Last Night's Action: Better Men

A combined eleven RBI? Dukes and Willingham were all business last night. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Nationals 15, Cubs 6: I was practically raised on Eddie Vedder's nearly-unintelligiable snarl, but I can't seem to recall a song in the Pearl Jam catalog which provides quasi-cryptic advice about pitching. Too bad for the Cubbies: the bearded Ved threw out the first pitch at Wrigley last night and he probably could have quoted such a tune (if it existed) to Carlos Zambrano before he gave up eight earned in four and a third last night. Outfielders Josh Willingham and Elijah Dukes lit up a number of Cubs pitchers for a combined seven hits, three home runs, and a massive eleven RBIs, seven of which came with two outs. Nationals starter Garrett Mock recovered from giving up an early home run to Zambrano and pitched into the sixth -- although by that point, the Nats were already up by eight, so one probably shouldn't read too much into Mock's numbers. The Nationals are averaging about 4.5 runs per game this season, and in their last seven games, they were right on that number. But sometimes you just get the feeling that they should develop into a much more potent offensive threat, and tonight, they certainly did: as Eddie might say, "it's evolution, baby."