For Phillies Phans this is the apocalypse. Chris Carpenter held the “can’t miss” Ashburns to just three hits, and the upstart Cardinals went on to take the NLDS three games to two in a sparkling 1-0 win in Philadelphia, ending the Phillies post-season dream of another October World Series appearance. Phillies fans were so disappointed, they didn’t even boo.
The Philadelphia loss was as surprising as the poor performance of Charlie Manuel’s team, which couldn’t put together enough hits to cage the Redbirds. “Actually, I don’t know what to say,” Manuel said, following the loss. “I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games, and definitely we had the best record in baseball.”
But the best record (and the best pitching staff), wasn’t enough to carry the Phillies into the NLCS — with Phillies’ fans describing their team’s elimination as “a crushing disappointment.” The depth of the loss is reflected in the Philadelphia blogosphere: “Thud” was the headline of The Good Phight, while Beerleaguer led its coverage with “Failure In Philly.”
But while baseball’s blogworld focuses on “the Phailure in Philadelphia,” Friday’s loss was more the result of Chris Carpenter’s pitching performance than the poor hitting of Ryan Howard & Company. Carpenter walked none and struck out three, taming Halladay in what Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa called “a dream match-up” of Cy Young winners. Carpenter threw 110 pitches, 70 of them for strikes. It was a Phorgettable night in Philly, but not in St. Louis.
Of course, there are teams in baseball that would love to have bragging rights to a 102 win season — including the one right here in Washington. But expectations were so high in Philadelphia that what will follow now is an off-season of recriminations, and an effort to find that one missing piece that Phillies’ fans think they need. It might be ugly. “There are no two ways around it: 2011 is a failure for the Phillies,” Crashburn Alley said. Oh, boo-hoo . . .
The Nationals closed out their home half of the 2011 season with a decisive, 3-0 win over the Braves — bringing the 35,000-plus fans that came to see them to their feet in sustained standing ovations for their home nine. The victory, the team’s 78th, was sparked by the pitching of Ross Detwiler and home runs from Wilson Ramos and Michael Morse.
Following the victory, Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson praised his club for their year. “There is a lot of fire in this ballclub,” he said. “They are not satisfied with this year. You could probably ask everybody in that room and they wish the season started again. That’s the sense I get from this ballclub. The young nucleus is coming along. It’s just a tribute to the whole organization to be at this point.”
In many ways this was a classic Nationals’ victory: Ross Detwiler pitched out of two jams to notch the win, with the Nationals’ bullpen of Henry Rodriguez, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen locking down the last home triumph. Rodriguez was particularly effective, striking out three while throwing his fastball, in one instance, at 101 miles per hour.
“Once you get into that bullpen of theirs and you’re facing Rodriguez, Clippard and Storen, the swings get a little tougher. Those guys are pretty good,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. After the game, Phil Wood thought that the Rodriguez outing was particularly impressive — and that “there would come a time” when we’d see the swap that brought him from Oakland as one of the best trades in the team’s history. Wood was being understated: that is apparent now.
Following his home run in the bottom of the seventh, which put the game nearly out of Atlanta’s reach, Michael Morse was given a curtain call, his first ever. “It feels great to win,” Morse said afterward. “The team played great. It’s good momentum to show Washington that we are putting together a good team.”
The Wisdom Of Section 1-2-9: Nationals’ fans are getting louder and more outspoken — the result (perhaps) of the recent winning streak and hopes for next year. It was in the 7th inning that they made their feelings known to the few Braves fans in attendance, standing and chanting “Let’s Go Cardinals! Let’s Go Cardinals!”
“Tommy was real impressive,” Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said of Tom Milone after the Nats dealt the Phillies a 4-3 defeat in ten innings on Tuesday afternoon. “He showed me a lot.” Milone pitched a solid six innings of shutout ball against the Phillies, giving up just four hits and striking out two.
But Milone’s probable win was erased by the Philllies in the bottom of the seventh, when Doug Slaten and Tyler Clippard couldn’t hold the heavy hitting Phillies, who tied the game on a Nats’ killer Raul Ibanez home run. Ibanez’s soaring dinger came off Tyler Clippard with two on base, and erased the heroics of Roger Bernadina, who had put one into the right field seats in the top of the frame.
It wasn’t until the 10th inning that the Nationals could strike back: with two out, Michael Morse walked (and went to second on a passed ball), Danny Espinosa was intentionally walked and pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman singled to bring in Espinosa with the go-ahead run. Drew Storen came on in the bottom of the tenth (it was another nail biter) and recorded his 39th save.
Rookie September call-up Steve Lombardozzi’s hit in the top of the 7th inning — his first hit of the season — scored Brian Bixler and led the Nationals to a 3-2 win against the Mets in New York. Lombardozzi, who started the game at second base for Danny Espinosa, was 0-15 before his clutch single. The Mets had tied the score in the bottom of the 6th, driving starter Ross Dewiler from the game.
The Lombardozzi single brought the Nationals to 68 wins on the season, and drew them to within two games of the third place Mets. While Lombardozzi was energized by his hit, Ross Detwiler was the big news of the game for the Nationals. The lefty breezed through the Mets line-up for 5.2 innings before losing the strike zone and walking two. The Mets then capitalized, with a single from David Wright and a double from Angel Pagan.
Detwiler’s outing brought his ERA to 3.76 for the year, and put him in line in the competition for a spot on the Nationals’ starting rotation for 2012. Speaking of Detwiler’s outing following the game, Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said that Detwiler “just lost it” in the sixth inning, but that he didn’t know why. “It just happened,” Johnson said. “I would have liked to get him the win.”
Leading 3-2, the Nationals’ bullpen came through again, with Todd Coffey, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen shutting down the Madoffs the rest of the way. Johnson praised the bullpen after the win, adding that he was pleased that “we were able to rest” Clippard over the previous two days. “He was fresh and we needed that,” Johnson said. Coffey got the win, Clippard registered his 33rd hold, and Storen notched his 35th save.
The Washington Nationals won ugly on Friday night, but they won. With two on and one out in the eleventh inning, Jayson Werth hit a bounder to Astros’ third baseman Jimmy Paredes who, in an attempt to get a force out at second, threw the ball into left field. The muff scored Ryan Zimmerman with the walk-off run, giving the Nationals a badly needed, 4-3, bottom of the 11th inning walk off victory.
“Initially, I hit it and I knew there was a potential double play, so I was running hard out of the box,” Werth said following the victory. “I looked to see what happened at second when I didn’t see the ball. I thought it was going to be there. I kept looking, and I saw it go in the outfield. That was that.” The walk-off notched a win for Tyler Clippard — but the victory could have gone to the entire bullpen, which kept the Astros off the board from the 6th inning on.
The botched throw from Paredes lacked the deep-throated dramatics of the Nationals’ usual walk-off triumphs, but the win was welcome: the Nationals had struggled with putting runs on the board of late, and were attempting to recover from a late-game 7-4 pasting at the hands of the Dodgers on Thursday.
Even with the win, the Nationals were able to scatter only six hits off of five Houston pitchers. The lack of offense has been the most disheartening part of an up-and-down season. In the wake of the Houston win on Friday, Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson told the media the problem has kept him awake nights. “I’m used to a little more of a comfort zone,” Johnson said. “With all the young players … it’s been that kind of a struggle. Everybody’s trying to probably do a little too much.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The clubhouse is crowded with new arrivals, and three of them started the game on Friday. Steve Lombardozzi started at short, Chris Marrero was at first, and Tom Milone was on the mound. The early results are just starting to come in, but here’s what they say: Lombardozzi has not yet mastered major league pitching, Marrero has yet to hit the long ball, and Milone needs to work on getting through a line-up the second time . . .
For those who think that is too negative, there’s this — there doesn’t seem much doubt that Lombardozzi can hit, Marrero’s double last night to left-center was one of the hardest hit non-dinger slaps this year at Nationals’ Park and Milone is absolutely unintimidated by major league hitting . . .
Ryan Zimmerman’s ninth inning bleeder into right field gave his team yet another improbable ninth inning walk-off win, as the Nationals bested the New York Mets on Friday night, 8-7. Zimmerman’s hit came after the Nationals loaded the bases on Mets’ closer Bobby Parnell — and capped a night that saw Nats’ rookie pitcher Tom Milone make his team debut.
The 8-7 win masked a back-and-forth contest that saw the Nationals sprint into a 5-0 lead after three innings, with Milone pitching a steady rookie game against a tough line-up. Milone looked good, and is clearly in the Nationals’ plans for the rest of the season. But Milone had trouble during his second time through the Mets’ line-up, giving up four runs in the Mets’ fourth, including a home run to Mets’ first sacker Nick Evans.
Rookie Milone also notched one of those unusual first-game oddities: a home run on the first pitch he faced as a major leaguer. But it was Milone’s steady pitching that got the attention of Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson: “He is a pitcher. I know everybody wanted me to stay with him,” Johnson said. “He pitched well for me. He made a couple of bad pitches, but — by and large — he went after them. I didn’t want to take a chance of him losing it.”
The nail-biting ninth inning was necessary after Tyler Clippard (who has struggled with his command over his last three outings) gave up a single run to the Mets in the top of the seventh. Jesus Flores (who was 3-4 on the night) started out the inning with a single, pinch hitter Jonny Gomes walked, Ian Desmond sacrificed pinch runner Brian Bixler and Gomes to second and third — and Mets’ manager Terry Collins intentionally walked Roger Bernadina to bring Zimmerman to the plate.
Jesus Flores homered and Jonny Gomes drove in two runs with a clutch single to left to lead the Washington Nationals over the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1 at Nationals Park on Thursday. The Flores homer was his first since May of 2009, while the Gomes hit came against his former team. “Against the Reds or not against the Reds, it would bring a smile to my face,” Gomes said.
The Flores-Gomes tandem helped righty starter Jordan Zimmermann to his eighth win of the season. Zimmermann, who will apparently be shut down after his next start (or the one after), did not have his best stuff, but gutted out an impressive 5.2 innings while giving up six hits. Zimmermann’s ERA now stands at 3.11 — and his 2011 campaign has to be considered a success, which sets him up as a major contributor (and likely #2 starter) in 2012.
Gomes two run single in the sixth was the difference in the game, but Zimmermann’s outing was saved by a quartet of Nationals’ relievers. Ryan Mattheus, Henry Rodriguez, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen threw a combined 3.1 innings, while giving up just two hits. Clippard notched his 32nd hold, while Storen added his 33rd save. Storen continued to build on his steady reputation — if he wasn’t before, he must now be considered to be one of the best closers in the game.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: It seems like old news now, but it’s good to note, if just for the record. Former Nats’ veteran righty Jason Marquis was supposed to provide another needed starter to help the Diamondbacks overcome the Giants in the N.L. West, but he’s out for the season with a fractured leg . . . the Marquis injury (as we remember) came against the Mets, after the former Nats’ starter had two rocky outings with his new club . . .
Now it appears, that other semi-big name for the Nationals at the trade deadline, Denard Span, continues to suffer the effects of a concussion that has sidelined him for much of the 2011 campaign. Span had returned to the Twins’ line-up, but yesterday he was put back on the disabled list after suffering from migraines. Which is only to say — sometimes it’s the trades you don’t make that matter. If Mike Rizzo had pulled the trigger on a Span trade, the needed centerfielder would have been spending time on the D.L. in D.C. . . . and the Nationals would have been without one of their key (Drew Storen or Tyler Clippard) bullpen arms . . .
