Kearns' misery walks off

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By Mark Zuckerman

There is efficiency, and then there is John Lannan efficiency, and the latter was on full display. The left-hander threw only 81 pitches, 59 of them for strikes. During one three-inning stretch, he threw more warm-up tosses (24) than actual pitches (19).

"I was just trying to do the same thing I've been doing, and they were really aggressive today," he said. "I kept throwing sinker away, sinker away, but they weren't doing anything with it. So why go away from something that's working so well?"

The Nationals put their young ace - owner of a 2.77 ERA in his past 19 starts - in position to earn his eighth win thanks to a Willingham solo homer in the seventh and Dunn's RBI single in the eighth following a ghastly error by Padres second baseman Luis Rodriguez.

But Mike MacDougal couldn't close it out, serving up a towering homer to Kyle Blanks with two outs in the ninth.

"It did take the wind out of our sails there for a little bit," interim manager Jim Riggleman said.

Because Riggleman had pulled Dunn and Willingham for defensive purposes in the ninth, two of the Nationals' best hitters weren't available for extra innings. Instead, Kearns found himself in Dunn's spot and thus in the spotlight after his teammates got two on with two outs in the 10th.

That made the winning single all the more stunning and satisfying for the Nationals.

"In a perfect world, we close it down in the ninth and we never get to that point," Riggleman said. "But I wouldn't trade it for anything now."

That sentiment permeated the clubhouse. A guy making $8 million and struggling to reach the Mendoza line isn't often Mr. Popularity. The Nationals, though, have shown Kearns undying support, and that has meant the world to an underachieving ballplayer who on Sunday finally got to enjoy his moment.

"If you ask any player, I think the opinion of your teammates and the people who wear the uniform every day - that means more than anything," Kearns said. "We've all been there. Everybody's struggled. A lot of these guys have been through it.

"That's why you have 25 guys here - pick each other up."