Not Again!

This is becoming redundant. This keeps happening again and again for no apparent reason.

Oh, I guess those first two sentences are redundant. Well, that's fitting given that the Nationals lost last night in a way they seem to be losing every game these days. Leading going into the opponent's final at bat, the Nationals lost again last night when Livan Hernandez couldn't hold the lead.

Hernandez was pitching a gem when we came to the top of the ninth. His only blemish was a mammoth home run by Barry Bonds in the top of the fourth. It was the kind of blast that silences a crowd, and that's exactly what it did. The crowd bood Bonds loudly at the beginning of the game, but his fourth inning shot seemed to convince the boo birds that they were in the midst of greatness, and they soon fell into a respectful hush.

Other than giving up that home run to one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game, Hernandez shut down the Giants. Going into the ninth, the Nats led 2-1.

Yes, Hernandez lost the lead, but the top of the ninth shows that there is a very fine line between winning and losing in this game. With one out, Omar Vizquel walked. Edgardo Alfonzo flied out to center, bringing up Bonds in a situation in which he could win the game with one swing. We were surprised that Hernandez didn't walk Bonds intentionally, but it was clear that he wasn't going to give Barry anything good to hit, and Bonds walked on four pitches.

The Nats again needed just one out to win the game. With the tying run on second and Moises Alou coming up, we would normally expect to see Chad Cordero up on the mound. But there was no call to the bullpen, perhaps because Cordero has been so bad recently. Instead, it was Hernandez who served up a fat pitch this time, putting one into Alou's wheel house. Alou smashed it over the left field fence, and suddenly the game that seemed in hand now appeared to be another crushing loss.

One pitch. If the pitch isn't out over the plate, Alou probably doesn't hit a home run. Given that a hitter like Alou will get on base only 40% of the time and will get a hit in only 32% of his at bats, the odds favored Hernandez, even though he was tiring. Hernandez needed to stay away from Alou's strengths by keeping the ball down and away. That sounds easy, but we're talking about a matter of a few inches--a few inches one way and it's a great pitch, a few inches the other way and it's a meatball. That's the beauty of this game, and that's what makes the confrontation between a pitcher and a hitter so exciting.

Down 4-2, the Nationals mounted a comeback. With one out, Vinny Castilla doubled and Brian Schneider and Ryan Church (hitting for Guzman) walked to load the bases. Ryan Zimmerman hit for Hernandez. (Let us pause here to say that this guy looks very comfortable at the plate and deserves a chance to play every day.) Zimmerman hit a sacrifice fly that scored Castilla.

Now there were two outs, and the Nationals were down one, 4-3. Brad Wilkerson then crushed a drive to left that looked like it would go over the head of Todd Linden, who was the defensive replacement for Bonds. But Linden made an amazing, diving catch to snare Wilkerson's blast and end the game.

It was a loss, and a depressing one at that, but it was a great game. It's really great to have baseball back in D.C.