Nationals News, Beginning of the New Beginning Edition

  With last night's victory, the Nats have tied their season-high win streak of four, and have hit six homers in the last two games. There doesn't seem to be one single contributing factor in these wins, but a combination of factors: Nyjer Morgan's leadoff capabilites, Adam Dunn's improving defense, Jim Riggleman's postgame meetings and solid pitching from the starters and relievers, among others. I take this to be a good sign, as a team with a good offense won't win unless the pitchers are producing as well, and vice-versa, but the Nationals are showing they're much better than their record would suggest when they're able to play on both sides of the ball. I'm interested to see how Garrett Mock does tonight, given the wave of success the Nats have enjoyed.

  One Nats fan has created a countdown timer for the deadline to sign Stephen Strasburg. Perhaps this is the same fan who brought a sign to last night's game?

  Nyjer Morgan is feeling "sexy at the dish" right now. I don't know what that means, but if feeling sexy at the dish means he'll keep hitting home runs, I hope he stays sexy at the dish.

  With just three days to the trade deadline, the players most often named as trade candidates have been playing very well of late. And, another joins the "don't trade Willingham" camp, though that's not too hard to do right now, given his grand slam output. Finally, Dave at Nats News Network argues that the Nats can't go into next season with Johnson, Guzman, Willingham and Dunn.

  Mark Hornbaker offers up a little bit of Nationals first-base history.

  Mark Buehrle set a new MLB record for consecutive batters retired, 45. The previous record was 41.