THE RESULT:  Stop me if you've heard this one before:  the Washington Nationals starter rebounded from one bad inning to keep his team in the game, but the offense could not muster an attack -- making the opposing pitcher look like Cy Young, and the Nats were shut out again.

Monday night, the Nats starter was Yunesky Maya, the opponent was Derek Lowe and the Atlanta Braves, and the score was 4-0, the 12th time the Nats have been shut out this season.  It was the Nats sixth consecutive loss, matching a season high, and drops their overall record to 60-84.

Washington has scored just 10 runs in the six game losing streak, five of which came in one game.

Maya's bad frame -- the only inning with any scoring all night -- was the bottom of the second.  First, he lost his control, walking the first two batters of the inning.  Then he lost his composure, with consecutive balks to drive in a run.  A double, triple and single later, and the score was 4-0.

Maya righted the ship and made it through six innings, giving up just two more hits along the way.  Overall, he allowed four earned runs on five hits and three walks, striking out just two.  He called the balks "minor-league stuff" after the game.  His second big league appearance looked much like his first, where he gave up a three-run homer in the first, but settled down to retire 11 of his last 12 batters.

The Nats expect consistancy to come for the 29-year old Cuban veteran once he gets adjusted to pitching in a competitive setting again, as he missed over a year of baseball during his exile.

On the other side, Derek Lowe was simply having his best game of the season, aided by a generous strike zone.  Lowe went eight innings, scattering six hits and not walking a batter, striking out a career-high 12.  He got Ian Desmond four times, throwing his sinker and slider down and on the edges of the plate. 

The Nats hitters just could not adjust to Lowe's strategy.

Adding insult to injury, Billy Wagner struck out the side in the ninth, to cap a 15-strikeout game for the Braves.

THE GOOD:  Ryan Zimmerman went 2-for-4.  Nyjer Morgan went 2-for-4.  Ross Detwiler threw two scoreless in relief.

THE BAD:  Desmond committed his league-leading 33rd error of the season.  He tried to get in front of a grounder that he should have back-handed, and instead it took a funny hop and bounced off his glove.  Tough scoring from a road official scorer.

THE UGLY:  Top of the first.  Danny Espinosa singled to lead off.  With a 3-2 count to Desmond, Manager Jim Riggleman puts on the hit and run.  Desmond strikes out, Espinosa was thrown out.  Two outs with one pitch. 

THE STATS:  15 Ks, 0 BBs, 0-for-3 with RISP, 4 LOB, 1 GIDP.

NEXT GAME:  Tonight at 7:10 pm.  Livan Hernandez (9-11, 3.82) faces Jair Jurrjens (7-5, 4.53).

"[The Nats] were up there swinging, not many foul balls today." -- John Maine, Mets starter on the Nats' effort, Sept. 20, 2009.

THE RESULTS: The Washington Nationals lost a pair of games to the New York Mets over the weekend, following Friday night's victory. The Nats now own a record of 51-98, and are seven games behind Pittsburgh in the loss column for the worst record in the major leagues.

D.C. only scored four runs in the two weekend games.

Saturday they went down 3-2 to old teammate Tim Redding. Washington managed just five hits off Redding and three relievers. The Mets' starter went seven innings, allowing just two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks, striking out four. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez combined for two more scoreless innings.

John Lannan put up a good fight, giving up three earned in seven innings, on five hits and one walk. He struck out three. But it wasn't enough, as the Nats seemed disinterested in even making Redding work for his outs. Redding tossed just 98 pitches in his seven frames.

Interim manager Jim Riggleman started Ian Desmond, normally a shortstop, in right field, and he paid for it. Desmond misplayed a line drive right at him that flew over his head for a David Wright double to start a two-run rally in the bottom of the seventh. Jeff Francoeur followed with a double, scoring Wright. Francoeur scored later on an error at first by Adam Dunn.

"If I had it to do over, I might not send him out there in that inning," Washington manager Jim Riggleman said. "It was a risk. It backfired."

It was more of the same on Sunday.

Five more Mets starters gave up just five hits in a 6-2 win for John Maine, injured most of the season, allowing him to register his first win since May. It was his second start since being activated from the D.L.

Maine (W, 6-5, 4.13) threw 70 pitches in his five innings of shutout ball and Daniel Murphy had two RBI in loss No. 98 for the Nats this season.

"It was just a lackluster performance," Riggleman said. "We can't have that. That's not acceptable. You just can't play with a lack of intensity at this point because it'll show up."

Nationals starter Garrett Mock (L, 3-9, 5.83) allowed four runs and nine hits in seven innings, dropping to 0-4 with a 7.00 ERA in five starts since his last win on Aug. 25 at Wrigley Field.

No D.C. hitter had more than one hit or reached base more than once.

THE TAKEAWAY: Riggleman, and rightfully so, was grilled by the blogs for starting Desmond in right field Saturday, stating a desire to get Pete Orr more at bats. It's bad enough that when Riggleman manages to put Desmond in the lineup, it's usually at second base, keeping veteran Cristian Guzman at shortstop.

But it's indefensible that the field manager is making a legitimate prospect (at least what passes for one with the Nationals) bounce around from position-to-position in deference to a completely replaceable fill-in part who spent most of his season in the minor leagues.

Here's what Riggleman said about Sunday's game:

"We just were flat, and that's not acceptable. We got down a run, and it was almost as if, 'Well, let's see what we can do here to get through it.' You know, I just wasn't pleased with the overall intensity of the game. The thing is, the other guy was throwing a pretty good ballgame; good pitching will make you look flat. But we can't allow that to happen. We've got a lot of guys on this ballclub that are fighting to make an impression for the future, and so I just reminded them that these last couple weeks count. You can't play with a lack of energy. If you do, it's gonna show up in somebody's mind who's gonna be making a decision about your future."

Riggleman is the type to over-praise the opponent when his team fails, a defense mechanism to say to fans, "Look, we're trying but our opponent just beat us." He even does it in the above quote, even when he is publicly calling his players out. It's the field manager's responsibility to make sure his players are playing hard.

All the folks who publicly called for Manny Acta's head earlier this season always cited that he never 'lost the team' and that the team played hard for him regardless of the outcome. That same can't be said about the interim manager, apparently.

THE GOOD: Lannan's start Saturday was good. There was nothing notably good on Sunday.

THE BAD: Zach Segovia. He's fairly proving that being successful at Triple-A isn't necessarily a recipe for being successful in the bigs. Sunday he gave up two earned in two-thirds on an inning. He has given up six earned runs in three innings of work, an ERA of 18.00.

THE UGLY: The hitters were 10-for 63 (.159) with just four walks in the two games.

NEXT GAME: Nats are thankfully off today. They face the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday at 7:05 for the start of the last homestand of the season, with nine games against the Dodgers, Braves and Mets, before finishing on the road versus Atlanta.

"Who do you do it against? Do you do it against the Phillies? I think we would be insulting the Marlins and the Braves, who are chasing the Phillies." -- Jim Riggleman, on playing September call-ups, Sept. 9, 2009.

BOX SCORE AND RECAP

THE RESULT: The Washington Nationals were pushed around by the neighborhood bully again last night, as the Philadelphia Phillies hit two solo home runs off Tyler "Peaches" Clippard in the eighth inning to take a 6-5 decision before 16,818 at Nationals Park.

The Nationals are 2-12 against Philly this season, and are 47-92 overall. They have lost 13 of their last 16 games.

THE TAKEAWAY: Rather than discuss yet another mind-numbing loss, in the last two days the interim manager has done -- and said -- some interesting and disturbing things that would lead anyone capable of critical thought to believe that Riggleman just doesn't get it.

The most easily scrutinized strategic backfire from last night's game came right there in the bottom of the ninth. With the Nats down by one, Justin Maxwell led off with a single. The only time bunting a runner over makes sense is when you're the home team, down by one run, in the bottom of the ninth with no outs.

To this point, Riggleman has shown he's not afraid to start his runners, largely to the detriment of his team. He's already attempted four suicide squeezes. Anyway, convention calls for the next batter, Cristian Guzman, to sacrifice himself to move Maxwell up 90 feet.

With Dunn and Zimmerman, the team's two most prolific RBI-man following, there would be no more perfect time to sacrifice, though Riggleman does it all the time regardless. He'd already commanded Guzman to sacrifice earlier in the game...IN THE THIRD INNING!

Yup, you know what happens. Guz swings away on the first pitch. Then takes a ball. No bunt order given.

Maxwell then steals second base! I'm going to overlook the fact that attempting a steal with a rookie player in the bottom of the ninth is a horrible decision in-and-of itself.

So, with no outs, man on second and a 1-1 count, surely Riggleman would put the sac play on to get Maxwell to third with less than two outs, right?

Um, wrong.

Guzman looks at strike two, fouls one off, then struck out...LOOKING!

Everyone knows what happened next, as Ryan Madson coaxed a line drive from Adam Dunn to second base, where the the aforementioned rookie was then caught off base for the game-ending double play.

Simply horrible baseball.

To compound his actions on the field, the interim manager has also decided that shortstop Ian Desmond will rot on the big league bench for his September call-up.

My Internet writing brethren have already chimed in on the subject, some a bit more eloquently than others. Here are Riggleman's words, though:

"I'll get him some games, but as long as Guzman is healthy he'll be playing. If his foot flares up on him that will be an opportunity to get Desmond in there, but we also have Gonzalez and Orr who will be playing up the middle. I love to see young players play, but I don't ever want to take away the opportunity from the veterans who have been here all year... and disregard their efforts all year by planting them on the bench. Like I said, the at bats might be inconsistent."

-snip-

"If I send a message to the ballclub that we're gonna put our Class AAA call-ups out there on a daily basis to see what they can do, first of all, as I said, it's not a good time to evaluate talent. Who do you do it against? Do you do it against the Phillies? I think we would be insulting the Marlins and the Braves, who are chasing the Phillies. Do you do it just against the Braves but not against the Phillies?"

-snip-

"The competition throughout the league indicates that, for the fairness of who is the best team in the division, you've got to put your best people out there to play against those guys. You know, if you get a couple games where you're playing a non-contender you might experiment a little bit more and get some guys some games. But I think that until the division is won and the wild card is won, we have an obligation to contenders to put our best players out there."

I'm going to be as sensitive as possible with my next comment.

WHO GIVES A DAMN about insulting the Phillies, Marlins and Braves??? The major league manager has two jobs: Winning; and making HIS TEAM BETTER. What he cares about the opposition is immaterial. The only obligation he has is to HIS organization.

Continuing to play Alberto Gonzalez, Pete Orr, and yes, Cristian Guzman, at the expense of looking at Ian Desmond in the big leagues for three weeks is absolutely irresponsible. The ONLY reason for Desmond to be here in September is to find out if he'll be able to play in the majors in the spring.

All Desmond does sitting on the bench is eat a month of major league salary and per diem. Why on earth would you call up Desmond, or Detwiler, Estrada, Kensing or Segovia (NONE of whom have made it into a game this week) if you aren't going to play them?

From Riggleman's comments and actions, the only time we'll see any of them is in a blowout.

It's pretty transparent that Riggleman is managing for his future. At 1-10 his last 11 games, he may want to re-think his strategy.