Michael Bourn has stolen 58 bases in the National League this season. In the top of the eighth inning, with his team down 4-1 to the Nationals and a runner at third base, he decided to make his move again. As he has so often this season, Bourn took off to try and put another runner in scoring position.
Washington catcher Ivan Rodriguez isn’t the player he once was. And entering Saturday’s game he had last started for the Nats on July 4. A strained oblique – and futile attempts to push his recovery – ruined Rodriguez’ second half of the season. But Pudge still has the golden arm. And when Bourn took off the aging veteran – soon to be 40 – was ready, whipping a throw to second base in plenty of time for the out. It was his second caught stealing of the day and this one completely diffused an Atlanta rally.
“That was the play of the game,” Nats manager Davey Johnson said.
And it may be the last we see of Rodriguez in Washington. The soon-to-be free agent is still scheduled to start next Wednesday in Florida – Stephen Strasburg is pitching and Sun Life Stadium was where he helped the Florida Marlins to a 2003 World Series title. It will be the final game there before the Marlins move to a new ballpark next spring.
“How many times do you get to play with an icon of the game,” teammate Jayson Werth said. “He’s a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. He’s Pudge. I know what that probably means to a lot of people who have seen him play over the years. I started as a catcher. I know who Pudge was to me – as a fan.”
Werth must have spent five minutes praising Rodriguez – for his hard work and his day-in, day-out preparation at the game’s most demanding position, for his ability to work well with the pitching staff and mentor young catcher Wilson Ramos. At that very moment five feet away – unseen by Werth, who had his back to a clubhouse couch – Rodriguez walked past Ramos sitting on that couch, cupped the rookie’s head in his hands and whispered something to him. Now, maybe he was simply saying he was going to grab a sandwich. But the image served to drive home Werth’s point.
Rodriguez is a free agent at the end of the season and with two young catchers in Ramos and Jesus Flores, 26, in the organization already plus some nice catching prospects in the minors, it’s possible the Nats move in another direction. Rodriguez acknowledges that, but also how much it meant to get multiple ovations from the fans at Nationals Park the past two days. If this is the end of his time here, Rodriguez says he is happy to be part of a team that has improved 18 games already in two seasons with the chance for more over the final four games. That may have to serve as his brief legacy here, which is something even his teammates understand.
“Here we are, we’ve got five games left at the beginning of the day. [Rodriguez is] catching. How many more times are you going to get to see him play?” Werth said. “I don’t know what his plans are. I haven’t talked to him. I know he’s [157] hits away from 3,000, which would be an amazing feat. So there’s probably that he wants to accomplish. It seems like he still has good baseball in him. But for us I think it was more out of respect for a guy that we love.”
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