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WASHINGTON -- Even after his Braves latest feeble offensive display helped cut their once-hefty lead over the Cardinals in the NL wild-card race to one game, Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez insisted that his players are loose. cheap jerseys from china . "Theyre fine," Gonzalez said. Sure didnt look that way Sunday. The four hitters at the top of Atlantas lineup -- Michael Bourn, Martin Prado, Chipper Jones and Dan Uggla -- went a combined 0 for 16 with five strikeouts, and the Braves lost for the 10th time in 15 games, 3-0 to the Washington Nationals. "This was a very brutal loss for us," said rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman, who produced one of Atlantas four singles off Ross Detwiler (4-5) and three Nationals relievers. The last 15 Braves batters made outs, seven on strikeouts. Atlanta has scored a total of one run in its past three defeats. There were two key innings that stood out Sunday: In the third, the Braves loaded the bases with no outs; in the fifth, they had men on second and third with none out. And they wound up with nothing to show for it, either time. "Since its crunch time, theres a little bit of added pressure there," Uggla said. "You need to get those runs in or more than likely its going to come back to haunt you. ... Right now, these next three games, weve got to get it done." That wont necessarily be easy for the Braves, who led the Cardinals by 10 1-2 games on Aug. 26. Atlanta finishes the regular season with a three-game home series starting Monday against Cliff Lee and the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies. "Somehow," Freeman said, "youve got to put it behind you and do your best to come out and try to beat Cliff Lee tomorrow." St. Louis, meanwhile, closes with three games at the Houston Astros, who have the majors worst record. The Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 on Sunday, their 15th victory in 20 games. "Every missed opportunity in September -- its big," Gonzalez said. His hitters failed to produce in the clutch Sunday. The chance in the third came via David Ross single and some serious wildness by Detwiler, who walked No. 8 hitter Jack Wilson and then opposing pitcher Mike Minor (5-3). All told, Detwiler threw eight consecutive pitches that were called balls, going to a 3-0 count on leadoff hitter Bourn -- with nowhere to put him. After finally putting one pitch over the plate for a called strike -- and drawing sarcastic cheers from the crowd of 37,638 at Nationals Park -- Detwiler got Bourn to fly out to left in foul territory. Bearing down some more, Detwiler got out of the inning unscathed: Prado hit a fly to right that wasnt deep enough for Ross to try to tag up and head for home, before Jones grounded out. The bottom of the order gave the Braves another opportunity to score two innings later, but again they came away with nothing to show for it. Ross led off with an infield single, Wilson singled to centre, and Minor moved them up with a sacrifice bunt -- putting runners at second and third with one out. But Bourn lined out to second and Prado flied out. Detwiler went six innings, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out four. "He grew up a lot today," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. Henry Rodriguez replaced Detwiler in the seventh and was rather impressive, regularly reaching 100 or 101 miles per hour and striking out all three batters he faced. He got pinch hitter Jason Heyward swinging at a 100 m.p.h. fastball, Ross on a two-strike foul bunt on a 101 m.p.h. offering, and Wilson looking at an 88 m.p.h. slider with a ton of movement. Tyler Clippard pitched the eighth, and closer Drew Storen got the last three outs for his 42nd save in 47 chances. "It makes us feel really good and the other teams really scared," Clippard said of the trio of relievers. "They dont want to face Henry throwing 100 and so on and so forth." Wilson Ramos homered off Minor in the fourth, and Michael Morse hit the 29th homer of his breakout season -- a two-run shot -- off reliever Cristhian Martinez in the seventh. Morse got a curtain call afterward, the first of his career. With nothing more at stake than a third-place finish, the Nationals have played well down the stretch, winning 12-of-15 games. That includes taking two of three from the struggling Braves. "Any time you play teams in your division -- I dont care when it is, April, May, September -- theres a pride factor going on out there," Johnson said. "Especially in this homestead against Atlanta: Theyre playing for all the marbles." NOTES: Braves RHP Kris Medlen came on in relief in the eighth inning, his first appearance since Aug. 4, 2010. Medlen had reconstructive elbow surgery later that month and came off the disabled list Saturday. ... Braves INF Alex Gonzalez was out of the lineup with a strained right calf muscle for the fourth consecutive game. He said he might be able to play Monday. ... The Braves will send RHP Randall Delgado (1-1) to the mound Monday against Lee (16-8). nfl jerseys china . "Eric notified us of the injury late last week, and flew to Raleigh and then Philadelphia to be evaluated," said Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis. wholesale nfl jerseys . - The Tampa Bay Rays couldnt resist adding Grant Balfour to solidify the back end of their bullpen, giving the closer a $12 million, two-year contract Thursday about a month after his $15 million agreement with Baltimore fell through.HOUSTON – The setting was an upscale restaurant along Dunedins pristine waterfront. It was the end of the six-week spring training grind. The 25 men who would comprise the Blue Jays opening day roster gathered with coaches, management and high-level members of the ownership hierarchy for the annual start-of-the-season dinner, held this year just prior to the departure to Montreal for two exhibition games. It was at this dinner that Blue Jays president Paul Beeston addressed the club and, according to multiple sources within the organization, pledged to the players that additional money would be made available to acquire assets in-season if they produced a winner. Playing well of late and with a record of 60-50, good for a three-game lead over the Mariners for the American Leagues second wild card spot, if this isnt a winner then its at least the closest the franchise has fielded since the heady days of the early 1990s. Yet, there was nothing at the deadline. Nothing unless you count right-handed hitting infielder Danny Valencia, acquired from the Royals for Erik Kratz and Liam Hendriks on Monday. While Jon Lester (Oakland), David Price (Detroit), Martin Prado (Yankees) and reliever Andrew Miller (Baltimore) changed addresses, the Blue Jays stood pat but the general manager said it wasnt because of budget restrictions. “We absolutely had the financial resources to add at this trade deadline. If we had a deal, obviously we were in dialogue with (president) Paul (Beeston) all the time and certainly hes keeping ownership up to date, any deal that we felt was a good baseball deal, the finances were certainly there for us,” said Alex Anthopoulos. “That has never been a problem and it was just one of those things that we couldnt find a baseball deal that made sense for us and thats really what it came down to.” Its hard to imagine, looking at the deals the Yankees made for Prado and Chase Headley (earlier this month), that finances didnt play a role in the Blue Jays losing out on both. Prado was acquired for Peter OBrien, a former second round pick who was playing at Double-A. Maybe the Jays were scared off by Prados .686 OPS in his age 30 season, a number well off Prados career .764 OPS, suggesting the start of a decline. Theres no doubt the two years and $22-million left on Prados deal would be worrisome, even though hed be an upgrade at second base. Headley was acquired for Yangervis Solarte – considered by the Yankees to be one of those “Quad-A” players, a strong Triple-A player but not someone who can put it together long enough at the big league level – and Rafael De Paula, a 23-year-old pitcher who hasnt sniffed higher than Single-A. Headley has only the prorated amount of his $10.5-million 2014 salary owed. The Jays took a pass. Lester, Price and John Lackey (St. Louis) were each swapped in deals involving big league players going both ways. Anthopoulos wasnt willing to delete from his current roster. A lack of positional prospect depth, rendering the Jays with little to offer other than whats off the big league roster, surely contributed to the quiet day. Dalton Pompey, an outfielder from Mississauga, is the only position player prospect of any consequence playing at Double-A or higher. He currently toils for New Hampshire, having been promoted from Single-A Dunedin earlier this season. You can find reasons – money, contract term, what youd give up, the type of season a guys having, attitude – that would prevent a ballclub from acquiring anyone at anytime. It seems Anthopoulos found them. His top players, including one of the games best, Jose Bautista, and the longest tenured Blue Jay, Casey Janssen, expressed dismay the club wasnt improved. “I just think from an overall perspective of all these teams getting better, we know its going to be a tough time for us,” said Janssen. “One that isnt impossible but were going to have to do everything right. Obviously, we value our prospects, we value our players, Im sure the other teams do as well. Maybe they just vaalue the player or the opportunity to get into the playoffs more. wholesale jerseys. . It takes something to get something and congratulations to those teams that got those guys. Bautista addressed the media, spent about six minutes with the assembled horde, and used a variation of the word “disappointed” four times. “Of course its a little disappointing that we somehow werent able to get anything done but everybody around us thats in contention, and even some teams that arent in contention like the Red Sox, somehow figured it out,” said Bautista. “Theres still time to get stuff done. Itll be a little more difficult having to put people through the waiver process but its not impossible.” Bautista believed different players would have different reactions. Approached for comment, Mark Buehrle said he didnt know enough about the state of the franchises finances or the depth of its minor league system to offer an educated opinion. He was glad Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez remained in the fold, two potential face-of-the-franchise guys who are as much contributors to the present as they will be in the future. Another player, who will remain nameless, shrugged and muttered an expletive loosely related to bovine excrement. If other teams improved and the Blue Jays didnt the club will have to await the returns of Brett Lawrie, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind and hope those reinforcements are enough to propel the team to the playoffs. What happens to this team if one of its starting pitchers gets injured is another matter. Todd Redmond could backfill. Then who? Brad Mills? The rotation has held up reasonably well but remember it is trotting out a couple of 23-year-olds (Drew Hutchison, Marcus Stroman) who are entering unchartered territory. “Weve heard 92, 93 and I think were tired of hearing it,” said Janssen. “We want to put our on stamp on Toronto and across baseball. For me in my eight years here, Ive never been this close, never had such an opportunity to make it into the playoffs and I think thats where this excitement level for this trade deadline was. Its finally our time, its finally beating down the door and we wanted to come on the scene as strong as we can. Like I said, it didnt happen, we just have to regroup and go about our business again.” Anthopoulos worked the phones. “We were open minded, you definitely want to hear what other clubs have to say and what ideas they might have to say, but when you start to look at your 25-man, and youre trading some of your best players, to address an area of what might be a weakness, or a need, and youre ultimately creating another weakness, create a hole, it wouldnt make any sense for us,” he said. “We definitely talked to clubs and had dialogue and all that, just didnt find anything that made the club better.” Turning 34 in October, Bautista wants to be afforded the best opportunity to win. Now. If not, well, it seems uncertain what would become of this team in the offseason. “All I can say is it gets to a point for everybodys situation and everybodys job that trying and excuses are not good enough,” said Bautista. “For everybodys sake I hope we all play great from now until the end of the season and Im one of those guys who really wants to win. Ive been playing for a long time and never experienced it.” RASMUS DISCIPLINED Colby Rasmus was originally in Thursday nights starting lineup but, about an hour before the game, he was replaced by Nolan Reimold. The official line was an “internal team decision.” After the game, a 6-5 win over the Astros, manager John Gibbons wouldnt say why Rasmus was benched. The player offered up the reason: tardiness. “I was late getting here to the field,” said Rasmus. “I wasnt here when I was supposed to be here and they punished me as they should have.” Rasmus wife and daughter are with him in Houston. He said he was having lunch with them and then got caught in traffic on his way to Minute Maid Park. cheap jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '