Nats take Astros 7-6, take series OR Hanging on for dear life

I didn't really see much of this game. It was very strange. Allow me to explain.

I was invited to have dinner at a friend's restaurant Thursday evening, very last minute, but as I always have my DVR record the Nats games, I wasn't worried about watching it later on. So I had my dinner, saw some friends and got caught up with their lives, which was really nice. Afterwards, I trundled on home, and flipped on MASN2, and there was something horribly wrong, either with the signal, my DVR or the MASN broadcast.

The whole game was playing with an almost cyclical interruption, including screen-pauses, "ghosting" images and sound breaks. It was maddening to watch. I tried different things, like switching channels (only seemed to show up on MASN2) I tried stopping the recording and just watching the rest of the game without recording it, and that didn't help. It was impossible to enjoy. As a weird adjunct to this, DirecTV listed this as "Nationals at Rockies" rather than "Nationals at Astros". Maybe that was the root of the problem, the MASN folks were trying to cause a rift in the time-space continuum, and that resulted in my crappy picture and sound. I'm tellin' ya, it was like watching a T.V. that was haunted or filled with gremlins. As I write this, I'm watching the actual Friday night Nationals-Rockies game, and I am recording it without incident. Clear, clean DirecTV picture, no glitches.

The Nats had a good beginning, jumping off to a 5-0 start, and then tacking on 2 more to hang on by the skin of their teeth for the win. Chad Cordero almost blew it in the 9th, with the score 7-4, as he allowed 2 runs, but he got his save.

Ryan Report: Church went 0 for 4, but he had an R.B.I. Zimmerman went 1 for 3 with an R.B.I. double and a walk, and Austin Ryan Kearns had a great night, going 3 for 4 with a walk and an R.B.I. Lately, he's on fire, having readjusted his hands for better effect.

Ronnie Belliard went 2 for 5 with a homer and 2 R.B.I.'s Nook Logan went 2 for 5 raising his batting average to a torrid .289, second only to All-Star Dmitri Young. Nook Logan is living proof of the enduring wisdom of Bull Durham's Crash Davis, who warned the youngsters on his team, "You just got lesson number one: don't think; it can only hurt the ball club." Nook has attributed his recent success to the practice of not thinking at the plate, just hitting. It seems to be working. Dmitri Young went 2 for 4 with a double and an R.B.I.

Glad to see the Nats take a road series, especially a 4-game one. Now onto Denver and see what the Rockies have to bring. Maybe this is the roadtrip that will finally bring some Nationals success in Denver - I believe that they have yet to win a game there since becoming the Washington Nationals. With Shawn Hill on the mound on Friday night, I believe that they have a good chance.