Nats run out of rallies in 11th

By Mark Zuckerman (Contact) | Friday, July 11, 2008

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It could have been a simple, compact loss in nine innings. A nice little pitchers' duel between Dan Haren and Jason Bergmann, with the Arizona Diamondbacks' All-Star right-hander besting the Washington Nationals' hard-luck hurler.

By the time the Nationals' 7-5, 11-inning loss was complete, though, the starting pitchers were a complete afterthought.

A fast-and-furious flurry of rallies - first by Washington to tie the game in the ninth, then by Arizona to take the lead in the 10th, then again by Washington to tie it in the bottom of the inning, then finally Arizona's decisive outburst in the 11th - turned a pedestrian Thursday night on South Capitol Street into perhaps the wildest game of the year.

All told, the two teams combined to score two runs through the evening's first eight innings, then 10 over the final three.

"Just a roller-coaster ride," third baseman Kory Casto said. "We battled as tough as we could tonight. There's nothing more we could have given. I mean, we put it all out there but came up short. That's the way it goes. That is baseball to a T right there. Everything that can happen, will happen. That was crazy. That was crazy."

The end result, of course, was the same had the Nationals not staged their first rally. Which could have made this one sting just as much, if not more, for the home team.

"I really liked that they battled," manager Manny Acta said. "I thought it would have been tougher if we had been shut out 2-0."

Stymied for eight innings by Haren, the Nationals entered their half of the ninth trailing by that count. Arizona had scored two runs off Bergmann, who was otherwise brilliant over his seven innings yet once again was denied victory because of a complete lack of run support.

But that's when the ballgame became interesting.

The ninth-inning turnaround was more a product of a Diamondbacks' meltdown than a Nationals rally. Arizona closer Brandon Lyon issued a walk and two singles, but the real killers were two fielding errors by third baseman Mark Reynolds.

The former Virginia star - he played shortstop while Ryan Zimmerman was at third base in college - booted a pair of routine groundballs, the latter of which allowed the tying run to score.

The good vibes didn't last long, though, because the Diamondbacks scored three times in the 10th. Washington closer Jon Rauch allowed, in succession with two outs, an infield single, two RBI doubles and an RBI single.

Just like that, the Nationals found themselves trailing 5-2 in the 10th. And just like that, they came back to tie it once again in dramatic fashion.

The biggest hits came from Casto (run-scoring single) and Austin Kearns (two-run double down the left-field line). That tied the game 5-5, but the Nationals were in position to win.

Arizona manager Bob Melvin chose to intentionally walk Dmitri Young to put runners on the corners (Kearns had advanced to third on his hit) and take his chances with catcher Jesus Flores. The hero of Wednesday night's Washington victory, though, smashed a hard grounder right at second baseman Orlando Hudson, who fired home for the second out of the inning. Wily Mo Pena then grounded out to end the inning.

Disaster awaited in the form of Luis Ayala in the 11th. The Nationals reliever plunked Augie Ojeda to open the inning. Stephen Drew's double gave the Diamondbacks the lead again, and an intentional walk and two more singles made it 7-5.

"He just had a bad day," Acta said of Ayala. "He hasn't been as sharp as we'd like him to be. But that wasn't the way we had it mapped out, having our top two guys give up five runs in the last two innings."

Washington then went down quietly in the 11th, with three straight groundballs.

"If our offense can come back like that every single day, we're looking at a real exciting ballclub," Bergmann said. "We seem to have a knack for doing that at home. We really thought we were going to pull that one out."

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