If you normally arrive late to baseball games, the recently-completed Nationals-Marlins series was not for you. Arriving late would have meant seeing the home team either going through the motions to earn a paycheck or valiantly fighting to overcome a large deficit (depending on how full your glass is). The Nats have now lost five in a row, and you’d have to go back to Saturday’s extra-inning loss against the Dodgers to find a game in which the team even looked competitive. To date, I’ve harped about bad defense, poor clutch hitting, and a leaky bullpen. Those issues remain, but somehow, the starting pitching came out unscathed. That changes now.

Ouch. The Nationals got pounded 12-1 by the Florida Marlins last night, a loss that, coupled with Houston’s 8-6 win over Philly, drops the Nats to three and a half games behind Houston in the Wild Card standings. The score tells you pretty much all you need to know about last night’s drubbing, but the game also featured a solid start by Florida’s Cy Young candidate Dontrelle Willis (who improved to 20-8 on the…

The Wizards and Nationals made a pair of deals last night, attempting to plug big holes in their respective rosters. That Nats picked up center fielder Preston Wilson in exchange for right hander Zach Day, outfielder J.J. Davis and future considerations. Wilson led the majors in RBI’s in 2003 and should supply some power to the lowest scoring team in the league. Hopefully this will bring an end to the experiment that was Carlos…