In this quickly-churned-out edition of Tuesday Nats Stats, we take a cursory glance at the two prime contenders for "2009 Nats Big Bat" on the Hot Stove.  Mark "$160M" Teixeira and Adam "A Bigger Wilkerson" Dunn.

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...so, after taunting a buddy who I'd offered my spare ticket to last night's game about how he missed the Best. Game. Ever., he challenged me to recap it in Haiku form. I gather this is also something of a sport among Nationals Journal commenters. Anyhow, I was pleased with my efforts:

First pitch from Perez
Plonks Utley square on the hip.
Take that, you jackass!

Milledge's hard slide
Knocks Chase on his behind.
Double play undone.

Zimmerman goes yard.
Guzman's double clears bases.
Howard's dingers lose.

Put your own Nats haiku in the comments and drive Ed crazy!

Nats take three from the Braves, using a 5-run 8th (anchored by a 3-run HR from Aaron Boone) for a come-from-behind, 8-4 win.  Guz went 2-5 with a double, Boney 2-3 with a double and a walk, Zimmy 2-4 with a walk.

Mock works a scoreless 8th and Balester manages to steady up after a shaky fourth inning and pitch 7 full innings for the first time in his major league career.

Let's go Nats go!

 From the WaTimes gamer:

“I love walks. That's my motto — a walk is as good as a hit,” Dukes said. “I got two key walks today. It shows that you don't always have to get a hit.”

On his approach to the crucial AB:

“He had a lot of breaking balls, so I figured he'd try to attack me the same way,” Dukes said. “That's the thing. They know I can hit a fastball, so they try to go breaking balls. I'll take the walk.”

Dukes' walk rate is 13.4% right now, for an isolated patience (OBP-AVG) of 0.101. That's second only to Ryan Langerhans among actives right now (LangerWalks has a 19.3 BB% and an isolated patience of 0.158).