Braves salvage finale, close within six games in NL East
This time it was not the Nationals’ night.
A team that has found every conceivable way to win close games for almost three weeks did few of the little things that make that possible Wednesday night in a 5-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park.
There were bad routes taken on fly balls to the outfield, errors in the infield and by the catcher, opposing pitchers walked and good chances to score wasted. An eighth-inning rally was even short-circuited when Ian Desmond — easily about to beat out a potential double-play grounder on his way to first base — pulled up lame halfway there and was instead thrown out. Yes, sometimes bad luck plays a role, too.
The end result was a win for the desperate Braves (71-53), who salvaged the final game of the series and trimmed Washington’s lead in the National League East to six games. It’s not what they were hoping for entering the three-game set, but it gives them hope they can stay close enough to steal the division title.
“Obviously, we don’t like to make mistakes. But they happen,” said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who committed a throwing error in the ninth inning that led to a run. “It’s gonna happen and we don’t want it to happen. But it is what it is and it happened. We won two out of three and we move on.”
Nats starter Ross Detwiler cruised through the first four innings. Things looked fine in the fifth despite a leadoff single. David Ross was later thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice. Paul Janish struck out and pitcher Kris Medlen was due up with two out. But Detwiler, who hadn’t walked a batter all night, inexplicably walked Medlen on four pitches. That brought up Martin Prado, who laced a hard drive to center.
Bryce Harper took a step in on the ball thinking it was right at him. He realized too late that it had been hit harder than he thought and took off, but the ball was over his head and tailing away. That suspect route led to a two-run double and a 2-0 Atlanta lead.
“I just lost it there. And then after that it was all hitter’s counts after that,” Detwiler said. “It was 2-1, 3-1. If I’m only throwing fastballs one day you don’t want to be in those counts.”
Meanwhile, Medlen, a converted reliever coming off Tommy John surgery who has helped stabilize the Braves’ injury-depleted starting rotation, was dominating Washington’s batters. Ryan Zimmerman singled in the first inning and Desmond and Danny Espinosa both had base hits in the second. But Medlen retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced and held a shutout through the seventh inning. He has now pitched 202Ú3 scoreless innings dating to his Aug. 11 start against the New York Mets.
Medlen’s only real trouble came in the sixth. Michael Morse drew a one-out walk to load the bases, but Adam LaRoche popped out to first base on the first pitch he saw and Medlen induced a grounder to third from Desmond to end the threat.
“I’ve got to tip my hat to that pitcher; he pitched a hell of a ballgame,” Washington manager Davey Johnson said. “He’s got a great curveball, he spotted his fastball, he’s got a great change-up. Nobody really saw him that good. I knew he was good; he just reaffirmed what I said earlier: He’s a heck of a young pitcher.”
Morse’s RBI single in the eighth drove in a run. But Desmond’s grounder — had he been safe — would have put runners at the corners down 2-1 with Espinosa coming up. Instead he was out, and Atlanta added three insurance runs in the ninth. Desmond said afterwards he thought he had hyperextended his knee, but that he felt well enough to remain in the game. The Nats fell to 77-47 with the loss, but were hardly lamenting their first-place status heading into a brief five-game road trip to Philadelphia and Miami with days off upcoming Thursday and Monday. Despite the loss they felt it was a strong week.
“Oh, I mean how can you not? We played great baseball,” Desmond said. “It was a great series. We played well against the Mets. We played well against the Braves. Nice little homestand.”
