Nats trade 6-run innings with Dodgers, emerge victorious 11-9, rise to 8-18

In the City of the Angels, on the National Day of Prayer, it was the Nationals fans whose prayers were answered. To the skeptics (of which I was one, early on), it started off as the "Nationals Day of not-having-a prayer".

This night's game promised to be interesting even before it began. Future Hall-of-Famer and perennial All-Star Manny Rameirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers received a 50-game suspension from MLB for a pharmacological offense (performance-enhancing drug) discovered in Spring Training. He would not face the Nationals tonight, which was a lucky break for them.

Nats starter, Jordan Zimmermann had the rockiest start you could imagine. He allowed a Grand Slam and two other runs in the 1st inning, but he kept his composure and didn't allow another run throughout the rest of his start.

I thought this game was over at the end of the first, but I wanted to see what the Nats could do.

They kept battling, and put one run on in the 6th and then 3 runs in the 7th, and I began to wonder, "Gee, maybe they can tough this one out and tie things up." Little did I realize that, in the 8th inning, they would score 6 runs and bat around the order on their way to rallying back from their early hole.

Things got scary again at the bottom of the 8th when reliever Joe Beimel allowed one run and then filled the bases with two out, but Beimel battled Dodger Juan Pierre with 2 out, and with a 1-2 count, managed to get Pierre to chop one close enough for 1B Nick Johnson to toss the ball to Beimel, racing Pierre to first base to end the inning.

I don't think that I've ever held my breath for that long before. *PHEW!*

My heart was almost oxygen-starved again as closer Kip Wells struggled in the 9th and almost blew it, allowing two runs.

Oh, and Ryan Zimmerman pushed his hitting streak to 25 games. For their part, the Dodgers' Major League record of undefeated home games to begin a season was halted at 13. It was the Nationals first win in Los Angeles in three years.

Josh Willingham was one of several hitting heroes tonight, but he also made a key defensive play where it looked like he'd injured himself. Perhaps it was fitting that he recorded the final out to this 3.5+ hour slugfest. It was truly a team win. 18 hits!

What a game. How the heck am I supposed to get any decent sleep when my heart is still beating so fast?