Friday, August 19, 2005

Thank God for the rare 8th inning rally!

Going into the eighth inning of the second game of today's doubleheader, things looked pretty bleak. The Nationals had lost the first game 2-1, and were down in the second game 4-3. In six more outs the Phillies would sweep the doubleheader and go 1.5 games ahead of the Nationals in the wild card race. After winning the first game of the series, the Nationals would have lost the final three and missed a golden opportunity to remain only .5 game from the wild card lead.

Ryan Drese once again was ineffective. He gave up four runs in four innings, and his ERA rose to 5.78. Luckily, John Halama (in his first appearance as a National) and Luis Ayala held the Phillies scoreless until the eighth and kept the Nationals close. But close doesn't mean a whole lot for this team lately, and with the team reverting back to its low-scoring offense, it didn't look like the Nationals could come back.

Yes, things looked bleak, but that was before Preston Wilson stepped to the plate. Preston Wilson? You mean the guy who was supposed to save the Nationals' offense but has emerged as a fourth outfielder? Yeah, that guy. With one out and Jose Guillen on second, Wilson singled to left to score Guillen, and Wilson went to second on the throw home.

Things still looked a little bleak, given that the game was tied 4-4 and the Nationals haven't been able to score runs late in games. But that was before Carlos Baerga stepped to the plate. Carlos Baerga? You mean the guy who is barely a major leaguer, the guy who runs like he's doing calisthenics? Yeah, that guy. Baerga singled to center to score Wilson, and the score was 5-4.

And just like that a day that seemed lost was all of a sudden a potential turning point and point to make a stand. By winning the second game of the day, the Nationals stayed within .5 game of the Phillies in the wild card race. And with another Houston loss, the race looks like this:






TeamRecordPct.GB
Phillies65-57.533--
Nationals64-57.529.5
Astros64-57.529.5
Marlins63-57.5251

The Nationals are still in this thing, and if they can find a way around Ryan Drese maybe they can win it!

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