His normal demeanor on the mound is calm introspection. When pitching, Nationals left-hander John Lannan gives away nothing, an easy grounder treated with the same indifference as a long home run. But every once in a while the façade cracks just a little.
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Thursday night against the Chicago Cubs, with his team down one run in the seventh inning, Lannan reached for a hard grounder right back up the middle. The ball, hit by Reed Johnson, sneaked just under Lannan’s outstretched glove and through the infield for an RBI single. As the runner scored from third base, Lannan bent over at the waist and let out a yell, punching his glove for effect.
In the end, the Cubs tacked on a few extra runs in the ninth inning to pull away for the 6-2 win. But that still didn’t take away the sting for Lannan, who pitched well — but couldn’t get that one final out to keep his club within a run. Pitching coach Steve McCatty had told Lannan on a visit to the mound that Reed would be his last batter.
“It doesn’t get much easier than when a pitching coach comes out and says ‘Throw this changeup down-and-away’. And I threw it up and away,” Lannan said. “I fooled him with the speed, but it was up enough where he got enough wood on it so I was disappointed with myself for that. I wanted to get that last out.”
Playing their first game under new manager Jim Riggleman, the same old errors — both mental and physical — plagued Washington. The throwing error by third baseman Ryan Zimmerman that led to an unearned run; the 3-2 pitch from Lannan that caught too much of the plate for Cubs slugger Derrek Lee, who deposited that sixth-inning offering over the wall in right field; a fielding error by Nats reliever Sean Burnett that contributed to a three-run ninth.
“I felt we played very well for seven innings and then it got away from us,” Riggleman said. “I don’t think the score when it was 6-1 was indicative of how good a ballgame it was. But that isn’t what we’re trying to achieve here. We’re trying to win a ballgame.”
Lannan had another strong outing, departing after allowing three runs in 6 2/3 innings. He threw 72 of 106 pitches for strikes and walked a single batter. And the Cubs managed just seven hits against him. But it wasn’t enough — and that was difficult for Lannan and his teammates to swallow.
Zimmerman’s throwing error in the third inning hurt. Koyie Hill scored after a sacrifice bunt and then a double by Ryan Theriot. In the eighth, with two outs and the Nats down 3-1, Nyjer Morgan was picked off first by Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol. That took the bat out of Nick Johnson’s hands. Burnett’s ninth-inning error eventually led to three Chicago runs that broke the game open.
The Nats managed just three hits in six innings off Cubs starter Rich Harden, who didn’t walk a batter. Washington scored a run in the sixth on an RBI ground out by Johnson and another in the ninth when Zimmerman led off with a solo home run, his 15th of the season.
“We tried to grind it out against Harden, but he was throwing 98 on nine days rest and we just didn’t get the runs,” said Nats catcher Josh Bard. “There’s nothing positive to take out of it. At the end of the day they pay us boatloads of money to win baseball games.”
