Four

The Nationals won their fourth game in a row behind Livan Hernandez' strong pitching performance and an offensive outburst that isn't often seen when the Nats are playing outside of Colorado. The Nationals are now 1/2 game ahead of Philadelphia in the wild card race and are in the midst of their longest win streak since the beginning of July.

Livan Hernandez was everything he was advertised to be tonight. After the Nationals staked him to a 3-0 lead, he got into trouble in the first inning by loading the bases with one out. When Pat Burrell singled in two runs, things were beginning to look grim. But Hernandez struck out Ryan Howard and induced David Bell to ground out to third. From there it was all Hernandez, who allowed only three hits and four baserunners over the next seven innings. The Phillies never got a man past first and were utterly powerless to muster any offense against Livan. Amazingly, Hernandez threw 33 pitches in the first inning, but only 80 over the next seven.

Meanwhile, the Nationals continued to pound the ball as if they were in Colorado. Preston Wilson hit two home runs and drove in four, and Nick Johnson and Brian Schneider each hit solo home runs. Johnson and Wilson hit home runs in the first to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead, and Wilson hit another two-run homer in the fifth to make it 5-2. The Phillies protested that a fan had reached out into the field of play to touch Wilson's fifth inning homer, but the umpires rejected the challenge. It was another double-digit hit night (10) for the Nationals, as they once again seemed to abandon the play for one run style that had plagued them for so long.

Frank Robinson brought in Chad Cordero to close out the ninth even though it wasn't a save situation. Robinson may wanted to do anything to keep this momentum going, and we don't blame him one bit for that. Cordero gave up one run, but it was unearned after Cristian Guzman committed yet another error. Winning can mask weaknesses, but Guzman has been exposed as a minor league player for too long for people not to notice now.

This was a huge win for the Nationals and a great way to start the series. With Ryan Drese pitching tomorrow night, this was really a game that the Nats had to win.

Assuming that the Astros win tonight--they're beating the Cubs 11-4 in the seventh--the wild card race looks like this:

Team	Record	Pct.	GB
Astros	64-54	.542	--
Nationals	63-55	.534	1
Phillies	63-56	.529	1.5
Marlins	61-56	.521	2.5