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Nationals Fail to Cover All Bases
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That's when it got interesting. Victorino's job was, clearly, to bunt Rollins to second, allowing the lethal combination of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard to win the game from there. Victorino got the bunt down. Zimmerman charged from third, Johnson from first, and catcher Jesús Flores jumped out from behind the plate. With second baseman Ronnie Belliard rotating to first, the Nationals had the play covered -- except at third.
Zimmerman picked up the ball. Victorino was out. Rollins never stopped running, and covering third was -- nobody.
"It's kind of a gray area," Zimmerman said. "I've got to be up there, because if he bunts it hard, we've got a chance at second. And then 'Flo' has to go after it, because that's what he's supposed to do. I called it, and even if [Flores] would've started taking off [to cover third], there's no way he would've got there."
Guzmán, who had covered second, trailed Rollins toward third. Johnson sprinted all the way across the diamond and took a throw from Belliard. But there was no play. Rollins was safe.
"I told him I don't know if I've seen that more than five times," said Geoff Jenkins, the Phillies' veteran right fielder. "You have to have the speed, first. You have to have instincts. And you have to have guts. If you get thrown out at third there, you're the goat."
That left Acta with little choice but to walk Utley, setting up a double play. He then walked Howard as well, choosing to face the less-accomplished Werth -- even if a walk meant a loss. "Those are the two guys that we can't allow to beat us in that situation," Acta said.
In a way, they did anyway. Colome, whose fastball reached 97 mph on the Citizens Bank Park radar gun, couldn't find the plate against Werth.
"It looked like he was just raring back," pitching coach Randy St. Claire said. "He wasn't pitching. He was just throwing the ball as hard as he could."
As it turned out, he threw four hard balls. Werth walked, Rollins was forced home, and the Nationals were hustled right out of a chance for a sweep.
