Tony Armas started the game for the Nationals (and still pitching) and Thomson started for the Braves. Both pitchers make it to 5 innings pitched, but Peter Moylan replaces Thomson for the start of the sixth inning. In five innings of work (not that he has been pulled yet), Armas has given up zero runs off of 3 hit and 1 walk (with 5 strike-outs; current era 3.16. Thomson went 5 innings and gave up just 1 earned run, but an additional 4 runs scored unearned. As mentioned Moylan replaced Thomson to start the sixth inning and lasted just 1 out and faced Gonzalez (single, he is now 3 for 3 in his return to the majors), Clayton (double, Gonzalez to 3rd), gets Armas to strike out, Soriano (single, Gonzalez and Clayton score and Soriano moves to 2nd during throw), and then walks Vidro before being pulled for McBride. Johnson then singled and Soriano scores. Vidro moved to second. There are now two outs in the sixth inning, but I don't see what that second out was.

Right: Nationals scored first in the top of the third inning off of a leadoff home run by Soriano (his 12th overall home-run). The Nationals scored their second run of the game off of a double by Guillen which knocked in Vidro and moved Johnson to third (this didn't count as an earned run, because, with two out, Johnson tied LaRoche to first base (tie goes to the runner; LaRoche got an error counted against him because he just jogged back to the back). Church then singled which scored Johnson and Guillen. Zimmerman then singled allowing Church to score. The Braves finally got a third out in the fifth but didn't keep the Nationals off the board in the sixth. Soriano singled and Gonzalez & Clayton score. At the end of 5: Nationals 5-0; at the end of the top of the sixth inning: Nationals 8-0.

Oh, and Gonzalez: The Reds, Pirates and Braves seemed to steal bases without any negative consequence, so the Nationals purchased the contract of Wiki Gonzalez to serve as the catcher until Schneider comes off of the DL (he went on the DL on 5/13/06 due to a sore left hamstring, Flick activated, and room made on 40-man roster for Gonzalez by moving Guzman, out for the year, to the 60-day DL). Gonzalez has a much better percentage of throwing out runners. Point? Gonzalez threw out Francoeur trying to steal second. He is currently hitting 3 for 4 in this game (not particularly easy to write a blog entry like this with the game still in progress, can't write fast enough).

So: I'll end here:
Score: Nationals 8, Braves 0
Inning: 7th
Batting: Nationals
Outs: 2
Base-runners: Clayton
At Bat: Armas
On-Deck: Soriano
Attendance just announced: 31,062