"Down in the batting cage in the bowels of Nationals Park, Ivan Rodriguez had just begun to settle in Saturday night. He'd taken exactly five swings during the bottom of the eighth inning when he popped his head back into the dugout and manager Davey Johnson told him that his practice session was over.

"You're on deck," Johnson told the veteran catcher who'd already caught nine innings in the Nationals 5-3 loss in Game 1 of their doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"I didn't want him up there when he was playing against me," Johnson said. "So even though I was burning our last catcher, I wanted the matchup to be in our favor. I just had a good feeling about Pudge."

A game the Nationals would win 4-3 for the doubleheader split had changed so much since Rodriguez had made his way down to the cage, the Nationals trailing by a run, in preparation for a pinch-hit opportunity.

Michael Morse reached base after being hit by a pitch in the left forearm to begin the inning. Pinch-runner Brian Bixler then moved to second base on Rick Ankiel's walk. In the ensuing at bat, Ankiel and Bixler executed a double steal so perfectly that Bixler scored the game's tying run when Pirates third baseman Josh Harrison couldn't handle the throw from catcher Eric Fryer."