Nationals News: Stephen Unfortunatelossburg

  Ian Desmond says that the Nationals let Stephen Strasburg (and themselves) down last night. Other than the seventh inning, the team played a pretty good game.

  Strasburg is "human," and says he didn't have his best stuff last night. Still, it was good enough to pitch six shutout innings against the Braves before giving up four runs (three earned) in the seventh.

  The Nationals have made an overabundance of errors of late, leading to awesome commentary by Rob Dibble and Ray Knight. You learn defense in Little League, people!

  Strasburg's final line from last night: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. His ERA sits at 2.27 with a 2-2 record.

  The Nationals placed Tyler Walker on the 15-day DL, making room to call Craig Stammen up from AAA in time to start tonight against the Braves.

  The team's "character is being tested," but will not be making any knee-jerk reactions to the poor defense they have shown in the past month.

  Rob Dibble and Ray Knight had a very entertaining exchange in what I assume was the postgame show from Strasburg's start against the Royals, debating whether he was throwing too many strikes. Seriously, watch this.

  These are dark days in Natstown, but MissChatter finds positives in all of it.

  Aaron Thompson pitched six no-hit innings for AA Harrisburg before handing the game to the bullpen, who continued to no-hit Portland through 8.1 innings.