Oakland's Athletic Players Come Up Short, Nick At Nite Comes Through Again
I got to tell you, I just wasn't into Monday's game. After the euphoria of the past 48 hours, it seemed like a huge letdown to play the last place Athletics. Almost wasn't worth the effort, you might say. Charlie and Dave even mentioned that the 27,000 in attendance seemed a little "down" during the game. That is, until the 6th inning.Barry Zito was the old curve ball guru until Jose Guillen stepped into the box leading off the 6th inning. Four pitches, four balls, man on first. Then came Nick at Nite. On the first pitch offered by Zito, Johnson crushed a drive that bounced off the back wall in right center field, a deep 400' shot that suddenly woke up the fans and put the Nationals in the lead, 2-1. A succession of relief pitchers did a good job keeping the game close until the Chief came in and closed the game down in the 9th inning.
They didn't do it perfectly. C.J. Nitkowski came in to get two left handers in the 7th, and gave up a single to Eric Chavez and walked Scott Hatteberg. With one out, Eric Byrnes hit a grounder to Guzman, who flipped to Jamie Carroll for one, but Carroll's throw was low and wide, but Johnson's magic leather completed the twin killing -- a run would certainly have scored had the ball gotten past him. In the 9th, Cordero gave up two hits after getting the first two out, but finally induced Mark Kotsay to tap a slow roller to Jamie Caroll who just nipped a sliding Kotsay at the bag to end the game.
Tony Armas, though not having his best stuff, pitching 6 innings, giving up only one run on four hits. He dropped his ERA to 4.91 and has now pitched two quality games in a row. Cordero earned his 16th save of the year and lowered his ERA to 1.24.
The Nationals didn't dominate the game. They only got 5 hits for the game, but this type of game is becoming the "typical" Nationals game this season: Good pitching, good defense, timely hitting, and just enough base runners. I keep saying it, the Nationals can't keep winning like this. I keep saying it, but they keep doing it. One of these days, they're going to start losing these close, one run games. Hopefully, it won't happen anytime soon.
# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 8:19 PM 
