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Little Things Add Up to a Tough Loss
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With the Cardinals leading 4-2 in the eighth Saturday -- when both of the Nationals' runs to that point had come from first baseman Nick Johnson, first on an RBI single in the fourth, then on a solo homer in the eighth -- Flores was put in an untenable situation. Colome, who walked in the decisive run in the 10th inning of Thursday's 8-7 loss in Philadelphia, retired the first two men he faced, then walked both Kennedy and Duncan.
That had Acta going to the bullpen to get the left-handed King. But he lost Izturis on a 3-2 pitch, bringing left fielder Skip Schumaker to the plate with the bases loaded. "Late in the ballgame, when you walk people, they end up hurting you some kind of way," King said.
With the count 1-1 on Schumaker, Flores set up to take a sinker on the inside part of the plate. "It just cut and got away from me," King said. The ball darted to the outside part of the plate, never hitting the dirt. Flores couldn't grab it. Kennedy darted home.
"His ball cut," Flores said, "so it was hard for me to stop it. And well, unfortunately, they scored."
The run made it 5-2, and might have been insignificant -- if not for Flores's own near-heroics, the one-out, two-run homer he hit off Cardinals reliever Anthony Reyes. "You can't sit there and be worried about what I did in the third inning, is that going to cost us in the ninth?" Kearns said.
But Flores worried. He knows that when Estrada is healthy -- which should be within the next week -- he will be sent to Class AA Harrisburg, .500 average or not.
"I won't be disappointed," Flores said. "I just want to show them that I just want to play every day. I will be down there just doing my job, trying to do it better than I've been doing it. And they will have a decision to make."
