The three games blended together into one frustrating stew. For whatever reason the Nationals are once again struggling to solve the Florida Marlins, who absolutely dominated this National League East rivalry for two years running and have now won eight of 12 against Washington in 2010.
The latest loss came against Florida right-handed starter Ricky Nolasco, who pitched six shutout innings before giving way to the Marlins bullpen in a decisive 5-0 victory at Nationals Park.
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Nolasco (13-8, 4.39 ERA) shook off a one hour, 57 minute rain delay at the beginning of the night, allowing just six hits with eight strikeouts as he out-dueled Nats starter Livan Hernandez (8-8, 3.08 ERA). The small crowd of 16,496 had dwindled to a few hardy souls by the time the game finally ended at 12:23 a.m. after 3 hours, 21 minutes of baseball. Because of the inclement weather that blanketed the region the contest didn’t start until 9:02 p.m.
“Always in baseball it’s like this,” Hernandez said of his team’s struggles against Florida. “You’re a pitcher you’ve got somebody – like [Colorado first baseman] Todd Helton he hit me like maybe .700. I don’t know the numbers. But their guy pitched good and he didn’t make any mistakes.”
Once his team managed three early runs off Hernandez, Nolasco used five different pitches, including a tough-to-see slider, to keep Washington off balance and cruise into the seventh inning before his bullpen took over. With runners at first and second and nobody out in that frame, reliever Jose Veras induced a ground-ball double play from Alberto Gonzalez to kill the rally. The Nats didn’t put another runner on base the rest of the evening.
The Marlins (57-56) were on the scoreboard first when rookie Mike Stanton drilled a Hernandez pitch the opposite way into the first row of seats above the right-field scoreboard. Umpires needed to check television replays to make sure the ball indeed slammed off the outfield seats and not the padding on top of the fence. Stanton – just 20 years old – killed the Nats this series, batting 8-for-12 with two homers, three doubles, three walks and six RBI.
Florida added an RBI single in the third inning from Cody Ross, but left the bases loaded against Hernandez. The 35-year-old veteran kept his team close over the next four innings. The Marlins managed just a single and a walk during that stretch, but even those runners were erased via a caught stealing and a 6-4-3 double play. Hernandez threw 116 pitches with seven hits, four walks and three strikeouts and departed after a one-out single and a walk in the seventh inning.
“[Hernandez] did a great job,” said Nats catcher Ivan Rodriguez. “He used a lot of pitches earlier in the game. But then he kept the ball down and made the Marlins hit a lot of ground balls. We just didn’t hit Nolasco.”
Florida added insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings against the Washington bullpen to put the game out of reach. That was more than enough as Nolasco kept the Nats in check all night. Roger Bernadina had a double and a single. The only other hits through six innings were a bloop single by Adam Dunn and an infield hit by Rodriguez. Bernadina was stranded at second base after a leadoff double in the first and Ryan Zimmerman was left at second with one out in the fourth.
Another good chance came in the fifth inning after Rodriguez’s infield hit. Willie Harris walked and with two outs Ian Desmond was hit by a pitch. That brought up Dunn with the bases loaded and a chance to put Washington ahead. But Nolasco got him to swing and miss at a breaking pitch to end the threat. The Nats (49-66) finished the game 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“It seems like the last few games that’s been the case,” Dunn said when asked about his team’s inability to get key hits. “The game kind of goes in cycles and right now we’re not hitting.”
After a nice stretch of baseball, Washington was swept by Florida and has now lost five games in a row. It was only the second time this season the Nats have been swept at Nationals Park.
