Wrapping up Monday

The Nats dropped another Grapefruit League contest this afternoon, 6-3 to the Cardinals. That leaves our hometown nine at 9-12-2 for the spring. Not much offense from the lads. They scored two unearned runs off Chris Carpenter in the third, then added another one in the ninth. Five total hits on the afternoon, two of them by Nick Johnson, who stroked a nice two-run double to left in the third. Johnson is starting to show signs of his old self at the plate. That's an encouraging sign. Scott Olsen (two runs, seven hits in five innings) was pleased with his pitching performance. Not so much because of the results, but because he was hitting his spots and was happy with the "tilt" he had on his pitches (basically, downward movement). That led to a lot of groundballs, and even though some of those went through the infield for hits, Olsen preferred that to balls in the air. "Consistently, we were down in the zone today," Olsen said. "So that's one of the steps forward that we took today. I threw all my pitches for strikes, too, and there was good break, good tilt on my slider." Olsen was very complimentary of new catcher Josh Bard's work behind the plate in his Nats debut. "He sets up really nice. He calls a good game. He knows when to try to get more out of the pitcher. I thought he was great." In other news... -- Shawn Hill has officially signed with the Padres. It's a minor-league deal, but Hill will have a shot to make the rotation. He'll compete with Walter Silva and Cesar Ramos for the No. 5 spot. "Certainly, there's some risk," Padres GM Kevin Towers told Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune. "But he's a non-roster addition. We're aware of what we're getting into. If he's healthy, we know he can pitch. And he says he feels good right now." -- The long-awaited unveiling of three statues of Washington baseball greats Walter Johnson, Frank Howard and Josh Gibson will be April 8 at Nationals Park. The three sculptures, made out of white bronze by Omri Amrany of Timeless Creations, Inc., will sit in the center field plaza and should be a nice touch (and a reminder of this city's long baseball history). There will also be another piece of artwork on the main concourse constructed by local artist Walter Kravitz. Entitled "The Ball Game," the piece is comprised of four suspended mobiles with approximately 48 hand-painted figures hanging in action. Each of the mobiles, according to the press release issued by the team, will "rotate to a familiar, yet freshly composed tune of 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame.'"