Oh my Boesch: Nats continue their losing skid

Detroit Tigers left fielder Brennan Boesch was a nightmare on Wednesday for the Nationals. He went 3 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBI. Since Boesch was called up from their AAA affiliate in Toledo on April 24th, he has been incredible. He's hit .344 with 9 home runs and 34 RBI.

Livan Hernandez was a different story. Livan almost got yanked in the 2nd inning with no outs. He walked 3 runners in the 2nd inning, one with the bases loaded. He seemed to be fighting control issues throughout the whole game. His delivery looked choppy and forced. When all was said and done, Livan made it 6 2/3 innings, giving up 8 runs on only 7 hits. That's not a typo; he walked 6 Tigers. That is not Livo's game.

The Nats offense did what it has done so often this season: scored early runs. Dunn got a home run off of Verlander in the first, Bernadina in the 2nd. But the team would score only one more run in the 6th off of a Pudge RBI. The Nats lost 8-3. The Nationals pitching, besides a 21 year old kid, has been uninspired. In June, the starting pitchers ERA is above 4.00. Without Strasburg, it's worse.

It seems like since Strasburg came up and the Nats left DC (and the Pittsburgh Pirates as an opponent), the pitching rotation has disintegrated. Jim Riggleman has changed the starting line up almost impulsively. The last time the Nats fielded the same 8 guys back to back was June 5th and 6th; or 11 days ago. Not exactly the consistent lineup you hope for.

Instead, the Nats have lost 20 of their last 31 games, and have spiraled to 4 games below the .500 mark (31-35). The solid pitching from the early part of the season is gone, the offense is stagnating, and the "regular starters" are getting no consistency. Players certainly need time off, but spot starting a guy like Michael Morse (who is batting .424 in 33 ABs) just doesn't make any sense. Especially when you start Willie Harris instead (who is now batting .158 after going 0 for 3 on Wednesday).

Riggleman has a tough job, and it's easy to forget while watching frustrating games. He has rarely had a lead late into the games, and he's had to go to the bullpen early. But the Nats need to do something, and they need to do it badly.

I propose a move in the outfield to put Bernadina in center and Morse in right once the team returns to DC. You just have to find a way to get Morse in the lineup. The team looks to avoid a sweep on Thursday with Luis Atilano on the mound before Strasburg goes for the Nats on Friday against Mark Buehrle. The Nats absolutely need the win on Thursday to avoid a dreadful 1-5 road trip. We'll see what Riggs does to get this team moving again. Until later...

Questioning Riggleman's Lineup Card and Episode II: The Stras-pire Strikes Back

This weekend has been full of World Cup talk and game watching my house, like hundreds of millions of homes across the world. It's an exciting time every 4 years when June comes around, even for those that aren't huge soccer fans. It's very exciting to watch players compete for their countries in the most popular sport on earth. But I digress; back to America's Pastime.

Jim Riggleman came into the series against the Cleveland Indians hoping to capitalize on the Nationals sweep against the Pirates, the excitement over Stephen Strasburg, and the offensive weakness of the Indians.

Well, none of that has happened so far. The Nats have given up 7 runs in each of the first 2 games against the Indians. The pitching has been abysmal, and one former Nationals player that the team dismissed and ate his $8 million contract came back to bite them. Austin Kearns, yes, the Nats player that hit the Mendoza Line in 2009 and was injured for most of the last 2 years of his Nationals career is healthy in Cleveland, hitting .307. He hit 2 home runs against Atilano on Friday. Personally, I'm happy to see Austin healthy and successful.

However, Riggleman did give himself much offensive assistance with his Friday and Saturday lineups. Most questionable of all of those calls was Willy Harris as a DH on Saturday. The Nationals wanted to get Harris some consistent playing time to get his confidence up. However, the offensive expense was great. Harris is now hitting .163 and went 0 for 7 against Cleveland. He is not in the lineup today.

Meanwhile, Michael "Don't Call Me Mike" Morse is hitting .417 and was coming off of a 3 for 3 night against Pittsburgh to end that series with a sweep. To me, it defies logic how a team that is competitive in the NL East well into June can take the bat out of a kid's hands who is hitting over .400 to put it in someone's hand that is hitting well below .200 and is a liability with the bat. Making a lefty batter against a righty pitcher in favor of Harris is irrelevant as well. Harris is hitting just .165 against righties, while Morse is hitting .556; even better than he is against lefties.

Morse has taken it all in stride. He knows his role as a utility guy, and has embraced it. However, when you have a player that is as dominant as Morse is, I question Riggleman's managerial decisions putting Willie Harris in the game.

Today's lineup looks a little more like the Nats want to compete to win, but the Indians certainly are going for the sweep with theirs. Oh, and some good young kid is pitching for the Nats for his 2nd start. Maybe you've heard of him...

Nationals
1. Guzman, 2B
2. Nyjer, CF
3. Zim, DH
4. Adam Dunn, 1B
5. Hammer, LF
6. Pudge, C
7. Morse, RF
8. Ian Desmond, SS
9. The Attorney General (Gonzalez), 3B
SP: Stephen Strasburg

Indians
1. Trevor Crowe, CF
2. Shin-Soo Choo, RF
3. Carlos Santana, C
4. Travis Hafner, DH
5. Austin Kearns, LF
6. Russell Branyan, 1B
7. Jhonny Peralta, 3B
9. Luis Valbuena, 2B
9. Anderson Hernandez, SS
SP: David Huff

The Burn n' Clipp? A weird way to sweep.

The Washington Nationals secured their first sweep since they swept the Mets and Braves to end the 2009 season. Livan Hernandez (5-3) got the win in the 4-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night. The Nats are now only 1 game below .500 (30-31) and headed to see the 23-36 Cleveland Indians managed by former Nats skipper Manny Acta. The last game of the upcoming series will be yet another national broadcast, this time on TBS, for Stephen Strasburg's 2nd MLB start.

Last night's victory was an unconventional one in a few ways. Starting with the exciting: Adam Dunn homered for the 3rd consecutive game, bringing his average way up to .284 with 13 homers on the year. Willingham also went deep, with a .283 average and 12 homers. Talk about similar numbers.

The real stars of the game, though, were Michael "Don't Call Me Mike" Morse, Sean Burnett, and Tyler Clippard. Morse went 3 for 3 with a walk and a home run to deep center in the 8th inning on Thursday, making his case to be added to the line up with the DH position opening for the next two series. No one on the bench is more worthy than him, although I imagine that he'll be at 1st base at least one game to put Dunn in the DH spot. He also won the Silver Wig.

Sean Burnett had an outstanding game, pitching the entire 7th and 8th innings. He gave up no runs on 2 hits, 1 K, and threw 20 of 35 pitches for strikes. LHP Burnett gave up a single to a righty (LaRoche) and a lefty (G. Jones), while he still struggles to get lefties out. Lefties have a .324 average against him, while righties are only hitting .163.

Capps was unavailable for the save last night after pitching for a save in the high-stress Strasburg debut and then again on Wednesday, so Tyler Clippard entered the game looking for his 1st career MLB save. In typical Clippard fashion, he blew hitters away with high heat, throwing up to 94 mph and earning that coveted 1st career save.

It's great to see that Riggleman was able to give 5 of the 7 guys in the bullpen a night off. It's rare to see a specialist like Burnett come in to pitch 2 very successful innings, but that's exactly what he did. The Nats certainly hope to continue relying on guys to step up in non-traditional roles while the team continues to play extremely close games. So far this year 37 of their 61 games have been decided by 2 runs or fewer.

Now, with starters going 6 or more innings fairly consistently, the bullpen is getting some rest and is becoming gradually more effective. If the Nats can go on a bit of a streak against the Indians, who have an abysmal 10-16 record at home, there's no telling what can happen in the tightest division in all of baseball. All teams in the NL East are within 5 1/2 games of 1st place. The next closest division in baseball, the AL West, isn't even close. It has 10 games separating its first and last place teams. As we approach the heart of the season, the NL East teams will certainly be very exciting to watch.