This one is on you, Frank

Last night's game was a three-act play. In the first act, Frank Robinson lost the game for the Nationals. Instead of taking out Tony Armas in the third inning when it was clear to everyone that he couldn't get the Braves out, Robinson left him in. Armas gave up a two-run homer to Chipper Jones in the first that would have been a solo homer had Deivi Cruz threw the ball more quickly to first on Rafael Furcal's opening ground ball.

In the third, the wheels came off. Down 2-1, Armas gave up five runs in the inning. He loaded the bases on two singles and a walk with no one out, and then gave up a run on a wild pitch and another on a ground out. It was now 4-1. With one out, he walked Julio Franco. Jeff Francouer, the new Roy Hobbs, then homered to make it 7-1.

We do not understand why in a close playoff race Robinson insists on staying with ineffective starters past the point of reasonableness. Had he taken Armas out pretty much at any point prior to Francouer's homer, we would be talking about a 3-1 series win. Instead, the Nationals leave another series just treading water in the race. And, as Dave Sheinin says this morning in the Post, the Nats can't afford to tread water at this point in the season.

The second act in this play consisted of an amazing and totally improbable comeback by the Nats. They scored two in the fourth and four in the seventh to tie it 7-7. Meanwhile, the bullpen shut down the Braves to keep the game close. It's really terrible that the comeback by a team that normally can't score more than three runs was wasted in such an important game.

The third act was the walk-off homer by Andruw Jones in the 10th, but we don't fault Luis Ayala for this loss. Shutting out a team like the Braves for 8 innings is incredibly hard, and the Nationals did wonders to hold the Braves scoreless for so long. Atlanta was going to score eventually, and had the Nationals played a little smarter in the third we never would have reached the 10th.

That, dear readers, is why the Nationals lost this game, and if they want to stay close in this race they need to start playing every game like they have to win it. If the problem is too few pitchers in the bullpen, then let's call up some pitchers from AAA to add some more depth, but let's not lose this thing just because we're too slow to pull a pitcher.