Little Things Add Up to a Tough Loss
Fundamentally Unsound, Nats Drop Third Straight : Cardinals 5, Nationals 4

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 6, 2008

ST. LOUIS, April 5 -- Jesús Flores's line shot had just sneaked over Busch Stadium's left field wall, and the second-year catcher went into his home run trot. The moment could have been one of celebration, because Flores had pulled the Washington Nationals within one run of the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning. They were alive.

Circling the bases, though, Flores could think only of that one run. "For sure," he said. It was he who had helped give the Cardinals a three-run lead in the bottom of the eighth, failing to snare a misplaced sinker from reliever Ray King, allowing a runner to score on a passed ball. On a Saturday afternoon when the Nationals had several such tiny miscues and lost, 5-4, to the Cardinals -- their third straight loss, all by one run, all with their own collection of "what-if" moments -- Flores found little solace in his two-run homer.

"It come back to my mind," Flores said of the passed ball, "because, I mean, we can be in a tie game. But unfortunately, that's why I say that was very costly."

Take your pick of costly mistakes, because there is no shortage from which to choose. The three straight walks issued by relievers Jesús Colome and King in the ninth inning, allowing Flores's passed ball to be relevant. A fastball delivered by left-hander Matt Chico to the opposing pitcher, Adam Wainwright, who drilled it back up the middle for an RBI single. "Stupid pitching," was how Chico described it, because a breaking pitch might have kept Wainwright off-balance.

And right fielder Austin Kearns's throw to third base on Troy Glaus's fly ball in the third inning, a vain effort to gun down Rick Ankiel, who was tagging from second. The problem: Not only was Kearns's throw too late, but because he threw to third, Albert Pujols tagged from first. Two batters later, Yadier Molina scored both men with a single.

"Terrible," Kearns said. "As soon as I threw it, I knew what the result was going to be."

All of those things help make a three-game losing streak, and the Nationals know it. "We know that when we're going against guys like Wainwright," said Manager Manny Acta, noting the Cardinal right-hander's eight-inning, two-run performance, "we have to try to play kind of a perfect game."

That they did not. They left the bases loaded for the seventh time in the past five games. And they allowed the final three spots in the St. Louis lineup -- second baseman Adam Kennedy, Wainwright and pinch hitter Chris Duncan, followed by shortstop César Izturis -- to reach base six times in 11 plate appearances.

"The bottom of the order kind of killed us," Acta said.

So, too, did Flores. After the Nationals plucked him away from the New York Mets in the Rule 5 draft in December 2006, the 23-year-old catcher drew raves last season for his poise, clutch hitting and maturity uncharacteristic of a kid who had never played above Class A. The plan this year, however, was to return Flores to the minors so he could play every day and better understand how to withstand the grind of a season.

That plan, though, was delayed when Johnny Estrada, slated to be Paul Lo Duca's backup, began the season on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis. In the season's first week, Flores has started two games and gone 4 for 8 with two doubles and a homer. He has, too, allowed two wild pitches and Saturday's passed ball.

"Blocking balls, he's done well," said bench coach Pat Corrales, a former catcher who has worked exhaustively with Flores over the past two years. "He's also missed some [expletive] balls that shouldn't have been missed. It's that simple."

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."