what kind of student was rob dibble? >> rob: i don't know, we never saw him. rob dibble was actually here. >> bob: two outs, bases empty. the next one will be friday, august 7 when the arizona diamondbacks are here. clippard leading the team in hitting. and those at-bats he was 1 for 1 as a nat last year. yeah, that's nasty. >> rob: the swing or the pitch? >> bob: the pitch. >> rob: it was. it was a nice sinking fastball. >> bob: you're up 7, a brief at- bat. ♪ ♪ (tucci) only at&t has the best selection of full keyboard phones. like the lg neon, just $29.99 after mail-in rebate.  >> bob: the fans are having a good time at the ballpark tonight and it will probably become this morning for them. top of the fourth inning, 7-0 washington. we have aflac trivia for you. the duck is up late. he swam a few extra laps for us and brings us this one, since 65 the three number one overall picks who went on to lead their leagues in home runs for a season. that means any time during their career. was one of them a padre? >> rob: did josh hamilton lead the american league

a tale of two bull pens, rob dibble and it's not pretty. >> rob: not pretty, bob.t six meetings decided by three runs or less. we told you that the nationals bullpen leads the major league in blown leads that have led to losses with 29. look at that just against the marlins, a 7 e.r.a., marlins below 2. it's as if they come to town, they quit being marlins and are more like piranhas. here is adam dunn, 1-for-3 with a double. >> well, this is land shark field -- stadium. >> bob: both runners doing some moving around. dunn takes a strike. some hitters don't like that. runner at second base, guzman dancing right right in adam dunn's line of sight. ram ramirez trying to keep him close. adam dunn fouls it away and quickly 0-2. 24 out of the last 27, the marlins. yep. >> rob: the marlins have beaten the nationals 24 out of the last 27 meetings. >> bob: it's not been easy for the last three years watching this. i tried to warn you. >> rob: with the graphic? >> bob: we're going to have to start putting some kind of rating on these games. >> rob: by the way, whoever puts mi

tyler clippard, rob dibble, his performance of the year, four scoreless innings. >> rob: a lot of great change- ups, curveballs, fastballs tonight, was able to mix them up, change the sequences, get some very good pitchers out. excuse americas hitters like gonzalez and kouzmanoff. >> bob: austin kearns to play right field. and on the other side of nyjer morgan, willie harris is in left. a nice chance for jim riggleman to get some at-bats and defensive work, especially for kearns and hernandez who have mainly been pinch-hitting lately. here is logan kensing. we'll get all those guys set for you as far as where they are in the line-up shortly. >> rob: the guys in the bullpen really don't have roles, set in stone. but the more they go out there and perform, and do a great job, they'll define their own roles. right now tyler clippard defining his own role asagoe to guy when you need him early in a game, middle of the game, late in a game. if he throws strikes and changes speeds like that, he's going to be one of the mainstays of this bullpen the rest of the season. >> bob: isn't it nice to

so rob dibble, from what you recall what does he need to do. >> rob: he needs to pound the strike zone. this isn't a good hitting ball club, you have to be careful of adrian gonzalez obviously or kouzmanoff but other than that they are not a home run threat, not a great average team or on base percentage team, so throw strikes, attack the strike zone and give your team a chance to succeed tonight. johnny i know the padres have the lowest batting average in major baseball and the worst on base percentage. there is a kid named gwynn though starting off and just a little hayes overhead, pretty clear, 83 degrees.   it's nice. and matt goes 2-0. >> rob: that was the last thing. don't help these guys, don't walk them, don't put them on base. challenge them. attack with the fastball. >> johnny: tony gwynn hitting .289 with a on base average of .259. willingham to cut it off and the padres are in business here in the top of the first. padres defensively still last in defensive categories, playing a little better lately. willie harris gets the start tonight,

will venable for one in the series and the son of a former rob dibble teammate. >> rob: coach for theleague and the padres and they have a good coach there. >> bob: the ball fouled away. 1-2. >> rob: helpful to all the younger players. think that's the thing you see from lannan, even though he is 24 years old. he is such a leader among the pitchers and the rest the team. >> bob: pretty well hit. right center. josh willingham is there. and he has it for the first out. >> rob: nice throw. >> bob: cabrera was threatening to tag and he got the ball back in quickly. you see willingham. we told you about willie harris and they are out there with adam dunn. gonzalez and hernandez. zimmerman across from johnson. josh bard, a former padres gets the start apt next hitter. chase aheadley and batting .238. this is one of their youngsters they are high on. at least 25 years of age and he played at the university of of the pacific before transferring to tennessee where he became an all american. two for seven in the series. padres are hitting .230 lowest batting average and 357 runs, lowest total r

sounds from the nats, rob dibble singing sponge bob square pants along with the kids here. >> rob: i love sponge bob. >> bob: you are just a kid. >> rob: i love sponge bob. it's fun. >> bob: a lot of kid here. >> rob: this is the way the game should be. >> bob: my daughter is a camp counselor for eight weeks this summer. they are the ones that have fun. there is one of the girls watching the kids. no rattlesnake or falling into the lake. >> rob: no alligators here. >> bob: just watching baseball. that's the kind of camp you would go to, go to the everglades summer camp. >> rob: having been in spring training and playing golf there there are alligators everywhere. i went to florida southern in lakeland. the nickname was the moccasin. >> bob: willie harris is like that. he is everywhere. easy play for willie. and ross gload is gone. jordan zimmerman should have retired four in a row but they bought phone got bonifacio caught running. >> rob: how about that wake-up call for morgan and burr sunset. >> bob: they were in pittsburgh last night. unless jordan zimmerman -- knock on wood -- go

let's go down to south florida and we'll go talk tobob carpenter and rob dibble. when you face a guy like hanley ramirez, you know if he is not going to knock your lights out, he'll do some damage to you. >> ray: we have not been in a situation to pitch around him. bob mentioned runners on first and third, maybe not pitching to that guy. listen, the ballgame dictates that. if that is the hottest hitter in the league, he and pujols -- and ramirez is not quite what pujols is yet but he is what alex rodriguez is. he is going to be that. i think he is just as strong. he is faster. this kid is a special. >> . >> bob: . >> johnny: younger. >> ray: he is a younger player. but this kid does a lot of things that many people don't do. dibbs talks about it. you don't hit the ball that way. only occasionally. that's a big man's ballpark. happen lee was leading off and they put him in the 3 hole and he responded by being a big rbi guy. if he has runners in scoring position, he runs an r before i type producer. >> johnny: he does whatever it needs to be winning. >> ray: he has

he scored 4 runs and he was the one nat, rob dibble, who sustained offense all weekend long. >> rob:d a great job exchanging lastings millage and joel hannahan for this man. nyjer morgan has been nothing but excitement and extraordinary in the field. excellent out of the pen. so any time you can trade a guy that was in the minor leagues and another guy that was struggling for two players like this, he's done a great job. >> bob: livan always fields his position well. he seems effortless when he throws the ball, so he always comes up in square, very good fielding position. >> rob: he's not trying to throw the ball too hard, so he is standing there flat-footed like an infielder in softball. >> bob: exactly. >> rob: right there. boom. perfect fielding position. snow cones it. checks it out. says hey. i know you. really help yourself, though, at this level if you can field your position. >> bob: ronnie belliard a base hit. >> rob: greg maddux had what? 18 gold gloves? i'm sure a lot of that defense helped him win 350 plus games. >> bob: that was not a replay. that was the next hitter. co

bob carpenter and rob dibble and debbie tall debbi taylor with you.it is sunday afternoon baseball. and here is josh willingham who fouled out first time up. 1-0 to josh. two for the series and couple of rbis. and chad edward gaudin. not a big guy. 5'10". list him at 188. low 90s. and has got some sink on it. jams willingham for that foul ball. he has got it. and going on the ballpark. and foul ball. he paid his way in. gaudin this year. four of nine, 17 games. 16 starts. and only hitting .242 against him. and we have seen a lot of foul balls and there is a breaking ball that willingham couldn't reach and strikeout number 4. friday nights are miller lite party night. and $22 for a premium game. get your scoreboard pavilion drink at the bar. and live music before the game. and on friday nights we do post game fireworks. we will have the diamondbacks here. visit nationals.com. here is josh bard. and the nationals first base hit. two outs in the second. >> rob: i think josh showed the rest the lean up how to get to the guy. get underneath the singer -- s

bob carpenter, rob dibble, we're talking about young pitchers again toontd the nats continue to bring young men to the major leagues like j.d. martin tonight. >> rob: well, we're in a situation of a rebuilding program that the nationals are under. when you have a lot of young guys, a lot of top prospects and you fall behind the pack a little bit, you can run a lot of guys out there. they've used 10 starters, that's third most in the national league and there's a lot of them that are under 26 years of age. the current rotation right now, 91 major league starts, 57 of them are owned by john lannan. it's a very young and growing pitching staff, and j.d. martin making his second ever major league start, first one wasn't that bad. a little bit of growing pain. >> bob: and the young starting rotation an e.r.a. of 4.89. ryan zimmermann was as tall as the washington monument last night with a base hit and a home run and his always great defense. he's on a pace 27 homers and 96 rbi's.   >> bob: breezes are blowing i the ballpark tonight, weather approaching from th

bob carpenter, rob dibble, welcome to what should be a very interesting weekend. the pirates and we'll talk about this throughout the night, pretty much a total makeover of their ball club and now joe beimel is a rocky and nick johnson is a marlin. >> rob: yeah, this was trade deadline day a lot of teams were looking for aces. they got a good guy in nick johnson. he's going down there to florida. he's going to play great first base. he can hit anywhere in the order. great on-base percentage guy. there you see the last of the expos. so, he goes down to florida and fredi gonzalez will be very happy about that. he plays great defense, good contact guy, crushes lefties. sad to see nick go, but we were going to lose him at the end of the year anyway. >> bob: an unusual situation as the last expo at the major league level is gone, but here is the future and future injury is now the way lannan slanl pitching. >> rob: john lannan has been fantastic n his last 10 starts, nationals have won seven of those. in 50% of those, he's gone eight or nine innings. he's been very con

bob carpenter and rob dibble, the nats beat the rockies three out of four in this ballpark last year. big gaps out here. it will be a lotth of fun watching nyjer morgan play center field. >> rob: yes, we do have a very good center fielder finally. a fee with a lot of speed. speed never goes out of style, and you can do an awful lot of things with it. and you better get the ball home in a hurry. and then on defin fence, me hand run it down. and then finally, got three knocks yesterday, including this wig double at the end this much i ball game. so nyjer morgan is guy this team has been waiting for. >> like willie harris, brings a lot of energy to the ball club. john lannan has been great so far, as has scott olsen. i will visit with both southpaws. pep think you'll find it interesting. straight ahead.   >>> welcome back. these two guys with me have made some recent nationals history. first time two starters have gone 8 innings two games if a row. when scott came off and pitched so well in florida, what did that mean to you guys as you sat there and watched him. >> it

. >> former major league pitcher rob dibble was spot on. manny's firing certainly comes as no surprise to manny himself. he sat down at lunch with me more than a month ago and talked about he would react should it come to this. >> i did have a job before i came over here. you know, life goes on. i control my attitudes and emotions and give the best every single day to make this club better. that's all i can do. the rest i can't control. you know, when and if they decide that i'm not the right guy to continue to build this franchise, you know, i'll have to respect their decision and that still will always be thankful that they gave me this opportunity which is great for me. >> the last job manny acta held before the nationals was third base coach for the mets. he said today that now it's time for family. that's what he's focusing on in this time. >> a class act. >> he really is. he really is. unfortunately he had to take the fall. >> appreciate it. >>> still ahead tonight, jonas brothers mania hits d.c. ahead of their concert tonight. you ma

and he only threw rob dibble out twice. >> that's it. e had it easy. >> johnny: and a 1-1 to morgan is up and away. dean is the umpire. congratulations to him. >> rob: excellent umpire. always has been. never held it against me, never took a strike away from my team. >> johnny: morgan took a big, hard swing at that one. batting average up to .306 and as a that the .309. >> rob: has country albums out there. >> johnny: 3-2. we're going to hear from joe later today. and a 3-2 to morgan. that was way outside. but on two strikes he was hacking. yovani gallardo's control numbers this year 2-1. 163 strikeouts, 63 walks in 128 innings. wow. this ball into left center. it will have a chance to drop and will, in front of ryan braun. then when it gets away it turns into an easy double for the speed sister morgan. >> rob: we just told you he was intelligent. heads up baseball right there. saw it get by brawn. draughan made a nice effort for it and he takes second basesly. inside outs it left field ryan braun moved from third base to left field becau

bob carpenter and rob dibble have the call here on masn. thank you for joining us.d i will come back at you afterwards with our "nats xtra"game. enjoy the nats-pirates in pittsburgh. gecko: yeah right, that makes sense. boss: trust is key when talking about geico. you gotta feel it. why don't you and i practice that with a little exercise where i fall backwards and you catch me. gecko: uh no sir, honestly... uh...i don't think...uh... boss: no, no. we can do this. gecko: oh dear. vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. what is it to lead? at pnc, it's doing what most benefits our customers. whether that's building more certified green buildings than anyone on earth. creating online banking tools for the next generation. or making a 10 year, $100 million investment in kids. it's how we've always done business. and will for a very long time to come. pnc. leading the way.

for rob dibble and debbi taylor, bob carpenter. mets 6, nats 2.morrow night, the nats continue game two in this series. we will get you going at 6:30 with nats extra. visit mavensports.com for -- visit masnsports.com for all the latest news on the nats. stay tuned, nats extra post game coming up with johnny and ray and from the booth, so long for just a while.   >> welcome to nats extr game brought to you by verizon fios. good crowd on hand to watch the opener. the mets come in and leaving 44- 48. the nationals fall to 26-66. losers of six straight, 11 of their last 12. another disappointing night but there were some bright spots. number one would be the pitching of tyler clippard. the fact that the guys still hang in there. they just gave up too many runs in the early part of the game. johnny holliday and ray knight with you. happy to have you with us tonight. i don't know what the answer is, ray. it's frustrating all the way around. >> yeah. you're asking me? >> sorry to put you on the spot there. >> the answer is they came

rob dibble's nats fantasy camp. if you dare. >> rob: no. >> bob: see, there you go. >> rob: you're profiling me. you just told me you would brush back a lady. >> rob: i would not. just my mother. she is a heck of a right-handed hitter. >> bob: she would charge the mound and take care of you. >> rob: oh geez, my mom? i'm not afraid of too much but when my mom raised her voice i'm out of there. >> bob: robert? >> rob: robert. >> bob: san diego's record 37- 59, the nats 28-67. they are 24 1/2 back of the dodgers, the nats are 27 back of the phillies. that will get through. and gwynn is 2 for 3 tonight. he may have found a home like somebody else named gwynn did in san diego after some struggling times with milwaukee. here is our friend the av flak duck, we call him med wick, he has trivia tonight. >> aflac. >> bob: the only switch hitters with more than todd simmons. >> rob: eddie murray, mickey mantle. >> bob: mickey mantle. >> rob: pete rose has the most hits ever. that's three. >> bob: that was r.b.i.s though, right

i just wanted you folks to see rob dibble smile here in the 5th inning. bouncing ball left side and zimmerman throws it on target to adam dunn. >> rob: i am always happy. >> bob: i know you are. >> rob: people think i'm intins and working, a lot of people are nervous because i have this intense look on my face. i'm just concentrating and focussed. focus, everybody. >> bob: 2-1 strikes to nonstrikes to lannan so far. here's cora, national league one out in the 5th, pitcher next. you want to take care of your business here and get your team back in the dugout. because that was ruled a sacrifice choice, alberto gonzalez gets an rbi and nieves followed up. the little guys did good opposite field hitting and oliver perez made that pitch way too good for as far ahead in the count as he was. >> rob: nobody wants the nationals to win more than we do and barring us running on the field and playing with him, we want them to win every game. i was thinking about grabbing keith hernandez and going out there tonight but we're too old. >> bob: well, you'd like him rofrjt

bob carpenter, rob dibble, debbi taylor with you on masn. rockies leading 1-0.osh willingham has a five-game streak. base hit in four trips last night. just under .400 in the last 11 games. and willingham gets under one. chasing it gonzalez. how far is it going? well out of here. and josh willingham hits his 10th solo homer of the year. he got that baby up in the air and the wind is blowing toward the left field corner. >> rob: yeah, interfere with that. >> bob: wow. >> rob: catch that one in the stands. fastball on the inner half on the 1-0 pitch. he gets it up there in thin air and jacks it about 15 rows up. >> bob: they were ducking for cover out there when that one came down. so here is guzman. nats have their first run of the series. breeze is blowing over there. josh hit that ball at times. guzman will bounce it. todd helton has to back up. throws to the pitcher for the second out. todd helton a former gold glover over there. always been very good at his craft. '01, '02 and '04 he won a gold glove. bases empty. two outs for josh bard. >> rob: are you alway

time to get a w and maybe john lannan gets them there and rob dibble, last time he pitched a complete one unearned run, four hits. >> rob: i believe that was the start of something special for him. he's had a great season on a tough club to have a great season and the emergence of the ace of the staff and i think it came back with the complete game against the mets and the first one of his major league career and got a lot of help from the defense and got out with the double play ball. that's something a veteran pitcher would do even though he's 24 years old and has the most starts by far and he goes out there and right there and tied for first in the major leagues with the 20th start of the season and hopefully it will be more owning a new york team and own it had yankees and the mets. >> bob: that left hander doesn't make $36 million but this one does and the mets beat up on oliver perez in april 26th and the nats won that 8-1 in new york and 7 runs, 9 hits and we live in a city of history and maybe it repeats itself tonight. call... all passengers... each with an average speed of 5

johnny and ray with an appearance by rob dibble coming up right now. caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com >> welcome everybody. ray knight, johnny holliday with you brought to you by our friends at verizon fios. 5-4 ballgame all tied up going into the 8th inning and they come up with a run and this is like a highlight film of major league baseball with plays gone wrong. and the nationals on the end of that streak. >> more like triple-a. a throw to second just doesn't happen. errors on balls you're not getting down on. runner advancing going to third base making a circuit route. terrible again hitting in situations. and then not being able to throw the ball where he wanted to tonight with the breaking ball and it is a tough adjustment out there when you try to establish that breaking ball. just not as sharp. >> once again, jordan zimmerman young rookie right hander had a chance. again, three errors in this blame tonight, ray, which is, again, leading the major league in errors. >> stupid errors. not forced errors. just

bob carpenter and rob did i believe and here we -- dibble and here beare at the halfway point of thisason and kind of hard to assess what we have seen so far this year. >> rob: it has kind of been a tale of two first halfs for this team, the team that started this season is not the same team that is out there on the field today. he's take a look at the winning percentage. it is below .300. that's got to be improved upon. the runs per game, that is not bad. if the pitching get as little better, you're going to do a bit better. the starter's ear r r.-- e.r.a., 4.88. >> bob: manny acta on what needs to improve in the second half. >> our defense obviously in the second half of this season which has improved a little bit and our pitching. and the stats are there. we need to get better. >> more consistency out of our bullpen. i think that is the biggest change we would like to see during the second half. >> bob: let's have a look at the pitchers. ross detwiler, left-hander, jorge de la rosa, and he is trying to find a home here. >> rob: de la rosa has been banged around and then he fund a h