For the second Nats night in a row, Teddy didn't run in the President's Race. No sign of him all night. Possibly a hammy. On the field, the Nats blew a late lead, stayed hitless until the 6th and didn't strike out any Dodger til late. Off the field, the stands heard a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, and the Kiss Cam ended in disaster when a young woman held her popcorn box between her and the young man next to her, and the box-score crowd of 18,635 saw her lips: "He's my boss."

So, when Chico Harlan wrote his lede, he didn't know the half of it.

Chances are, the Washington Nationals won't transform henceforth into a 99-loss juggernaut, finishing their season with 12 consecutive wins, avoiding the indignity of triple digits. One more loss, and they've got 100 of them. Perhaps it's inevitable. Perhaps it's been inevitable since April.

But if the Nationals somehow go crazy, not losing again until 2010, it'll be no less improbable than Wednesday night's 5-4 victory over Los Angeles — a celebration of microscopic odds, turned right.

Zimmerman hit a three-run shot to break the no-hitter and tie things. Manny in left and Kemp in center stood unsure as a long fly dropped in between them. ("Ramirez said that he was telling Kemp that Cristian Guzman, who was on first, would be tagging up but Kemp thought he was calling him off the ball," LAT reported.) We won in the bottom of the ninth after a fiery Justin Maxwell steal and an Ethier drop in right.

Last game of the year for me.

Manny.

Torre and trainer walk with an injured Orlando Husdon.

Screech celebrates the win.

The Nats victory witnessed Sunday was rare but closed an eight-game losing streak. Our beat hero, Chico Harlan, for once, wrote about baseball in his lede, until the end. Sept. 7: "Late Sunday afternoon, the Washington Nationals, losers of eight in a row, orchestrating the same performance in the same distressing rerun, were down to their last three outs — the soft, familiar decline." Ah, death. The search for meaning was at its end. Then Zimmerman homered to win the game. The months preceding the walk-off had been a long run down.

Once again, I update you on the existential ledes of Chico.

September losing streak
Sept. 6: ""In separation, neither is better off." Sept. 3: "Since mid-July, operating with a new manager and a renewed ability to play baseball without causing abject self-humiliation, the Washington Nationals have done much to foster an updated identity." Sept. 2: "Sometimes, losses feel almost conspiratorial." Sept. 1: "Like few other stadiums in baseball, Petco Park imposes its personality." Aug. 31: "Garrett Mock spent at least three years chasing stability and a good four major league starts in July chasing any form of decency, but now that he has both — a firm role in the big leagues, a recent track record that suggests he belongs — the 26-year-old finds himself searching for something even more elusive." Aug. 30: "For as long as baseballs have been pitched, the men swinging at them have talked about the difficulty of their jobs."

The typical late-August struggle with mortality
Aug. 29: "The 83rd loss of the Washington Nationals' season didn't look like a loss until the game's final pitch — a Jason Bergmann slider in a tie game — was roaring somewhere toward the Missouri-Illinois state line." Aug. 28: "Mike MacDougal is 6 feet 4, 190 pounds — maybe 175 if you give him a shave." Aug. 27: "His old No. 61 jersey, stitched anew, hung in the clubhouse, and a few of his old teammates kept their eyes on the door, waiting for Liván Hernández to glide back into his old world." (Dukes to Liván: "You smell good. You smell like you just came out of Macy's.") Aug. 26: "Though he's been gone for a solid decade now, Jim Riggleman knows how it sounds — that communal sigh of sadness and acceptance that falls heavy upon Wrigley Field every year." Aug. 24: "In a clubhouse filled with newcomers and squatters, men whose careers are young and might never grow old, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn represent the establishment."

The first day of the Strasburg era
Aug.  22: "All summer, Stephen Strasburg — separated from the Washington Nationals by three time zones and one prominent sports agent — tried his best to distance himself from getting too much information about his potential future team."

The battle for self esteem
Aug. 21: "This week, the Washington Nationals have devised a good half-dozen ways to boost their esteem." Aug. 20: "If nothing else, the Washington Nationals were kind enough to submit several forcible warning signs that Wednesday night would be ugly and long well before it got too long." Aug. 17: "Some decisions you don't think about." Aug. 16: "The Washington Nationals are not natural antagonists." Aug. 15: "Hours before he took the mound on Thursday for a start against the Washington Nationals, Bronson Arroyo's image greeted half the bleary-eyed business travelers in America."

The winning steak cannot last forever
Aug. 15: "If Garrett Mock's career progresses with the ideal arc – if he establishes himself as a deserving big leaguer; if he parlays his current opportunity into a merited starting rotation job – he will face situations far more significant and hitters far more dangerous than those he encountered Friday night." Aug. 14: "The Washington Nationals, should they wish to finish their season with at least sporadic moments of pleasure, will wisely avoid familiarity at all costs." Aug. 12: "It's because of strikes – precise strikes, stenciled on the border of the plate – that John Lannan has become the Washington Nationals' happiest paradox, a dominant pitcher with non-dominating stuff."

The winning streak
Aug. 7: "Long after his team had fallen way behind and swaggered all the way back — and later, after the fireworks had popped, the clubhouse music had died down and most of his teammates had showered and left — soft-spoken relief pitcher Logan Kensing, still charmed by the afterglow, reclined in his clubhouse chair and said, 'Lately it just seems like we're alive.' " Aug. 6: "Submerged at the bottom of the standings, laughed at and mocked, pummeled by blown leads and punch lines, favored by comedians and federal investigators alike, the Washington Nationals unquestionably waited too long to detach themselves from perception." Aug. 4: "Fangraphs.com is a Web site that specializes in seamhead mathematical analysis; it is the left hemisphere of a baseball nerd's brain." Aug. 3: "Beginning around the seventh inning on Sunday afternoon, the first trickle of fans headed toward the exits, winding down the curlicue ramps in left field, streaming onto the streets outside PNC Park, snaking over the Roberto Clemente Bridge beyond center. "

The turnaround, relatively
Aug. 2: "In the local counties, at least, what Andrew McCutchen accomplished on Saturday night will be venerated as a modest form of history." Aug. 1: "Now 103 games and 71 losses into their season, the Washington Nationals know the anatomy of defeat down to the most intimate detail." July 31: "On Thursday, Jim Riggleman got tossed from a baseball game without quite getting angry." July 30: "All year, the sixth inning has reliably tormented whatever Washington Nationals pitcher happens to be on the mound." July 28: "Seventy-five games: That's what Jim Riggleman was given." July 28: "Before Monday — before a market correction on all his bad luck blasted a path into history — Josh Willingham was merely another middle-of-the-order outfielder who saved his best for the smallest moments."

The continued career of Riggleman
July 26: "Interim manager Jim Riggleman on Friday watched his team play baseball with what looked like an interim attention span, which is why, following the Washington Nationals' 68th loss of the season, players returned to the clubhouse and listened to an unerring critique of their numerous errors." July 24: "This season, on 16 occasions, rain has interfered with the daily undertakings of the Washington Nationals — a grim misfortune, if only because the Nationals generally require no assistance when it comes to botching plans." July 23: "In the Washington Nationals' clubhouse, their name placards — 'LANNAN 31' and 'STAMMEN 35' — are side-by-side, close as their friendship."

The introduction to Riggleman
July 22: "Consistency is John Lannan's hallmark." July 21, my fav: "This season, at least before he appeared for the first time in a Washington Nationals uniform, J.D. Martin sufficed as this organization's best story — a pitching Pecos Bill, the baddest pitcher of the minor league hinterlands, taming all opponents, disobeying all odds, possibly riding into visiting towns on a mountain lion." July 20: "Start to finish, Julián Tavárez spent 128 days with the Washington Nationals, and though the relationship started out well, by the end he contributed dismal performances with such regularity that even the poorest team in baseball couldn't keep him around." July 18: "Jim Riggleman, newly appointed as the Washington Nationals' manager, subscribes to a theory that managers don't determine many wins and losses."

After this blog's last roundup, colleague Denny suggested I track Chico Harlan's existential ledes over the course of the entire season. Given the past two weeks, and the end of the first half, I'm digging in.

July 14, not a gamer but a sad firing: "Employed by an organization with a tenuous infrastructure and in charge of a crumbling team, Manny Acta, in the end, ran out of support both from those above him and below him." July 13: "During the 87 games that constituted the first half of their season, the Washington Nationals performed combat on conventional wisdom." July 12: "On very rare nights, when the sum of their parts adds up just right, the Washington Nationals play baseball at a level unbecoming of the company they keep in history."

July 11: "The Washington Nationals tried to stage an uprising on Friday night, and uprisings only work when you begin at a very low place." July 10 (late game): "For all he gives them at the plate — a patient approach and a prodigious power stroke — the Washington Nationals know that life with Adam Dunn is a trade-off."

July 10: "The Washington Nationals on Thursday completed a game that lasted 11 innings and took precisely 65 days 5 hours and 40 minutes." Bonus on this game (and in a sec on the previous game): "Between the first pitch and the winning run, the Nationals replaced six members of their bullpen, traded their pitcher of record (Joel Hanrahan), fired their pitching coach, sent their starting pitcher to the disabled list, activated him from the disabled list, and demoted Elijah Dukes while he stood on first base. Technically speaking."

July 9: "If ever there comes a day, years from now, when historians gather up the courage to revisit the 2009 Washington Nationals, perhaps they can begin and end their study with a quick, purposeful look at the 21 1/2 hours between 6:40 p.m. Tuesday and 4:14 p.m. Wednesday." Hardly gets worse than this. Bonus from the game:

Uniquely adept at losing, unmatched in their willingness to make a beautiful sport unsightly, the Nationals finished perhaps their most degenerative series of the year with help from every comer. Adam Dunn played first base as you would expect of a non-quality left fielder, Ron Villone pitched as you would expect of a 39-year-old, Julián Tavárez pitched as you would expect of a 39-year-old (except he's 36!) and Ross Detwiler pitched as you'd expect of a 23-year-old, or at least one who belongs in the International League.

On a day when several veterans received the day off, bench players seized the opportunities to showcase absolutely nothing. Shortstop Alberto González, ranging right for a hard-hit third-inning grounder, muffed an attempt that wasn't ruled an error but sure looked like one. Catcher Wil Nieves, mask off, dropped a foul pop-up. Austin Kearns grounded into a double play, his 12th in 157 at-bats, and later whiffed on a one-strike pitch while losing hold of his bat, which sailed 130 feet down the left field line, landing at the feet of third base umpire Randy Marsh. Kearns struck out two pitches later, on a check swing.

July 8: "The Washington Nationals have now played 81 games, their season's midpoint, and the manner in which they passed that marker on Tuesday suggested they are in no way done with preposterous losses." July 7: "Pitching is baseball's lion, perched fierce atop the food chain." July 6: "Ninety-eight pitches into his afternoon, Scott Olsen stood on the pitcher's mound, watching everybody converge on him like some claw closing its fist." July 5: "The 300th career home run of Adam Troy Dunn, when ball met bat, followed the flight path of so many before it." July 4: "On the nights when the Washington Nationals do not invent new ways to lose, they merely perfect the old ways."

June 29: "With his first at-bat still 2 1/2 hours away, Willie Harris sat down in front of a laptop Sunday morning and searched for a way — even a fractional one — to boost his odds." June 28: "Situational hitting is the blanket term used to describe what plagued the Washington Nationals on Saturday night." June 22: "The enduring image was also a repeating image, because Ryan Zimmerman did the same thing five times yesterday." June 21: "Willie Harris is a small guy, just 5-foot-9, sometimes with a small role to boot."

June 19: "Waiting is all relative."

Following up on the Nats existentialism post, here's the Chico Harlan lede today on the team's surprising and solid 3-0 win over the Yankees last night: "Waiting is all relative." At work yesterday, somewhat near the water cooler, Denny suggested tracking Harlan's ledes over the entire season, and Joel said we should then run them through a word cloud engine. May try to set up a process at least for the former soon.

What's the New York Times lede today on the Yankees' loss? "The incessant rain was as welcome as the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Thursday." The reader is four grafs into the story before learning the Yankees were shut out by the worst team in baseball. (Our team!)

When you cover the worst team in baseball, how do you even begin to write each day? With this bullpen and defense, how does one fend off nihilism? Nats beat reporter Chico Harlan, finally a worthy daily Post baseball successor to Dave Shenin, has developed a coping technique somewhere between being and nothingness. Ledes on recent gamers:

June 18: "The place mattered." June 17: "The Washington Nationals treat quality with a predatory intolerance." June 15: "On Sunday, for perhaps the final time, Manny Acta sat in the manager's office and called it his own." (Emphasis Harlan's.) June 14: "There is a difference between defeats and losses." June 13: "For all their drawbacks, the Washington Nationals warrant at least one superlative."

June 8: "The winning streak, or at least what counts for one inside the beltway of bad baseball, had a lifespan of one night and one short morning. A beer before closing time and a coffee with breakfast."

June 7: "Yesterday, 25 members of the Washington Nationals reported to the ballpark for another regular workday and encountered nothing regular whatsoever." (We were there.) June 6: "Maybe you've heard that the Washington Nationals have the worst bullpen in the major league." June 5: "Randy Johnson never cared much for convention."

June 1: "Baseball designates no special day for reckoning."

May 31: "Because they kept the score close on Saturday night, and because they executed a rough majority of the defensive plays that big leaguers should execute, and because their combustible and adventurous style again helped the entertainment quotient, the Washington Nationals shouldn't be entirely upbraided for their latest loss, a 9-6 decision against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park." May 30: "So long as night after night that passes without a win, the Washington Nationals — and in particular, the subset of rookies in their pitching rotation — must grow without the gratification." May 28: "Enough things had gone wrong for the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night even before people started watching the lowlights twice." May 27: "Adam Dunn is not some old warhorse." May 26: "On Monday, the game-changing play actually lasted six minutes."

May 24: "If Ross Detwiler lasts much longer in the big leagues, he'll forfeit the memory space for every big moment." May 23: "The Washington Nationals had no game plan to defend themselves against the guy who beat them yesterday."

May 22: "Joel Hanrahan is a closer who just earned his job back, and now must prove he can close games." May 21: "The rise and fall of emotions ended with a fall, because it always does."

May 20: "Last night, the Washington Nationals recovered just enough to make it close and maximize the pain." May 19: "Six professional pitchers performed for the Washington Nationals last night."

The last time I witnessed someone hit a home run on the first pitch of a ballgame was high school. I last saw a grand slam in person in high school as well. And the last time I saw Mike O'Connor look as young as he looked tonight was — I think — a Gonzaga at Mount St. Joe's doubleheader in 1996. The final damage tonight was 11-0, Marlins.

We cheered for Mike as always, but it was an ugly night. That first-pitch homer clearly got in his head. As the Post noted (in reporter Chico Harlan's unfortunate first game on the beat), the start was Mike's first since late 2006. Only down that run when he got the inning's third out, he trudged off the field with his head down and may have been the last player to make it into the dugout. He had control problems as the game went on, dumping a bunch in the dirt. When Manny finally gave the hook, Mike was standing behind the mound. He couldn't have looked more overwhelmed.

The rest of the Nats didn't play much better. We managed three hits and continued to look defensively lackluster. As has happened at every game I've seen so far, several outfield hits appeared more playable than we played them. In other news, the Nats ejected — or almost ejected, hard to tell from the other side of the field — a fan who threw back a home run ball. Later, in the top-of-the-dugout karaoke contest, a kid who tried to sing Gwen Stefani as Johnny Cash lost to a girl whose microphone didn't work.

But what made everything better? Great seats. My dad picked up four in the lower bowl, the best seats we've ever had for the Nats, and Rob came down from New York for Mother's Day weekend. Despite the odds, the least in her favor since the Cooper-infamous '93 Memorial Stadium incident, my mom was not hit by a foul ball. The seats made 11-0 more amusing than painful, and we had a good time in the gallows. The weekend weather turned around to be some of the best we've had at the stadium this year.

A note for fans going to weekend games in the next month: The gameday Metro conditions were some of the best I've had. As WMATA warned everyone about new delays for track work, no one paid much attention to the "shuttle trains" option running between L'Enfant and the Navy Yard. But they were as smooth as regular service, running every few minutes. If you were coming from Virginia, there was no impact. If you were a Red Line person, you had an extra transfer but no more issues.

A nice bonus was ending up in the Metro's testing car for the dark-rubber flooring. (See more about the test floors.) The surface was solid, attractive and even more non-slip than I expected. I'd have to try the car a few more times, but this ride felt like the end of Metro carpet to me. The relative emptiness of the car and the surprise of the shuttle train working out so well may have helped.

Update, the next morning: The ball-tossing fan was indeed ejected (see the comments). Among other early reaction, the BallparkGuys forum split on the incident, and Nationals Pride was not pleased.