Nationals find no answers on home turf
Rare miscues by Castilla open door for Rockies
By Bill Ladson / MLB.com
WASHINGTON -- Being that they are in a pennant race, the Nationals are supposed to beat a last-place club like the Rockies. Instead, the Rockies took care of the Nationals, who lost Monday's game, 5-4, in front of 30,165 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.
The Nationals have now lost nine of their last 12 games and find their lead in the National League East dwindling by the day.
For at least two weeks the Nationals' offense has been virtually nonexistent, but on Monday it was their defense that fell apart.
Vinny Castilla's error in ninth proved most costly. With the score tied at 4 and closer Chad Cordero one strike away from getting out of the inning, Aaron Miles hit a routine groundball to Castilla at third base. But the ball went under Castilla's glove for an error and allowed Eddy Garabito to score from second base.
Castilla has been playing with a bad left knee for most of the season, but he said it did not force him into the error.
"I just missed the ball," Castilla said. "That's it. It's surprising because I always make those plays. When something goes bad, it's bad."
The losing pitcher was Cordero, while Jose Acevedo earned the victory and Brian Fuentes picked up his 13th save.
There were defensive lapses that cost the Nationals earlier in the game, as well.
In the fifth inning, Castilla made a throwing error that allowed Dustan Mohr to go to second base. Mohr would later score on a Cory Sullivan triple.
The next inning, Cristian Guzman had a shot to get Todd Helton at the plate, but he booted Garrett Atkins' grounder, allowing Helton to score and help the Rockies take a 3-2 lead.
"It's the worst game we played all year long," manager Frank Robinson said. "It's unacceptable and it will not be acceptable here. We have been making sloppy plays that cost us runs in ballgames for quite some time, but it came to a head tonight. I'm not going to accept that."
The box score said the Nationals made three errors in the game, but they made many more mistakes on Monday.
Guzman appeared to forgot how to bunt. In the second inning, after Brian Schneider led off with a single, Guzman tried to bunt, but he popped it up and the Rockies were able to double off Schneider at first base.
Schneider led off again with a single in the eighth inning, but Guzman struck out making a bunt attempt.
"They were throwing me a slider, fastball," Guzman said. "What can I say?"
When asked how dishearting it was that Guzman couldn't lay down a bunt, Robinson said, "I wish my vocabulary would better describe [those situations]. But it's not, so I'll leave it as it is."
Preston Wilson thought he should have caught Sullivan's triple. Wilson was playing shallow center field, but Sullivan caught Wilson off guard by hitting the ball over his head.
"He hit pretty decently and it kept carrying. I went back and the ball caught the heel of the glove," Wilson said.
Even Jamey Carroll, the man Robinson calls the most fundamentally sound player on the Nationals, made a mistake. With runners on first and second in bottom of the ninth inning, Carroll took Fuentes' first pitch and hit into a double play to end the game, which didn't please Robinson. Carroll is best known for taking a lot of pitches.
"It was right there and I hit it on the ground," Carroll said. "I knew he was trying to get ahead in that situation. He came right after me. It was a pretty good pitch. I hit the top of the ball and grounded out."
Outfielder Jose Guillen is optimistic that the Nationals will have some good fortune soon.
"Hopefully, we are going to catch a break, like everything is going to go our way," Guillen said. "Right now, nothing is going our way. That's baseball and you are not always going to have a good time."
Nationals starter Tony Armas Jr. didn't get past the third inning, as he left the game because of dizziness and dehydration. Before he left, he gave up a run in the first inning as Eric Byrnes drove in Miles with a single.
But the Nationals took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first off starter Byung-Hyun Kim. Wilson drove Jose Vidro home with a blooped double, while Guillen scored on a Ryan Church groundout.
After the Rockies made it a 4-2 game, the Nationals found themselves back in it with Rockies reliever Mike DeJean on the mound. With the bases loaded and one out, Church hit a sacrifice fly which sent Vidro home, and Sullivan's throw in center field skipped past Atkins at third base, allowing Guillen to score the tying run.
Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
