longoria, pena and zobrist, as jason bergmann takes over.andy sonnanstine is really being economical with his deliveries. he hasn't even thrown 70 pitches. 69 and 50 for strikes, retiring the last 12 nats. >> rob: he has to have -- remember john burkett, jeff suppan. when you don't have overpowering stuff yet you can throw 88, 89-mile an hour fastballs and place them. throw 78-mile an hour breaking balls and some change-ups, you can be pretty nasty. last year sonnanstine was so much better, they said 21 home runs given up over almost 200 innings. shows you how dominant his stuff can be even when he doesn't break 90 miles per hour. >> bob: jason bergmann has pitched 14 innings. that ball's trouble, left center. willie harris over to cut it off. longoria is not fast. and evan longoria just collected his first base hit of this series after going 0 for 5 with a walk. so the nats have done a good job for two nights of containing this offense, but there's just very little offense to go with the good pitching so far. >> rob: jason bergmann continue

tough situation for jason bergmann. >> rob: yes, it is.ight here you're thinking you could possibly get the fastball in to try to make him pop it up and strike him out. >> johnny: grounded out. nice play by ryan. one down. >> rob: nope . foul ball at this particular time. -- i want to see the replay to see if it was a foul ball. it does go foul. nice call. >> johnny: gonzalez goes to 1 1st 1 1st, bruce stays at 3rd 3rd. >> rob: that's exactly the play you want. he'll try to get a ground ball here. then you'll worry about rolling a double play ball. >> johnny: jason coming back from syracuse on may 20th. grounded to 2nd. johnson, runner out at 1st on a run down. guzman back to belliard, back to guzman. there's two out on the double play. >> rob: nice play. watch the runner. >> johnny: all the time bruce can only stay at 3rd base. >> rob: that was a fabulous defensive play. >> johnny: 4, 3, 6, 4, 6. however you score that, it's fantastic. >> rob: he'll run the runner back to 1st. now you have to tag him out. they do. they get gonzalez. you'l

jason bergmann now on, there is his numbers quickly, he will face to begin the seventh inning here for cincinnati, johnny cueto leads it off. >> rob: a big job to do, keep the score where it is, give your team an opportunity to win. 9 outs so work with. this lineup here, three outs, first pitch 92 miles per hour fastball just high. cueto showing he wants nothing to do with hitting.  this is a bad pitch right here johnny. '0-2 pitch. >> johnny: yeah, off the back foot leaning away. >> rob: leaner's hack. >> johnny: the back of the top of the order. brandon phillips if needed. reds 3-5-0, the nationals with only three base hits in this ball game. here is one, a home run by elijah dukes. tavares grounded to third, struck out looking and swinging in his three trips against detwiler.  jason bergmann scoreless  at 9 of 11 games pitched this year. >> rob: that might have got will nieves, thought it got him maybe in the hand. but it got him high also. >> johnny: hopefully giving kneeev's little time to -- >> rob

and mike mink doing al becomes the nationals fourth pitcher following jason bergmann, ron villone andss detwiler. for  . >> rob: can't allow a r got to tell you're a one-run up. >> johnny: the sixth game with washington, only one unearned run and stranded all three inherited runners when he has come in ball games. came back from syracuse may 29th, a couple of saves and a 3.24 e.r.a. in eight appearances a. >> rob: from the d.c. area, born right here. >> johnny: likes to pitch inside and francisco cordero goes to work on the cincinnati pen. >> rob: he was given a contract nearly $50 million to bring him over here. he has done a great job for the nconati reds closing out ball games. >> johnny: ground it down to hernandez on first and it is one down. in the top of the ninth.  hernandez on  nick jo. and with one away mike mcdougall retires the first batter he faces a shot up the middle, a base hit. chris dickerson on with one out here in the ninth. for robob running >> rob: the redsare going to be doing stu

bergmann came if there and just got his doors blown off. offense again, only mustered three hits after the fifth inning. >> we will talk about tonight's ballgame, the home runs given up by jason, a tough outing, how the nationals had the lead, couldn't hold it. we'll look ahead to tomorrow's finale of the three-game series. >> bob: thank you, johnny holliday. the rays win it 8-3, outhitting the nats 12-7. join us tomorrow, masn 2, nats and rays conclude the series. we'll go with "nats xtra" at 1:00 pm.  >>> time nor "nats xtra" post- game, brought to you by verizon fios. i'm johnny holliday. happy to have you joining us tonight. we knew the tampa bay scored a loft runs. in fact, they lead the american league in runs scored. we did not understand until we've seen them play, ray, these last couple of nights how explosive this ball club is, if you give them the opportunity, they can take advantage of it. >> they've got a great combination of good hitters in the middle of the line-up with power, then at top of the line- u

pujols, the prince, lance bergmann in houston and then the little guy who leads off for the blue jay, marco scutaro. >> bob: i know when we looked at the walk statistics, we are like, why are they walking marco scutaro to get to aaron hill who has 90-plus hits? atestimony dunn 0-for-2, a drive to left and a swinging swowt. he may have been guessing correctly, first pitch breaking ball, but he could not get it. >> rob: i'm thinking they are not going to give adam a lot to hit with first base open. >> bob: it is a lefty-lefty match-up so let's see how much they want to pitch. brett cecil has pitched a good

pitching has been good, bergmann had a nightmare in the sixth inning tonight. other than that it's been a solid week for the pitching staff. here are the nats now. if they don't score any more runs tonight it will be 13 runs in their last six games. >> rob: the pitching is really starting to come around. you could throw out that sixth inning, maybe jason bergmann didn't have enough time to get loose at the end of that inning. but the starters are getting better quality starts. in the last week to 10 days. it's going to be a process. >> bob: kearns is locked up and overmatched, two outs. one more note, they never have gotten that game going in philadelphia where it's delayed by rain after the red sox got five runs in the top of the first, and here in florida we're down to the final out in the top of the 9th inning. corey patterson will make an appearance hitting for wil nieves. making his return to the major leagues after hitting .302 in 39 games at syracuse. corey has always been an intriguing combination of power and speed, but in my opinion much more on the s

gross last time gave the rays a big pushing, so that was five hitters, five runs given up by jason bergmannand manny had to go get it. >> rob: you saw wil nieves wanted that ball down and away. jason ran that ball a little bit too close to the inner half on the lefty, down and in on the lefty. the place you want to throw it. even jordan zimmermann found out these guys can hit. why they're in first in offense in the american league. 95-mile an hour fastball and turned around by carlos pena. jordan zimmermann. then he comes up the next time and lays down a bunt. >> bob: 0-2 to gross.  >> bob: having to soak up inning-plus work here for colome. he's given up two runs on three hits. and that ball out to left center. willie harris is tracking it. waved off elijah. the rays go in order, bottom of the 7th.  >> bob: beautiful evening in st. petersburg, florida, especially for the rays fans. they lead it 8-2 as we go to the 8th. you can follow the nats on your iphone and ipod touch. featuring play-by-play, video highlights and live audio broadcasts. visit nat

pujols, the prince, lance bergmann in houston and then the little guy who leads off for the blue jay, marco scutaro. >> bob: i know when we looked at the walk statistics, we are like, why are they walking marco scutaro to get to aaron hill who has 90-plus hits? atestimony dunn 0-for-2, a drive to left and a swinging swowt. he may have been guessing correctly, first pitch breaking ball, but he could not get it. >> rob: i'm thinking they are not going to give adam a lot to hit with first base open. >> bob: it is a lefty-lefty match-up so let's see how much they want to pitch. brett cecil has pitched a good game, not quite as good as detwiler. elijah dukes is hitting .290 with runners in scoring position this year. you are looking straight north, right up the left field line and right up south capitol street on a beautiful night at the ballpark, warm and muggy, 85 at game time but that wind coming right down capitol street has died somewhat. 20 mile-per-hour winds, 15 to 20 coming from the northwest. dukes had a good rip at a first- pitch fastball. >> bob: by the way, they sent corey pat

active holds leaders for the syracuse chiefs, saul rivera with five, jason bergmann and will ledezma.n stay in the game for just for men hair color. adam dunn is only four shy of 300 for his career. frost-brewed coors light. ♪ how cold is it? it's chilled down to 34 degrees... for a taste as cold as the rockies. it's aged cold. it's filtered cold. and it's served in cans, bottles, and glasses... that tell you when it's cold. why? because refreshment isn't everything. it's the only thing. frost-brewed coors light. the world's most refreshing beer. try chili's new fire-grilled quesadillas, starting at $6.99. flame-grilled tortillas layered with chicken, bacon, cheese, and ranch. crispy on the outside, melted perfection on the inside. new fire-grilled quesadillas. only at chili's. >>> one more coming up today against the orioles at camden yards. the nats hit the road against the marlins tomorrow night, tuesday night starting at 6:30, "nats xtra pregame," then a morning affair, 11:30 wednesday our "nats xtra pregame" on masn 2 from florida. thursday an off day, then back home for a weeken

. >> rob: great effort though, detwiler, bergmann, malone, mcdougall, everybody pitching side tonight has done their job. >> johnny: 6 innings, three walks, five hits, the walks came back to haunt him. threw 103 pitches. >> rob: 103 pitches, 18 first- pitch strikes. >> johnny: nats extra coming up in a couple moments with byron kerr and ray knight. above that cincinnati bullpen. this is in there for a called third strike and the ball game is over.  kearns takes the call strike, manny acta quickly out. van deer veen and here is rick, he can't believe that pitch. rick eckstein to the left. >> rob: the last pitch right here, that pitch is way low and that's the reaction from the bench.   . >> johnny: he couldn't be it when he was called out on strikes, neither could austin kearn, that is the ball game. the nationals can't get a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and cincinnati holds on to win this ball game. and they are still barking at andy fletcher from that national's budget. well for rob dibble an