MIAMI — The Washington Nationals lived up to their billing last night as baseball’s worst fielding team, giving up three unearned runs in the eighth inning of a 7-5 loss to the Florida Marlins before 10,260 at Dolphin Stadium.
The Nationals’ poor performance in the field ruined a solid outing by starting pitcher Jason Bergmann and Nick Johnson’s big game at the plate.
“It bugs you or hurts you when you don’t execute and lose games that you feel like you should win,” Nationals manager Frank Robinson said. “Lack of execution, that’s all that is.”
The last-place Nationals (54-72) entered the game with a major-league leading 101 errors. They added three more last night — two of those coming in their late-inning collapse.
The first was by rookie third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who entered the game with a .969 fielding percentage, second-best among NL third baseman. But he failed to handle a routine ground ball by Miguel Cabrera in the eighth.
“I decided to go forward instead of taking a step back and it just went under my glove,” Zimmerman said.
Then with the bases loaded, Johnson — who was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI — fired a wild throw to the plate, allowing the Marlins to take a 5-4 lead. Johnson wasn’t charged with an error on the play because he fielded Jeremy Hermida’s grounder for an out before uncorking his wild throw to try and double up Cabrera.
“With a good throw, I think so,” Johnson said when asked if he had a chance to throw out Cabrera. “I just threw it too high.”
The Marlins then added two more runs courtesy of errors, when shortstop Felipe Lopez overthrew second base on a force attempt to give the Marlins (59-66) their biggest lead of the game at 7-4.
Reliever Ryan Wagner (0-2) took the loss, giving up three runs — but none earned — in two innings. But Wagner didn’t think Cabrera reaching base via error set the tone for a disastrous eighth.
“I look at it as Cabrera was on first and if I would have gotten the next pitch a little bit more in, maybe I could have got a ground ball to somebody and we would’ve gotten a double play and be out of it,” Wagner said. “I take that as my fault as not doing what I need to do and throwing the pitch where I need to throw it. Basically, if I execute, then we’ve got two outs and nobody on.”
Bergmann, who allowed four runs on six hits in six innings, gave up a home run to Marlins rookie shortstop Hanley Ramirez on his first pitch. It was Ramirez’s fifth leadoff home run of the season.
“You can’t give anybody a gimme pitch at any time,” Bergmann said. “Hanley Ramirez is the leadoff guy. Whether it’s Hanley Ramirez or [Alfonso] Soriano, they’re going to look for first-pitch fastball to hit out of the park, even to start a game.”
Last night marked Bergmann’s fourth big-league start and his last one for the next 10 days. With tomorrow and Monday being off days, Bergmann is being temporarily dropped from the rotation, although he will be available out of the bullpen until his next start. Bergmann’s next scheduled start is set for Sept. 2 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at RFK Stadium.
Unlike his last outing when the Nationals could not score a run, Bergmann received a little run support in this one. The Nationals tied the game 1-1 in third, took a 2-1 lead in the fifth, and then reclaimed a 3-2 lead in the sixth on Austin Kearns’ career-high 18th home run of the season, but just his second with the Nationals.
Kearns, who was acquired in an eight-player deal on July 13 from the Cincinnati Reds, has been in a slump. He came into this game just 4-for-36 (.111) with 12 strikeouts in his last 10 games.
The Nationals prosperity was short-lived. Mike Jacobs’ 16th home run of the season gave the Marlins a 4-3 lead. After Cabrera tripled in the sixth, Jacobs cleared the bases with a 392-foot, two-run homer to right field.
The Nationals’ second run of the game put Zimmerman in the franchise’s rookie record book with his 84th RBI of the season, breaking Gary Carter’s 31-year record. Zimmerman’s ground out to third baseman Cabrera scored Soriano.
Johnson delivered in the clutch for the Nationals in the third inning with an RBI single to center field that scored Lopez and tied the game 1-1.
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