After an inning full of bloop hits and shaky defense, the Nationals have some work to do. They got up 2-1 when Tim Redding drove a ball to the warning track to score two runs (not a typo). But Redding started to labor in the fifth inning, giving up a leadoff single to Carlos Beltran and was lifted for Ray King. That's when things went bad.

First, Ryan Church hit a ball that bounced off the plate, went toward third, took another weird spin and was fielded by Ryan Zimmerman. The third baseman probably could have had Church at first, but tried to make a quick throw and wound up firing wide of Nick Johnson. He did the same thing on Saturday night against the Marlins, allowing Dan Uggla to reach first and eventually score in the first inning.

After Zimmerman's error let Church get all the way to third and allowed Beltran to score, Angel Pagan followed two batters later with a dribbler toward Ray King, whose throw missed Johnson. Church scored on the play, Pagan stole second and third, and Brian Schneider's groundout brought him home. It's 5-2 Mets in the top of the seventh.

Meanwhile, the middle of Washington's order continues to struggle. Zimmerman, Johnson, Austin Kearns and Lastings Milledge are a combined 0-for-12 tonight with two strikeouts against Johan Santana.