Brendan Harris gets the save!

It seems the Nats finally got a little luck tonight with a lot of the kind of pitching John Patterson is capable of. Please forgive me, though. As soon as that "no-hitter" thought came into my mind in the fifth inning, some Fish hitter you've never heard of hit a double to left. Rats. And then a run scores on a double by another guy you've never heard of. Rats. My thought jinxed the no-no, didn't it? I'm sorry!

You knew something was up when the Nats caught a break in the first inning, something that never happens to them. A Fish just couldn't get an out on a nothing grounder to give the Nats two on with one out. Unfortunately, Damien Jackson screwed up the signs and was caught stealing to ruin everything, one of four baserunning blunders that led to outs in the game. Visions of Little League flashed through my mind.

However, the defense was much better than it has been, with some pretty stellar plays to aid Patterson in his masterpiece. Zimmerman made several great plays and Clayton even stepped it up a bit at times. Soriano played a ball perfectly off the wall and threw a guy out at second on a great play, but it was Brendan Harris' snare that won the game after the Chief pitched pretty poorly again, walking two, one of whom would have scored to tie the game had Harris not made that play. Patterson should have been allowed to pitch in the ninth, as he only threw 108 pitches, 75 of them for strikes.

It was a great game, and it certainly is a relief to get a W.