What a Relief: First Save For Hanrahan

Until yesterday, Joel Hanrahan was a closer without games to close. After installing Hanrahan as their new ninth inning man July 22, the Washington Nationals lost their next nine games. The following two victories came without save opportunities.

"Yeah," Hanrahan said after yesterday's 4-2 Nationals win, which resulted in the right-hander's first career save. "I was waiting a couple days to get out there."

When Hanrahan came on to close the victory, Washington hadn't notched a save since July 11 -- and that was a three-inning save from Steven Shell at the back end of a 10-0 win.

Against the Reds, Hanrahan allowed a solo home run to Corey Patterson -- he popped an 0-0 pitch into the Nationals' right field bullpen -- but finished the game with a strikeout. Most important, Washington received its first chance to evaluate Hanrahan in the role team management envisions him holding in the future.

"He gave up the home run, but he got the save, which is the main thing," Manager Manny Acta said. "That can be a confidence-booster for him."

Injuries Nag, Nag, Nag

At just the time when Washington finally cured itself of the major injuries that haunted the season's first months, another curse took its place. In the last week, a series of minor injuries to three regulars -- Cristian Guzmán, Ryan Zimmerman and Elijah Dukes -- has prevented the Nationals' lineup from having its middle-of-the-order muscle. None of those players is bound for the disabled list, General Manager Jim Bowden said yesterday. All should be back by the end of this week.

"It is nagging," Acta said. "That'll be the word for the year. We get Zimmerman back and right away he gets hit [by a pitch] and now he's out and Guzmán is out and that's your second and third hitter in the lineup, and we those two kids [Emilio Bonifacio and Alberto González] and we get Dukes back, so you think we'll finally be able to see all those kids together. And still, just can't put them together out there."

Before yesterday's game, Zimmerman sat on his clubhouse chair, right hand wrapped in bandaging thick enough to look like a boxing glove. "Just waiting for the swelling to go away," he said of the injury that's kept him out of the last three games.

Guzmán, meantime, took pregame grounders at shortstop but refrained from batting practice. Infielder Aaron Boone, trying to recover from a lingering calf injury, packed his bags for Florida, where he will follow a training program designed to facilitate an eventual rehab assignment. The team, though, has no timetable for Boone's return.