Washington fails to get sweep, but wins three of four
Several times since taking over the Nationals as manager late last month, Davey Johnson has noted his team’s penchant for playing “interesting games.”
That’s good for fans watching at home. For the man running the show it’s become a vexing issue – even if Washington is 13-4 in one-run ballgames since June 1. Johnson and the Nats endured another crazy affair on Thursday evening. What looked like a laugher turned into a typical edge-of-your seat thriller. But in the end, Washington blew an eight-run lead before finally losing 10-9 to the Chicago Cubs at Nationals Park.
Darwin Barney popped an RBI double down the right-field line in the top of the ninth inning to drive home teammate Tony Campana with the eventual winning run. Washington then had runners at second and third in the bottom of the ninth, but Chicago closer Carlos Marmol got Roger Bernadina to fly out to right field to end it. The Nats still took three-of-four games in the series, but had their three-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 45-44 with the loss.
“I think you’ve got to look at the big picture here,” outfielder Jayson Werth said. “We’ve been playing some really good baseball and a loss is a loss however you want to throw it up there…We lost a game. No matter how you lose it it’s easy to get over this one, look past it and look forward to [Friday].”
| Nats notes |
| » The seven runs scored by the Nats in the third inning represent a club high for most runs scored in an inning this season. The last time they scored seven in an inning was May 31, 2010 vs. Houston. |
| » Rehabbing starting pitcher Chien-Ming Wang tossed five scoreless innings for Double-A Harrisburg on Thursday. He gave up just two hits with two strikeouts and no walks. |
| » It was Wang’s third rehab start after two years spent recovering from shoulder surgery. The right-hander has allowed just two runs in 12 innings (1.50 ERA) in games at Harrisburg, low-A Hagerstown and high-A Potomac. |
An 8-0 lead through five innings took a nasty turn when the Cubs scored six times off starter Livan Hernandez (4.01 ERA) in the top of the sixth. The first big blow was a two-out, pinch-hit, three-run homer by Blake DeWitt that smacked off the right-field foul pole. That made the score 8-6 and forced Washington – as it has so often this season – to turn to its bullpen. But this time that group wasn’t up to the task. Carlos Pena hit a two-run homer off Sean Burnett on the first pitch he saw in the seventh inning to tie the game at 8.
“As a reliever you never know when the phone is going to ring,” Burnett said. “It’s always nerve-wracking down there. You think it might be easy when it’s 8-0, but you never know. And then they start to chip away and you have to get back into that mental game. But that’s no excuse. I know for my part I just went up and made a bad pitch.”
It was a shocking turn of events. Chicago had a runner at first and two out in the sixth inning. But three consecutive singles off Hernandez were followed by a two-run double from Barney. DeWitt then launched his pinch-hit homer to put his team right back in the contest.
“That was the big blow as far as I was concerned,” Johnson said. “That was the momentum shifter.”
Meanwhile, the Cubs bullpen was keeping the Nats’ bats at bay. Washington had 13 hits in the game – but nine of them came in an explosive seven-run third inning. Danny Espinosa had a two-run single. Michael Morse delivered an RBI hit as did Werth. Wilson Ramos’ two-run double appeared to bust the game open at 6-0. Bernadina followed with another base hit – his second of the inning and one that scored teammate Rick Ankiel.
It was the shortest start for Chicago pitcher Matt Garza since a 1 1/3 inning appearance on June 18, 2010 against the Florida Marlins. Twelve batters came to the plate for the Nats in that third inning. Ankiel added an RBI double in the fourth to make it an eight-run advantage.
A run-scoring single by Aramis Ramirez gave the Cubs the lead 9-8 in the top of the eighth inning. But Washington answered in the bottom of that frame when a clutch two-out single by Morse drove in Bernadina from second base to tie the game again at 9. In the end it wasn’t enough. An infield hit, two fielder’s choices and a stolen base put Campana at second with two out. Barney then just got enough of a Henry Rodriguez pitch to drop a fly ball the opposite way.
“I got a chance to go longer today,” Hernandez said. “It’s 8-0. Save the bullpen a little bit. It’s a tough [sixth] inning, but I leave and it’s 8-6 and we’re still winning. We had a chance to win, too. But it’s a tough loss. We got to come back [Friday] and win. It’s the only way we can leave this game in the past.”
