Hernandez faces off against the Rockies Jason Jennings. Hernandez made it through 1 inning without giving up any runs, but gave up two in the top of the second inning. The Nationals batters are currently batting in the bottom of the second inning. Oops, didn't write quickly enough, batting with three outs? Inning over. Well, Hernandez will be up again to pitch in the top of the third inning when the game resumes.

Meanwhile: The picture is Hernandez pitching, but it is from the May 26th game. First pitch of that game, actually. I'm stuck at work, so I can't get a picture from today's game.

Let's see, other news . . .
Here's one:
"Patterson's return delayed": Patterson hoped to be pitching in the majors against the Yankees on Saturday, but will instead have one more rehab start on Saturday, with the single A Potomac club.

I don't see any other news I can quickly gather and relay, so I'll go back to studying the gamecast of the game.

Here is a mosaic (actually the second one) made up of some of the pictures that can be found in my Phillies game four photo set. The last game the Nationals won. And it was a shut-out pitched by Hill.

For some reason, I forgot to blog about this particular photo set (maybe because the Nationals lost?). Follow the link to Flickr to see my photo set for the third game in the Phillies visit, which the Nationals lost on Saturday.

Here is a collection of some, and only some of the photos I took while at the June 8th game (the rest are not on the internet).

Nationals win 5-2. Michael "Mike" O'Connor picks up his third win of the year and moves his record to 3-3. Saul Rivera pitched the seventh, Mike Stanton pitched the 8th and Chad Cordero picked up his 12th save after pitching the Ninth inning. The Nationals are now 28-33 and closing in on the third place Atlanta Braves. The Braves lost last night to the Houston Astros, dropping their record to 29-32. The Braves have a record of 2 and 8 in their last 10 games (lost their last 2 game), while the Nationals are 7-3 in their last 10 games (current streak: 2 wins).

According the press guide: the Nationals had the best record in baseball over a certain period (14-6, over the last 20 games?, oh I see, over the last three weeks). They are now 15-6 after last nights win.

Tony Armas will battle Brett Myers tonight. Myers is 4-2 with an ERA of 2.90. Myers has started one game in June, a no decision (gave up 3 earned runs in 6.2 innings, an era of 4.05 for June). Tony Armas is currently 6-3, with an era of 3.34. Armas tends to do better on the road, but has done better of late at RFK (better compared to past performance at RFK). Armas has also pitched 1 game in June, a win against the Brewers on June 4th that saw Armas pitch 6 innings, strike out 4 and give up zero runs.

Livan Hernandez (5-5, 5.16) is currently scheduled to pitch during the day on Saturday (a big game for me with relatives arriving). Hernandez is expected to face RHP Cory Lidle (4-5, 4.83 era).

On Sunday, another day game, RHP Shawn Hill is scheduled to his third start of 2006 (or his 6th overall major league start). Hill will likely face LHP Cole Hamels, currently 1-0 with an era of 2.65. Hamels has started three games in the major leagues, all in 2006. He lasted 5 innings in his first start on May 12th against the Reds, and gave up zero runs (while striking out 7, walking 5 and giving up 1 hit). His second start occurred on May 18th, against the Brewers. He lasted 6.1 innings in that game and gave up 4 earned runs off of 5 hits and 4 walks, while striking out 5. Hamels third start occurred on June 6th against the Diamondbacks. He lasted 5.2 innings, giving up 1 earned run off of 3 hits and 2 walks (and striking out 2 batters). Opponents are hitting .000 (lefties) or .237 (righties). Hamels has a 5.68 era during the day (and Sunday is a day game), while having a much lower 0.84 era for night games. He has only started on the road, and on grass.