Nats fall on balk in 10th

MILWAUKEE — Frank Robinson stood ready and waiting for reporters in the center of the visitors’ clubhouse at Miller Park. He didn’t even need to hear the first question. He knew the answer.

“He stepped to home and threw to first — that was the umpire’s explanation,” Robinson said. “Now I want you to take a look at this.”

The Washington Nationals manager pointed to a freeze-framed video shot of reliever Mike Stanton at the moment he was called for a balk, the final and most bizarre moment of his club’s 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers last night.

Stanton, clearly stepping more toward first base than the plate, was nevertheless called for a game-ending balk by first-base umpire Paul Schrieber. The veteran left-hander, summoned moments earlier by Robinson to make his Nationals debut with runners on the corners and one out in extra innings, never even got a chance to throw a pitch.

As Stanton and just about everyone else in a Washington uniform stormed the field in utter disbelief, Chris Magruder strolled home from third with the winning run.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Stanton, who had been called for seven previous balks in his 997 career appearances but insisted he was making his regular move toward first. “There’s a lot of emotions going on right there. It’s just unfortunate the game has to end that way.”

Unfortunate in more ways than one. With the loss, their fourth straight, the Nationals saw their lead over Atlanta in the National League East fall to 11/2 games. Done in once again by a stagnant offense and a late collapse, they suddenly find themselves at a critical point of the season, one in which everything they’ve worked for could fall apart if they’re not careful.

“We’re battling for our lives here,” Robinson said. “We haven’t gotten started in the win column in the second half of the season, and we had to battle in a ballgame that we were fighting for. And it was taken away from us. We weren’t given a chance to compete in the 10th inning.”

The Nationals led 3-2, thanks to an early offensive spurt against Brewers ace Ben Sheets and some fine pitching by their own ace, Livan Hernandez. But Hernandez served up a game-tying homer to Carlos Lee on a hanging slider in the eighth, and that set the stage for the wild 10th.

Magruder led off with a double against Washington’s Luis Ayala (7-6), then moved to third on Brady Clark’s sacrifice bunt. Robinson elected to intentionally walk Rickie Weeks, then summoned Stanton to face Lyle Overbay with runners on the corners.

Stanton’s pickoff throw had Weeks caught. First baseman Brad Wilkerson started to move to get Weeks in a rundown, but from behind he heard Schriber yelling, “Balk! Balk!”

“We saw Stanton’s move so many times when he was with the Mets. He’s got a great move,” Wilkerson said. “I don’t believe in that situation you’re going to try to trick anybody. You’re just trying to hold him tight and make sure you make a good move.”

Robinson compared the situation to an NBA referee calling a “touch foul” in the final seconds of a game.

“They don’t do it,” he said. “And they’ll tell you they don’t do it. … The pity of this is nothing can be done about it.”

The Nationals could have done something to prevent this game from ever going into extra innings. Despite 11 hits, they scored just three runs. They stranded six men and hit into two inning-ending double plays — one in which Preston Wilson tried to score on a medium-deep fly ball to right and was out by five feet.

Washington did jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first. Wilkerson set the tone by crushing Sheets’ second pitch into the right-field bleachers. Wilkerson’s second leadoff homer of the season (14th of his career) let the rest of the Washington lineup know Sheets could be had on this night, and they responded in kind.

Jose Vidro followed with the first of his two opposite-field doubles and fought through his sore right quadriceps muscle to score on Ryan Church’s single to right. Another single by Vinny Castilla capped a four-hit inning, though the Nationals might have been kicking themselves for failing to take full advantage of the situation and score more than two runs.

Sure enough, the Brewers stormed right back to tie in the bottom of the first. Weeks singled off Hernandez’s glove, stole second and scored on Overbay’s double. A throwing error by shortstop Cristian Guzman moved Overbay to third and allowed him to score on Geoff Jenkins’ sacrifice fly.