A Big Missed Opportunity

On a night when both the Braves and the Astros lost, the Nationals threw away a very winnable game, and thereby missed the opportunity to close within 3.5 games of the Braves in the National League East and move into a tie with the Astros in the wild card. Bad hitting has plagued the Nationals of late, but not last night. They scored five runs, which almost always is enough for them to win; as Barry Svrluga reports, the Nationals have won 32 of 35 games in which they've scored five runs or more.

No, the problem last night was pitching, something the Nationals have taken for granted lately. Hernandez gave up 12 hits and 2 walks in only 5 2/3 inning, which means that he got off easy by giving up only four earned runs. He struck only one batter, and clearly didn't have his best stuff. First Joey Eischen and then Luis Ayala held down the fort through the seventh, but the Padres got to Gary Majewski in the top of the eighth. Majewski didn't pitch badly, it was just that the Padres did something the Nationals talk about a lot but don't often execute: they played small ball. Damian Jackson reached on an infield single, and Dave Roberts sacrificed him to second. (Why can't the Nationals consistently execute the sacrifice bunt?) Joe Randa then struck out, but with two outs Eric Young singled Jackson home, and the game was tied, 5-5.

Unfortunately, the Nationals didn't score after the fifth last night. With the game tied, the Padres won it in the ninth against the very reliable Chad Cordero. Like Majewski, Cordero didn't pitch badly. Mark Sweeney was safe at first on a Cristian Guzman error, and went to third on Mark Loretta's single. Robert Fick then hit a dying quail into center that was so shallow that Brad Wilkerson threw out Loretta at second. Assuming Guzman makes the play on Sweeney's grounder, that's two outs and a tie game if you're keeping score at home. Instead, it was 6-5, and the Nationals had lost.

There have been a lot of missed opportunities since the All Star break, and the Nationals' inability to capitalize on those opportunities in one of the defining characteristics of this season so far. All teams miss some opportunities, of course, but not like this. The Nationals, unfortunately, aren't as opportunistic as teams like the Braves, and they aren't as opportunistic as a first-place team needs to be.