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Nats Left Longing For More
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There were others. Olsen rescued himself time and again. A double play ball off the bat of Dmitri Young helped clean up the mess he made in the first inning. Strikeouts of Ryan Zimmerman and Young helped defuse a major scoring opportunity in the fifth, when the Nationals led off the inning with a double by Nook Logan and a single by Ronnie Belliard.
Logan ended up scoring on a single by Felipe Lopez, but Belliard was thrown out at the plate for the third out.
Acta later shrugged off the questionable decision to send Belliard, who was so far out on the throw from center field he didn't even bother to slide.
"You got to take a chance," he said. "We're not scoring that many runs."
All of Florida's home runs came off Washington starting pitchers. On Sunday, it was Jason Simontacchi's turn to rue the regrettable offerings he left over the plate. The most dismaying were those to Cabrera, who has hit 21 home runs this season and was the Marlins' lone representative in the All-Star Game. If there was one guy Simontacchi did not want to mess around with, it was Cabrera.
"Twice he just crushed it today," Simontacchi said. "Yeah, I missed zones, no doubt about it. A good hitter hits it out, [but] why couldn't he hit a single? It's frustrating."
The damage actually could have been much worse. Cabrera's home runs came leading off the third and fifth innings, so they were solo shots. And both followed inning-ending strikeouts by Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla, who left four men on base -- runs Cabrera would have had a chance to bring home if Uggla hadn't flailed twice.
Acta pulled Simontacchi with one out in the fifth after he allowed Cabrera's second home run, then a pair of singles and a walk. That left him responsible for all five of Florida's runs and handed him his seventh loss of the season. His ERA swelled to 6.37.
Lefty Ray King induced a groundout to get out of that inning, and four relievers combined to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings, but the impressive bullpen performance meant nothing under the circumstances.
"It's part of the game," Belliard said. "We've got to forget this today and come back [Monday] and beat somebody."
