The double-A Harrisburg Senators didn't really have to do anything on Sunday except show up.

That is, as far as clinching a spot in the Eastern League playoffs was concerned.  Their fate was sealed when division rival Bowie -- over whom the Senators had held a one-game lead on Sunday morning for the wild-card playoff berth in the league's Western Division -- fell to Richmond on Sunday afternoon, ensuring that Harrisburg would make the playoffs no matter how their contest at Binghamton wound up.  (The Sens no doubt found their eventual 6-5 victory over the B-Mets to be satisfactory all the same.)

Harrisburg will meet Altoona this week in the best-of-five Western Division championship series.  The first two games will be on the road on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, after which the Sens return home for Game 3 on Friday at 7:00 and, if needed, Game 4 on Saturday at 4:00, heading back to Altoona for a fifth game if that becomes necessary.

The series gives the Senators the chance to show off the impressive renovations carried out over the previous two offseasons at Metro Bank Park, which will host Harrisburg's first playoff appearance since 2002.  Then as now, the team was aligned with the Washington (then Montreal) organization; evidently the arrangement has remained satisfactory, for the Senators have just signed a two-year extension to their player development contract with the Nationals.

Tickets to the Friday and Saturday playoff games can be purchased at the Senators' web site.

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The early going wasn't easy on Tuesday evening for Washington Nationals pitcher Yunesky Maya in his first-ever major-league start.

Maya surrendered four runs, all earned, in the game's first two innings but allowed no further tallies to the visiting New York Mets over the remainder of his start.  He gave up five hits, including a three-run homer to Ike Davis in the first inning, and two bases on balls while issuing three strikeouts.

Over his five innings of work, the 29-year-old right-hander from Cuba threw a total of 87 pitches, 58 for strikes, leaving the game with the Nationals down 4-0.  Washington would go on to lose 4-1 before 13,835 attendees at Nationals Park.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman discussed Maya's outing.

For the first two innings, Riggleman said, Maya's issues were more about poor command than first-night jitters.

"I think he just wasn't making his pitches," Riggleman said.  "I don't think too much is gonna unnerve him."

Over the remaining three frames of his start, Maya retired nine of the last ten batters he faced, and Riggleman noted the improvement in the latter part of Maya's outing.

"I thought he threw pretty good," Riggleman said. "It seemed like he had a little better command, a little better rotation, getting his breaking ball down below the knees in the third and fourth inning, fifth inning."

"Just got better as it went along," Riggleman said, "but the damage was done."  Maya was charged with Tuesday's loss and is now 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA in his nascent major-league career.

Maya had been suffering from a thumb blister in August, but it hadn't appeared to be severely affecting his last two outings for triple-A Syracuse, in which he accrued a 1-1 win-loss record and 0.89 ERA over 10 1/3 innings, striking out 9 batters and walking 5.

Riggleman apparently saw no physical issues during Maya's start.

"He kind of pitched as advertised," Riggleman said. "Got better as he went along, though."

"I think if he'd have been that sharp [in the first two innings] as he was later," Riggleman said, "maybe he gives up [only] a run or two."

While deferring speculation as to when Maya would become a permanent addition to the Nationals' staff, Riggleman indicated that Maya would remain in the rotation at the present time.  Assuming the customary four games' rest, Maya's next scheduled start would come against Atlanta on Monday evening, September 13, at Turner Field.

      

As might have been expected from a team that contains hot-hitting Tyler Moore, the high-single-A Potomac Nationals are heading to the Carolina League playoffs this week.

The P-Nats clinched the league's Northern Division championship with a 2-0 win in the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader at G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge, in which right-hander Trevor Holder delivered a taut six-inning start. Holder, the Washington Nationals' third-round selection in the June 2009 First-Year Player Draft, allowed just three hits and no runs to the visiting Kinston Indians on Saturday while striking out six and walking none. The 23-year-old accrued a regular-season record of 7-6 and 3.64 earned run average over 136 minor-league innings at two levels, striking out 102 while issuing 144 hits and 29 bases on balls.

Fittingly, Potomac's first and deciding run on Saturday was plated on a single by Moore, the P-Nats' first baseman who was Washington's 16th-round selection in the June 2008 draft. Moore, 23, has logged a 2010 batting line of .267 / .319 / .546, including 30 home runs, on his way to the Carolina League Most Valuable Player Award.

After a third-place Northern Division finish in the first half of the 2010 season and an inauspicious 3-5 start to the second half, Potomac went 36-25 over its last 61 contests to edge Northern Division rival Wilmington by 2 1/2 games in the second-half standings. The P-Nats closed out their 2010 regular season Monday afternoon with a 7-6 victory over Kinston.

Potomac will take on Frederick, the division's first-half winner, in a best-of-five series for the right to challenge Southern Division champion Winston-Salem for the league title.  The P-Nats will visit Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick for the first two games and then will return home to host the Keys at Pfitzner Stadium for the remainder of the series.

Game start time in Frederick will be at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Friday night's contest in Woodbridge will begin at 7:03 p.m.; if needed, Game Four will start at 6:35 Saturday evening and Game Five will start at 1:05 Sunday afternoon.

Tickets can be purchased on the P-Nats website.  (Note that the site includes both will-call and Print-at-Home options; the latter occasioned some confusion here at the Hutch last week when we closed the print window before printing the tickets.  We have since been assured that the P-Nats ticket office stands ready to help with any ticket delivery issues.)

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If you thought that Washington Nationals middle infielder Danny Espinosa was going to be just another September callup from the minors, you might now want to think again.

Espinosa, who began the 2010 season at double-A Harrisburg, went on a tear during Sunday afternoon's 13-3 Nationals victory over the New York Mets at Nationals Park.  Washington's third-round selection in the June 2008 First-Year Player Draft -- who played shortstop and batted eighth in Sunday's lineup -- went 4-for-5 at the plate, including a solo home run in the third inning and a grand slam in the sixth, and ended the day with 11 total bases, 2 runs scored and 6 RBI.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman praised Espinosa's effort.

"That was just a great performance," Riggleman said.  "It was reminiscent of [Ian] Desmond coming up here last year and doing those things in September."

"It was a great compliment to our scouting and player development," Riggleman said, "to bring those two guys along the way they have and get them ready to play here."

If Espinosa -- who was playing his first major-league game before the home fans and just his fifth ever -- was affected by the way his achievements were piling up through the afternoon, he wasn't letting on, according to his manager.

"He's a pro," Riggleman said. "He's just playing hard and trying to have a good at-bat and make plays."

"All that athleticism every now and then," Riggleman said, "for these guys, it's just all gonna come out there and display it all in one day -- running, throwing, hitting.  We saw [Desmond] do it last year in September, and he's showing us the quality of player he is."

"To be able to go find that talent like the scouts do, and cultivate it the way our player development does, says a lot about the organization," Riggleman said.

Riggleman didn't seem overly fazed by the apparent early breakout of Espinosa, whom many have seen as on track for another year of minor-league development before eventual promotion to a full-time major-league job.

"I wouldn't take anything for granted," Riggleman said.  "He was a guy we were bringing up here to get a look at, and that's what we're doing.  There's a lot of games left to play and he's gonna play a lot of baseball here."

Riggleman emphasized the organization's broad long-term perspective on Espinosa's development.

"Whether he hits or has big days," Riggleman said, "is not gonna be the criteria that we're gonna use as to whether he's ready."

"His athleticism and his ability to play defense," Riggleman said, "is a nice thing for the future of the organization."

Riggleman concluded his assessment with another note of praise for both Espinosa and Desmond.

"It's encouraging to know," Riggleman said, "that two good athletes [are] there [in the middle infield] that could play for a while."

      

If the Washington Nationals were looking at a 67-70 record right now, they might be positively giddy considering the dreary results they've turned in the last few seasons.

For the New York Mets, though, three games below .500 -- even though that's five wins better than where they were at this point last season -- is nowhere near where they'd like to be, especially considering that the team was a playoff contender as recently as 2008.  The Gothamites will be visiting Nationals Park this week for a three-game series, two games of which will be under the sunshine thanks in part to the Labor Day holiday.

Washington will send two unfamiliar faces and one familiar one, all right-handers, to the hill this week against New York.  On Monday afternoon, Jordan Zimmermann (0-0 win-loss record, 4.50 ERA) is slated to go for the Nats in just his third start since returning from August 2009 Tommy John surgery.  He'll be hoping for a more satisfying result than that of his previous outing last Wednesday, in which nine strikeouts over six innings of one-hit ball were not enough to earn him a win when his teammates were unable to scratch out even a single run in Florida.

Tuesday evening is anticipated to feature the major-league debut of Cuban free-agent signee Yunesky Maya, who accrued a 1-2 record and 3.38 ERA in five minor-league starts after joining the Nats at the end of July.  He'd be taking the rotation spot of Scott Olsen who, having failed to make it out of the second inning of his Wednesday start in Florida, has been reassigned to the bullpen.

Maya's fellow countryman Livan Hernandez (9-10, 3.81) will be hoping on Wednesday afternoon to continue to haunt the team that jettisoned him in 2009.  Hernandez, whom the Nats signed last week to a contract extension through the 2011 season, has given up just three runs in three 2010 starts against the Mets.

Monday afternoon's announced starter for New York is righty Mike Pelfrey (13-8, 3.72) who, while he can often gobble the innings, was touched for nine hits and four runs over just five frames in the Mets' Wednesday loss to Atlanta.  While left-hander Johan Santana (11-9, 2.98) is in line for the Tuesday start, he only made it through five innings in Atlanta on Thursday before departing with shoulder discomfort; the team won't make a decision about whether to use Santana until after his bullpen session on Monday.  Ace right-handed knuckleballer R. A. Dickey (9-6, 2.91), who surrendered seven runs over six innings in Chicago on Friday, should get the call for Wednesday afternoon's getaway contest.

      

After a three-game series in Florida that featured the dismissal of television commentator Rob Dibble as well as continued mayhem and controversy revolving around center fielder Nyjer Morgan, the Washington Nationals -- enriched by the additions of catcher Wilson Ramos and infielder Danny Espinosa to the September major-league roster -- conclude this week's road swing with what they must be hoping will be a more peaceful three-game set at Pittsburgh's PNC Park.

Veteran right-hander Livan Hernandez (9-9 win-loss record, 3.49 ERA), who logged a win last Saturday night against St. Louis despite yielding five earned runs over six and a third innings, is scheduled to start the Friday evening series opener.  Lefty John Lannan (6-6, 4.95) will follow on Saturday evening after going 7 2/3 on Sunday to pick up a win against the Cardinals.  On Sunday afternoon, right-hander Jason Marquis (1-7, 8.13) will be going for a second consecutive win after hanging on for the Tuesday night victory in Florida.

The host Pirates are slated to send out left-handers Zach Duke (6-12, 5.17) on Friday evening and Paul Maholm (7-13, 5.18) on Saturday evening.  Sunday's announced starter for the Bucs will be righty Charlie Morton (1-10, 10.03).

      

While it may sound kind of obvious considering where you're reading this, I have to say that one of the great pleasures of Major League Baseball's return to D.C. has been the ability to follow the Nationals' progress and the variety of Nats information and opinion that's available -- and continually updated around the clock -- on the internet.

The sheer volume of information and the frequency with which it is refreshed is a marked change from the daily newspaper and TV / radio coverage of a couple of decades ago. And both old and new sources have helped fulfill fans' hunger for information by exploring teams' player-development organizations and keeping readers up to date on their activities.

One of the finest such sources, Nationals Farm Authority, made its debut in 2005 at about the same time as Nationals Daily News (then NationalsPride). Over the past six seasons, NFA editor Brian Oliver has maintained a commitment to keeping his readers up to date on the goings-on of the Nats' minor-league system.

That's not all he's been doing. Like most of the rest of us, he's also been holding down a day job. And, on the side, he's been going to school to obtain his certification as a high-school mathematics teacher.

Having fulfilled the latter goal, Brian has sadly -- if probably wisely -- concluded that there's not enough time in the day for classroom teaching and NFA, and has therefore announced that he's shutting down the site. While he does point his readers to other Nats farm-system websites, Brian's reports and insights as well as the Big Board and other good things at NFA will be awfully hard to replace.

We wish Brian success and fulfillment as he embarks on his new journey.

      

I made an appearance late Monday evening on Bill Ivie's I-70 Baseball Radio program.  We reviewed St. Louis' just-completed series at Nationals Park and pondered the future of right-hander Stephen Strasburg after his upcoming Tommy John surgery.

You can access the recording of the show via this link.

      

After a week of good news (the introduction of Bryce Harper) and bad news (the probable loss of Stephen Strasburg to Tommy John ligament-reconstruction surgery), the Washington Nationals hit the road on Monday for a pair of three-game sets against Florida and Pittsburgh.

If the Nationals are looking to make the news balance come out positive, they can be consoled not only by their just-completed series victory over St. Louis -- the first time in the month of August that the club has won three games in a four-game stretch -- but also by some past and approaching milestones.

• On Sunday the Nats won their 56th game of the season.  They didn't manage to do that in 2009 until October 1.


• The club needs just four wins to improve on its record from both 2008 and 2009.


• It's still mathematically possible for the Nats, who have lost 75 games, to finish at or above the .500 mark this season.  Granted, that would require a 25-6 finish -- but it's still a possibility, one from which the 2009 Nats had eliminated themselves by August 26.

Another consolation of sorts is that all three of this week's Washington pitchers have successfully recovered from stints on the disabled list at some point this season.

In Florida on Monday evening, right-hander Jason Marquis (0-7 win-loss record, 8.79 ERA) will be looking to continue his steady, if bumpy, improvement since his return from the disabled list on August 8.  Tuesday's starter will be righty fireballer Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 11.25) in just his second start since his August 26 return from rehabilitation for Tommy John surgery.  He'll be followed on Wednesday evening by left-hander Scott Olsen (3-7. 4.91) whose shoulder, surgically repaired in the 2009-10 offseason and tweaky enough earlier this season to send him to the DL, was sufficiently strong on Friday to let him turn in a first-rate six-inning performance in a tough-luck loss to the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, the Nats will be seeking to arrest the winning skeins of three Florida right-handers, each of whom has won his two most recent starts: rookie Alex Sanabia (3-1, 3.62) on Monday, Anibal Sanchez (11-8, 3.29) on Tuesday and Chris Volstad (8-9, 4.61) on Wednesday. 

      

As the Washington Nationals approach the end of yet another also-ran season, they haven't forgotten the contributions made by pitcher Livan Hernandez.  The team announced Sunday afternoon that the right-handed starter has been signed through the 2011 season.

Hernandez, 35, who threw both the first pitch in Nationals history after the franchise's relocation from Montreal (at Philadelphia on April 4, 2005) and the team's first pitch in RFK Stadium, has logged a 9-9 record and 3.49 ERA this season in 175 1/3 innings over 27 starts.  Originally acquired by Montreal in a 2003 preseason trade with San Francisco, Hernandez has pitched all or part of six seasons in the Expos / Nationals organization, accruing a 61-56 record and 3.89 ERA over 162 games.

While terms of Hernandez' 2011 contract were not disclosed by the team, MLB.com's Bill Ladson tweets that the deal includes a base salary of $1 million plus incentive bonuses.  Hernandez was signed as a free agent to a one-year, $900,000 contract before the beginning of the 2010 season.