Game 81: Nationals 3 Pirates 2

Talk about punchless, sheesh. Mike Bacsik shut us down today and besides Adam LaRoche, it seemed like no one could get anything going against the guy. LaRoche banged out half of our six hits to give him five in two days and get his average up to what I have to think is a season high .230. Beyond that, only Nady, Castillo, and Paulino had hits and we went down tamely in the series finale to drop their half-season record to 35-46, or just about right on pace with their 67 win seasons in the past two years. We wasted another nice outing from Paul Maholm in which he only gave up three runs and struck out five in seven innings. A sweep in this series would've been nice, but I suppose it was just too much to ask for.