Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. It’s been a tough week for the Nationals, traveling to Cincinnati to face general manager Jim Bowden’s former team. On Monday they lost by a not-deplorable score of 5-3. A day later, they improved substantially, taking the Reds to 14 innings before letting that one slip away 4-3. But if yesterday seemed destined to be the Nats’ 23-inning 3-2 squeaker victory, well, it wasn’t so. Cincinnati swept the series with a persuasive…

Yesterday’s announcement that the L.A. Dodgers will re-sign lefty Odalis Perez for $24 million over three years effectively ends the Nats’ offseason moves. Washington GM Jim Bowden had made no secret of his wish to acquire Perez to buoy the team’s frequently injured and frequently inaccurate pitching. The Distinguished Senators blog (which seems to be in need of a name change) argues that keeping Juan Rivera instead of Jose Guillen “would likely have left Jim…