THE RESULT: The Los Angeles Dodgers scored seven runs in the home half of the sixth inning against three pitchers, as they defeated the Washington Nationals 10-3 to set a modern-day major league record for a home winning streak to start the season at 13 games.

The Dodgers pounded out 11 hits, and the Nats pitchers, led by starter Daniel Cabrera, issued eight walks.

Cabrera (0-3, 4.85) finished the night throwing five and one-third innings, giving up five runs--four earned--on six hits and five walks. He's now walked 22 in 29.2 innings against just 10 strikeouts for the season. In his last four starts, he's allowed 18 walks in 18.2 innings.

Michael Hinckley and Logan Kensing were no better. Hinckley came first, giving up a hit and a walk--with ball four sailing 20 feet over the head of catcher Jesus Flores into the screen behind home plate. Both runners scored.

Kensing allowed three earned on three hits and two walks.

Washington had a couple of glimmers of hope. First, Ryan Zimmerman extended his major league leading hitting streak to 24 games with a first inning single. Cristian Guzman had three more hits. And Flores hit his third home run of the season.

THE TAKEAWAY: Cabrera is bad. I said it when they signed him in December, I was more eloquent about it when it became official, and reiterated it in spring training.

How much longer do the Nats need to see it for themselves?

THE GOOD: Cristian Guzman. He went 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

THE BAD: 5-6-7 hitters. Dukes, Kearns and Belliard combined to go 0-for-9 with two walks and four Ks, leaving a collective seven runners on.

THE UGLY: Logan Kensing. Avert your eyes! 28 pitches, only 16 for strikes. And the strikes were pounded. He isn't fooling anyone.

HONORABLE MENTION: Hinckley's ball to the screen will go down in infamy, just like Matt Chico's curveball to the dugout two years ago. At least it happened in the middle of the night and there were only a few of us watching.

NEXT GAME: Nats try again tonight in La-La Land. Rookie Jordan Zimmermann (2-1, 4.24) takes on grizzled veteran Randy Wolf (1-1, 3.93) for the Dodgers at 10:10 pm ET.

Since our hotel in New York didn't have Internet service, I could not provide any details here from our weekend trip to New York. We saw Daniel Cabrera get clobbered by the Mets on Saturday, and saw the Caps do the clobbering of the Rangers Sunday.

Cheryl will have picture sets of new CitiField up very soon. It's nice, very intimate. The Jackie Robinson entrance rotunda, while a nice memorial, feels like a shopping mall or office lobby. And the concourse is pretty bland. But the biggest problem is the bullpen situation.

The Mets bullpen is in right center field. The Nats bullpen is behind that, meaning you can't see the Nats bullpen unless you want to walk out past the field and down a set of stairs. You have a better view of the chop shops across the street than of the visitor's bullpen. Poor planning, unless it was intentional.

So the Nats fell Friday 4-3 and Saturday 8-2, and won 8-1 behind Jordan Zimmermann, Jesus Flores and Austin Kearns on Sunday.

FRIDAY: Johan Santana dominated the Nats once again, allowing one run on six hits and one walk, striking out 10 in six innings. Scott Olsen battled, going six and giving up three runs--two earned--on nine hits and two walks, striking out four.

He then complained about the lack of support: "We were real consistent," Olsen said. "We got infield flies."

Nick Johnson homered off Santana, and Flores hit a two-run shot in the top of the ninth to get within one run, but Francisco Rodriguez retired Alberto Gonzalez, Alex Cintron and Anderson Hernandez to save the game.

SATURDAY: Daniel Cabrera needed 86 pitches to get seven outs, and he allowed five runs on six hits, four walks and a wild pitch with just one strikeout. The Nats also had three errors that led to runs, and the Mets just kept taking what the Nats gave them.

Elijah Dukes drove in Washington's two runs.

The Mets were credited with just four RBIs for their eight runs.

SUNDAY: Jordan Zimmermann earned his second win of the season in his second start, going five and one-third innings, allowing one run on six hits and two walks, striking out five. His performance was followed by Michael Hinckley, Garrett Mock and Kip Wells, who allowed just one walk and no hits between the three of them.

Flores and Kearns each homered, with Kearns' shot a bomb to the center field batter's eye off Mets starter Oliver Perez. The Nats scored eight, but it could have been even worse, as they stranded 11 runners. Ryan Zimmerman extended his hitting streak to 15 games.

THE GOOD: Jordan Zimmermann. Not only was his performance good enough to make him a winner in his first two big league starts, but he wasn't satisfied with his effectiveness. He told the Washington Post that he wasn't happy with his control, that his fastball was "all over the place," and "It was a constant battle all day long." Good for him. Don't settle.

THE BAD: Saturday's defense was atrocious. Elijah Dukes flat dropped a fly ball, and let another sail past his head as he lost it in the bright sunshine--while his sunglasses were on top of his head. Normally reliable Nick Johnson tried a first-to-third throw that ended up in left field. And Wil Nieves, who hadn't been asked to play defense since April 10, short-hopped one into second that ended up in center field.

THE UGLY: Daniel Cabrera. 86 pitches for seven outs. Four more walks. ONE strikeout. His fastball was 89-90 all day. Chico at Nats Journal has some remarkable quotes from Randy St. Claire regarding Cabrera's lack of velocity. It's a must-read, and indicative of the huge mistake the Nats made signing Cabrera.

He's not doing what he's being told to do by his manager and pitching coach.

NEXT GAME: The Nats start a three-game series in Philadelphia tonight at 7:05 p.m. Shairon Martis (2-0, 4.11) faces Joe Blanton (0-2, 7.31) in the opener.

THE RESULT: For the third day in a row, the Washington Nationals took a lead into the ninth inning. For the third day in a row, they lost. Today, Michael Hinckley and Saul Rivera gave up one-run leads in the eighth and ninth innings, and Rivera paid for it with his job.

Hinckley surrendered a solo home run with two outs in the eighth to Cody Ross to tie the game at three. Rivera then walked Emilio Bonifacio, catcher John Baker doubled him in, walked Ross Gload intentionally, Jeremy Hermida walked unintentionally, and Ross delivered again, a three-run double that killed off the Nats in the first home Sunday game of the season.

The "relief" scuttled a decent outing from Daniel Cabrera, who went five innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and four walks. He did not strike out a batter.

"I think it's embarrassing. I think it's unacceptable. I think our fans have every right to be mad like we are right now," manager Manny Acta said. "We're going to have a brand-new bullpen tomorrow, and if those guys who come in don't get it done, we're going to continue getting guys out of here."

After the game, the Nationals turned over one-fifth of their roster.

Relievers Wil Ledezma and Steven Shell were designated for assignment, and Rivera and catcher Josh Bard were optioned to triple-A Syracuse. The Nats have ten days to waive, trade or release Ledezma and Shell.

In their place, the team purchased the contracts of Jordan Zimmermann--who will start tomorrow--and Kip Wells, and recalled RHPs Garrett Mock and Jason Bergmann.

As if that weren't enough, there were late reports that the Nats had signed Ryan Zimmerman, the face of the franchise, to a five-year, $45 million contract extension.

THE TAKEAWAY: Well. Take a deep breath. Where to start?

First, the good news. Zimmerman's signed, WOO HOO!!! Seriously, this locks up The Face (tm) until 2013. Maybe by then they'll build or acquire some pitching.

Next, the roster moves. Look, Bergmann and Mock should have been on the opening day roster. Bard was a waste as the third catcher, and he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his time is done. Ledezma has shown unreliable for four different organizations now.

And it's hard to see a guy this team has counted on to be a warrior, Saul Rivera, go out like this. He's been one of the few constants on lousy teams, but he has not been even remotely effective this year, earning three of the first 10 losses. He was throwing at 85-86 today, with little to no bite on the assortment of breaking balls.

Hopefully Rivera goes down and rediscovers his funkiness that has made him so dependable.

As for today's game, feh. The best play was a result of a lousy play. Austin Kearns overran a looping line drive and had to go chase it. He made a great throw to catcher Jesus Flores, who made a spectacular dive back to home plate to nab Alfredo Amezaga, keeping the game tied in the top of the eighth.

THE GOOD: Nick Johnson. He went 2-for-4 with a walk, and is hitting .385 for the season.

THE BAD: Alberto Gonzalez. Two more errors. 0-for-5. All the faults are exposed with playing time.

THE UGLY: 1-10. Let us all hope the moves after the game are a wake up call and the pitching gets better starting tomorrow. Everyone is anxious to see Zimmermann's first start, though he gets a tough draw.

NEXT GAME: Tomorrow at 7:05 pm against Atlanta. Jordan Zimmermann's major league debut against Derek Lowe (0-1, 2.81) and the rest of the Braves. You'll find me at the Red Loft, watching the baseball game and Game Three of the Caps-Rangers series.

Photos 2009 © Cheryl Nichols. All Rights Reserved.

UPDATE: Videos from WUSA9 with Zimmerman and Rivera (before sent down). MASN interview with Shell (before sent down).

THE RESULT: The Washington Nationals allowed 10 hits, committed three errors, hit two batters, and lost their home opener to the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies 9-8.

Cristian Guzman went five-for-five before leaving in the ninth with a tweaked hamstring and the Nats got three homers, one each from Adam Dunn, Elijah Dukes and Ryan Zimmerman. And they pounded out 12 hits. But Daniel Cabrera couldn't benefit from early support, Saul Rivera hit two straight batters then gave up two home runs, and Anderson Hernandez, usually sure-handed, booted two easy ground balls as the Nats start the season off 0-7.

THE TAKEAWAY: If you were to guess which Nats pitcher were to hit two consecutive batters, you probably would have guessed it was Cabrera, not the normally reliable Saul Rivera. Yet, there it was in the seventh. Rivera plunks Victorino and Utley ahead of Ryan Howard, and Howard did was he does best. He punished a mistake into a three-run home run.

And the calls for Manager Manny Acta's head will continue, as he left Rivera in the game to face Howard instead of bringing in a left-hander reliever. And were I the manager, I probably would have called for Beimel at that point in the seventh. But Rivera's career splits are just as good against lefties, and there was a lot of baseball to play. Sometimes it's up to the player.

But the Nats gave away six runs in this contest, and maybe some of the concentration lapse can be attributed to the home opener, or the passing of Kalas before the game, but the only things that have been consistent so far this young season has been poor defense and worse pitching. And they were both evident again today.

THE GOOD: Power! Dunn, Dukes and Zimmerman all crushed their homers, and Dukes' might have been the most impressive. He hit a slider on the outside corner--one-handed--into the Phillies bullpen.

And Guz lashed singles all over the ballpark and was the player of the game. He's hitting at an unsustainable rate, but let's hope he's not really injured, cause he's fun to watch when he's in a zone like this.

THE BAD: Daniel Cabrera. Four runs--one earned--on six hits and two walks with just two strikeouts in five innings. Cabrera barely hit 90 on the stadium gun today, and that was sparingly. He walked in a run, then allowed 46-year old Jamie Moyer to lift a sac fly deep enough to score another run.

THE UGLY: The defense. This is getting repetitive. Anderson Hernandez booted two easy ground balls, one leading to a run. Adam Dunn had an error and misplayed another ball, both leading to runs. As bad as the pitching is, this team can't give their opponents extra outs, but it's happening every night.

NEXT GAME: Off on Tuesday, the Nats get back at it Wednesday night, with Shairon Martis (0-0, 9.00) hosting Joe Blanton (0-0, 15.75) at 7:05 p.m.

R.I.P. Harry Kalas, longtime Phillies broadcaster and the voice of NFL Films, passed away in the broadcast booth before the start of today's game. There was a moment when the game might have been postponed, but the Phillies insisted the game be played. Kalas was 73. There was also a moment of silence for young Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart who was killed last Thursday. Adenhart grew up in Maryland.

Also, Mark "The Bird" Fydrich was found dead at his home earlier today working on his truck. Fydrich was best know as a rookie pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, talking to the baseball and manicuring the mound on his hands and knees between pitches.

The game lost two of its more colorful characters today, and the feeling permeated the ballpark. Rest in peace, Harry and The Bird.

Additional photos will be posted tomorrow so check back.

Photo (c) C. Nichols 2009. All rights reserved.

THE RESULT: The tying and go-ahead runs were on base with one out in the top of the ninth, but Florida Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom buckled down and retired Josh Willingham and Austin Kearns to preserve a 6-4 win, and three game sweep of the Washington Nationals (0-3).

The Nationals finally had a starting pitcher get past the third inning, as Daniel Cabrera tried to play stopper for the young Nats. But his promising start fell apart in the fifth inning, as the Marlins pushed four across against the former Baltimore Oriole making his National League debut.

Washington would claw back withing striking distance, with a run in the eighth courtesy of Alberto Gonzalez' RBI double, and a run in the ninth when Lindstrom walked Adam Dunn with the bases loaded. But that's where the fun ended, as Lindstrom struck out Willingham and got Kearns to hit a sinking line drive that Brett Carroll caught off his shoe tops for the final out.

THE GOOD: The middle of the order. Dunn, Willingham, and Kearns reached base a total of eight times in the game, only to score one run between them. They took seven walks combined for a team that had taken one walk in the first two games of the season.

THE BAD: Ryan Zimmerman. He's really scuffling at the plate right now. The FOF (Face of the Franchise) went 1-for-5, bringing his season totals to 2-for-14 with four strikeouts, no walks and no RBIs.

THE UGLY: Cabrera's fifth inning. Leadoff hitter Ross Gload singled to start the inning, then pitcher Chris Volstad sacrificed Gload to second and Emilio Bonifacio grounded out, pushing Gload to third. That's where the wheels fell off. The next four batters reached, going: Single, Single, HBP, Double. Vintage Cabrera to mix in the HBP.

NEXT GAME: Nats (thankfully) off today. Shairon Martis (1-3, 5.66 in 20.2 IP in 2008) faces Derek Lowe (1-0 with four Ks in 8 IP on Opening Day) and the Atlanta Braves at 7:35 from Turner Field Friday night.

NOTES: Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed early this morning, with two others, the result of a hit-and-run car accident. Adenhart was a promising pitcher and a local product, out of Williamsport High School in Williamsport, MD. WHS was a rival of my hometown high school, Boonsboro High School in Boonsboro, MD and as such I have watched his career since he was drafted.

Nats News Network offers its thoughts and condolences to the Adenhart family, the Angels organization and Williamsport, Maryland in this difficult time.

Photo courtesy of http://www.halosheaven.com, a member of SB Nation.

Daniel Cabrera's line for this afternoon's tilt: 2.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 walks, 2 Ks, 1 ER, 4 stolen bases allowed.

Read this to fully understand why Daniel Cabrera is exactly what he is and why he'll never reach his "potential". Just because you can throw hard doesn't mean you can be a successful big league pitcher.

From Boz' post about Cabrera:

"Cabrera he [sic] was the worst natural athlete the club [Orioles] had ever acquired, in terms of agility, coordination, etc. As a kid in the minors, the Orioles even kept him out of drills so he wouldn't embarrass himself or get injured."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your number three starter.

Text of the press release:

NATIONALS AGREE TO TERMS ON 2009 CONTACT WITH
RIGHT-HANDED PITCHER DANIEL CABRERA

The Washington Nationals today agreed to terms with free-agent right-handed pitcher Daniel Cabrera on a 2009 contact. Nationals Senior Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden made the announcement.

The 27-year-old Cabrera joins the Nationals after five seasons with Baltimore, for whom he went 48-59 with a 5.05 ERA in 147 games (146 starts) from 2004-08.

Known for his durability, Cabrera’s 146 starts rank ninth in the American League over the last five seasons. He eclipsed the 30-start plateau in each of the last two campaigns with the Orioles.

Over the last five seasons, the Orioles posted a .472 (69-77) winning percentage when Cabrera got the starting nod, compared to .437 (290-373) for all other starting pitchers.

Cabrera—who stands 6-foot-7—has fanned 7.0 batters per 9.0 innings for his career, and last year, he registered the best walk ratio and pitches-per-inning (16.8) numbers of his career.

He has recorded 10 or more quality starts in each of his five big league seasons. With 63, Cabrera has posted more career quality starts than any Washington pitcher currently under contact.

A ground-ball pitcher, Cabrera has induced 27 percent more ground balls (1204) in his career than fly balls (880), and thus, his 63 double-play grounders the last three seasons rank eighth in the AL. As a rookie in 2004, Cabrera finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting after pacing all big league rookies with 12 wins, 27 starts and 147.0 innings.

I absolutely love the stats that the Nats cherry picked to put into the press release. Let's take a look, shall we?

• Third in ROY voting...in 2004.
• 63 double play grounders over the last three seasons, ranking him eighth (8th!) in the AL alone!
• Posted more career quality starts than any other Nats pitcher under contract.
• Winning percentage with the O's was under .500, but slightly above the team's winning percentage overall for that time period.
• 146 stars last five years ranks ninth (9th!) in AL over that time period.
• Mentions he posted best "walk ratio" of his career last year. Walks per nine? Walks per strikeout? Doesn't say.
• Fanned 7.0 per nine innings over career.

OK, so let's parse these stats a little, going backwards.

• With 841.1 career innings under his belt and 651 Ks, he's actually averaged 6.96 K/9 over his career. The Nats chose to to specifically say "7.0", so I thought I'd test the exactness of their decimal point. So they misstated the actual number on the press release to start with. But how unremarkable is 6.96 K/9? It ranks him 36th for active major league pitchers and behind such noted strikeout artists as Mike Mussina (7.106) and Kevin Millwood (7.168).
• His K/9 last season was 4.75. In fact his career line (204-2008) reads like this: 4.63, 8.76, 9.54, 7.31, 4.75. What caused him to fall off the table last year? Was it too much trying to cut down the walks? Or was it the "elbow strain" that shut him down in September?
• His BB/9 last year was 4.75 and his BB/K was 1.00. That's right, for every strikeout there was a walk. His career BB/9 is 5.28, so his walks were down almost half a walk per game, but at the expense of 2.21 K/9. His career BB/K is .758. That means that even though he reduced the quantity of walks (K/9) his quality of pitching (BB/K) was significantly lower.
• 146 starts in last five years might have him 9th in the AL, but it's only 31st overall. His ERA over that time period (5.05) is better only than Josh Fogg of the top 50 start gatherers in the major leagues. His 48 wins are the sixth worst of those 50 as well. Of the 90 pitchers with 100 or more starts since 2004, his BB/9 (5.11) was a half a walk per nine more than the next closest (Oliver Perez, at 4.63)
• Winning percentage with the O's? Of the same 90 pitchers to start 100 or more games, he ranks 78th in win percentage .
• You want quality starts? His 63 rank 58th on the list of 90. As for comparing his TOTAL to the total of other Nats pitchers? That's just ridiculous. Scott Olsen has 47 in one less year. He's the only starter on the roster with more than one full season under his belt. It's embarrassing they would even list this stat in this context. Also, his QS percentage of total starts was .432, 85th on the list of 90, behind such luminaries as Adam Eaton and formerly our own Odalis Perez!
• Baseball-Reference has Cabrera as inducing 83 GIDPs, so that's probably just a typo. His 83 rank him 30th on the list of 90. So he's (barely) top 1/3 of major league starters the last five seasons inducing ground ball double plays! Big fat deal. He was able to keep the ball ont he ground his first three seasons, allowing 14, 14 and 11 homers through 2006. But the last two years he's been perfectly average (25, 24) allowing the long ball. So he gets outs on the ground, but as his K totals have plummeted, his HR numbers have risen. Shocker, I know.
• Third in ROY? He went 12-8, 5.00 ERA and 1.58 WHIP. He finished behind Bobby Crosby and Shingo Takatsu. He had zero first place votes. In fact, Crosby had 138 points, Takatsu 44, Cabrera 29. Big Deal.

So there you have it, in this rather long-winded response to the Nats cherry picked stats in their press release about the signing of presumably #3 starter Daniel Cabrera.

It's the worst of both worlds. He's a lousy pitcher getting worse that takes the ball every fifth day (unless it's injury accounting for the drop in velocity and Ks). Oh goody.