As reporters gathered around his locker, Alfonso Soriano asked the first question, flashing his usual smile. It’s the same one just about everyone else in the room wanted to ask, including his teammates.
“Was this my last game here?” he asked.
Of course, no one knew the answer, or will know for several days.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Nats’ clubhouse, Livan Hernandez pondered the same question. Like Soriano, he does not want to leave Washington. Both could be traded by the July 31st deadline.
Oh, yeah, the Nationals beat San Francisco, 6-5, in front of 29,717 fans for their sixth straight win.
The game, once again, proved secondary to trade talks. If both players did play their last game in RFK Stadium as the Nationals (46-56), they exited in strong fashion. Hernandez (8-8) worked seven solid innings.
Soriano ignited the offense with a leadoff homer in the first. He was on deck when the final out was made in the eighth, but some fans in left field stood and applauded as he took the field in the ninth.
“This team has really fed off theguy it could affect the most and that’s Alfonso,” Nats manager Frank Robinson said. “He’s been upbeat. If he’s gonna go, I think they want to send him out on a good note or they want to put a lot of pressure on management to keep him here.”
One sticking point would be Soriano’s desire for a no-trade clause, which Nats president Stan Kasten said he’s never given.
“I don’t want to think about it [being his last home game],” Soriano said. “I think I come back next month. I do not believe they want to trade me. If it happens, it happens.
“I’d be very sorry if I have to leave.”
Some fans shouted at him, “Don’t go!” as he trotted out to left in the ninth.
“They have a lot of love for me in only like three, four months here,” said Soriano, obtained in an offseason trade. “I’m in love with that team because the fans have been very great to me and my teammates, too. I surprised myself that I like the city in three months.”
Hernandez has made himself more attractive to other teams with improved pitching of late.
“I’m not gonna feel good,” Hernandez said of a possible trade. “I want to be here. I want to be in the new stadium. It’s very important for me. I’m not gonna feel good playing somewhere else.”
