By RYAN LAWRENCE
Journal Register News Service

PHILADELPHIA – Since the Phillies won the National League East title in 2007, beginning their ascension as the top dog in the division, the Washington Nationals is one team in particular that they’ve had no problem dispatching en route to a title.

Since the beginning of the 2008 season through Saturday night, the Phillies are 46-19 against Washington, which translates into a .708 winning percentage. So it was a little surprising that the Phils took a three-game losing streak against the Nationals into Saturday’s game.

But it wasn’t the least surprising when the Nationals, a team that has yet to finish a season with a winning record, ran through their usual Bad News Bears skit at Citizens Bank Park in an 11-3 defeat to the Phillies Saturday.

Ryan Howard continued his late summer power surge and Roy Oswalt collected his first win since June.

But since seven of the 11 runs the Phillies scored were unearned, it was just as easy to credit the Nationals sloppiness for their latest loss to the four-time reigning NL East champs.

Everyone in the Washington infield save All-Star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman made an error.

Their talented shortstop, Ian Desmond, got so upset on a close play at second that he allowed Wilson Valdez to score from second on an infield single in the third.

Their first baseman, Michael Morse, failed to keep his right foot on the bag on what would have been an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

Their starting pitcher, left-hander John Lannan, walked Roy Oswalt. Twice.

The first relief pitcher who came in for Lannan, Collin Balester, struck out Jimmy Rollins but uncorked a wild pitch on strike three, allowing Rollins to reach safely. Continued…

Although the Nationals entered the night in the middle of the pack in the league in errors, they made enough physical and mental miscues on Saturday to gift wrap the Phillies 78th win of the season. The game was tied at 2-2 when the Phils batted around in the third, scoring five runs (four unearned).

Of course the Phils still had to take advantage of the Nats sloppy play. And they did.

Fittingly, the Phillies first batter of the night, Jimmy Rollins, reached base on an error by second baseman Danny Espinosa. After Lannan nearly escaped the inning by getting Shane Victorino and Utley out, Howard took a 1-2 fastball on the outer half of the plate and deposited it into the left field bleachers.

The home run was just the second of the season for Howard against a lefthander. But it was also the 26th of the season overall for Howard, who is now just two behind St. Louis teammates Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols for the National League lead.

Howard finished the night 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Howard moved into the major league lead with 95 RBIs.

Although Howard has been known to move into another gear come August and September, his recent run has coincided with Hunter Pence’s arrival. Since Pence debuted in the fifth spot in the Phillies lineup two weeks ago, Howard has hit .333 with seven home runs and 17 RBIs in 14 games.

In his second at-bat against Lannan, Howard ripped an RBI single to right to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead and kick start the five-run third inning.

Making his first start at Citizens Bank Park since June 12, also the date of his last victory before Saturday, Oswalt had a comfortable 7-2 lead when he took the mound to begin the fourth inning. He went right into cruise control.

From the fourth through the seventh, Oswalt allowed just one Nationals batted to get beyond first base. In his second start since missing six weeks with a chronic back injury, Oswalt allowed three runs on six hits in seven innings striking out five and walking one.

After Ian Desmond hit an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2 in the second, Oswalt retired 16 of the final 20 batters he faced en route to his fifth win of the season. Continued…

By RYAN LAWRENCE
Journal Register News Service

PHILADELPHIA – Since the Phillies won the National League East title in 2007, beginning their ascension as the top dog in the division, the Washington Nationals is one team in particular that they’ve had no problem dispatching en route to a title.

Since the beginning of the 2008 season through Saturday night, the Phillies are 46-19 against Washington, which translates into a .708 winning percentage. So it was a little surprising that the Phils took a three-game losing streak against the Nationals into Saturday’s game.

But it wasn’t the least surprising when the Nationals, a team that has yet to finish a season with a winning record, ran through their usual Bad News Bears skit at Citizens Bank Park in an 11-3 defeat to the Phillies Saturday.

Ryan Howard continued his late summer power surge and Roy Oswalt collected his first win since June.

But since seven of the 11 runs the Phillies scored were unearned, it was just as easy to credit the Nationals sloppiness for their latest loss to the four-time reigning NL East champs.

Everyone in the Washington infield save All-Star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman made an error.

Their talented shortstop, Ian Desmond, got so upset on a close play at second that he allowed Wilson Valdez to score from second on an infield single in the third.

Their first baseman, Michael Morse, failed to keep his right foot on the bag on what would have been an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

Their starting pitcher, left-hander John Lannan, walked Roy Oswalt. Twice.

The first relief pitcher who came in for Lannan, Collin Balester, struck out Jimmy Rollins but uncorked a wild pitch on strike three, allowing Rollins to reach safely.

Although the Nationals entered the night in the middle of the pack in the league in errors, they made enough physical and mental miscues on Saturday to gift wrap the Phillies 78th win of the season. The game was tied at 2-2 when the Phils batted around in the third, scoring five runs (four unearned).

Of course the Phils still had to take advantage of the Nats sloppy play. And they did.

Fittingly, the Phillies first batter of the night, Jimmy Rollins, reached base on an error by second baseman Danny Espinosa. After Lannan nearly escaped the inning by getting Shane Victorino and Utley out, Howard took a 1-2 fastball on the outer half of the plate and deposited it into the left field bleachers.

The home run was just the second of the season for Howard against a lefthander. But it was also the 26th of the season overall for Howard, who is now just two behind St. Louis teammates Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols for the National League lead.

Howard finished the night 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Howard moved into the major league lead with 95 RBIs.

Although Howard has been known to move into another gear come August and September, his recent run has coincided with Hunter Pence’s arrival. Since Pence debuted in the fifth spot in the Phillies lineup two weeks ago, Howard has hit .333 with seven home runs and 17 RBIs in 14 games.

In his second at-bat against Lannan, Howard ripped an RBI single to right to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead and kick start the five-run third inning.

Making his first start at Citizens Bank Park since June 12, also the date of his last victory before Saturday, Oswalt had a comfortable 7-2 lead when he took the mound to begin the fourth inning. He went right into cruise control.

From the fourth through the seventh, Oswalt allowed just one Nationals batted to get beyond first base. In his second start since missing six weeks with a chronic back injury, Oswalt allowed three runs on six hits in seven innings striking out five and walking one.

After Ian Desmond hit an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2 in the second, Oswalt retired 16 of the final 20 batters he faced en route to his fifth win of the season.

Follow Ryan Lawrence at twitter.com/ryanlawrence21 for all of the latest Phillies news and observations.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Washington Nationals were on their way to their first one-run victory since July 6, when hard-throwing reliever Henry Rodriguez got a little too far behind one of his heavy fastballs and threw it to the backstop with Rafael Furcal at the plate and a runner at third base.

The wild pitch in the seventh inning enabled the Los Angeles Dodgers to tie the score, and Furcal hit an RBI double with one out in the ninth to sent the Nationals to a 7-6 loss on Saturday night.

Trailing 6-5, Los Angeles loaded the bases in the sixth. But James Loney grounded out against Rodriguez, who had given up a single to Matt Kemp and a walk to Juan Rivera after following Ross Detwiler out of the bullpen.

The Dodgers got another chance in the seventh, however. Dioner Navarro drew a one-out walk before pinch-runner Eugenio Velez stole second and took third on a hit-and-run comebacker to Rodriguez. The 24-year-old right-hander then fell behind Furcal 3-0 before walking him with a pitch that sailed over Wilson Ramos’ head, allowing Velez to score.

Rodriguez has a team-high nine wild pitches in 35 2-3 innings, two more than he had last season with Oakland in just 27 2-3 innings. His fastball has been clocked in triple digits, and harnessing all that power can be a problem for a young pitcher.

“He’s a young guy who throws real hard, and he has a tendency to want to let everything go. But that’s part of the package with a guy like that,” Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty said. “You just talk to him about slowing everything down in his head, focusing on what he’s doing and trusting himself to make pitches. You have to convince him that 98 and 97 is still pretty good, and that he just has to throw strikes. It’s a work in progress.”

Rod Barajas led off the ninth with a single against Ryan Mattheus (2-2) and was forced at second when Ramos jumped on Trent Oeltjen’s attempted sacrifice bunt and made a one-hop throw that shortstop Ian Desmond dug out of the dirt with his foot on the bag. But Jamey Carroll singled and Furcal drove a 2-0 to the gap in left-center to bring home Oeltjen.

“That was awesome,” Oeltjen said. “Furky came through big at the end. He’s been unlucky with some injuries this year, so it’s huge for him and huge for this team to get us going. I hope we can take off from here and keep it going.”

Dodgers rookie closer Javy Guerra (2-0) pitched one inning for the victory, helping send the Nationals to their seventh straight loss in one-run decisions after winning 12 of their previous 14 under those circumstances.

“We’re just kind of spinning our wheels a little bit right now,” right fielder Jayson Werth said. “We’re playing good baseball, but we’re just on the wrong side of things. Every night we feel like we’re going to score a bunch of runs. We’re just one swing away.”

Washington starter Tom Gorzelanny threw 66 pitches over three innings in his second-shortest outing this season, after pitching only two innings last Sunday in Atlanta and tweaking his right ankle in a collision with Braves catcher Brian McCann. The Dodgers got five runs and eight hits against the left-hander, who departed with a one-run lead.

“I don’t think there were any effects at all from the ankle,” McCatty said. “When he warmed up in the bullpen, his ankle was fine and there were no problems. It’s just that his ball was up.”

Dodgers lefty Ted Lilly gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings, and is 1-5 with a 7.47 ERA over his last seven outings. He struck out six and did not allow a homer for the first time in his last six outings.

The Nationals staked Gorzelanny to a 6-2 lead with three runs in the first inning and three more in the third. But the Dodgers got three in the bottom of the third, as Loney hit a sacrifice fly and Lilly hit a two-run double with two outs after an intentional walk to Navarro.

“Fortunately I was able to help with the bat, because I put us in a big hole,” Lilly said. “We were able to come back, in large part due to the work the bullpen did. Then obviously we got some clutch hits as the game went on.”

Washington scored its first three runs when Werth followed an RBI double by Michael Morse with a two-run double. After the Dodgers chipped away with runs in the first two innings, the Nats came back in the third as Rick Ankiel doubled home a pair and scored on a hit-and-run infield single.

“We had a pretty standard approach against Lilly,” Werth said. “We’ve seen him a lot before, so you know what you’re getting yourself into, and we jumped out ahead. But they kept battling back all game, and our inability to tack on runs after the third was the difference. When you don’t score any more runs, it’s tough to win ballgames like that.”

Notes: Saturday marked what would have been the 75th birthday of Hall of Fame pitcher and former Dodgers broadcaster Don Drysdale. The Dodgers were in Montreal, the Nationals’ former home, to play the Expos on July 3, 2003, when Drysdale was found dead in his hotel room at age 56 after suffering a heart attack. Ann Meyers-Drysdale was on hand Saturday with their sons, D.J. and Darren, each of whom threw out a ceremonial first pitch. The Dodgers’ grounds crew painted Drysdale’s No. 53 on the back slope of the mound. … Dave Van Horne, who did play-by-play for the Expos during their first 32 seasons, was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday in a ceremony at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y. It was the first time that the winner of the annual Ford C. Frick Award was enshrined the day before the players were.

Read More: Tom Gorzelanny (P – WAS), Ted Lilly (P – LOS), Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals at Los Angeles Dodgers, Jul 23, 2011 7:10 PM PDT

The Dodgers continue their nine-game homestand Saturday night, hosting the Washington Nationals in the second of three weekend games at Dodger Stadium. Ted Lilly gets the start for the Dodgers, facing Tom Gorzelanny of the Nationals in a battle of former Cub left-handers. Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

Nationals (49-50)

Hairston Jr. LF
Espinosa 2B
Zimmerman 3B
Morse 1B
Werth RF
Ramos C
Ankiel CF
Desmond SS
Gozrelanny P

Dodgers (43-56)

Furcal SS
Miles 2B
Ethier RF
Kemp CF
Rivera LF
Loney 1B
Uribe 3B
Navarro C
Lilly P

Tonight’s 7:10 p.m. PDT game will be televised by Prime Ticket. For more news and information on the Dodgers, or on tonight’s game, be sure to read the SB Nation blog True Blue LA.

Read More: Tom Gorzelanny (P – WAS), Ted Lilly (P – LOS), Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals at Los Angeles Dodgers, Jul 23, 2011 7:10 PM PDT

The Dodgers continue their nine-game homestand Saturday night, hosting the Washington Nationals in the second of three weekend games at Dodger Stadium. Ted Lilly gets the start for the Dodgers, facing Tom Gorzelanny of the Nationals in a battle of former Cub left-handers. Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

Nationals (49-50)

Hairston Jr. LF
Espinosa 2B
Zimmerman 3B
Morse 1B
Werth RF
Ramos C
Ankiel CF
Desmond SS
Gozrelanny P

Dodgers (43-56)

Furcal SS
Miles 2B
Ethier RF
Kemp CF
Rivera LF
Loney 1B
Uribe 3B
Navarro C
Lilly P

Tonight’s 7:10 p.m. PDT game will be televised by Prime Ticket. For more news and information on the Dodgers, or on tonight’s game, be sure to read the SB Nation blog True Blue LA.

Read More: Washington Nationals

The NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional stage gets underway this weekend, with four games scheduled for Friday and four more for Saturday. Each matchup is a three-game mini-series, with the winner earning a trip to the College World Series in Omaha. Here is a schedule of the matchups:

No. 1 Virginia vs. UC-Irvine, Charlottesville

• Game 1: Saturday, June 11 at 1 p.m.
• Game 2: Sunday, June 12 at 1 p.m.
• Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, June 13

California vs. Dallas Baptist, Santa Clara

The game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon has been postponed by rain. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday.

The announcement Saturday came about three hours before the scheduled 1:05 p.m. start. The first game of the doubleheader on Sunday begins at 1:35 p.m.

The pitchers scheduled for Saturday’s game – the Brewers’ Yovani Gallardo and Nationals’ Jason Marquis – will pitch the first game Sunday. Milwaukee’s Marco Estrada and Washington’s Livan Hernandez are slated for the second game.

It’s the second rainout this week for the Brewers. Their game at Pittsburgh on Tuesday was postponed and will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Aug. 22.

It’s the Nationals’ first rainout this season.

VIERA, Fla. (AP) — Tom Gorzelanny and Kyle Lohse both pitched well for six innings, and the Washington Nationals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 last night.

Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman played for the first time since March 14. After missing 10 games with a strained left groin, he went 0 for 3 and played six innings in the field.

“I thought he looked fine,” Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman said. “The main thing is to just stay healthy. Get through it with no setbacks.”

Brian Bixler broke a 2-2 tie with a sacrifice fly in the seventh that put the Nationals ahead for good. Bixler’s fly was to short right field, and Alex Cora beat Nick Stavinoha’s throw home that was high on the third-base side.

Gorzelanny allowed two runs and four hits for Washington, striking out five and walking one. He gave up a two-run homer to David Freese in the fourth after walking Matt Holliday.

“I was locating pretty well today,” Gorzelanny said. “I was getting ahead of guys early and going after guys and trying to challenge them. I was able to fill up the zone with pretty much everything today.”

Lohse yielded two runs and six hits while striking out three and walking none.

Chad Gaudin (2-0) got the victory for Washington, pitching one shutout inning. Fernando Salas (0-1) took the loss, allowing one run on one hit with two walks.

“Salas came in and walked the first guy,” Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said. “This is the big leagues. Walking the leadoff man, you don’t say it’s OK. Otherwise, you lose credibility with your players. So that was not good. I think composure was part of the problem. It looked like he was really excited out there, which is understandable. He’s trying to make the ballclub.”

Albert Pujols had a single in three at-bats for St. Louis.

Copyright 2011 Columbia Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

VIERA, Fla. (AP)—Chien-Ming Wang(notes) will make his spring training debut on Friday at the Washington Nationals minor league complex.

The 30-year-old right-hander will throw one or two innings in a game at the team’s accelerated minor league camp.

Wang did not pitch in 2010 while he recovered from surgery in July 2009 that repaired a torn shoulder capsule.

“We’re 16 months after that operation,” Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said. “It’s uncharted waters recovering from this operation. We’re just being ultra conservative. We’re not going to put him out there against somebody in the other uniform yet, where the adrenaline might be flowing a little harder. It’s a little more of a controlled atmosphere to put him in.”

He threw live batting practice on Saturday and looked much stronger than when he first showed up for workouts. He even broke the bat of second baseman Danny Espinosa(notes) during the 10-minute throwing session.

“Today, I feel very good,” Wang said. “Everything was smooth. Each time, (I feel) better and better.”

Wang had good movement on his pitches Saturday and said the only one he’s still trying to get a feel for is his change-up. Otherwise, the Nationals have been pleased with his progress, though there is no timetable yet for when he will face major league hitters.

“He hasn’t been pushed back at all,” Washington pitching coach Steve McCatty said. “His ball had good movement, good sink. He had a good change-up, he threw some good breaking balls. He threw really well.”

Whether Wang pitches one or two innings on Friday will depend on how he feels and how many pitches he throws in that first frame.

“I know Chien-Ming would probably want to go two,” McCatty said. “We’ll see when we get there. That’s why we write everything in pencil. We have the ability, if he’s throwing all right to say we’ll go one more inning. One to two for me would be great.”

Riggleman said the team is being “ultra-conservative” with Wang’s rehabilitation.