I really thought we had them last night. It’s been a while since I have had my hopes up for a win. During the rain delay the fans in Nationals Park were treated to an amazing double rainbow. It was pretty unique - I’d never seen anything quite like it. I was hopeful that the rainbow, and the fact that the messy thunderstorms never materialized, would be a good omen for the team.
Things went well for the first seven innings. Jason Bergmann had another great outing. It’s good to see him getting his confidence back. He pitched seven one run innings and threw only 82 pitches. The game which started about 8:30 moved very quickly until about the fifth inning. As great as Bergmann’s performance was, he still only had one run to work with. It’s starting to sound like a broken record I know, but our offense has got to start giving their pitchers something to work with. I’m beginning to wonder if the point of the game is unclear to the line up. I’m not sure they know that the pitcher that is supposed to put up zeros during the inning, not the offense. Once again the excuse for the line up not producing was the prowess of the opposing pitcher. I’ve heard Manny say something like this about a hundred times already this season,
“He was tough as usual. That’s why he has an ERA below 2.00,” Acta said about Lackey. “We had a chance to get a hit and pull away, but we couldn’t get that hit with the bases loaded.”
The Nationals seem to make every single opposing pitcher look like an ace. They had no clutch hits again last night, only one person, Willie Harris, hit for extra bases. The bats aren’t coming alive, and that affects everything.
Speaking of Willie Harris, he had a great game last night. He hit a solo home run, followed that up with a triple, made some great defensive catches (ones that Wily Mo sure wouldn’t have been able to make) and scored both of the teams runs. Willie’s speed came in handy in the seventh inning last night, he hit a long ball to right field, and easily advanced to third base. Pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca, knocked a line drive right back at the pitcher, who tried to double up Harris at third, but was unsuccessful thanks to a poor throw. Willie was able to advance to home to score the tie breaking run on the play, and the Nats led 2-1.
In order to win the game, the Nats needed to protect their one run lead for just two innings. Protecting a lead should be a simple task, but lately its been an impossible feat for the boys. The defense feel apart in the eight inning with Saul Rivera on the mound. When Chone Figgins bunted Saul tried to field the ball, but was just about pummeled by Pete Orr who was playing third base. Pete ran right into Saul and sent him flying across the field, Figgins was safe at first. Rivera appeared to be uninjured after the play. Figgins then took off, stole second and advanced to third on a poor throw by Jesus Flores. The ball bounced out of Lopez’s glove and kinda sat behind him in center field for a few seconds. Guzman, who is usually behind Lopez to protect on such a play, was still standing at short. Milledge charged the ball and threw to third, but Figgins was safe by a long shot. Erick Aybar then hit a grounder right to Lopez who let the ball slide under his glove and into right field, for a two base error. Figgins scored on the play and the Angels tied the game 2-2. Right after Aybar scored on a single by Anderson and the Angels took the lead 3-2.
Watching that inning, was like watching a calamity of errors. After those three plays, the guys kind of gave up. Any hopes of a win just seemed to blow away at that point. It’s pretty sad when the fans can tell that even in a one run game, a rally just isn’t going to happen. Lots of Nats fans left disappointed last night after sloppy baseball ended the promise of solid pitching.
Don’t forget to chat with Jim Bowden today online at 11am. Anyone think he is going to say anything useful?
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