--RHP Daniel Cabrera has not pitched especially well for the Nationals six times around the rotation, but he hasn't been helped much by his defense, either. Opponents have scored eight unearned runs on Cabrera already this season, tops in the National League. SS Cristian Guzman committed two errors Wednesday night with the right-hander on the mound, one of them leading to a run. "It's just part of the game," he said.
--LHP Mike Hinckley's ERA may be a respectable 4.66, but it's not representative of the way he's truly pitched. The rookie lefty has put 20 men on base in 9 2/3 innings. On Wednesday, he lost control of a 3-2 fastball to Dodgers 2B Orlando Hudson with the bases loaded, and the errant pitch hit the backstop on the fly, scoring in a run. "As I went to go back, I felt the ball come out of my hand," Hinckley said. "I mean, I had no grip on it. It's just one of those feelings like when you're going down really fast in an elevator and you feel your stomach go out from underneath you. It's like that feeling. I had no idea where this ball's going to go. To be quite honest, I just lost it." --RHP Garrett Mock hyperextended his right leg Tuesday while trying to field a popped-up bunt in the eighth inning, but the reliever said he was not ailing. "They did an X-ray on it. Everything's fine," Mock said.
BY THE NUMBERS: 0 -- Nine-inning starts by Nationals pitchers in 2007 and 2008. Rookie Shairon Martis finally ended the streak May 2 when he went the distance in a 6-1 win over the Cardinals.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Moments like this, games like this, they're worth five of those losses that we had before. This is what we're working for here, to develop these types of kids." -- Nationals manager Manny Acta, after rookie right-hander Shairon Martis threw a complete-game, five-hitter Saturday to beat the Cardinals, 6-1.
