Does everything have to be a one-run game?

The Nats' hitting finally exploded, and thank God it did because much of their pitching also blew up. The Nationals had leads of 5-0 and 8-3, but couldn't keep the Phillies from making it close. Ryan Drese wasn't sharp--he had walked five batters by the third inning--and Joey Eischen and Luis Ayala were ineffective again. Given that Ayala has difficulty in every appearance now, it might make sense to sit him down through the All-Star break to give him some rest. His pitches have a lot of movement, so we have to believe that he could be very effective were he healthy and rested. In any event, only the two scoreless innings pitched by Gary Majewski and one by Chad Cordero saved it for the Nats after the Phillies had made it an 8-7 game.

Matt Cepicky and Carlos Baerga of all people were the hitting stars. Cepicky singled and doubled in three runs, the double scoring a badly winded Baerga from first. Baerga would have been out by ten feet had Todd Pratt caught a pretty good throw from Jimmy Rollins that bounced once before it got to Pratt. Baerga hit a three-run homer in the sixth to make it 8-3.

This would have been a terrible loss had the Nats been unable to pull it out. They just lost three out of four to the Mets and the Braves had closed the lead to 2 1/2 games. The Braves won last night, so the lead would have been 1 1/2 if the Nats lost, and the dynamic of the race would have changed dramatically. Both the Nats and the Braves are 7-3 in their last ten games, so both teams are playing well going into the All-Star Break.

It was a tough game to watch from the sixth on because we had the sense that the Nats could blow it, but it was a big win when the Nats really needed it. Let's hope they can win the next two and go into the All-Star break up by at least 3 1/2 games.