Nationals Take 2 of 3 From the Dodgers: Nationals 5, Dodgers 2
By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 5, 2005
LOS ANGELES, May 4 - The standards are clearly different. When Zach Day gets in trouble, Nationals Manager Frank Robinson comes to get him, and quick. When Livan Hernandez finds himself in a fix, Robinson frequently stays on the top step of the dugout, watching his ace work.
That's what happened Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. On a day when Robinson said Day "thinks I hate him," Hernandez gave the Nationals a much-needed 5-2 victory over the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by working out of one bases-loaded situation en route to his first complete game of the year, allowing seven hits.
"He pitched a gutsy ballgame," Robinson said.
First baseman Nick Johnson drove in two runs with his third homer and an RBI single, the Nationals scored four in the seventh inning and Washington beat its top off-season pitching target - Los Angeles lefty Odalis Perez - en route to taking two of three from the Dodgers to start a nine-game West Coast swing.
Hernandez (4-2) was nearly at his best, retiring the first nine men he faced and benefiting from splendid defensive plays from shortstop Cristian Guzman and third baseman Vinny Castilla at crucial moments, throwing 131 pitches. He gave up a run in the fourth on a single, stolen base and two ground-outs, but the Nationals immediately got that back on Johnson's solo homer in the fifth, his third of the year.
Hernandez's key moment came in the fifth, when he walked Cesar Izturis loaded the bases with two outs. He said afterward that pitching around Izturis was part of his strategy, because he preferred to face first baseman Hee-Seop Choi.
Day wouldn't be afforded that luxury. On Tuesday night, Robinson yanked Day in the same situation in the fourth inning of a 4-2 loss. That led to a tense moment in which Day turned his back toward Robinson when the manager came to remove him. And it led Robinson to say before Wednesday's game that Day could benefit from a change of scenery.
"You don't want it to continue the way it is, to become unbearable to the point where it affects him, it affects his performance, and it affects my sleep patterns at night and my friendly, sunny personality," Robinson said before Wednesday's game. "Then, you have to start thinking about: Would [he] be better off if he'd go someplace else?"
Day, who is 1-2 with a 5.06 ERA, missed his previous start after developing an ear infection that affected his balance. After feeling a bit dizzy after the game Tuesday, he had the ear checked again Wednesday, said it remained the same, and will continue to monitor it. He also didn't dispute Robinson's assessment of whether a trade might be good for him.
"It's something that I've thought about," Day said. "I'll just put it like that."
Day, 26, will be moved to the bullpen next week after Tony Armas Jr., out with a groin injury, is activated from the disabled list.
"I don't think going to the pen helps," pitching coach Randy St. Claire said. "If you don't have any confidence, you don't have any confidence. If you don't trust your stuff and believe in your stuff and believe in yourself, what's the difference?"
When Robinson was asked whether Day needed a "change of scenery," he responded, "Yeah. Zach Day doesn't think I like him. He thinks I hate him, and anything I do, short of him being successful, he's going to think I'm not giving him the opportunity to pitch enough."
Day didn't dispute that assessment, either. "Just by what's gone on, just by what's on the field," Day said.
Robinson, though, said that doesn't accurately reflect his thoughts about Day.
"I don't dislike any of the players on my team," Robinson said. "I don't lose confidence in them. It's just that if they're not going well, I have to do certain things for the good of the team that I may not do if you're going good."
During spring training, the Cincinnati Reds were interested in trading outfielder Wily Mo Pena for Day, a Cincinnati native. The Nationals thought that was too high a price. General Manager Jim Bowden said Wednesday the team is not shopping Day, and Day said he hasn't asked to be traded.
"I think Zach's a very important part of our pitching staff," Bowden said. "He's been battling an ear infection, and I think that's having an effect. But he's a very important piece of the puzzle, whether he's in the rotation or in the bullpen."
Hernandez long ago established himself as an important piece of the puzzle, and he showed why in the fifth, retiring Choi on a pop-up to shortstop on a slow curveball to end the bases-loaded threat.
Perez, meanwhile, couldn't get out of his problematic inning, the seventh. Second baseman Jose Vidro, in a 3-for-27 skid, singled to lead off, and with one out, Castilla launched a double to right-center that scored Vidro all the way from first, igniting the big inning that featured run-scoring hits from Johnson and Endy Chavez along with a sacrifice fly from Gary Bennett.
Vidro, however, got up gingerly after the run, and was replaced in the field in the bottom of the inning. He said he rolled his left ankle, but Robinson said he was also battling a slightly strained quadricep muscle.
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine," said Vidro, who hates missing games. "I already told Frank I'm playing Friday."
That left it to Hernandez - and the defense. With runners on first and third in the eighth, Castilla ranged toward the line to stab a bouncer by Milton Bradley and made a sterling throw to second for the inning-ending force, perhaps the Nationals' best defensive play of the year.
"A dagger," Vidro called it.
"The Castilla play," Robinson said, "was probably the ballgame, right then and there."
Except it's not over until Hernandez says it is. Bennett, who caught him, said he was as strong in the eighth and ninth as he was in the first. He led the majors in complete games in each of the last two years, yet when he looked at the newspaper this season, he saw other pitchers with three already, and he didn't have his first.
"It's not easy," he said. "Now, I got my first. I'm good. Let's see what happens."