This is what blowing leads five times in eight games looks like.(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Phillies 14, Nationals 7: These Washington Nationals sure have a bad habit of surrendering leads, as any team with subpar pitching will. Wednesday night marked the fifth time in the season’s first eight games that the Nationals blew a promising headstart, and it might have been the most explosive choke yet. The Nats jumped all over Phils starter Kyle Kendrick in the first, just like they did last Thursday in a 6-5 win — second baseman Adam Kennedy crushed a bases-loaded double and the Nationals had a 3-0 lead. Then Craig Stammen took the hill. The bullpen was getting ready before Stammen recorded an out, as he allowed four hits, a walk, and a sac fly. Not content to blow one lead, the Nationals loaded the bases again and scored another three runs off Kendrick in the second. Of course, the Phils proceeded to come back with another three in the bottom of the frame on a Chase Utley home run. But it wasn’t just Stammen who struggled — Shane Victorino pummeled Nats pitching all night en route to a four-hit, five-RBI, three-run effort filling in for the injured Jimmy Rollins at the top of the Philadelphia order and the Phils eventually pulled away. Things got so messy that pitcher Jason Marquis got the chance to pinch hit in the fifth, as Jim RIggleman ended up having to use 19 of his 25 available players in this debacle.
But that’s what happens when your starter gets knocked out in the second inning. As Adam Kilgore points out, Nationals starters have now averaged a little over 4 innings per start this year. So, uh, yeah — how soon will Stephen Strasburg be here again?
Wizards 98, Pacers 97: Irene Pollin addressed fans at tonight’s season finale, thanking them for their support and assuring that “next year is going to be better. I promise you that.” It’d be hard to imagine any possible way that it couldn’t. Washington pulled out a one-point victory over the Pacers — but leave it to this season to sour even a victory: with the win, the Wizards dropped from a 13.75 percent chance at landing the first pick in the 2010 Draft Lottery to an 10.35 percent (or 8.8 percent, depending on the result of the Golden State game) probability.
