HallELIJAH!

Sometimes even on a night when only one player has it going, the team can come out on top. On a night where the teams leading hitter, Cristian Guzman, went 0-7, and the teams number 3 hitter, Lastings Milledge, went 0-5, it was the man in the two slot who put his team on his shoulders and carried them to victory. That man, Elijah Dukes, had himself a career night going 5-6. He stole two bases, scored two runs, hit the game tying homer in the 8th, and the game winning single in the 14th.

Dukes of Hazard

Dukes has come alive, and is showing Nats fans the potential that Bowden and Acta see In him. His season started so abysmally. Dukes hit below the .100 mark for most of the month of May, it wasn’t just frustrating, it was down right embarrassing. The month of June has been much, much kinder to Dukes however. In this month he is batting .347 with a .437 OBP. He has recorded eight extra base hits and swiped five bags.

Austin Kearns, remember him? Dukes took over for him officially after Kearns went on the DL with ‘loose bodies’ in his elbow on May 22nd. On May 21st Dukes’ batting average was a lowly .067, he finished the last week of May with a more then doubled .160 batting average. Coincidence? You tell me. The bottom line though is that since Kearns has gone to the DL, Elijah Dukes has played at an All-Star level.

The bullpen, thank god for the bullpen

The Nats bullpen got destroyed in Minnesota, to the tune of an above 12 ERA. The Rangers are one of the best hitting teams in baseball, so the prospect of a game in which the bullpen had to pitch 8 innings would in most cases look disastrous for the Nats. The pitching staff stepped up however, pitching 12 shutout innings after allowing 3 runs in the second. This is a good and bad thing. Good, because it was an excellent performance all around. Bad, because the Nats now have a tired bullpen and two more games this series.

Game Notes:

Jesus Flores busted out of a mini slump going 3-6 tonight with 2 RBI. He has continued to show good 2 strike, and 2 out hitting. If he can improve his plate patience there is a very real chance that he could be a .300 hitter in the major leagues, smacking 20 homers a year and driving in close to 100 runs.