Recovering from another downer

Beautiful (if slightly muggy) day here at Citi Field, where the Nats arrive with a familiar task: trying to pick up the pieces from a one-run loss the night before. Here is the game story from last night, detailing the defensive mistakes that again got the Nats in trouble.

Of the outfield mistakes, Manny Acta had more to stay about Austin Kearns' misplay of Fernando Tatis' sixth-inning triple that led to the Mets' third run than any of the others.

"We like the way Kearns goes about his business," Acta said. "That's a play where we appreciate that he wanted to play hard, but he knows better than that, and that's one of the mistakes that cost us."

If there's one positive thing to say about the problems on defense last night, it'a at least that most of them weren't on routine plays. The three outfield mistakes (one by Dukes in the third inning, two by Kearns in the sixth) were all on sinking line drives. Could've been played better, but at least none of them were routine grounders. And Scott Olsen's error was while trying to scrape a bunt off the ground. That one, you could argue, definitely should have been made. But for the most part, the Nats' problems were at least crimes of misplaced aggression, rather than routine mistakes.

We'll have lineups and some news later this morning.