TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010
KLMNO BASEBALL
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Around the world and back
Before Lewis found success, he was cut by the Nationals and pitched in Japan BY DAVE SHEININ
It doesn’t take long for Colby TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Nationals starter LivanHernandez threw121 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs. Nats’ bad day getsworse
After placing Strasburg on DL, Washington gets pounded by Cubs, 9-1
BY ADAM KILGORE By the standard of baseball’s
162-game grind, there are not manymore days left in thisWash- ington Nationals season, soMon- daywillstillprobablyholdthetitle of year’s grimmest by the end. In the evening, they announced Ste- phenStrasburg’s returnto thedis- abled list. At night, they were pummeledbyoneof thefewteams with fewer wins than themselves and extended their scoreless streak, at one point, to 15 innings. Tuesday should be better, because it can’t bemuchworse. TheChicagoCubs,witha rook-
iemaking his second start the day after formermanagerLouPiniella abruptly retired, arrived at Na- tionals Park with little reason for optimism.They foundone intheir opponent, crushingtheNationals, 9-1, before 17,921 at Nationals Park. As Casey Coleman op- pressed them for 61/3
innings, the
Nationals finishedwiththreehits, theCubswith15. Manager Jim Riggleman felt a
malaise over his team, the long innings sapping their effort and energy. Afterward, he addressed his players in the hopes the final six weeks of the season in no way resembleMondaynight. “I let themknowwe’ve just got
to playwithmore energy,” Riggle- man said. “Even though the game is flattening us out because we’re out there on the field a long time, we’ve got to find away.We’ve just got to turnitupanotch. “I’ve got to tell you, our guys
play hard. They play with intensi- ty. But it’s a 162-game schedule and you’ve got to play 162 games. Tonight, I felt like we allowed the game situation—the long innings and stuff, our body language on the field—it allowedus tohave an aura hanging over us of, ‘It’s just not happening for us tonight.’ I guess it’sgoingtohappenatimeor two a year, andwhen it happens it gets addressed.” Starter Livan Hernandez of-
fered the lone performanceworth remembering on the Nationals’ side, and only because of its strangemix of stamina and ineffi- ciency. Hernandez allowed seven earned runs in 41/3
innings and
threw121pitches, fourth-most ina start lasting fewer than five in-
CUBS9,NATIONALS1 CHICAGO
DeWitt 2b .....................5 1 3 S.Castro ss....................6 1 2 Byrd cf...........................1 1 0 Fukudome rf..................4 0 2 Ar.Ramirez 3b...............3 2 1 Je.Baker 3b ...................0 0 0 Nady 1b .........................4 2 3 Colvin rf-cf ....................4 1 1 A.Soriano lf ...................5 1 2 Soto c ............................2 0 0 Coleman p .....................4 0 1 Cashner p ......................0 0 0 M.Hoffpauir ph .............1 0 0 Diamond p.....................0 0 0
TOTALS WASHINGTON 39 9 15
Morgan cf......................4 0 0 A.Kennedy 2b................4 0 0 Zimmerman 3b .............3 0 1 Storen p ........................0 0 0 Clippard p ......................0 0 0 Mench ph.......................1 0 0 A.Dunn 1b .....................3 0 1 Morse pr-1b ..................1 1 0 Bernadina lf ..................3 0 1 I.Rodriguez c .................3 0 0 W.Harris rf-3b ..............2 0 0 Alb.Gonzalez ss ............3 0 0 L.Hernandez p...............1 0 0 Batista p .......................0 0 0 Marquis ph....................1 0 0 Slaten p.........................0 0 0 Jo.Peralta p...................0 0 0 Maxwell rf.....................1 0 0
TOTALS 30 1 3
AB R H BI BB SO AVG 2 0 1 .284
0 0 2 .316 0 0 0 .306 1 0 0 .268 0 2 0 .245 0 0 0 .230 0 0 0 .244 2 1 3 .251 2 0 2 .262 1 3 1 .286 1 0 1 .143 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000
9 6 10 —
AB R H BI BB SO AVG 0 0 1 .262
0 0 0 .258 0 0 0 .301 0 0 0 .500 0 0 0 .500 0 0 1 .083 0 0 1 .263 0 0 0 .270 0 1 1 .271 1 0 0 .271 0 1 1 .178 0 0 0 .269 0 0 0 .111 0 0 0 .125 0 0 0 .100 0 0 0
---
0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 .103
CHICAGO .................. 005 021 100 — 9 15 WASHINGTON ......... 000 000 100 — 1 3
1 2 6 — 1
0
E: DeWitt (13). LOB: Chicago 12, Washington 4. 2B: DeWitt (18), S.Castro (24), Nady (12), A.Soriano (32), Bernadina (15). 3B: A.Soriano (3). HR: DeWitt (4), off L.Hernandez. RBI: DeWitt 2 (42), Fukudome (34), Colvin 2 (46), A.Soriano 2 (62), Soto (46), Coleman (1), I.Rodriguez (35). CS: S.Castro (6). SF: DeWitt.
DP: Chicago 1 (Cashner, S.Castro, Nady); Washington 1 (L.Hernandez, A.Kennedy, A.Dunn).
CHICAGO IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
Coleman....................6.1 3 1 1 2 3 102 5.68 Cashner.....................1.2 0 0 0 0 1 10 6.38 Diamond ......................1 0 0 0 0 2 10 6.61
WASHINGTON IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
L.Hernandez .............4.1 10 7 7 4 5 120 3.36 Batista......................0.2 0 0 0 0 1 11 4.34 Slaten ..........................1 2 1 1 2 2 29 2.94 Jo.Peralta ....................1 2 1 1 0 1 22 2.65 Storen..........................1 0 0 0 0 1 10 2.48 Clippard........................1 1 0 0 0 0 13 3.00
WP: Coleman (1-1); LP: L.Hernandez (8-9).
Inherited runners-scored: Cashner 2-0, Batista 3-1. IBB: off L.Hernandez (Soto). HBP: by L.Hernandez (Byrd, Nady).
T: 3:08. A: 17,921 (41,546).
HOWTHEY SCORED CUBS THIRD
DeWitt homered to right. S.Castro singled. S.Castrowas caught stealing, S.Castro out. Byrd was hit by a pitch. Ar.Ramirez walked, Byrd to second. Nady was hit by a pitch, Byrd to third, Ar.Ramirez to second. Colvin singled , Byrd scored, Ar.Ramirez scored, Nady to second. A.Soriano tripled, Nady scored, Colvin scored. Soto struck out. Coleman grounded out. Cubs 5-0
CUBS FIFTH
Nady singled. Colvin struck out. A.Soriano doubled, Nady to third. Sotowasintentionally walked. Coleman singled , Nady scored, A.Soriano to third, Soto to second. DeWitt hit a sacrifice fly, A.Soriano scored, Soto to third. S.Castro struck out. Cubs 7-0
CUBS SIXTH
Fukudome grounded out. Ar.Ramirez singled. Nady doubled to right, Ar.Ramirez to third. Colvin walked. A.Soriano struck out. Soto walked, Ar.Ramirez scored, Nadyto third, Colvin to second.Colemanstruck out.Cubs 8-0
CUBS SEVENTH
DeWitt struck out. S.Castro doubled.Fukudomesingled , S.Castro scored. Ar.Ramirez lined out. Nady lined out. Cubs 9-0
NATIONALS SEVENTH
A.Dunn infield single. Morse pinch-running for A.Dunn. Bernadina doubled, Morse to third. I.Rodriguez grounded out, Morse scored. W.Harris walked. Alb.Gonzalez hit into a double play, W.Harris out.
Cubs 9-1
nings since they started counting in1952. But his start included coming
out for the fifth inning having thrown 104 pitches and not leav-
Nationals Journal 6Blogging at
washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal
RookieStorenis votedplayer rep TheNationals votedcloser
DrewStoren, only 23 anda rookie withroughlyhalf a seasoninthe majors, as their representative to theMajorLeagueBaseball PlayersAssociation. Storenwas surprisedand
honoredlastweek inAtlanta whenhis teammatesnominated andvotedhimto theposition. “Ididn’t really knowwhat to
expect, because Ididn’t know muchabout the business side,” Storensaid. “Iwas kindof excited about it because I’ve learneda lot. There’s awholedifferent side of baseball Ididn’t really know.To have ahandinfighting for the players’ rights, it’spretty exciting. It’spretty cool to be inthat position.” Storenhas receivedhelpfrom
fellowrelieverMiguelBatista, whomhe called“theunofficial, officialplayer rep.” Batistawasnot shy about
sharinghis opinionandworking forwhathe believed. Neither, it seems,will Storen. “I’mgoing to be a guy that’s
going to fight for theplayers,” Storensaid.
Big turnaround Inthemiddle of July,ClassA
Potomachitting coachMatt Nokes satdownwithTylerMoore andtoldhimnot toworry about his batting average,whichat the time sat southof .200. All the coaching staff andthe
organizationwantedto seeMoore provewas thathewasmoving forwardinthe finalmonths.A couple goodweeks, andhewould be back towhere theNationals wanted. “No one expectedhimto take it that seriously,”Nokes said Sunday afternooninthePotomac dugout, laughing out loudat the memory. The comedy comes fromthe
absurdmonth-and-a-half thathas followedthe chat. Moorehas turnedfroma first baseman batting .195 intoperhaps themost devastating slugger inminor league baseball.OnMonday, MoorewasnamedtheCarolina LeaguePlayer of theWeek,which theymight think about renaming theTylerMooreAward.Hehas
ing until he had loaded the bases and surrendered an RBI single to the opposing pitcher, Coleman’s first career hit. “We lost,”Hernan- dez said, “because Ipitchedbad.” The Nationals remained stuck
in what started a downslide in mid-May andbecame simply their reality. The Nationals have lost 11 of 15, 22 of 35 and 57 of 90. Since May 15—which spansmore than half the season — the Nationals are 33-57, the third-worst in the majors, only a half-game better than the Baltimore Orioles. They’re onpace for 68wins. “Rightnow, things aren’t going
our way,” center field Nyjer Mor- gan said. “I think everyone is still upbeat. It’s not like thewholemo- rale is down. It just sucks getting our [butts] whipped like that in front of our home crowd. We’ve got to come together as a unit and really try to finish this thing off strong and not give up on our- selves even though the thing is kindof crumbling rightnow. “We’ve got to be true profes-
sionals right now and show what we’re made of. It’s snowballing, but we cant’ let the snowball get any bigger.” Before Monday night Hernan-
dez had been excellent, allowing seven earned runs combined in his last four starts, but his start came undone in the cover-your- eyes third inning. Hernandez al- lowed a leadoff home run toBlake DeWitt, which Starlin Castro fol- lowed with a single and a caught stealing. The Nationals’ night eroded
fromthere.HernandezhitMarlon Byrd,walkedAramisRamirez and hit Xavier Nady to load the bases without a ball being put in play. Tyler Colvin’s single scored two of the runners. One-time National Alfonso Soriano provided the game’s signature moment when heloftedaballdowntheright field line. Willie Harris sprinted from deepright anddove. The ball missed his glove and
bouncedoverHarris.Harris layon the ground as second baseman AdamKennedy chased the ball all theway into the corner. “I couldhardlybreathe,”Harris
said. “I got the wind knocked out ofme.” WhileHarris caught his breath
and Kennedy retrieved the ball, three runners scored, Sorianohad atripleandCubs interimmanager Mike Quade could start to relish his first win. The Nats trailed 5-0 at the end of the inning, which tookHernandez 44pitches.
kilgorea@washpost.com
NATIONALSONDECK
VS. CUBS Tuesday, 7:05 (MASN) Wednesday, 7:05 (MASN)
VS. CARDINALS Thursday, 7:05 (MASN) Friday, 7:05 (MASN) Saturday, 7:05 (MASN) Sunday, 1:35 (WDCW-50)
AT MARLINS Monday, 7:10 (MASN) Aug. 31, 7:10 (MASN2) Sept. 1, 7:10 (MASN2)
Radio: WFED (820 AM, 1500 AM)
wonit four times insixweeks. Thispastweek,Moorewent 11
for 24withfourhome runs, two doubles, 13RBI andsix runs.He hada 1.125OPS lastweek, and excuseMoore if that’s a letdown forhim. It actuallydroppedhis OPS since July 15,whichisnowa mere 1.406.
Renewedcommitment TheNationals signeda two-
year contract to continue their affiliationwiththeClassAA Harrisburg Senators, the team announced.TheNationals renewedtheir commitmentwith Harrisburg aday after they announcedanewtwo-yeardeal withClassAAASyracuse. —AdamKilgore
Lewis to scroll back through his memory to find the low point in his career as a pitcher. His shoul- der has met the sharp end of a surgeon’s knife.He has gone from top prospect to scrap-heap fod- der.He once walked eight batters in less than four innings. He had to go all the way to Japan to reclaim his career. But rock bot- tom? No, none of those even comes close. “Without a doubt,” Lewis says,
“the low point of my career was when the Washington Nationals released me on the day my son was born.” Well, then. That certainly
needssomeexplaining, which the Texas Rangers’ right-hander—in themidst ofwhat is by far the best season of his big-league career, for the runaway leaders of the American League West division —is happy to do. It was the spring of 2007, the
Nationals’ spring of wayward pitchers, when then-GM Jim Bowden signed any available pitcher with a pulse and invited them all to spring training. It was the spring of Jerome Williams, Chris Michalak, Jason Simontac- chi, BillyTraber, ArnieMuñoz—a staggering 38 pitchers in all. And it was the spring of Colby Lewis. “We got out on the field for the
first day of [pitchers’ workouts],” Lewis says, “and I’mlike, ‘Oh,my gosh. There’s freakin’ a hundred of us!’ ” Lewis, 31, can laugh about it
now. He has been around the world and back since that spring —half a season with the Oakland Athletics, a month in the Kansas City Royals’ organization, a few months in the minors, two excel- lent seasons with the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Central League. Andnowback in the states,where he is 9-10 with a 3.37 ERA for the Rangers, the organization that originally drafted him in the first round in 1999. He ranks sixth in the AL in strikeouts, and is in line to get the ball in Game 3 of the Rangers’ opening playoff series— provided they hold on. But it was hard for Lewis to
envision a situation like this back on March 19, 2007. On that day, Lewis was standing in a hospital room in his hometown of Bakers- field, Calif., looking down at his wife, Jenny, who was holding their one-day-old son, Cade. “Honey,” he told her, “I just got
released by theNationals.” Jenny immediately started
crying. The release had actually come the day before — the same day Cade was born—but Lewis’s agent persuaded the Nationals to hold off for a day before calling Lewis. By that time, he had al- ready been assigned to the Na- tionals’ minor-league camp (and was given permission to leave to attend Cade’s birth), but he fig- ured he had a job in Class AAA that season, if nothing else. “I got released by one of the
worst teams in baseball at the time,” Lewis says now. “I felt like, ‘If I can’t make it with [them] . . . gosh.’ ” Lewis also had to figure out how to retrieve his belongings
JONATHAN FERREY/GETTY IMAGES
Colby Lewis, one of the AL’s strikeout leaders, figured his career was in jeopardy when theNationals cut him in the spring of 2007.
from Viera, Fla., where the Na- tionals train. So he took a red-eye flight that landed in Orlando at 7:30 a.m., drove to Viera, gath- ered his stuff, and by 4 p.m. was back on another cross-country flight, headed home. Within days, he had been
signed by the A’s, with whom he bounced between Class AAA and the majors before being released at theendof the season.As hewas weighing his options for 2008, an offercamein fromHiroshima—a guaranteed $1 million on a two- year contract. Figuring he needed a sure payday to support his new family, Lewis took it. The downside to going to Ja-
pan was that it was an admission his big-league career was essen- tially over.Noone, with the excep- tion of an occasional Bill Gullick- son or Cecil Fielder, returns from Japan and becomes a productive big leaguer. “I went to Japan thinking,
‘Okay, here’s an opportunity to make some money for my fami- ly,’ ” Lewis said, “ ‘and if I have to hang ’em up [after that], I’ll hang ’em up.’ ” But after two outstanding
years in Japan — in which he wentacombined26-17 with a 2.82 ERA and 369 strikeouts against only 46 walks — Lewis found himself the subject of a bidding war among big-league teams en- tering the season, a war the Rang- ers won by offering a two-year deal worth $5 million. “He was a first-round pick.He
was a top prospect.He was in the big leagues at age 20 or 21,” Rangers GM Jon Daniels told reporters at the time. “We know the history [of U.S. pitchers re- turning from Japan] is not great. But the difference is, this really will be the first time he’s healthy.”
Indeed, Lewis has maintained
the 92- to 94-mph fastball he had as a youth—plus a looping curve and a new cutter he picked up in Japan—but now is able to throw strikes. In his first stint with the Rangers (2002 to ’04, before shoulder surgery cost him the better part of two seasons), Lewis walked 5.5 batters per nine in- nings. This season, that ratio has nearly been cut in half, to 2.9. “I saw him as a young man,”
saysRangersManagerRonWash- ington, “and knew he was a guy who could throw hard but had some command issues. But ac- cording towhat I heard beforewe signed him, he learned how to pitch, how to control the strike zone. And that’s what he’s done this year.” Lewis, whose mediocre win-
loss record is distorted by the nine instances in which he made a quality start only to take a loss or a no-decision, is a major factor in a rotation that has amassed a 4.19 ERA this season, the best since the franchise opened hom- er-haven Rangers Ballpark in 1994. Ever since the Rangers picked
up ace lefty Cliff Lee before the trade deadline, theirs is a rotation built for an extended October run, with lefties Lee and C.J. Wilson in the first two games, followed by Lewis and either vet- eran Rich Harden or 24-year-old TommyHunter. ForLewis, it is almost impossi-
ble to believe it was only a little more than three years ago that he was in that hospital room, the joy of being a newfather trampled by the anguish of being newlyunem- ployed. But the way things have worked out now, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
sheinind@washpost.com
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