Cordero, Nats Let Another Get Away
Francoeur Slugs Grand Slam in 9th : Braves 8, Nationals 5

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006

ATLANTA, May 13 -- The position has become far too familiar for the Washington Nationals, a reliever standing in the middle of the field, bent at the waist as if doubled over in physical pain, opposing runners circling the bases, just waiting to greet each other at home plate, to celebrate a come-from-behind win.

Saturday night, it was Chad Cordero, the Nationals' closer who has been presented with far too few opportunities to close games. Granted a two-run lead in the ninth against the Atlanta Braves, Cordero couldn't finish it, and the game ended -- once again, for the Nationals -- in agonizing fashion, with Jeff Francoeur's game-winning grand slam providing the difference in an unlikely 8-5 victory for the Braves, with Cordero walking slowly off the mound, his glove lodged in his mouth.

In a vacuum, that result is bad enough, for it was the Nationals' fourth straight loss. But couple it with the result from 48 hours earlier, when the Nationals blew a three-run lead in the 11th and lost to Cincinnati on a game-ending homer from Ken Griffey Jr., and someone might as well take a crowbar to the Nationals' knees.

"I've seen people lose games at the end like that over 162 games maybe four or five times," Nationals catcher Matthew LeCroy said. "But never back-to-back like that."

Technically, it wasn't back-to-back, for the Braves put a 6-2 defeat on the Nationals Friday night. But afterward, it certainly felt like it to the Washington players, who find themselves with no consistent options in the bullpen. Cordero, who led the majors in saves a year ago, was supposed to be their rock. Saturday night, he crumbled.

"It's kind of obvious what I did," he said. "I sucked."

The 24-year-old entered the game with a 5-3 lead, one provided not only from another solid outing from rookie left-hander Mike O'Connor, but a decent effort from relievers Jon Rauch and Gary Majewski, each of whom pitched out of jams to hold the lead going into the ninth, not to mention a tiebreaking two-run homer from Alfonso Soriano. The mission last season, for Cordero, would have been so simple: Get three outs and go home.

"You expect to win those games," Manager Frank Robinson said. "And you have to be able to win those ballgames like that."

Robinson, though, had to watch this one on television, for he was ejected in the eighth inning by home plate umpire John Hirschbeck as he was replacing lefty Mike Stanton with Majewski. Robinson said Hirschbeck heard him say something to LeCroy, thought the comment was directed at Hirschbeck, and tossed him.

That, though, mattered not by the time Cordero came in. Here, then, are the results of Cordero's first three pitches: homer to Brian McCann, single up the middle for pinch hitter Ryan Langerhans, single to left for Marcus Giles.

"They were swinging at the first pitch, which is the one where I try to go out and get a strike," Cordero said. "They made me pay."

Yet even with Cordero clearly unstable, he nearly got out of it. The next hitter, Edgar Renteria, laid down a bunt, an attempt to sacrifice, but Cordero boldly threw to third to get the forceout. Chipper Jones followed with a bouncing ball to the left of second baseman Jose Vidro, one which Vidro knocked down to prevent Giles from scoring the tying run.

With that came Cordero's only impressive sequence of the night. He got Braves slugger Andruw Jones to flail at a ball low and away, then froze him with an inside fastball for strike three. With two outs, as poorly as Cordero had pitched, he might have worked out of it.

"You have a lot more confidence," Cordero said. "But you still have to face Francoeur. You still have to get one more out. Anything can happen on that last one."

It can, and it did. Francoeur was Atlanta's rookie sensation from a year ago, the face of the Braves' youth movement, the kid on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He struggled to start this season, but entered Saturday night on an 11-game hitting streak to raise his average from .208 to .245.

Cordero missed with his first pitch, and then, wary of throwing another fastball, tossed a slider that got much too much of the plate. Francoeur didn't miss it, sending it on a line to left, getting the crowd of 37,040 into a frenzy and bringing his teammates onto the field, circling home plate to greet him. He had never hit a grand slam in the majors, never ended a game with a home run. Against the Nationals these days, dreams have a way of coming true.

"It's unbelievable how we haven't been able to close out these games," LeCroy said.

It is, in fact, just that. Saturday night was just Cordero's fifth save opportunity, but he flatly dismissed any thought that lack of work had anything to do with the disaster.

"Pitching's pitching," Cordero said. "Pitching's getting three outs. That's all it is. And I couldn't do it tonight."

After Thursday's loss in Cincinnati, one in which the Nationals scrapped back and were in position to win the series, Robinson openly worried about the lasting effects of such a defeat. Now, they have two such calamities from which to recover. They are 13 games under .500 and teetering on the edge of having no confidence whatsoever -- in each other, in themselves, in the prospects for the season.

"What you can't do, and what I hope we don't start doing, is looking to lose, expecting to lose," Robinson said. "You do that, it's going to be a long year."