With a Big Rally, Pirates End Lannan's Nice Run

"Which makes me happy," Acta said.

Come again?

"Because I know that it will come," Acta said of the offense. Four Washington regulars -- Zimmerman, Nick Johnson, Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Peña -- entered last night hitting .225 or lower.

"Those guys are not going to hit .220 -- three of them, four of them, five, as many of them that are struggling," Acta said. "We know that."

But the most interesting decision in the game came when the Nationals needed more offense. In the fourth inning -- after the lighting outage sent both teams back to their dugouts -- Peña hit a sacrifice fly and catcher Wil Nieves a two-run double, pulling the Nationals within 7-4.

From the stands, it seemed to be decision time. A single from a pinch hitter could have pulled the Nationals within two. For Acta, though, there was no decision.

"Not even if we had six guys on bases at that point we were going to pinch-hit for him," Acta said.

Acta has a strict rule that relievers do not pitch four straight days, and both Luis Ayala and closer Jon Rauch had thrown Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That left Acta with only O'Connor, Joel Hanrahan, Jesús Colome and Saul Rivera available for the entire night. O'Connor, Acta said, "had to go at least three to four innings."

So he hit for himself, and struck out. He then gave up Bautista's second home run in the fifth, then two more in the seventh. The Pirates responded by retiring 15 of the final 16 Nationals.

So Lannan was left as the loser for the first time in his last four starts. And he was left to wonder what might happen five days later, the next time he wakes up, comes to the ballpark, and is expected to pitch. Will he be lights out, as he was earlier in the week, and win? Or will his stuff desert him, and the Nationals be left with a loss?