A National Celebration

Chico and Young Combine to Make This Fourth of July One to Remember: Nationals 6, Cubs 0

The Washington Nationals could be scoring runs by the bushel or shriveled up in a drought, and Matt Chico would betray none of it on his 24-year-old face. He insists that on the night two weeks ago when he was shelled for eight runs by the Detroit Tigers, he left RFK Stadium with a clear head, an empty conscience, his confidence intact. Emotion must come from someone else.

"He's more boring than me," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said, his own cliche-ridden reputation fully intact. Yet Chico and Zimmerman share more than that. They are players the Nationals hope to use on winning teams in the future, and yesterday they combined with old hand Dmitri Young to secure a badly needed 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in front of an Independence Day crowd of 39,207 that filtered from RFK Stadium toward the Mall, smiles all around.

"There's not too many places better to be on this day," Zimmerman said, "than this city."

Especially if, like Zimmerman, you hit a homer to give the Nationals a rare first-inning lead. Couple that with Young's fifth-inning grand slam, and the Nationals could celebrate their first six-run game since June 18 against the Tigers. Shelve, for a moment, those statistics of offensive futility. The Nationals' previous three games had brought just six runs. They hadn't had an inning as productive as yesterday's five-run fifth since May 31.

"We don't stress," Zimmerman said. "We don't worry. Nothing ever bothers us. We don't think about, 'Well, we've been having problems.' "

Zimmerman was speaking for the offense, so futile of late. But he might have been speaking of Chico, who is, as the third baseman said, "up here learning, pretty much like I am."

In turn, the Nationals are learning about him. Chico has never shown his tortoise shell of a personality better than on April 21, when he inexplicably gripped a changeup, had it slip from his hand and watched it sail over the Florida dugout -- not just to the stands, but to the second row. The next pitch: strike.

So it is that he absorbed the thrashing at the hands of the Tigers, a result that put his ERA at 5.35.

"Once that day was over, it's gone," Chico said. "I try to look ahead and look at my next opponent."

So he did, holding the Cleveland Indians to one run over six innings. The next time out: six scoreless frames against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was all backed up with his best outing of his rookie year yesterday -- seven innings, four hits, four strikeouts and, most importantly, no walks.

The result: his first win since May 17, nine starts earlier. His reaction: "It feels like any other game, really."

So make sure you put some vanilla ice cream on that holiday apple pie, because Chico's not going to spice it up. The night of Chico's last victory, though, was an important point in the Nationals' season. They beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, and in the sixth inning, Young was sent in to pinch-hit for Chico. He drove in the game-tying run with a single, and the Nationals went on to win.

That night, Young began a torrid streak that hasn't stopped. His 3-for-4 afternoon yesterday kept his average at .413 and his slugging percentage at .594 since that night eight weeks ago.

"It's been quite a trip just to watch him hit," Zimmerman said. "I've never seen anything like it for this long."

Which brought up an interesting point of strategy in yesterday's game. Zimmerman hit his 13th homer in the first off Cubs starter Rich Hill, then singled in his next at-bat. The Nationals carried that 1-0 lead into the fifth, an inning Jesus Flores opened with a single. After Chico's sacrifice, Nook Logan's single and Ronnie Belliard's double made it 2-0, Zimmerman -- hitting .249 -- came up with runners on second and third and one out. Young, now hitting .337, waited behind him.

Cubs Manager Lou Piniella intentionally walked Zimmerman.

"You try to get out of the inning on one pitch," Nationals Manager Manny Acta said.

Young, though, salivated. "I was wanting them to do that," he said.

Acta gave Young a bit of encouragement. "Just get a sac fly and drive one in," he said. Young did more, crushing a 1-2 curveball from Hill over Alfonso Soriano's head in left, the sixth grand slam of his career, the hit the Nationals have been waiting for since perhaps Memorial Day.

"We tried to set up the double play," Piniella said, "but the shortstop doesn't play in the bullpen."

That's where the ball landed, and the lead was 6-0. As he rounded the bases, Young, the Nationals' only all-star, could have been thinking about his renaissance season. Not the case.

"Deep down inside, I was thinking, 'We finally got some runs for Matt Chico,' " Young said.

Check them off. Finally got a game-changing hit. Finally got a big inning. Finally got a win.

"It was fun," Chico allowed. And then he headed off to cap his Fourth of July where Washington's winning pitcher probably should -- at the White House. A thrill? Don't ask. Chico wouldn't let on anyway.