd door ratings could be five notches back going to kill the residential business forced us to do the moody's pitch only cdos so in s&p employee for debt to liquigas is any truth to this the colleague's response put out some criteria a couple of weeks ago that we will begin to use for the deal's closing in july. we certainly did not intend to do anything to bump us off of a significant amount of deals. god forbid we do something that bumps us off of a significant amount of deals.

so you could want to look backwards and we all do when mistakes are made we love to just say look forward, don't look in the rearview mirror. but folks, there was a huge pressure according to these documents and testimony to preserve market share contemporaneously at the time this happened and one of the reasons according to the testimony and according to the exhibits there wasn't downgrading of existing, despite the existing delinquencies was he got a hold on the market share. analysts didn't have the data or the resources needed to do the volume of high-risk deals that they were asked to rate. you guys were making a lot of money and they didn't have enough resources. investment bankers had excessive influence. why? he needed their business.

now i want to give some other testimonies, managers of the cdos used all the staff if they lose market share there going to be fired. we have that testimony? contemporaneous testimony. we are troubled by it. i don't know if you heard it all. as i said, no employee at moody's has ever been fired for market share issues ever. >> have they been threatened thing would be fired? >> not that i'm aware of. >> is there any evidence that the market share drove the ratings? have you looked at the six of its? have you seen what i just told you? >> as i testified earlier, the ratings quality is paramount. >> it's supposed to be paramount. >> we look at other things relevant to running a business. that includes market share and in particular market coverage whether we pay for the coverage or not because we are operating

a system in which the competitive elements are important. so being able to compare one security to another with a common view of credit or common language for credit as expressed in the reading i do think is important. that is important for market share purpose. >> ms. corbet comer use prez to hear the exhibits on the market shares at the time? >> will let me say, mr. chairman, indeed one of the things that was stated earlier is to mitigate any pressure if it came from externally as some of the e-mail indicated was to separate the commercial from the analytical process and so it was important if separation from the business from the breeding

business. market share in different places can be measured from the market's acceptance on the quality of the ratings so to the extent market share decline could be a different thing but in terms of whether or not and first and foremost in any respect that the quality of the ratings was in any way not useful to the marketplace. >> if you look at exhibit 24a this is a moody's exhibit. this is the one we talked about before. market share ideal count dropped to 94%. any lower, if it is lower than the 98 plus% in the prior quarters and the reason for concern? and then you've got this exhibit 24b, mr. mcdaniel.

did that exhibit was put together by the chief credit officer; is that correct? >> yes, that is correct. he says that he disputes the qualities king to the he says it is a risk due to the pressure from bankers. analysts to the managing directors are continuing the pitches i think as commissioners, investors at reasonable arguments whose views can cover the credit judgment sometimes improving it and sometimes degrading it. we drank the lead. a couple of strong internal emphasis on market share. coupled with strong internal emphasis on market share and margin focus this does constitute a risk of the ratings quality. >> that's his analysis. and then he says -- i don't know if you will follow what i was reading on page to continue and

analysts are continually pitched by bankers, insurers, investors, continually that this would cause a risk to the ratings quality. do you agree with that? >> as i have commented before, the observation that our information sources oftentimes have points of view whether it is an shivers or investors. they are -- have the risk of causing us to think on a consensus basis with the market and we want to have independent views, so i appreciate the chief credit officer is thinking about these views and i appreciate that he is raising them to my attention and i had reacted by implementing many of the recommendations and thoughts of that are included in his

comments. >> you should delete cassette should operate consensus. that there is a strong internal emphasis on the market shares. >> yes. as i said, we have market -- >> that constitutes a risk to the ratings quality. does your emphasis on market share constitute a risk to the ratings quality? >> if we are not attentive -- >> it is coupled with an emphasis. >> he isn't saying if, he says coupled with an emphasis. >> with a strong internal emphasis on the market share this does constitute a risk to the ratings quality. >> that's him. those are risks and they must be managed properly so that the ratings system is not compromised in any way. >> it's coupled with a strong internal emphasis and you are saying that there is no such coupling. >> it is a risk and it must be managed properly so that the ratings are not compromised and

that there isn't anything strong. you say there is a strong internal emphasis on the market share. you agree to that. >> you agree there is a strong interline this is a market share. >> i believe he thinks there is. >> but you agree with you read that. >> i believe the attention to market share is one thing we must pay attention to to running the business. >> it isn't as important as the ratings quality by the attention to it and i care about it. >> that wasn't my question. >> i apologize -- i am trying to answer -- >> try again. is he right there was a strong internal and this is on the market share? seabeck there is a strong internal emphasis on the market coverage, yes. >> said he would not work it the way he does. >> i would not apply to unders t