Like the Washington Nationals, the Florida Marlins -- who make their final 2010 trip to Nationals Park this weekend -- are also-rans in the National League East.  Unlike the Nats, the Fish are projecting to finish mid-pack in the division; they start the series with a winning record of 70-69.

Two of the contributors to that record, right-handed pitchers Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, won't be appearing in any of this weekend's contests.  Johnson, a survivor of Tommy John surgery in 2007, has shoulder and back issues, while Nolasco has just had surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his right knee and is out for the year.

The Marlins will employ three other right-handed starters against the Nats this weekend.  Taking Johnson's place in the rotation on Friday evening will be Alex Sanabia (3-2 win-loss record, 4.50 ERA).  He'll be followed by Anibal Sanchez (11-9, 3.45) on Saturday afternoon, while on Sunday afternoon Chris Volstad (9-9, 4.96) will probably be hoping to avoid any carryover from the bench-clearing brawl that punctuated his last start against the Nats in Florida.  (Don't plan on seeing anything this weekend from Nyjer Morgan, the Nats' protagonist in that affair who will probably be serving a multi-game suspension while the Fish are in town.)

Starting the first two contests for the Nationals will be a pair of New York natives, left-hander John Lannan (7-6, 4.73) on Friday evening (which is also Hispanic Heritage Night at Nats Park) and righty Jason Marquis (2-7, 7.14) on Saturday afternoon. Each produced a high-quality outing in his most recent start.

Although Sunday's starter has yet to be named at this writing, it's the regular rotation turn of TJ-surgery returnee Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 3.86).  The 24-year-old right-hander logged a four-inning, 79-pitch no-decision against the Mets on Labor Day, giving up three hits, four walks and three runs (one earned) while striking out two.

      

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).

      

The Washington Nationals managed to score just five runs over three games against the Chicago Cubs, whose pitching is the fourth-worst in the National League.  So it's reasonable to wonder what they can realistically expect to accomplish this weekend at Nationals Park against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, whose pitching is the league's second-best.

Perhaps the Nationals' free fall toward the MLB cellar -- they've lost 13 of their last 17 contests -- will continue relatively unimpeded, particularly now that they've lost slugger Josh Willingham for the season.  On the other hand, perhaps the Nats can benefit by exploiting the pressure that must be weighing on the Cardinals, who have lost seven of their last 10 games -- and, unlike the Cubs, have something to play for, entering the weekend three and a half games behind NL-Central-leading Cincinnati.

Just over a year after succumbing to an elbow ligament tear that required season-ending Tommy John surgery, right-hander Jordan Zimmermann is back to the majors and ready to face St. Louis on Thursday evening.  If his record in the minors this season -- which features a 1.59 earned run average over 39 2/3 innings at four levels -- is any indication, the Cardinals won't find the going any easier in Washington, at least to start with, than they did earlier this week when they dropped two out of three to Pittsburgh.

The Nats' probable starters for the rest of this weekend's series will be left-hander Scott Olsen (3-6 win-loss record, 5.21 ERA) on Friday evening, right-hander Livan Hernandez (8-9, 3.36) on Saturday evening and lefty John Lannan (5-6, 5.23) on Sunday afternoon.

On the mound Thursday evening for St. Louis will be 35-year-old right-handed workhorse Chris Carpenter (14-4, 2.88), who has already delivered 184 innings of work with probably seven starts (after tonight's) left on his calendar.  He'll be followed on Friday by left-hander Jaime Garcia (11-6, 2.42) fresh off an 89-pitch complete-game shutout against San Francisco.

The remainder of the weekend will feature a pair of right-handed starters for the Cardinals: recent surgery returnee Kyle Lohse (2-5, 6.47) on Saturday and staff ace Adam Wainwright (17-8, 2.18) -- who, sometime during the first week of September, should log his 200th inning of work for the 2010 season -- on Sunday.

      

It had been anticipated that Lou Piniella -- whose patience in 2010 was taxed early on by such distractions as the ineffectiveness attached to Carlos Zambrano -- might call this season his last as manager of the Chicago Cubs.  Probably, though, few outside of Cubdom anticipated that his departure would be as abrupt as it's turned out to be.

Harassed by his team's inability to break over the .500 mark in 2010 and increasingly worried about the health of his aging mother, Piniella announced after Sunday's game that he was retiring from the club effective immediately.  Third-base coach Mike Quade will be the Cubs' interim manager as they make their only 2010 visit to Washington on Monday for a three-game series.

Chicago will send a trio of right-handers to the mound this week.  Rookie Casey Coleman (0-1 win-loss record, 7.82 ERA), promoted from the bullpen less than a week ago, will make his second-ever major-league start on Monday evening.  He'll be followed by Zambrano (4-6, 4.97) -- who, after two demotions to the bullpen, is back for his third 2010 stint as a starter -- on Tuesday evening and veteran ace Ryan Dempster (11-8, 3.56) on Wednesday evening.

Right-handed veteran Livan Hernandez (8-8, 3.06) will start Monday evening's series opener for the Nationals, followed by left-hander John Lannan (5-5, 5.13) on Tuesday.  Wednesday's announced starter is righty Jason Marquis (0-6, 11.39), although the possibility had not been ruled out as of this writing that right-hander Jordan Zimmermann might instead get the call to make his first major-league start after his recovery from 2009 Tommy John surgery.

      

Even though they might not be battling for a playoff spot in 2010, the Washington Nationals will have plenty to say about who makes it into the postseason from the National League Eastern Division.  The 44 games left for the team between now and the end of the season will feature three back-to-back sets in which the Nationals face first the Braves and then the Phillies for three games each.

Tuesday evening begins the first of those series as the Nats travel to Atlanta.  Washington's announced starters will be left-hander Scott Olsen (3-4 win-loss record, 5.11 ERA) on Tuesday evening and veteran right-hander Livan Hernandez (8-8, 3.08) on Wednesday evening.  Lefty John Lannan (4-5, 5.23), coming off a superb four-hit performance over seven innings last Friday, will start Thursday's 1:05 getaway contest.

The Braves will counter on Tuesday with rookie left-hander Mike Minor (0-0, 4.50) who'll be making just his second appearance in a major-league uniform.  He'll be followed on Wednesday by ace righty Tim Hudson (14-5, 2.13) and on Thursday afternoon by veteran right-hander Derek Lowe (11-10, 4.29).

      

After a five-game losing streak in which the pitching staff has yielded 33 runs while the hitters have mustered just 12, the Washington Nationals will try to regain traction this weekend as they host Arizona for a three-game series at Nationals Park.

Friday evening will see left-hander John Lannan (3-5 win-loss record, 5.44 ERA) hoping at least to equal his decent six-inning effort from a week ago.  He'll be followed by a pair of recent injury returnees, neither of whom was able to deliver as much as five innings in his latest outing: right-hander Jason Marquis (0-4, 15.32) on Saturday evening and righty Stephen Strasburg (5-3, 3.07) on Sunday afternoon.

The Diamondbacks were notable in the first four months of 2010 more for organizational churn (having handed walking papers to both field manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Josh Byrnes at midseason) than for delivering quality performance on the field.  However, the club has got off to a good August, having won eight of the month's twelve games so far after a July that featured losing streaks of seven, five and four games.

Arizona's scheduled to send out left-handed Northern Virginia native Joe Saunders (7-11, 4.42) -- whom the Snakes acquired in the non-waiver deadline trade that sent Dan Haren to Anaheim -- on Friday evening, ex-Pinstripe righty Ian Kennedy (6-9, 4.47) on Saturday evening and right-handed rookie Barry Enright (3-2, 2.64) on Sunday afternoon.

      

Even as hip-surgery survivor Ross Detwiler goes back onto the disabled list, the Washington Nationals are expecting to bring back a starting pitcher from the injury roll, this time to face Florida in the opening three-game series of this week's home stand.

On Tuesday evening at Nationals Park it's anticipated that right-handed rookie sensation Stephen Strasburg (5-2 win-loss record, 2.32 ERA) will make his return to the starting rotation after a stint on the 15-day DL with shoulder stiffness. He'll likely be followed on Wednesday evening by left-hander Scott Olsen (3-3, 4.12) whose third start since his own return from injury will have been pushed back a few days after he got touched for seven hits, including a pair of homers, at Arizona last Tuesday night.

Thursday would be the rotation turn of right-hander Craig Stammen (4-4, 5.06) for the Nationals, but Stammen has been reassigned to the bullpen, a move no doubt driven in part by the demotion of control-challenged right-handed reliever Collin Balester to triple-A Syracuse.  With Detwiler's return to the DL, left-hander John Lannan (3-5, 5.44) could get the call for his third start since his return from Syracuse earlier in the month.

The Marlins expect to send a trio of right-handers out against the Nats this week: Anibal Sanchez (8-7, 3.50) on Tuesday, Chris Volstad (5-8, 4.63) on Wednesday and Ricky Nolasco (12-8, 4.57) on Thursday.

      

The first half of 2010 was punctuated, both before and after the season started, by injury issues involving Washington Nationals pitchers. 

An even dozen Nats pitchers have either skipped a start or spent time on the DL in 2010.  Let's run down the injury roll: 

And that list doesn't count current minor-leaguers such as TJ-surgery survivors Matt Chico and Ryan Mattheus.

But the second half of the year is providing consolation in the return of many of those pitchers to action.  On Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, right-hander Marquis (0-3 win-loss record, 20.52 ERA) will be the latest to rejoin the Nationals' rotation.  He'll be preceded by left-hander Lannan (2-5, 5.63) on Friday night and veteran righty Livan Hernandez (8-7, 3.12) on Saturday night.

The Dodgers are scheduled to send out left-handed ace Clayton Kershaw (10-6, 2.94) on Friday, right-hander Hiroki Kuroda (8-10, 3.70) on Saturday and newly acquired left-hander Ted Lilly (1-0, 1.29) on Sunday.

      

Capping a busy weekend in which the Nationals acquired a nearly major-league-ready pitcher (on a four-year, $8 million deal, as reported at lunch time today) and didn't deal their most impactful left-handed slugger, Sunday saw three more hopeful events for the Washington ball club.

First was the return of left-handed pitcher John Lannan to the starting rotation.  After Lannan was optioned to the double-A Senators in June, it was hoped that a reunion with Harrisburg pitching coach Randy Tomlin would help Lannan straighten out whatever mechanical issues were reducing the effectiveness of his sinker in inducing groundball outs.

Lannan's peripheral numbers during his double-A assignment were mixed.  As he did Sunday against Philadelphia, Lannan gave up quite a few hits (but few bases on balls) to the Eastern Leaguers, and couldn't always make it as far as the sixth inning.  Still, Lannan performed well enough for the major-league Nationals to recall him to the rotation when Stephen Strasburg made a sudden trip to the 15-day disabled list.

A side note of hope for Lannan is that he seems not to have had difficulty throwing hard when the situation called for it.  In fact, Lannan's fastball has increased in velocity every season of his MLB career, and now comes in around 89 mph on average.

As for Strasburg, Adam Kilgore at the Post reports that the big right-handed rookie had a successful outfield throw session on Sunday.  Barring any setbacks, Strasburg will throw a bullpen session on Tuesday and a simulated game on Thursday, and could be back for the Nats' next home stand.

The most exciting news to greet the month of August is that right-hander Jordan Zimmermann is off the 60-day disabled list not quite a year after he underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery last August 19.  After a half-dozen rehab starts in which he accrued a 2.38 ERA on no wins and two losses, the hard-throwing 24-year-old has been optioned to triple-A Syracuse.  It wouldn't be surprising to see Zimmermann back at Nats Park by Labor Day.

      

When bad things happen such as the need to scratch Stephen Strasburg from a scheduled start, the Washington Nationals can remind themselves that they have a flock of pitchers who are on track for an eventual callup from the minors -- be it in a matter of weeks or over a longer time frame.

These include progressing draftees like Tom Milone and Danny Rosenbaum; free-agent pickups like Andrew Kown; once-dependable starter John Lannan; and, most immediately, injury returnees including Matt Chico, Ross Detwiler, Jason Marquis, Scott Olsen and Jordan Zimmermann.

Strasburg's day-to-day status notwithstanding, the injured list is slowly being whittled down.  You'll see Olsen on the mound Thursday afternoon against Atlanta.  And, of course, Detwiler made his first 2010 start this past Sunday.

If you'd asked me last Friday morning which candidate I'd have chosen to promote first from the big list of names above, it probably would've been Milone.  (Unlike the Nats' real bank account, my fantasy checkbook takes no heed of the financial consequences of a blown option if a hastily promoted Milone should later need to be sent back down to the minors.)

For whatever reason, the team decided Sunday was the time to call up hip-surgery survivor Detwiler for a pitch-limited outing on three days' rest.  Regular readers here know I'm a fan of the four-man rotation, but Detwiler wouldn't have been my choice -- and that has little to do with the amount of rest he'd had.

Rather, it's about something I've been noticing since the first couple times I saw the tall, slim left-hander perform as a high-A Potomac National shortly after he was drafted in 2007.

When Detwiler took the hill in the first inning, he'd promptly begin pouring in fastballs with enough life to befuddle the craftiest batter.

However, should said batter have taken a poke at one of Detwiler's offerings, he would occasionally connect and reach base -- and that's where the trouble could begin.  Pitching from the stretch, Detwiler seemed to have an annoying habit of letting the baserunners pile up, followed all too often by tallies on the opponent's side of the scoreboard.

This was something I also noticed when watching Detwiler pitch in the Arizona Fall League in 2008.  Granted, I only saw one Detwiler outing at AFL, so feel free to attribute my impression to confirmation bias.

Another argument for Detwiler advocates is that, in his seven 2010 rehab starts since June 13, his numbers have been remarkably even.

With the bases empty, Detwiler pitched 15²⁄₃ innings, giving up 19 hits and 3 walks while striking out 16.  With men aboard, he pitched 17 innings, allowing 19 hits and 4 walks as against 15 strikeouts.

That's practically the same performance with or without men on base.  And that must be what the Nats are hoping for when Detwiler settles into the MLB rotation.

What they got on Sunday, however, was not that.

On Sunday with the bases empty, Detwiler faced nine batters.  He struck out a pair and gave up a hit and no walks.

With runners on base, Detwiler faced ten batters.  Again, he struck out two, but gave up two hits, walked three, and didn't make it out of the fourth inning.

Granted, Detwiler's middle infield committed two errors behind him -- which is why none of the five runs he was charged with was earned.  But his own wild pitch in the bottom of the first didn't help matters any (and let a run in).

When Detwiler left the mound in the fourth, the opponents' batting line was .111 / .111 / .111 with no runners on base and .286 / .500 / .714 with runners aboard.  That kind of split cannot be anything close to what the Nats have been hoping for.

If, in future appearances, Detwiler can reprise his rehab performance, Sunday's outing will fade into distant memory (and might be written off to his working on short rest).

A couple more starts like Sunday's, though, may well stamp Detwiler's ticket back to the minors -- whereupon Milone, Kown, Lannan or one of the rest can expect to get the call they've been waiting for.