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Roster Moves
Paul LoDuca, who missed his second straight game with a bruised right hand, after being hit by a pitch on Sunday, will have an CT Scan tomorrow to see if there is a fracture. X-Rays were negative after the game on Sunday.
With LoDuca's status uncertain, the Nats selected the contract of catcher Wil Nieves from Triple-A Columbus and optioned RHP Chris Schroder to Columbus on Wednesday. Wondering why the team didn't recall Jesus Flores? He couldn't come back to the majors unless he was replacing a disabled player. Having been sent down to Columbus on Sunday, Flores has to wait 10 days before he can be called up again.
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Thursday's Probables
LHP John Lannan (0-2, 6.75) goes for the Nats as they look to salvage a win in NY before heading to Florida to take on the Marlins in the weekend series. Lannan, like Chico and Perez before him, is looking for his first win of the season.
RHP Nelson Figueroa (1-0, 4.50) goes for the Mets.
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Zimm's Struggles
Ryan Zimmerman's problems at the plate continue. He went 0-3 tonight and is just 3-29 (.103) in his last 8 games. For the season his average dropped to.200 even though he has 7 rbi. It looks like he's trying to hard to help the team out of this early season funk.
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Big 5th in the Big Apple
The top of the Mets order, Reyes, Church, Wright and Beltran, all got hits and scored in the 5th. Reyes led-off with his first HR of the year to tie the game at 2-2. Church, who homered in the 1st, singled to right and Wright followed with a bloop single to center that Milledge nearly caught, but it popped out of his glove. Beltran then hit a 3-run HR, his first of the year, to give the Mets the 5-2 lead that turned out to be the game winner.
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L.O.B.
Once again the Nats are leaving too many runners on base and not getting clutch hitting. In the 1st, they had two runners on and no outs and only pushed one run across. In the 3rd, they stranded Ronnie Belliard who hit a 1-out double. In the 4th & 6th, 1-out base runners were left on second and first base respectively. In the 7th, Zimmerman struckout looking with two on and two out. When the Nats need someone to step up and get a clutch hit, no one has taken charge.
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Put it on the Board
Austin Kearns first home run of the season put the Nats back in front of the Mets 2-1. Kearns hit an 0-1 pitch into the left field seats. That followed Lastings Milledge deep fly out to the warning track in left. Wily Mo Pena then singled up the middle and took second when Carlos Beltran threw behind him. A fly out and strikeout left Pena stranded.
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Arms Race
Matt Chico threw three pitches he wish he could take back. The first was to Ryan Church in the 1st. The next two came in the 5th. An 0-2 pitch to Jose Reyes and the first he threw to Carlos Beltran. All three pitches were sent out of the ballpark and accounted for all five Met runs. His totals for the night: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 107 pitches, 66 for strikes. The way the Nats offense has been this season, Washington pitchers can't afford to give up that many runs.

John Maine on the other hand, seemed to be getting stronger as the game got later, but after two quick outs in the 7th, he walked Guzman and Belliard and his night is over. Reliever Joe Smith struckout Zimmerman looking to end the inning. Maine's totals: 6 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 100 pitches, 60 strikes.
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Line-up Changes
I like what Manny Acta has done with the line-up tonight, hitting Ronnie Belliard second. It gives the veteran a chance to see better pitches and help the slumping offense and it's already paid dividends. With Cristian Guzman on via a walk, Acta called for a hit and run and it worked to perfection. Belliard singled to right to put runners on the corners and Ryan Zimmerman followed with a sac fly rbi.
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Battery Mates
Keep an eye on Matt Chico and Johnny Estrada. This is the first time these two have worked together. A lot of times, a pitcher gets comfortable with a certain catcher he's been working with and fully trusts him. See if Chico has the same chemistry with Estrada that he appears to have with Paul LoDuca. If Matt is shaking Estrada off or stepping off the rubber a lot to go through the signs again, this means they are not on the same page.

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Starting Line-Ups
Nationals
SS Cristian Guzman
2B Ronnie Belliard
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Nick Johnson
CF Lastings Milledge
RF Austin Kearns
LF Wily Mo Pena
C Johnny Estrada
P Matt Chico

Notice Belliard moves up to the two hole and Milledge down to the five spot. Looks like Acta is trying to mix things up to generate some offense

Mets
SS Jose Reyes
RF Ryan Church
3B David Wright
CF Carlos Beltran
1B Carlos Delgado
LF Angel Pagan
C Brian Schneider
2B Luis Castillo
P John Maine

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Game Preview: Nationals (4-10) @ Mets (6-6)
The Nationals were shutout last night, the third time this season, and have scored fewer than three runs, seven times. In those seven games the team is 2-5.

Odalis Perez pitched a pretty good game Monday night, but the offense managed only seven hits, five off starter Mike Pelfrey and they started the current 8-game road trip 0-1.
Off season acquisitions, Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes and Paul LoDuca as well as Wily Mo Pena and a healthy Nick Johnson and Cristian Guzman were supposed to improve the offense, but so far it hasn't happened. When the Nats get solid pitching, it seems like the offense hasn't come through. If this trend continues, it's going to be a long summer.

Pitching Match-Up
LHP Matt Chico (0-2, 3.72) is still looking for his first win since Sept. 29 of last year. In his last outing, Chico pitched 8 good innings, giving up just one earned run, but the Nats couldn't score against the Braves Tim Hudson, losing 3-0. In Matt's three starts, he has gotten seven runs of support, while he was in the game, and six of those came against the Phillies on March 31st. Chico has faced the Mets four times in his career and is 2-2, 6.22 ERA. He has never made it out of the 6th inning. In 16 career road starts, he is 2-7, 4.62.

RHP John Maine (0-1, 4.50) is making his third start for the Mets. In his last start, he held the Phillies to one run on five hits in six innings, but walked five batters in the 4-3 extra innings win. Maine got a no decision. In seven career starts against the Nationals, he is 3-2, 5.21 and has held the Nats to a .225 batting average against. His last start vs. Washington was on Sept. 18th and he got roughed up, giving up eight earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in the 9-8 loss. So far this season, left handed batters have a .421 average against Maine.

Inside the Numbers
Austin Kearns has grounded into 5 double plays this season.

Cristian Guzman had two more hits last night. He Is hitting .333

Over the last 5 games, the Nats are hitting just .208 and .214 with runners in scoring position.

The Nationals have left an average of 7.8 runners on base and more than 8 seven times.
As a team, the Nats are batting .231, lowest in MLB. The Mets on the other hand are 7th, at .269.

The Mets top three hitters, Jose Reyes, Ryan Church and David Wright combined to go 8-12, 5 R, 5 RBI last night in the 6-0 win.

Injury Update
RHP Shawn Hill is expected to start this Saturday vs. the Marlins at Dolphin Stadium. It's not written in stone just yet. A final decision will be made later this week. Hill, who hasn't pitched in a MLB game this season, pitched well enough, according to Sr. VP & GM Jim Bowden, on Sunday, to make his debut.

Outfielder Elijah Dukes was sent to Floridy on Tuesday to continue working on getting his right hamstring better. The Nats don't want the colder temperatures in NY to slow down his progress. He will meet the team when they arrive in Florida Friday.