Bergmann Returns, But Nats Fall Short

Bergmann had been out with inflammation in his elbow. But he said once he had fluid drained last month, it felt as if someone had been holding his arm tightly, and then released it. He threw all of his pitches, and the club expects that he will increase his pitch count by perhaps 10 or 15 in his next start, over the weekend at Pittsburgh.

The game, though, was not decided with Bergmann on the mound. Rather, it came after Traber worked through a perfect fifth, striking out two men, and then started the sixth. The lefty is one of those players who arrived when another man went down with an injury, and he has been quietly effective -- or at least his 1.59 ERA entering Monday would show that.

"Deceiving," Traber said, and he pointed to one number -- the nearly 82 percent of inherited runners he had allowed to score.

In this situation, though, there were no runners to inherit. Still, even with Edgar Renteria's one-out double, Traber got Chipper Jones to fly to left in a game the Braves led only 1-0. Then came Andruw Jones. If there is one player to point to and discuss the Braves' lack of offense lately -- they had scored just one run in their previous five games -- it is the slugging center fielder, who entered Monday hitting an astonishing .199.

"Despite Andruw's struggles," Acta said, "he still has twice as many home runs and more RBIs than McCann."

So the strategy: Be cautious. McCann, a left-handed hitter, was next, and lefties were hitting just .143 off Traber. "That's Billy's specialty," Acta said.

Traber missed with a curveball to Jones, then with another. He tried a changeup, but missed again. Acta, then, called for an intentional ball four, bringing up McCann. Traber fell behind 2-0, got a strike, then threw a curveball down and in.

"Was it where I wanted it?" Traber asked. "I didn't want it out of the ballpark."

That, though, is where McCann sent it, the three-run homer that made it 4-0. And with Hudson against the Nationals, that would be about it. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA against Washington this season. What did the Nationals think of him?

"Same thing we always think of Hudson," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. "Hard sinker. Good slider. Good split. A tough pitcher, every time."

Monday night, the Nationals hope that's what they got back -- Jason Bergmann, a guy who might be a tough pitcher every time. Afterward, Bergmann was encouraged both by the way he threw and the way he felt.

"There's no pain there to feel," Bergmann said.

So check him off, and move to the next man. But don't be surprised if, when the clubhouse is finally accounted for, there isn't some new bump, some unexpected bruise, that is revealed.