Monday's first pitch

Leading Off
The Nationals are awful on the eyes. The entire team is basically sinning against nature whenever they take the field. Well, except for one man. On a team that has just 10 wins, Ryan Zimmerman has been nothing short of exceptional. Since starting the season 1-for-9, he has gotten a hit in every game, so we'll need to check in on the Nats during his at-bats to see if he can push his streak to 29 games. He is currently batting .336 with six home runs and 11 doubles.
Imagine where the Nats would be without him.

Regional Roundup
Several Nats are streaking, a bird is hurting and Phillies fans are told not to panic. At least they're not the Mets.

• Luke Scott's shoulder could be a burden, especially if he's out for an extended period of time. The bullpen couldn't shoulder the lead Sunday.How did Aubrey Huff hurt his team?


• Jim Salisbury says it's too early to panic about the Phillies. It's still fun to pick on the Mets though.


• Ian Snell looked pretty good Sunday, too bad for the Pirates he had to hand the ball off to the bullpen. Seriously, if the Pirates' 'pen was just a tad better, the team would really be a contender.


• The Nats' front office went to watch expected first pick Stephen Strasburg pitch. He tossed a no-no. Take a look at some streaks.

Best of the Rest
Is Roy Oswalt out of the woods?

• There's still some magic left in The Kid's bat.


• Roy Oswalt finally gets a win.


• The Giants got another extra-inning win.


• The Reds hit five home runs. Five. And the Cardinals won. Go figure.


• Pennsylvania is set to honor Joe Maddon, a Hazleton native.


• Livan Pitched well, which leads us to our Batter's Eye

Batter's Eye

• We here at The Southpaw shout our mouth off about the Mets being on the verge of irrelevance. Well, since then, they've swept the Phils in a two-game series, won seven straight, at proved they're more than relevant. So, Mets fans, we'll say this once: We're sorry. And we'll say this again: September.

Today in history
1904 -- Cy Young's 23-inning no-hit string ended. The streak included two innings on April 25, six on April 30, a perfect game against the Philadelphia A's on May 5, and six innings today.

1963 -- Sandy Koufax pitched the second of four career no-hitters to help Los Angeles beat San Francisco 8-0.

1996 -- Al Leiter, the wildest pitcher in the American League the previous season, pitched the first no-hitter in Florida's brief history as the Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 11-0.

The Closer
Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is speaking about Manny. He says the Dodgers are bigger than Manny. We thought about this for all of a second and couldn't agree more. Yes, the franchise that signed Jackie Robinson, gave us a hobbled Gibson, a streak by a man named Orel, the dizzying Fernando, the graceful Koufax, the fantastic Campy and too many great managers to name, is, and always will be, bigger than Manny Ramirez.