Whether by one run or by six, whether from poor starting pitching or poor relief work, whether from a lack of clutch hitting or a lack of fundamentals in the field, it doesn’t seem to matter right now.
The Washington Nationals find a way to lose.
Manager Manny Acta’s club seems to do just enough to lose on a nightly basis, the seventh straight example coming in the form of a 4-3 defeat to the Florida Marlins at Nationals Park.
This one may have been the most agonizing of them all. Trailing by one after seven, Washington pushed across a run in both the eighth and ninth innings. The problem: relievers Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch each allowed a run in the top of those two innings, making the late rally moot.
“When you’re going bad, you’re going bad,” Acta said.
Even when it looked like the Nationals might get the hit they needed — with Nick Johnson drilling a shot to the left-field fence in the ninth that appeared destined to become a two-run homer and tie the game — they were denied. Marlins left fielder Josh Willingham reached over the wall and brought the ball back into play to hold Johnson to a double.
“That’s the best play I’ve ever made without catching the ball,” Willingham said.
A couple of more inches and the Nationals might have gone home last night celebrating a come-from-behind win. Instead, they trudged off the field moments after Johnson’s drive, teammate Paul Lo Duca having grounded into a game-ending double play.
“I felt confident coming to the plate,” Lo Duca said. “I want to be the guy up in that situation, and I just didn’t get it done.”
Such is life right now for the Nationals. On a night when they got the solid pitching performance they so desperately needed — 52/3 innings of two-run ball from Odalis Perez — the Nationals were done in by an inept offensive showing against soft-tossing lefty Mark Hendrickson and then by poor relief work from a pair of pitchers who usually get the job done.
Not on this night. Ayala allowed an eighth-inning run on three straight singles, and Rauch followed that by giving up another run in the ninth on Willingham’s two-out double down the left-field line.
“I didn’t go into the eighth thinking that Ayala was going to give up a run,” Acta said. “I didn’t go into the ninth thinking that Rauch was going to give up a run either. … Our top guys out of the pen, which is our strength, just failed today to keep the game within reach.”
The Nationals (3-7) can’t seem to do anything to snap out of their funk, not even a little attempt at team unity. Most position players wore their socks high for last night’s game, perhaps hoping the new look would bust the slump.
It didn’t. Washington was swept for the second straight series and now faces a daunting weekend matchup with the Atlanta Braves, who will send Tim Hudson, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine to the mound in succession.
Through it all, the man guiding the Nationals remains calm. Acta has preached patience throughout this rough stretch and has given no consideration to closing the doors to his clubhouse and gathering his entire team together for a meeting.
The second-year manager isn’t completely averse to such things. When the Nationals opened the 2007 season with eight losses in nine games, he held a meeting at Atlanta’s Turner Field in which he reinforced the positives instead of going on a tirade.
Acta said yesterday there’s no exact science to determining when a closed-door meeting is necessary, but he made it clear that time has not come yet this season.
“The guys are playing hard, working hard, giving me the effort,” he said. “That’s what it takes for me to have meetings. It’s not about if we’re losing. It’s about effort and being lackadaisical when it comes down to fundamentals and stuff like that.”
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