. >> bob: third walk, and clayton richards, the pitcher coming up. national league record fielding percentage by a third baseman, was it robin ventura, schmitt, vinny castillo. oh, man. i'm starting to learn that you have to go with the least obvious. >> rob: well, and yet not many balls probably hit on the ground in colorado to castillo. >> bob: and i guarantee you he didn't get to as many balls as some of those other guys. >> rob: exactly. wow. >> bob: are we rationalizing our bad guesses properly here. >> rob: yes, we're trying to justify it to ourss. >> bob: that's a two-hopper for pete orr. j.d. martin has been solid through four. he'll bat after bard and orr in the top of the 5th. pa announcer: final boarding call... all passenger.. each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com.  . >> bob: a paul park living to it's reputation as a pitcher's yard. where is the offense? >> rob: well, the offense is die

gonzalez unlucky. >> rob: clayton richards, first string finally. quarterback at michigan in college. he will three pitches from everywhere. top, side, three-quarters, throws five pitches for strikes, but usually has one inning in every start where he will meltdown, walk a bunch of people, and give up a lot of runs. >> bob: the nats can onlyhope. ryan zimmerman, two outs, bases empty. one for four with a double last night. 150 hits now. 9th in the league. ryan would have to have a really, really hot september to reach 200 hits. 50 hits in an month almost impossible. and a high pop fly, right side elijah. then nats bats are not making any noise on the west coast yet. j.d. martin goes to work against the padres. n the dark. no peanuts or nothin'. and then if your bag wants to bring one of its little bag friends for company, they charge another $25. that's just plain mean. why do they hate your bags? at southwest airlines, bags fly free. grab your bag. it's on! ( ding ) there are car radios... and then there is the voice-recognizing, text-out-loud-read

they start against clayton richards of the san diego padres, 3-1 with a 5.2 e.r.a.ed in the jake peavy deal. begins at 9:30 p.m. hosted by johnny holiday and phil woods.   . >> bob: livan hernandez out f his seventh inning '06 work. averaging 12 pitches per frame, 72 pitches, 42 strikes. an outstanding performance, can't get much run support. he has been on base himself a couple of times. he just has to cape it close and hope the big boys can break through.   help need to in the eighth inning because if you don't you're looking at heath bell.   and for anybody to have 31 saves with a last place ball club that's pretty strong. that guy can bring it. looks like a closer, doesn't he. >> rob: yes he does. allow them to let future hall of famer trevor hoffman leave this year and go to the milwaukee brewers as a free agent. >> bob: will venable two good defensive place. he took one step and froze right there >> rob: sometimes you hit those at 'em balls and they are right at peo

clayton richard kid looked pretty good last night going six and two-thirds with a run on four hits. a baffling breaking ball even more baffling kickoff move.   3-2 to headley.    sosa walks him. that's the fifth walk given by the nats today. follow the nationals on your i-phone and i touch. it is called ml b.com at bat. 2009 featuring play by play video highlights. live audio, his nationals.com on your i-phone your ipod touch to purchase. here's will venable two for three with an rbi.   barring a miraculous last two inning come back, the nationals after today will be 30 under .500 on the road. 19-49 if they don't win this one. >> rob: i think you just shoot for some small goals to end the season. one of them would be try to get 63 wins. stay away from the 100-loss season again. >> bob: well, to do that, after today, the nats will have 28 games left. they would have to win 17 of those 28. >> rob: doable. >> bob: they need 14 of those 28 to win more games than last year. typical sosa inning. a lot of pitches, long counts. and it's 2-2. on w

jd martin will go for the nationals against clayton richard who is 7-4.coming off a great performance against kevin correia. that's a wednesday day game at .335 eastern. >> the nationals are home with the marlins for three. then the nationals don't play on labor day until the phillies come in.   sly van hernandez on the ye 5 for 42. and a .227 career hitter.   wonder if he'll make it to rear home runs before he hangs 'em them up one day. sitting on 25 career r.b.i.s. pretty good numbers. he really rips one up the middle. >> rob: that answer your question? i would say he gets number 10 before the end of the season. >> bob: before the end of this season? nice. >> rob: what do you think. >> bob: i betty hits one in philadelphia. >> rob: somebody throws him a change-up or something that hangs. look. this ball is effort right here. right back up the middle. >> bob: livan stands up there with the bat it looks like he doesn't care. i think he lulls some pitchers into throwing one rights

last night will venable stealing a base hit and a pick off move by clayton richards, right after thattting average, runners in scoring position a immediate yoer 185. great defense great pitching has been the story against the nationals. >> bob: and a california drought. john lannan will have pressure to pitch well today. he went eight good innings against the padres. ten times this year, seven or more. text-out-loud-reading, turn-by-turn-direction-giving sync system... in the all-new ford taurus. sfx: ((sync beep)) please say a command. read message. highway 8 closed. update route. turn right on silver road. we speak car. we speak innovation. introducing the all-new taurus from ford. drive one.  >>> nationals baseball amasn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by acura. acura advance. the dry, hot weather that southern california has been having certainly on display here in san diego today. it is going to be a sizzler out there for the guys. let's look at a very different nationals lineup today brought to you by southwest.com. willie ha