Today marked the Nats’ second ST game, this one at home at Space Coast (Spacecoast? That doesn’t seem right) Stadium. I tried to listen to it via the Internet on WFED’s site, but apparently you need to spend $15 to get MLB Gameday audio for that and I can just read the box score for free, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, the Nats played a solid game against the Tigers and WON! What’s better, they did it with good pitching from young guns Colin Balester, Jordan Zimmerman and Terrell Young.

Check out the Recap from Yahoo! Sports. Thank goodness Yahoo taps into the power of the internet to give me these recaps! Some key points in my mind:

1. Balester, Zimmerman and Young combined for 6 IP, 0 H, 0 ER and 5 SO. Not bad!

2. Pete Orr was en fuego today, accounting for 50% of the team’s hits and 100% of its runs. Somebody came ready to earn a roster spot.

Aside from that, a quick update on the Frowny Gonzalez fallout. Jose Rijo, special assistant to the GM and head of the Nats’ Dominican operations, was fired today. Jose Baez, who ran the facility down there was also fired and the ENTIRE facility was shuttered in a few days thanks to assistant GM Mike Rizzo going down there and taking names. The Nats will move to a new facility that will probably not be 100% ramped up until 2010, but that’s the price you pay, I suppose. What I find most amazing is that pretty much all the staff was fired down there, but the Nats’ new facility will be operational tomorrow…don’t know how that works. 14 players will be released as well, although it’s unclear if that’s due to reduced capacity at the new facility or some other reason.

Check out the latest posts from Nationals Journal for more color on the Nats front office detonating a neutron bomb in their Dominican operation. Talk about lighting a fire. The worst thing you can do as an employee is require your boss to get involved in your day-to-day work, and that’s just what Bowden and Rijo have done. Stan is on this like flies on you know what. And now there are rumors that the Lerners are quietly looking at GM candidates to replace Bowden…however Boz has a column out today that I happen to agree with. Check it out here, as it’s a good quick read.

Tomorrow is a game against the Cardinals at their stadium in Jupiter, FL.

On a side note, Space Coast stadium is about 45 minutes away from where my grandparents live in Orlando, so I am now determined to take a long weekend next season to hit up 3 or 4 ST games since I can stay with my grandparents (don’t know if Annie will want to come along, but she’ll probably be willing to trade 4 days of nonstop baseball for 4 days of Florida sunshine after another dreary Baltimore winter!). Anyway, those long-term plans are in the works!