Ryan Zimmerman’s response was quick and unequivocal. What does reaching the .500 mark this late in the season mean to a Nationals team that has known nothing but losing since he first made it to the big leagues late in the 2005 season? “Nothing.”
So there was virtually no celebrating after a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Nationals Park on Wednesday night. Starting pitcher John Lannan received some pats on the back for a solid 5 2/3 innings or work. Rookie Danny Espinosa earned some more well-deserved praise for a two-out RBI single in the first inning. He later scored the eventual game-winning run on a base hit by veteran Jerry Hairston.
That was enough to outlast Seattle’s Erik Bedard, who allowed just three hits in six innings. Maybe a month ago Washington would have been outmatched when facing such a pitcher. Now? The Nats expect to find a way to win anyway. And they aren’t finished yet.
“.500 is the last place we want to be at the end of the season,” Lannan said. “There’s more for us to do.”
The last time Washington (37-37) had an even record this late in the season was the final day of 2005 when it lost to the Phillies at RFK Stadium, 9-3, and finished the year 81-81. With the victory, the Nats have won 10 of 11 and are 15-6 in the 21 games since May 31. They still aren’t anywhere close to that 2005 team, which peaked at 19 games over .500 in early July before fading. But it’s been a pretty good three-week run and with 88 games left they’ve set their sights on bigger goals.
“A lot of people doubted us and the last couple of years… [and] we haven’t been able to prove them wrong,” Lannan said.
Lannan allowed just one run on three hits, and Washington just managed just scratch out just enough runs to beat Bedard. Those RBI singles by Espinosa and Hairston proved the difference. Bedard struck out 10 batters in just six innings and walked only two. Both runs the Nats scored were unearned. He only left after 89 pitches because Seattle had a runner at first in the top of the seventh and two out when it was his turn to bat.
“Erik is back to his Baltimore form,” said Nats manager Jim Riggleman, who was a bench coach and interim manager in Seattle during Bedard’s injury-shortened first season there in 2008 after the Orioles traded him for a package of young talent.
Lannan put together another strong performance. He retired the first eight batters he faced – though Miguel Olivo did reach on a strikeout and a wild pitch in the second before getting erased on an inning-ending double play. Olivo got some revenge in the third inning when he singled home teammate Justin Smoak. But that was all the Mariners would get from Lannan, who didn’t walk a batter. He left with two outs in the sixth and a Seattle runner at first, but reliever Henry Rodriguez – after allowing a base hit – induced an inning-ending ground out to third.
Lannan needed to be that good because Bedard was mowing down Nats batters. A walk and an error on Chone Figgins at third base led to an RBI single by Espinosa in the first. An Espinosa single set up the second run following a wild pitch and an error on Olivo, the catcher. Hairston’s infield single brought home the second run.
Pinch hitter Jack Cust – batting for Bedard in the bottom of the sixth – reached on an infield single, but Sean Burnett came on for Rodriguez and struck out Ichiro Suzuki with a sweeping breaking ball. The Mariners star outfielder had struck out just 24 times all season coming into the game. In all, the bullpen tossed three scoreless innings, including a perfect eighth by Tyler Clippard and a perfect ninth by closer Drew Storen. The Nats go for the sweep on Thursday at 1 p.m. They may not see the value of being at .500 right now. But the fact that they clawed back from a 22-31 record on May 30 does at least fuel a sense of pride.
“People are going to pay more attention to us,” Espinosa said. “People probably thought [after falling nine games below .500] that it was just the same old Nationals again and that we were going to flop. This team’s not like that.”
