Aug. 17 -- LANNAN SPEAKS

PITTSBURGH -- Good morning, all.

Pretty good game last night in D.C., no? Cole Hamels didn't have his best stuff, and by the seventh inning on a sticky night in the nation's capital, he admitted to Charlie Manuel, catcher Carlos Ruiz and later to us that he was gassed. Still, he managed to throw 6-2/3 scoreless innings and become the fourth 14-game winner in the National League. Nights like that are why Hamels already is one of baseball's best pitchers.

For me, though, one of the more intriguing parts of the day happened before the game. I had a chance to chat with John Lannan, the Nationals' rookie left-hander who became infamous back in Philly for breaking Chase Utley's right hand with a high-and-tight fastball July 26 at the Bank. At the time, Lannan was apologetic. He said he even tried to get Utley's attention during the game to make sure he knew it wasn't intentional.

Three weeks later, Lannan said he has moved on.

Phillies fans, you should, too.

If Lannan was guilty of anything, it was being a little jittery during his major-league debut and maybe compensating by trying to be too precise. By hitting Utley and Ryan Howard with back-to-back pitches, he got ejected from the game. Clearly, that wasn't his intent. But, these days, not enough pitchers throw inside, and Lannan, only 22, realizes he has to work the inner half if he's going to be successful against top left-handed hitters like Utley and Howard.

That's just smart pitching.

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Didn't Make The Paper, Part 1: Tom Gordon admitted he mistakenly thought the count was 2-0, not 1-1, when he served up a leadoff homer to Ronnie Belliard on a high fastball in the eighth inning last night. On the plus side, Gordon's velocity touched 94 mph.

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Didn't Make The Paper, Part 2: J.D. Durbin is just as curious as you are to see how he pitches tonight. Coincidentally, Durbin's last start came against the Pirates on July 28. Yesterday, he said he thought he pitched "great" that night despite allowing five runs in five innings. He gave up four runs in the third on a rally that started with a two-out walk to pitcher Shane Youman.

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Ed Wade got stuck in a tree. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Don't believe me? Our sister paper in South Jersey, where the incident happened, wrote about it.

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PNC Park is, for my money, one of the five nicest ballparks in the majors. I'll post my full list later in the weekend. But when the team hasn't had a winning season in 15 years, a pretty ballpark can be awful empty. So, after the game, the Pirates are hosting a Smash Mouth concert. Bet you they play this song.