It seemed about as likely to happen as a solar eclipse at this point. But fans were treated to a rare sight at Nationals Park on Wednesday night — an honest-to-goodness pitchers’ duel.
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Pirates @ NationalsWhen » Thursday, 7:05Where » Nationals ParkTV/Radio » MASN2/1500 AM/XMNats notes» Washington option righthanded relief pitcher Garrett Mock to Triple-A Syracuse after the game. He will be replaced by righthander Craig Stammen, who comes up from Syracuse to make his major-league debut as the starter on Thursday night in the series finale against Pittsburgh.» Stammen, 25, has come on this season with a 1.80 ERA in seven starts. His addition means starter Daniel Cabrera is headed for the bullpen. Cabrera, 27, has struggled this season with a 5.95 ERA in eight starts. Even worse, he has walked a major-league leading 32 batters — a problem that plagued him throughout his years with the Orioles.» Nats 3B Ryan Zimmerman had a rough night. He committed an error and smacked the ball hard three different times — twice to left and once to right — only to see potential hits go directly to an outfielder. But Zimmerman’s infield hit in the third inning means he has reached base in 38 straight games. » SS Cristian Guzman had his 17th multi-hit night of the season. He was 2-for-4 with a fifth-inning triple and has hit safely in 16 of his last 18 games.» Nats starter John Lannan has a 2.25 ERA at Nationals Park in five starts at home so far in 2009. » 1B Nick Johnson drove in Guzman in the fifth with an RBI single — and then he stole second base. It was Johnson’s first steal since Aug. 18, 2006 in Philadelphia. » Pittsburgh (19-21) has won five games in a row and seven of its last nine. Pirates 3B Andy LaRoche has hurt the Nats so far in this four-game series, He batted 3-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to six games. During that time he is 10-for-23 at the plate.
Lefthanders John Lannan of the Nationals and Paul Maholm of the Pittsburgh Pirates got into — and out of — trouble all night, each allowing just one run through six-and-a-half innings as they combined to strand 16 base runners.
Their battle was all well and good. But offense has ruled this spring in the District. Eventually, something had to give. In the end, it was the Nats’ bullpen — again.
Reliever Joel Hanrahan gave up three singles in the top of the ninth and then uncorked a wild pitch to allow the go-ahead run to score. Washington had no answer in the bottom of the inning and lost, 2-1, for its seventh defeat in a row.
“We’re just tired of talking about losses, period,” said Nats outfielder Adam Dunn, whose throwing error in the fourth inning allowed Andy LaRoche to score from first on a double by Jack Wilson. “I’m not making excuses. But you can only say the same thing over and over and over before you get fed up with it. That’s kind of what’s going on right now.”
There just seems no way out of this miserable stretch for Washington. The Nats were 1-9 over the previous 10 games despite scoring five runs or more every time. Yet when they finally received a solid pitching effort they managed just a single run, left eight runners stranded on base and batted 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
The baseball gods had one last kick to the teeth for Washington. With two down in the bottom of the ninth, pinch hitter Josh Willingham crushed a ball that came within six inches of clearing the fence in deep center. Instead, Pittsburgh center fielder Nate McLouth reached up and snatched it at the last moment — an almost comical tease for a team so desperate for a win.
“That sums up our last couple games,” said Lannan, who posted his fifth quality start of the season and completed seven innings for the second time in nine starts.
To be fair, two of the three singles against Hanrahan in the ninth were not hit all that hard. Manager Manny Acta thought his closer threw much better than in some recent outings. But he couldn’t seem to find his slider, burying one after another before one finally skipped past catcher Wil Nieves — well regarded for his ability to stop balls just like that one.
“I should have blocked that ball. They trust me when I’m back there to block it,” Nieves said. “It’s always hard to block a slider. But, I don’t know — I just didn’t block it. It went under my glove. But that’s the trust that I’m given. Even with a guy on third base I can protect them.”
It wouldn’t have been an issue, of course, if the Nats had taken advantage of the Pirates’ bullpen. Maholm was excellent, allowing just one run in six innings while tossing 114 pitches. He lowered his team-low ERA to 3.30 in the process. But the Nats left Cristian Guzman at second with one out in the seventh, Austin Kearns hit into a double play with one on and none out in the eighth and Nieves did the same with Willie Harris at first and none out in the ninth. Then they had to watch Willingham’s bid fall agonizingly short.
“Brand-new ball game. That’s all I was thinking,” Acta said. “And I was going to see if [Guzman] was going to follow his promise to me that if he got up there then he was going to end the game. But it didn’t go. It doesn’t seem like anything is going right for us right now.”
