With Ryan Howard lately, the safe bet is the whiff, not the hit...

Rather than looking at every team this week, here are some more detailed looks at a select few.

Washington Nationals

It will not happen too often, but the Nats are one of the hottest teams in baseball, winning eight of the last ten. One can only look at it as a balancing mechanism right now. Without a streak like that, they would be the worst team in the National League (which they probably are). Wily Mo Pena had a rough start since coming off the DL, including two three-strikeout games and a .129 batting average through his first eight games. He has raised his seasonal average to .230 and hit .375 for the week. Felipe Lopez hit .320 for the week. Cristian Guzman continues to be one of the team’s best hitters with six RBI, four runs, and a rare homer. In the last week, Jon Rauch got four saves in five appearances, allowing no runs, only two hits and one walk. Shawn Hill only allowed one earned run in eight innings for a no-decision. Odalis Perez allowed two earned runs in seven innings and through seven games has been a really good pickup. As much as it pains me to say it, Tim Redding seems like a pretty good match for the Nationals. I would venture to bet that he stands a good chance to have his first winning record since his rookie season. John Lannan threw three quality starts in a row, including the only win this week for a Nationals’ starter, but he got thoroughly beaten up in his last start.

Philadelphia Phillies

At this point, you can safely start every weekly blurb on the Phillies with the phrase, “Chase Utley led the team in hitting.” This week it was with three homers, one stolen base, five RBI, five runs, and a 1.206 OPS. On the other end of the spectrum, Jayson Werth was two for seventeen with one walk and Ryan Howard was 3-for-22 with eight strikeouts, though he did have a home run and a double. Brett Myers and Cole Hamels are really the starters to pay attention to on the team, though the team has won the last four games Adam Eaton has started (no decisions for him). Myers struck out ten in his last start and Hamels struck out eleven in the 13.1 innings of his last two starts, getting one win. Despite some initial concerns, Brad Lidge has yet to allow an earned run and has had less than one baserunner per inning. This week he had a win and a save in four innings.

Cincinnati Reds

This has been a tough week for the Reds. They hit .212 and scored 16 runs in comparison to their opponents who hit .360 and scored 40. Edinson Volquez has been the ace of the staff despite the presence of Aaron Harang and the hype surrounding Johnny Cueto. His last start was the team’s best of the week, giving up six runners in six innings, but suffering a loss even though he only allowed one run. Ryan Freel led the regulars or semi-regulars in hitting this week at .429 with two steals. Adam Dunn was much less patient at the plate this week, with only one walk. However, he hit .318 with a home run, five RBI, and three runs scored. After a pretty hot start to the year, Corey Patterson may finally be playing himself out of a starting role, going 1-for-14 this week.

Milwaukee Brewers

With the Cubs and Cardinals flip-flopping at the top of the division, the Brewers are hanging on to a meaningless third place spot. They have the talent to make at least a run for the wild card certainly. The big news for the team was finally getting Mike Cameron into the starting lineup. Explosive would be good term for that move as Cameron picked up six runs, seven RBI, and three homers in his first game. It is almost as if he was juicing… Ryan Braun had a big week also with a .320 average, two homers, and nine RBI. One of the disappointing hitters again was Rickie Weeks at .214. However, he continues to be efficient, stealing one base and scoring seven of nine times he was on base. Unfortunately, Éric Gagné continues to be erratic as a closer, walking five and giving up three hits in three appearances en route to blowing his fifth save of the year, though he did convert two. In equally distressing news, Yovani Gallardo is probably out for the rest of the year. Their quest for postseason play will definitely come to a halt if they cannot come up with better starting pitching than they received this week. Carlos Villanueva, Manny Parra, and Jeff Suppan only pitched 12.2 innings in three starts but gave up 19 earned runs.

Los Angeles Dodgers

After winning eight of the last ten, the Dodgers are still four games behind the Diamondbacks. At this point, it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the Dodgers could simply bench Andruw Jones. His .188 batting average for the week was actually an improvement. Juan Pierre saw semi-regular at-bats and went 9-for-16 with three steals. Matt Kemp hit .407 with eleven RBI and six stolen bases. Rafael Furcal scored 11 runs, had a home run, two stolen bases, and hit .393. The rest of the lineup had similar totals. James Loney had nine RBI despite hitting .174. The starting pitching had a bad week with Brad Penny, Derek Lowe, and Esteban Loaiza allowed 16 earned runs in 17.1 innings. Takashi Saito got two saves and struck out four in three innings.