D4
Journal 6
Nationals
washingtonpost.com/ nationalsjournal
Offense awakens,
but it’s not enough The Washington Nationals began their three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles struggling at the plate in the wake of their most recent homestand, in which they scored 10 runs in six games. That’s an average of just 1.7 runs a game, but players remained positive despite that lack of production given the opportunity to feast on Orioles’ pitching on the horizon. The Nationals had some success, amassing 14 runs in the series. In the three games against Baltimore at Camden Yards, Washington scored all 14 times over the first four innings, which would have been fine had the Nationals not been swept. On Friday they squandered a 6-0 lead before losing in the ninth, 7-6, on a throwing error. Saturday,Washington had a 5-0 cushion and couldn’t hold on. “When you’re up early and you don’t add on, it can come back to bite you, and that’s what happened,” Manager Jim Riggleman said after Saturday’s loss.
— Gene Wang
ORIOLES 4, NATIONALS 3 Washington A.Kennedy 2b
Morgan cf
Zimmerman 3b A.Dunn dh
Willingham lf Bernadina rf Morse 1b
Alb.Gonzalez ss W.Harris ph Nieves c
I.Rodriguez ph Totals
Baltimore
C.Patterson lf M.Tejada 3b Markakis rf Wigginton 1b C.Izturis ss Scott dh
Ad.Jones cf Wieters c
S.Moore 2b-1b Lugo ss-2b Totals
Washington Baltimore
AB R H BI BB SO AVG 4 0 0 0 1 1 .252 4 0 2 0 0 0 .238 3 1 1 0 1 0 .290 2 0 0 0 1 2 .276 4 1 1 1 0 2 .276 3 1 1 2 1 1 .284 4 0 0 0 0 1 .340 3 0 0 0 0 1 .259 0 0 0 0 1 0 .155 3 0 0 0 0 0 .175 1 0 0 0 0 0 .303 31 3 5 3 5 8 — AB R H BI BB SO AVG 4 1 1 0 0 0 .272 4 0 2 1 0 0 .287 3 0 0 0 1 0 .306 4 0 0 0 0 0 .266 0 0 0 0 0 0 .231 3 1 1 0 0 1 .266 3 1 1 1 0 0 .271 3 1 1 0 0 1 .238 3 0 1 1 0 1 .278 3 0 1 0 0 0 .239 30 4 8 3 1 3 —
000 300 000 —351 000 030 01x —480
E: A.Kennedy (8). LOB: Washington 7, Balti- more 3. 2B: C.Patterson (7), Scott (15), Ad.Jones (9), Lugo (2). 3B: Willingham (2). HR: Bernadina (5), off Guthrie. RBI: Willingham (42), Bernadina 2 (23), M.Tejada (30), Ad.Jones (33), S.Moore (7).
Washington IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Atilano
Clippard (L, 8-5)
Baltimore Guthrie Berken Ohman
Da.Hernandez (W, 3-6)
7 5 3 2 0 3 92 4.33 1 3 1 1 1 0 21 2.25
IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA 6 3 3 3 4 4 100 4.30 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 1.66 B 2 0 0 0 1 12 3.00 C 0 0 0 0 2 6 4.58
Simon (S, 9) 1 0 0 0 1 1 15 3.32
Inherited runners-scored: Da.Hernandez 2-0. IBB: off Clippard (Markakis). HBP: by Guthrie (A.Dunn). T: 2:30. A: 22,951 (48,290).
Nationals fourth: Zimmerman HOW THEY SCORED
walked. Dunn struck out. Willing- ham tripled, Zimmerman scored. Bernadina homered, Willingham scored. Morse grounded out. Alb.Gonzalez struck out. Nation- als, 3-0.
Orioles fifth: Wigginton ground-
ed out. Scott doubled. Ad.Jones doubled, Scott scored. Wieters sin- gled, Ad.Jones to third. S.Moore singled, Ad.Jones scored, Wieters to second. Lugo grounded into fielder’s choice, Wieters to third, S.Moore out. On A.Kennedy’s er- ror, Wieters scored, Lugo to sec- ond. C.Patterson fouled out. Tied, 3-3.
Orioles eighth: S.Moore ground-
ed out. Lugo doubled. Lugo was picked off. C.Patterson doubled. M.Tejada singled, C.Patterson scored. M.Tejada to second. Mar- kakis was intentionally walked. Wigginton popped out. Orioles 4-3.
S
KLMNO BASEBALL
MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010
Another collapse leaves Nats swept out of Baltimore nationals from D1
hands of the team with the worst record in baseball. In the three games, the Nationals relin- quished leads totaling 14-0 and in doing so lost for the 12th time in 15 games. As if that weren’t indignity enough, the Nationals lost to a team that had not swept a series since May 2 and had four wins to- tal this month before this week- end. “It’s just not happening for us,”
Manager Jim Riggleman said. At no time during the game was that more apparent than in the eighth after the Nationals put runners on first and second with none out. Washington had slug- ging Adam Dunn at the plate, power-hitting Josh Willingham on deck and Roger Bernadina, who had homered earlier, in the hole.
Dunn’s bat provided the most promise, considering he had driv- en in six runs in the first two games of the series, including a two-RBI double on Saturday that gave Washington a 4-0 lead. It faded quickly, however, when he struck out on a 2-2 pitch from re- liever Will Ohman. David Her- nandez replaced Ohman and fanned Willingham on three straight pitches. He did the same to Bernadina. “It’s always tough to lose any
game,” said Bernadina, who went 1 for 3 with two RBI. “It didn’t turn out well today. They got the win. Now you’ve got to move on to tomorrow.” As per usual during this series,
the Nationals went ahead first, getting three runs in the fourth that began with Ryan Zimmer- man’s walk on four straight pitch- es. Dunn struck out looking, but Willingham sent a drive to center that got by Adam Jones for a tri-
ROB CARR/ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington catcher Wil Nieves waits for the throw as Baltimore’s Corey Patterson scores the winning run on Miguel Tejada’s single.
ple. Bernadina followed by taking ball one, then depositing starter Jeremy Guthrie’s next offering into the seats in left-center. That of course wouldn’t be enough for the Nationals, who were unable to hold leads of six and five runs, respectively in the first two games of the series. They wound up losing both, and on Sunday, Washington found itself in another precarious circum- stance when the Orioles rallied in the fifth. Ty Wigginton led off the inning by grounding to third, but Balti-
more unloaded on Atilano there- after with hits on four consec- utive pitches. Luke Scott ignited the charge with a double to left on a 2-1 count, and Jones laced a double to almost the identical spot for an RBI. Matt Wieters sin- gled to center to advance Jones to third before Scott Moore’s single to right drew the Orioles to 3-2. With runners on first and sec-
ond, Julio Lugo lined a grounder to third that Zimmerman fielded cleanly before throwing to sec- ond for the forceout. But a hard- sliding Moore required second
THOMAS BOSWELL ‘We’re underachieving. We’re playing bad baseball.’ boswell from D1
with the worst record in baseball. “You can’t win major league games by doing that.” On Friday and Saturday, the
Nats became the first team since 1971 to blow leads of five or more runs in consecutive games to the same opponent. To do it against their local rivals made their sin against the laws of baseball probability even more deflating. What Ghana is to U.S. soccer, the Orioles are to Nats fans. After such historic squandering, losing 4-3 on Sunday was mere Nats play. “This is not and should not be
a 10-games-under-.500 team,” said Rizzo, whose club, 20-15 in May, has plummeted to 33-43 with weeks of progressively sloppier play. “We have seven guys who’ve played in the World Series and others who’ve been in the playoffs. And that doesn’t include some of our best players. I can’t believe that playing the Orioles in June is the most stressful thing they have ever done.”
Add as many drips of sarcasm as your recipe requires. On Friday, rookie Ian Desmond and veteran Cristian Guzmán combined for four errors, leading to four unearned runs. On Sunday, second baseman Adam Kennedy threw away a ball on a double-play pivot, allowing an unearned run to score in another one-run loss. The level of Nats blundering
NATIONALS ON DECK AT ATLANTA
Monday, 7:10 (MASN, ESPN2) Tuesday, 7:10 (MASN) Wednesday, 7:10 (MASN) VS. NEW YORK METS Thursday, 7:05 (MASN) Friday, 7:05 (MASN2) Saturday, 4:10 (FOX) Sunday, 1:35 (WDCW-50, MASN2)
VS. SAN DIEGO July 6, 7:05 (WDCW-50, MASN2)
July 7, 7:05 (MASN2) July 8 , 7:05 (MASN)
ROB CARR/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wil Nieves and the Nationals get wiped out in Baltimore over the weekend, surrendering leads in each of their three one-run losses.
in the last 30 days is almost incomprehensible. Four infielders — Desmond (eight errors), Guzmán (seven), Kennedy (six) and Zimmerman (four) — have made 25 errors in 28 games. The rest of the Nats have contributed five more errors. How bad is that? In the last 30 days, the Reds’ entire team has made only seven errors. And the Yankees only have made 24 errors all season. In those 28 games, Nats errors
have led to 29 unearned runs — 20 more than the average team in that time. Those extra gift runs are the reason the Nats are now all but an afterthought in the National League East or wild-card race for this season, rather than being at .500. The unraveling began on May
30 in San Diego when a wild throw in extra innings gave the
Padres a one-run win. Since then, eight more one-run losses have followed, including the Nats’ last four defeats. The only Nats infielder that has few errors is Adam Dunn (four all year). But his poor footwork and slow reactions make him so immobile at first base that he saves high or low throws, but seldom the wide ones. At rough spots in a season,
team executives sometimes take opposite approaches to motivation and morale. But, at the moment, the Nats are an extreme example. “If we play with the same
effort and cleanness we did the last two games, we’ll win our share of games,” Riggleman said. “The glass is half full. There are a lot of good things to build on.” Last year, five games into his term as manager, Riggleman’s Nats were 40 games under .500
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“I had a five-run lead [on
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sport. But the Nats hate it. “It feels devastating,” Tyler
Clippard said of his second relief loss in this O’s series. “We’re battling our butts off. . . . It’s not fun.”
What can you do? “Get a good night’s sleep and
wake up tomorrow,” he said. “You’ve got to grind, battle,” Willie Harris said. But you also have to have
patience and humor or the game just beats you down. “Last year on June 28th, I was hitting .160. Now I’m hitting .155,” Harris said. “I’m right where I need to be.” How much pressure should a team that lost 102 games in ’09 put on itself for one-season progress? How much has the increased national attention that hit the Nats when Strasburg arrived (and Bryce Harper was drafted, too) tightened them up or simply distracted them? Yes, the Strasburgs are on national TV again Monday night. And they should be. In the first four starts of his career, Strasburg has fanned 41 men. No other pitcher in baseball this season has fanned that many in any four consecutive starts. A perverse, manic rising and
crashing of expectations has defined this season. Five weeks ago, the last time these two teams finished a series on a Sunday, the Nats won to reach 23-22. With lots of games against losing teams on the schedule until June 27, plus the imminent arrival of Strasburg and rookie Drew Storen, John Lannan said: “We’ve played great baseball. But we can get better. Then the sky’s the limit.” Craig Stammen added, “They say if you’re in the race on Memorial Day, you’ll be in it all season.” Now, June 27 has arrived.
Both Lannan and Stammen have pitched themselves back to the minor leagues. And the GM is hot. “If you’re a pro,” Rizzo said, “make the play.” It is a fan’s right to expect
huge instant improvement. Perhaps such demands are even the prerogative of those who run a team. But, usually, it is baseball’s duty to deny it.
boswellt@washpost.com
baseman Adam Kennedy to leap while trying to turn the double play, and his throw was off the mark, allowing Wieters to score and Lugo to wind up at second. “Just got upended,” Kennedy said of the play. Moore “has a good lead at first, you know, with the runner at second, and just up- ended me, and I really made a bad throw.”
Atilano lasted two more in- nings before giving way to Clip- pard, who on Friday allowed four runs, three of them earned, in 11 innings that led to his sixth
⁄3
blown save and a 7-6 loss that be- gan Washington’s disquieting trend. On Sunday, Clippard got Moore to ground to short to lead off the eighth and had two out af- ter Lugo, the next batter, doubled but got picked off at second. Co- rey Patterson then doubled to right, and Tejada delivered the go-ahead hit. “It’s terrible. It feels devastat-
ing,” Clippard said. “We’re bat- tling our butts off. We’re playing good, but we’re coming up short. It’s not fun.”
wangg@washpost.com
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