No One to Blame But Ourselves

A good team has to win games it should win, and last night was a game the Nationals should have won. Starting one of their best pitchers and with an offense that recently has been able to score more than three runs a game, everyone pointed in the direction of a Nationals win, which would tie up the wild card race.

And then the game started. A Jose Vidro home run in the top of the first seemed to confirm our expectations, but the Astros scored four runs in the bottom of the first off Livan Hernandez to put the score in the danger zone, meaning that the Nationals had to play for the rest of the game as if they couldn't give up any more runs. We say that because, despite their recent run production, the Nationals don't score enough to be confident that they can score six or seven runs in a game. So, we thought that the Frank Robinson had to manage the rest of the game based on the assumption that the Nationals had to hold the Astros scoreless over the last eight innings.

He didn't do that. It was obvious from the beginning that Hernandez didn't have his best stuff. He gave up ten hits and four walks over six innings, and the Astros seemed to be threatening at every turn. It's one thing to let an innings eater go deep into a game when he doesn't have his best stuff so that you can rest your bullpen, but it's quite another to do that when you need to win the game. Robinson managed as if he didn't need to do everything he could to win this game, so he left Hernandez in after the Astros scored one in the fourth to go up 5-4 and he left Hernandez in in the sixth when the Astros loaded the bases yet again.

The bases were loaded because the Nationals made two big mistakes that a good team doesn't make in games like this. First, Hernandez mishandled a bunt to put men on first and second with no outs. Second, Robinson chose to intentionally walk Lance Berkman to get to Morgan Ensberg, the Astros best hitter and the second best third baseman in all of baseball. Ensberg promptly doubled in two runs, putting the Astros ahead 7-4. Why Robinson didn't let another pitcher face Berkman to get the last out is beyond us. Hernandez was sub-par last night, so why let him face the Astros' best hitter in a situation in which the Nationals badly needed an out?

The Nationals came back in the ninth, and had the tying run at third and the winning run at first with two outs, but as he has done so often lately Jose Guillen struck out on what was clearly a ball.

The Nationals are now two games back in the wild card race and need to win tonight to avoid being three games out and in a really bad situation. Maybe tonight the team can play like this is a must-win game.