>> bob: 2-2 again. %%- big ook. j.d. martin with a knee buckler for his fourth strikeout. >> rob: right there you see him pull the string, go right elbow, over the left knee, follow through, and venebl has no chance. >> bob: fastball for a strike to headley. that was a power curveball, the pitch track. nick conley coming up with two outs. it's just the 8:00 hour here in san diego. thanks for staying up with us on masn 2. the nats are trying to draw back even in the series tonight, but runs are hard to come by here. and for some reason, the paw trays have just mastered -- padres have just mastered the nationals over the five-year life of our franchise. 1-5 in '05 and '06. 1-5 again last year. 2-2 so far this year. zimmerman dives, and he can't come up with it cleanly, and a base hit all the way for nick huntley, giving him a 9-game hitting streak. >> rob: we're surprised when ryan doesn't make a play like this. >> rob: well, that ball just gets up on him a little quicker than he expected,,just gets by him. you see the to ball squirt free, and he knew it was going to be tough anyway. hunley has fallen out of the box. short lead by the catcher. 3-0. and martin may be sort of pitching around the number 8 hitter again. >> rob: is unintentional intentional walk right here. see if he'll chase something, maybe ground out. throw him a strike, hopefully he's taking, and now throw him another ball and see if you can get him to go fishing. >> bob: with the runner moving, ball 4. >> rob: wasn't biting. >> bob: third walk, and clayton richards, the pitcher coming up. national league record fielding percentage by a third baseman, was it robin ventura, schmitt, vinny castillo. oh, man. i'm starting to learn that you have to go with the least obvious. >> rob: well, and yet not many balls probably hit on the ground in colorado to castillo. >> bob: and i guarantee you he didn't get to as many balls as some of those other guys. >> rob: exactly. wow. >> bob: are we rationalizing our bad guesses properly here. >> rob: yes, we're trying to justify it to ourss. >> bob: that's a two-hopper for pete orr. j.d. martin has been solid through four. he'll bat after bard and orr in the top of the 5th. pa announcer: final boarding call... all passenger.. each with an average speed of 590 mph... almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. grab your bag . it's on™west so our low fares stay low. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com. . >> bob: a paul park living to it's reputation as a pitcher's yard. where is the offense? >> rob: well, the offense is dieing in the out field. a lot of these balls that are hit hard die in the outfield. ryan zimmerman, would have been a home run in probably 25 out of 30 ballparks, but here it just hit off the wall. it's a very well pitched game right now. when you get behindny the count, if it's 3-1, or you're 2- 1, throw it down broadway. see if they can hit it out of the ballpark. do not walk guys. >> rob: possible we we county want to see that bullpen around the 8th and 9th inning, pretty tight. >> bob: and the former padre, josh bard gone. 4 ks for richard. >> rob: lot of soft stuff, and then inside with the hard stuff. very tough to lay off. >> bob: he's a big guy, 6'5", 240, and he only pitched 48 innings in i the big leagues with the white sox prior to this season. he won't be 26 until 11 days from now, and the padres may be on to something with some of those young guys they got from the white sox with jake peevey. the problem is, they may be out of the race before peevey ever throws a pitch, then way they're going. >> rob: well, i had colletti on my readio show today, and he talked about getting the memo that a lot of the white sox were available, including thome, contreras went tow to the rockies before the deadline, i don't think that's a white flag, but i think it's because they're not playing well. >> bob: and that's astrikeout! fivee ks. this fry, roberto college enday night in nationals park. pregame presentation of the clemente award. visit nationals.com to get your tickets and get your red on. and a tapper out to short. cabrera throws out j.d. martin. the nats are quite quite it, and trailing -- are quiet and trailing 1-0. 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. there are car radios... and then there is the voice-recognizing, text-out-loud-reading, turn-by-turn-direction-giving sync system... in the all-new ford taurus. sfx: ((sync beep)) please say a command. read message. highway 8 closed. update route. turn right on silver road. we speak car. we speak innovation. introducing the all-new taurus from ford. drive one. . >> bob: byron kerr with a couple of time mates of stephen strasbourg at san de ago state. >> that's right. teammates from last year with the aztecs. matt, you got to catch him, what was that like? in he's pretty impresencive. i've never really caught anyone live him. i grew up with the guy and caught him my previous two years, though, and was watching him grow and get better every year, was really exciting. >> and addison, you're the closer for the aztecs, you got to close about 20 of the saves you got this year with strasberg. fireballer? >> he is. i'm trying to work my way up to that level, but as of right now, he's the main fireballer. >> you quote to talk to him today. how is he do something >> he's doing good. he's up in florida right now doing his thing, working out. he's in the instructional league, just hanging out, working out. trying to fill all of the free time he has right now until the hard work starts coming along, but as of right now, he's just going to be the filed, doing his thing for a couple of hours, and then relaxing. >> bob: thanks, addison. >> i'm just wondering how many times addison even had to close out a game stephen strasberg pitched. >> rob: third bunt in two games by cabrera. no need to tell you how annoying that is for me. that's the only way that guy can get on. there's ways to stop him from bunting. but that ball should have been fielded by j.d. martin. he was in good position, he just didn't make the play. now he's in big trouble here with middle of the order coming up, eckstein, and then the big hammer gonzalez, and you have no outs. he's going to push a, but. he's looking for a hit. martin didn't throw it to orr. he wasn't at the bag yet, but he was in motion to receive a throw. >> bob: when you're not scoring runs, everything is magnified on the defensive side. gonzalez, dunn, great throw to him. well thrown by adam dunn. probably the best play he's made to his right as a first baseman. >> rob: well, the more comfortable he gets, the more he just reacts toty ball as an at light. throws the perfect strike to j.d. martin. j.d. alertly checking cabrera at third. the way they teach you. you make the play first. check the runner coming around third, because he may keep running and go all the way to home. you can't, you know, take your eye off of that guy, and assume that he's going to just stop at third. >> bob: no thought ofwalkingg kouzmanoff. kouzmanoff 1 for 2 with a double tonight. padres looking to double their lead here. that will be drilled to center on a hanging -- >> rob: go to third, go to third. >> bob: the padres do get that second run. and any runs in this inning will be unearned because of that error on the bunt. so those of you who saw the yankees beat baltimore 9-6, we come come you to san diego. the paw trays just used error, base hunt hit and a sac fly to take a 2-0 lead here in the bottom of the 5th. martin for the nashs, clayton richard, shut out ball for the padres. the hitters, venable 1 for 2 with an rbi hit. j.d. mart were has had a big 12:00 to 6:00 hook going tonight. >> bob: tight zone out there tonight for bell. eckstein after his base hit at second, two outs. fastball, hit near the left field line. willingham in the corner, plenty of room to make the grab. an unearned run, justin maxwell straight ahead. the maryland product leading off for the nats. g $1dollars to ride in the bottom of the plane in the dark. no peanuts or nothin'. nd then if your bag wants to bring one of its little bag friends for company, they charge another $25. that's just plain mean. why do they hate your bags? 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( ding ) boss: come on in, i had some other things you can tell people about geico - great claims service and a 97% customer satisfaction rate. show people really trust us. 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. . >> bob: year going to mike jim riggleman in batting practice. it will be interesting for wired up wednesday. maxwell showing bunt, but the barrel of the bat was well behind the handle. he's 0 for 2 with a fly ball to right, and a hard ground ball to second. >> rob: i will i around the cage with jim riggleman, trying to pick his brain a little bit. hoping that doesn't fall into a naked gun situation with leslie nielsen, jim wriggle man having a live -- riggleman having a live mike on. >> bob: maxwell got jammed just enough to keep that ball in the ballpark. one out. got a nice e-mail from wood bridge, virginia tonight, through our masn site, from katherine. she wanted to have us wish a happy 21st birthday to her daughter. unfortunately we don't know her daughter's name, so happy birthday katherine's daughter. >> rob: yes, happy birthday, katherine's daughter. >> bob: all right. never misses a game on masn. she likes rob and bob, and that's good enough for us. many happy returns on september 1st. alberto zorn stall less looked up by a breaking ball -- alberto gonzalez locked up on a breaking ball. did not go according to chris tiller. and a change-up away. that ball is hit hard to left. alberto has three great swings tonight. this is as well as he has swung the bat in some time. he lined one off the pitchers rear-end, right to david eckstein, and then had that laser, and now he's aboard. that could be a big hit for the nats here in the 6th. >> rob: well, nice to see he is just crushing tonight. as bob said, hit one off the front of the pitcher. hit one so hard that cabrera at short dropped the line drive, and had to be thrown out at first, and then that one on the interhalf, the crushed town the left field line. >> bob: zimmerman a 400-foot double off the wall in right center last time. >> rob: hey, i have no problem right here, 40 games under .500, just send the runner. put him in motion, try to hit it the other way. have to do something. this guy has give unthree hit, nobody runs. what do we have, one run in -- well, 15, 16 innings? >> bob: this is the 15th inning of the series for the nats. for some reason, they like the 6th. we'll take whatever karma we can get for this struggling offense right now. >> rob: i likeit. short ran overable opposite field part of this park is the petco porch down the right field line, where it says 322 down at the foul marker, but there you see that jets out there, so maybe it's about 300. >> bob: little yellow line above the fence. and zimmerman takes a fastball right in there. 2-2. >> rob: just when you think wally bell has a tight zone, then he calls one of those six inches in off the plate. >> bob: 3-2. short lead by gonzalez. >> rob: come on, zimmerman, hit one off of that supply building. or there. >> bob: he might drop one to right center. safe at first! that was a fantastic catch! >> rob: well, this is just a ridiculous play right here by will venable. he just dives, lays out. full extension on the ball. ground cannot cause this ball to come loose. comes up, and this looks like a really close play at first, as he almost doubles up alberto gonzalez. wow. that's close. >> bob: that was chad fair child, the second base umpire. first base umpire, chris tiller had gone into the outfield. here is dunn. >> rob: kind of tight right here, you see the throw come in. he's on the bag, and then the ball comes in, but very close. very heads up by venable. some ballplayers will catch it and come up, and almost want to bang on their chest like, hey, what a great catch, look at me, but venable a younger player comes up, and he's throwing to first base to try to get the double-play. >> bob: game awareness. >> rob: yeah. >> bob: that ball bounces way out in front to of hundley, ball 2. and a little tapper, right side. owes -- eckstein throws him out, and the nats cannot buy a run. plane, and guess what... i've still got room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network, it's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't. anything before takeoff mr. kurtis? prime rib, medium rare. i'm bill kurtis, and i've got plenty of room for the internet. and the nation's fastest 3g network. (announcer) sign up today and get a netbook for $199.99 after mail-in rebate. with built-in access to the nation's fastest 3g network. only from at&t. . >> bob: headley, hundley, and gwynn. sounds like one of those afternoon commercials. sore back from a car accident? call headley, hundley, and gwynn. out of play left side. kouzmanoff and the padres box score rolling by. they have two runs, one unearned on four hits. burnette throwing now. martin comes intothis inning. juice there's livan. -- >>rob: there'livan. >> bohe tew54strikes úúastnigh. >> rob: you talk about being lucky rather than being good, washburn has allowed 28 earned runs in the month of august in 35 innings pitched, and the detroit tigers have won 4 of his 6 starts. he's got almost a 7 earned run verge, getting pounded. >> bob: high in the air, left center, maxwell rcling he is @one of those just appears to glide to th baiball. a look back at livan hernandez last night, making his second nats start. >> rob: he he's like just moving the ball up, down, changing speeds, down to 63 miles an hour, moving up to 87. inside, up, down, all around, and, like you said, 90 catches, got a game, was a loss, but onllowedre runs, and with this offense, you should win 7 or 8 times out of 10. you get those kind of pitching performances, and we've gotten some great ones in the last week. sometimes you come up empty. >> bob: that one inside,2-1. >> rob: well, on continue of being more economical, it's just trying to get ahead, without going 2-1, or 2-0 on so many hitters. just put yourself some such a bind where you have to come in with either a breaking ball for the end of the strike zone, or a fastball into the hitting zone, and that's where you take a lot of punishment. >> bob: another one hammered to a gap, and maxwell will run it down. two outs. college students, you're back in school and how about 50% off during september with a valid i.d., you can purchase a ticket priced at $10 or more for all monday through thursday games in that big discount. offers only available at the nationals park box office. gwynn out to the gap, and maxwell catches everything, his reach. the voice-recognizing, text-out-loud-reading, turn-by-turn-direction-giving sync system... in the all-new ford taurus. sfx: ((sync beep)) please say a command. read message. highway 8 closed. update route. turn right on silver road. we speak car. we speak innovation. introducing the all-new taurus from ford. drive one. not too close; whatta ya' think i got that insurance? what insurance is that yogi? aflac. the one ya' really need to have if you don't have it. that's why you need it. need what? aflac. well, if you get hurt and miss work it won't hurt to miss work... aflac? and they give ya' cash which is as good as money. aflac. we've got you under our wing. . >> rob: i was just handed by byron kerr, our crack reporter, dating back to saturday, the nats have scored only two runs in the last 26 innings. no runs after the 7th on the 29th. one on the 30th, one on the 31st, and zero in six tonight, and in the first 8 starts for j.d. martin, after you see the strikeout of willingham on a good breaking ball by richard. he was getting 7.62 runs per outing in his first 8 starts. tonight, nil through 6. but he's been up for the challenge. two runs should get you a win most times, unless you're pitching against clayton richard or cole hamels. >> bob: to talk is 1 for 2, he has pulled the ball to short twice. changion, right off the end of the bat. it was looking like a good trip when the nats won the getaway day game at wrigley field. two out of three for the cubs. >> rob: then that silver fox came in here and sucked all of the runs out of the press box. >> bob: ray knight showed up and the offense didn't, and he's the hitter. >> rob: yep. >> bob: can't blame it on him, though. >> rob: yes, i can. he's not here. >> bob: you're back, where's the runs? >> rob: hey, the offense is still on vacation. bottom of the order coming up. . and cubes will take the walk. he's on. and dukes will take the walk. he's on. walk number two issued by clayton richard, who vases josh bard. well, april, and then actually three nine win months in a row. august by far the best. nats were hoping to win last night and salvage a winning record that month, but, hey, if you win 14 every month, you would have 70 by now. 30 games remaining including tonight, and the thats would have to win -- the nats would have to win 14 of those to both last year's total in wins. and is a disturbing nature is the nats record against the east. most of the games left against them, 13-34 in the division, one one series sprinkled in with the dodgers. they've got him picked off. 1-3-6-1, and elijah dallas-fort worth -- dukes on the bases this year has stolen two bases and been caught 10 times. 2 out of 12. >> rob: this should be a balk. you cannot deceive the runner and that's exactly what clayton richard did. i was told before the game that tony la russa was furious after he picked off a couple of cardinals in his last start. >> bob: oh, is this going to hurt, the pick off, because josh bard would have tied the game. a solo homer, his fourth of the year. could the timing of that base running play be any worse? where was elijah dukes going down by 2? >> rob: here is the pitch right here after the pick-off play, and down and in, that pitch goes out over the fence to die. a souvenir. >> bob: the nats will hit for pete orr against the left- hander here. >> bob: that's the hard effort hit ball i've ever seen josh bard crank out of any ballpark. left-hander joe thatcher, and the right-hander adam russell, and here comes bud black. now that morse has been announced, we maybe will see russell here. >> rob: i think bud black is not going to allow the kid to get this score tied up or get a loss. or else he's going to say -- yep, he's going to the bullpen. >> bob: unfortunate the nats should have tied this game. dukes picked off, a homer. it's 2-1 in the 7th. ♪ ♪ tell me who's watching. ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ (announcer) it's right here. it's easy. . >> rob: we went back and looked at the tape, and eve though i consider that a balk move, he does do that little half stutter step. now, watch the half stutter step. he throws it there and then comes over to first base. you're not supposed to go past 45 degrees without going to home, and then the next pitch is a home run to josh bard. they're going to have to decide whether or not that's a balk move or he's changing his delivery to throw over to first. >>