the heat is on

Be careful what you wish for? Jonathan Papelbon got his wish: a trade to a contending team. Strangely enough, the Washington Nationals are 3-5 since the Mississippi State alum joined the team and have lost five of six. They are just 55-51 now and have dropped 2 games behind the surging New York Mets in the National League East. Can’t blame Papelbon for any of this; he is 2-for-2 in saves with the Nationals and has yielded just one earned run in three appearances. He never got up on Wednesday. The Nats had a 2-1 lead on visiting Arizona in the sixth inning, but with Ole Miss product Aaron Barrett on the hill, the game slipped away. Barrett got just one out, allowing four hits and three runs (plus an inherited runner scored), and he committed a costly throwing error. Down 11-2 in the ninth, Washington resorted to using outfielder/first baseman Tyler Moore on the mound, and the ex-State star got the last two outs. Crazy. … Also on the skids is Minnesota, which has lost four in a row and 13 of 18. The Twins (54-53) are 9.5 games behind first-place Kansas City in the American League Central and 2 games out of the wild card picture. The Twins’ slump coincides with the struggles of former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, the team catalyst who is batting .180 with six runs over his last 15 games. … On the flip side, Texas is sizzling (again), and former Bulldogs standout Mitch Moreland continues to swing a hot bat. The Rangers (54-53) beat Houston 4-3 on Wednesday to complete a sweep of their AL West rival and move within 5 games of the first-place Astros. Moreland went 2-for-4 with an RBI in Wednesday’s win, Texas’ seventh in eight games. He is batting .318 with six RBIs over his last seven games and is at .287 with 16 homers and 57 RBIs for the year. P.S. Props to Jeff Francoeur, the former Mississippi Braves star who ought to get consideration for comeback player of the year. Frenchy hit his 10th homer of the season for Philadelphia on Wednesday and is batting .276 with 35 RBIs in 214 at-bats.