Message #1181905

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just when we get past Gio, here comes the next bombshell:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/21748016/the-secrets-out-now-nats-storen-was-in-terrible-pain-for-game-5

VIERA, Fla. -- The ever-affable Nats reliever Drew Storen has done interview after interview about the bitter Game 5 defeat that sent Washington home from the postseason, and of course his role in it. But in each retelling, he has always left out one important detail. Exactly how important that detail is, well, that's still up for debate.

Some folks around the Nats think it's the crux of the story, the untold reason Storen followed two hitless outings in two straight days with the bullpen blowup on the third straight day he pitched, the day that ended their season. As for Storen, well, he would rather not even have the debate.

The stoic Storen said not a word to a soul who might repeat it, but some people around the team claim he was in excruciating pain the last three days of that playoff series with St. Louis, including that final, fateful day. Given a two-run lead, Storen pitched the Nationals to within one strike of the NLCS twice, but couldn't quite close the door in the 9-7 Game 5 defeat folks won't soon forget in the nation's capital. Eventually, he allowed three hits, two walks and four runs, and left as the loser in the most important baseball game in Washington in decades.

It might have been easy at some point during interview after interview he has done this winter and spring to let slip that he was having terrible back pain in Game 5, that he'd spend much of the final three days in the trainers room receiving treatment for back spasms others described as unbearable. Not him, though. Storen wouldn't say a thing about it. Still won't. Not really.

Only after being confronted with the information did he offer even a reluctant acknowledgement that maybe he wasn't quite 100 percent, and that maybe he did receive a little treatment. But it clearly was a topic he wasn't interested in talking about. And his message was exactly that: To him it wasn't a worthy subject because aches and pains are felt throughout a 162-game schedule by everyone who wears a uniform.

To him, that's the end of the story. More interesting to him was how word got out. It seems, he would have been happy to take this one with him.