This week the Nationals finished the Mets series at RFK (a loss) and headed off for their road trip. First stop: Los Angeles.

On Monday Esteban Loaiza won his first game of the year against Scott Erickson (ESPN's recap). Injury news: Eischen had surgery (later he was moved from the 15 day to the 60 DL) and Sledge left the game early due to a pulled hamstring and ended up on the DL ("Sledge could be out longer than three weeks").

Tuesday: Sledge placed on DL and Eischen moved to 60 day disabled list. Outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds contract was bought by the major league club, and Eddy Chavez was recalled. The GM believes that Chavez hasn't improved his ability to get on base, but the stats at AAA seem to suggest that he has (they've removed his stats from the minor league team page, and they don't have it on the major league site, but they do have the combined stats if you search for his name on the minor league site).

Also on Tuesday, the Nationals lost the second game against the Dodgers 4-2. Starter Zach Day managed to last only 3.2 innings giving up 6 hits, 3 walks, and 2 runs (and recording 4 strike-outs). The game included Guillen running to third for the 2nd out of an inning (coach signaled him to run to third and that coach held up Schneider from an easy score later in the game, and because it was such an easy score opportunity, Guzman was tagged out between 2nd and 3rd because he thought Schneider would head home). Rauch replaced Day and pitched 2.1 innings, and gave up 2 more runs. Rauch ended up being the pitcher of record, and recorded his first loss of the season (he now has 3 career losses). Ayala pitched two shut-out innings to close out the game. Chavez entered the game off the bench and hit into a double play for his only at-bat. Guzman hit two hits to move his average up to .247. Church also had two hits, though his average only went up to .207.

Wednesday: Hernandez pitched a complete game to pick up his fourth win (gave up just 2 runs and his ERA is now 4.04). Recent additions Hammonds and Chavez started the game, with Chavez in the lead-off slot (Wilkerson on the bench). Line-up and resulting stats for the game:
Chavez CF - 2 for 4, raising his average to .400 (which I believe is also his OBP)
Guzman SS - 0-3, lowering average to .238
Vidro 2B - 1-3, .290
Guillen RF - 1-4, .327
Castilla 3B - 1-4, .341
Johnson 1B - 2-4, .305 and his third home-run of the season
Hammonds LF - 2-4, .500
Bennett C - 0-2, .200
Hernandez P - 1-4, .176

Friday: The Nationals are now 15-13 and in third place heading into their game tonight against the 14-13 Giants. The Nationals visit San Francisco for 3 games then head off to Arizona for a 3 game series, and will return home on Friday for a series hosting the Cubs. Nationals.com game preview. Ohka (2-3, 4.50 ERA) faces Lowry (1-2, 5.60 ERA).

Notes: Does Robinson hate Zach Day? Day seems to thinks so, and he might end up traded. Day will be moved to the bullpen when Armas returns next week from his rehap in AAA. Vidro sustained a minor injury in the Wednesday game. Nationals writer Bill Ladson answers some questions about the Nationals. First question? About a LHP. Obviously the lack of LHP's in the bullpen has not escaped fan notice.