The Washington Nationals had a chance perhaps to reverse the curse when they played the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
Of course, they blew it, turning in a pathetic performance in an 11-2 loss.
It may have just been one game out of 162. Or it may have been an opportunity to change the direction of this woeful franchise.
The last time Washington played a regular-season game on April 3 was in 2008 — an 8-7 loss in 10 innings to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Nothing has been the same for the Nationals since that day.
From Opening Day 2005 — the inauguration of the Nationals — through April 2, 2008, Washington had a record of 228-261. That’s 33 games under .500 in a total of 489 games.
Since that day, the Nationals are 185-300 — a total of 115 games under .500 over the course of 485 games.
The Nationals were coming off a 73-89 season under new manager Manny Acta — surprisingly competitive given the scrap heap they used to put together a roster. And the perception was that Washington had improved on that roster with a stronger bench and a deal that brought Lastings Milledge to Washington.
Washington had opened its new ballpark March 30 with a dramatic 3-2 win on a ninth-inning home run by Ryan Zimmerman.
The Nationals beat up the favored Phillies the next day 11-6 in Philadelphia. One day off, then Washington continued its impressive start with a 1-0 win behind the pitching of Tim Redding, Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch.
It hardly seems real, does it?
The Nationals appeared to be on their way to a memorable season. They opened the April 3 afternoon game by scoring five runs in the first inning against Philadelphia. Jason Bergmann looked sharp, taking a 6-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
Everything changed after that.
The Phillies scored six runs and led 7-6. Though the Nationals would come back to tie it, the Phillies scored the winning run in the 10th inning for an 8-7 victory.
That loss started a nine-game losing streak and sent the Nationals on their way to a 102-loss season.
“It was such a dramatic change,” Acta told me at the end of the season. “We had a lot of momentum up to that point. It seemed so positive.”
Yes, it did. Something happened on April 3, 2008, and whatever it was, it still hung over the Nationals on April 3, 2011.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
