We talked with general manager Jim Bowden this afternoon, and he's not ready to blame Lenny Harris for the Nationals' continued struggles on offense.

The Nationals have the second-worst team batting average in the majors, but Bowden cast a vote of confidence that Harris can turn it around.

"He's being a part of (the solution) right now," Bowden said. "We might not have the results yet, but we're making progress with them. They look better. You haven't seen it in the game yet, but we're seeing it outside of the game. It's coming. You may see it by the end of the weekend, that's how quick it's coming."

Harris, who became the team's hitting coach in the middle of last season, has come under some scrutiny for a hands-off approach that typically relies on suggesting minor adjustments. But Bowden said the problem doesn't fall on "any one person."

The two go back a long ways, which shouldn't be discounted. Bowden, however, seems to be basing some of his evaluation on the fact that Harris is working with a lot of unrefined hitters. He mentioned Wily Mo Pena and Elijah Dukes as players who are going through "growing pains" in the majors right now.

Those struggles are playing themselves out tonight. The Nationals are down 12-2 in the eighth inning. Enough poor pitching to go around, from Matt Chico to Jesus Colome to Chris Schroder, but it's also troubling that Washington has 11 hits and could only score two. The Nationals were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position through the first six innings (the one hit moved Jesus Flores from second to third with none out in the fourth, before he was stranded there).

They got the leadoff runner on base in the second, third and fourth innings, also getting runners in scoring position with no outs in each of those innings. No runs came out of that, even when a long fly ball would have scored one in the second or the fourth. You're not going to win games that way.