The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Three years in the making: Bryce Harper hit his third triple of the season already, and he drove in two runs against Roy Halladay to lead the Washington Nationals to a 5-2 victory at Philadelphia on Tuesday night. The 19-year-old said in Mark Zuckerman's Nats Insider — in a post titled "Broad Street Beatdown" — that he's actually been scouting Halladay for three years and he couldn't wait to exploit a perceived weakness. Harper's two-run triple put the Nats ahead in the third inning and keyed their sixth straight victory at Citizens Bank Park.

"I've been watching him for about three years," Harper said. "He throws a first-pitch curveball to so many people, and they just let it get over the plate. So I was just really trying to get something up in that situation and get something going. We had two guys on, and you had to get them in."

Halladay, who came in with a dominating record against Washington, reflected on what's going wrong in Philly, which has lost four straight and is 21-23 overall.

Dodger time: The injury riddled Los Angeles Dodgers improved to 30-13 by picking up an unlikely 8-7 victory at Arizona. Ivan DeJesus muscled-up for a two-out, two-run, go-ahead double in the ninth against closer J.J. Putz, and shortstop Dee Gordon hung in there on defense to help turn an acrobatic game-ending double play with runners at the corners in the bottom of the ninth. Arizona squandered a five-run lead in the seventh, and is 11 1/2 games out of first place. The Dodgers are 7-2 without Matt Kemp in the lineup.

Waino bueno once again: Adam Wainwright tossed his first shutout since August 2010, a 4-0 victory against San Diego, which gave the St. Louis Cardinals' top starter a big sense of relief. Wainwright said he told teammate Jake Westbrook this might be the best feeling he's ever had pitching — which is saying something given Wainwright's accomplishments. Waino missed the 2011 season because of Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery:

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The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Round 1 to the King: Felix Hernandez dominated the first of what we hope will be many matchups against Yu Darvish, freezing the mighty Texas Rangers lineup during a 6-1 victory Monday night at Safeco Field. .

After giving up a combined 10 runs in his previous two starts, King Felix looked like his old self. He struck out seven batters while allowing six hits and walking two. Combined with a weekend sweep at Colorado, the Mariners have now won four straight games.

Hernandez's lone blemish of the night came when he surrendered a homer to Mitch Moreland in the eighth inning, but the Mariners offense had provided more than enough insurance by then (and we know that's not always the case). Darvish was far from sharp, lasting only four innings while giving up four runs and walking a season-high six batters. It was the first time in his MLB career that he did not pitch into the sixth and he was denied a chance to become the majors' first seven-game winner.

''I was apologetic. I wasn't able to go deep in the game as a starter should,'' Darvish said through an interpreter. ''Giving up those runs with only four hits; overall the approach and substance wasn't that good.''

Dashing Dodgers: Don Mattingly says his Los Angeles squad owns simple momentum, a fact that's hard to argue. Chris Capuano won his sixth game of the season in a 6-1 victory over Arizona at Chase Field. Despite a recent rash of injuries, the Dodgers have won five straight and have put a good amount of distance between themselves and the rest of the NL West. The D-backs are now 10 1/2 games out of first place after winning the division in 2011. Meanwhile, only the Giants trail the Dodgers by single digits and they're still seven games back.  

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Well, a disagreement has broken out, anyway. Between two sports writers. One (Mike Wise of the Washington Post) is against Baltimore Orioles fans shouting "O" during the national anthem to show team pride. The other (Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun) defends the practice.

But first, a word from my maternal grandfather. Were he still alive, Grampa would offer you at least three pieces of advice:

1. Always drive with your headlights on, for safety, no matter the time of day.

2. No matter what you need, you should be able to pick it up at "the hardware store."

3. When attending a sporting event and they play "The Star-Spangled Banner," either be silent or sing along — but silence is preferable. And he took this to the Nth degree. Grampa also discouraged clapping or cheering after the anthem because it wasn't meant to be received like a song one might hear on the radio or the iTunes. (It's a good thing he's not around to critique Chicago Blackhawks fans for cheering during the anthem, which he'd find incredibly disrespectful, no matter the opposite intention.)

[ Y! Sports Fantasy Minute: Fantasy baseball's most valuable closer ]

I've always had the good sense to take his advice on all three topics. (Although, the hardware store selling everything might have been wishful thinking on his part.) Not only because he was my Grampa and all that entails, nor simply because he landed at Normandy in France on D-Day during "WW II: The Big One," but also because it just seemed the right way. Forget patriotism. It was a matter of respect.

That said, I've never had a problem with O's fans shouting "O!" because it reminds me of Baltimore baseball. Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray. Rex Barney and Brooks Robinson. Camden Yards and Memorial Stadium. In case you haven't heard it:

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The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Into the Strastosphere: After ace right-hander Stephen Strasburg connected for his first major-league home run Sunday, Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson said third base coach Bo Porter came to him with a suggestion:

''I didn't expect Stras to hit a breaking ball,'' Johnson said. ''He doesn't usually see breaking balls. Bo Porter came in after and said we found a left fielder.''

Strasburg, having shown he's capable of going deep during batting practice, seemed shocked by his solo shot against Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen that prompted a curtain call. But he was happy to help the Nationals cool off the hottest team in the AL with a 9-3 victory that snapped a five-game winning streak for Baltimore.

Strasburg, who came in with five hits in 40-career at-bats, was almost embarrassed about his trip around the bases and subsequent climb up the dugout steps.

''I'm not big for going out there and showboating,'' Strasburg said. ''It was great, but I know my place. I'm not a real hitter out there so I'm not going to go out there and act like I do it all the time.''

Strasburg was limited to five innings on the mound because of a sore biceps, but he says he's OK there.

[Related: Stephen Strasburg has bad experience with ointment]

Aroldis relief man to be rewarded: The Cincinnati Reds might be ready to anoint left-hander Aroldis Chapman as their closer after he finished off the New York Yankees in a 5-2 victory in the Bronx. Chapman's ERA remains at 0.00 after he pitched for the fourth time in five days, reaching 99 mph on the stadium's radar gun, and set down the Yankees with a hitless ninth inning. Manager Dusty Baker won't commit yet to removing Sean Marshall from ninth-inning duty, and Chapman says he can't tell the difference between the eighth and ninth in terms of feeling pressure — he doesn't feel any in either inning.

Son of a ... !: Scott Van Slyke, a son of Andy Van Slyke, connected on a 3-0 count for a go-ahead, pinch-hit, three-run homer to help push the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-5 victory against the Cardinals. The Dodgers swept the three-game series (the only non-interleague affair over the weekend) and improved to 28-13 despite sustaining massive amounts of injuries.

[Related: Dodgers' roster dotted with sons of six former major leaguer players]

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The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Go the Distance: Atlanta Braves pitcher Brandon Beachy put Fredi Gonzalez in a little bit of a bind after throwing 110 pitches over eight scoreless innings on Thursday night. Should the Braves manager call it a night for the 25-year-old arm or should he let Beachy enter the ninth for a chance at the first complete game of his career?

Gonzalez ultimately decided on the latter and Beachy did not disappoint, needing only 12 more pitches to seal a 7-0 shutout victory over the Miami Marlins at Turner Field.

''Roger [McDowell, the pitching coach] and I were hanging on every pitch,'' Gonzalez said. ''You want the kid to be successful. You want him to have the complete game. You want him to have the shutout, but you want to keep him healthy.''

Beachy's scoreless scoresheet allowed him to drop his major-league best ERA from 1.60 to 1.33. The right-hander has won five straight decisions for the Braves and one would think that he's closing in on the first All-Star appearance of his career.

O, Mama!: Another morning, another opportunity to see the Baltimore Orioles atop the AL East standings. The early surprise team of 2012 moved to 25-14 with a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Adam Jones hit his 13th homer of the season as the O's turn toward a D.C.-Baltimore rarity — a relevant interleague series between the Orioles and Nationals. (Washington fell 5-3 to Pittsburgh on Thursday but sit in second place in the NL East with a 23-15 record.)

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Yeesh. It sounds like even the great Stephen Strasburg isn't impervious to feeling the burn a little more than is usually preferable.

In a somewhat mysterious episode on Tuesday afternoon, Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson told the team's beat writers that Strasburg's poor pitching performance was due in part to some "Hot Stuff" that "got to the wrong place."

How the tingling analgesic ointment reached somewhere it shouldn't — or exactly what area of sensitive skin it came in contact with — the 69-year-old skipper didn't know, or at least wouldn't say. But coupled with a damp day at Nationals Park, it apparently had a negative effect on Strasburg who gave up four runs in four labored innings of work during Washington's 6-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. It was the first loss of the year for the Nationals ace.

From the Associated Press:

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The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

'You hit one of of ours,' etc.: Baseball players (and managers) forget nothing. Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers edged Ian Kennedy and the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 on Monday night, but the D-backs won 2-1 in brush-backs attempted on the other starting pitcher. In the third inning, Kennedy threw a pitch up and in to Kershaw, which drew a smile from the Dodgers lefty. Kershaw probably was recalling the time he hit Gerardo Parra in the elbow in September 2011 and was ejected by umpire Bill Welke. The D-backs obviously remembered, and Kennedy followed up in the same at-bat with another tight one that zipped behind Kershaw. Smile at that one, kid! Not willing to leave it there, Kershaw backed Kennedy off the plate in the fifth, throwing a pitch to the backstop. Both sides were warned by the home plate umpire. Both at-bats ended in walks, but neither one scored. The brushing back continued afterward with quotes.

Willie Bloomquist spoke for Arizona:

''He obviously didn't like it, so he came back at us. ... It's the game within the game. Nobody's trying to hurt anyone, it's just to prove a point. Baseball has a way of taking care of itself, so if it happens again, it'll happen again."

And Kershaw:

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No matter the number of home runs you expect Bryce Harper to put up during his baseball career, the Washington Nationals phenom couldn't get there without hitting his first.

Harper took the first step toward wherever he's headed with his power during Monday night's 8-5 win over San Diego, hitting a pitch from Tim Stauffer to straightaway center field for his first career home run. The solo shot came in Harper's 15th game in the major leagues and in his 54th at-bat. According to Tater Trot Tracker, Harper sprinted around the bases in 17.07 seconds, good enough for the second-fastest time in 2012. He then acknowledged the cheering Nationals Park with the first curtain call of his career.

[MLB Full Count: Watch live look-ins and highlights for free all season long]

Here's the highlight:

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The most recent Washington Nationals box score shows that teen sensation Bryce Harper went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. But that's misleading because his bat actually had a hit in it after all.

Yes, Harper's adjusted line should be 1-for-6 with three strikeouts and 10 stitches — the "1" being his own bloodied face, just above his left eye, after Harper hit it with a bat in frustration. Nats TV analyst F.P. Santangelo, in the "Give 'Em The Bird" video of the weekend below, says he saw Harper go into the dugout tunnel and come out looking like he had been in a minor one-car accident:

After making an out in the seventh inning of the Nats' 7-3 victory at Cincinnati, Harper said he slammed a bat on a wall and it bounced off his face. Just a rookie mistake, the 19-year-old says in the Washington Post. Won't happen again:

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The seemingly unstoppable exuberance of Washington Nationals rookie Bryce Harper has claimed its first major-league victim. Behold, says manager Davey Johnson via the Washington Post, the power of a 19-year-old:

Mark DeRosa's progress returning from a strained left oblique muscle was stunted in an odd way, Johnson said. As Bryce Harper came into the dugout Sunday night after he stole home against the Phillies, DeRosa aggravated his oblique when Harper gave him a forceful high-five.

What are the Nationals going to do to tame Harper's unbridled enthusiasm? Is it because Harper has become so defensive of his beard? Are we sure he didn't also injure Jayson Werth's dangling wrist because he imagined that Werth's formidable facial hair "made a move"? If he didn't break Werth's wrist, Harper certainly must have "loosened the cap on the ketchup bottle" with his maniacal high-fiving of anyone with a Nats cap and five digits to spare. (OK, that's absurd.)

There is no denying, however, that Mark DeRosa is the unluckiest man on the face of the Earth. And he is made of the finest ceramics. Johnson did not confirm nor disconfirm this:

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