Nats Keep Skidding, Demote Bergmann
Braves 10, Nationals 2

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Some pertinent numbers regarding the current state of the Washington Nationals: Yesterday, one member of the Atlanta Braves -- right fielder Jeff Francoeur -- hit two homers and drove in seven runs, which is more RBI than any National has for the season. That led the Braves to a resounding 10-2 victory at Nationals Park, where a healthy afternoon crowd of 32,532 took in the Nationals' ninth loss in a row.

Break this one down -- sloppy defensive play, downright laziness and an inability to come through with anything that resembles a clutch hit -- and there is nothing worth saving. So afterward, General Manager Jim Bowden began something of an overhaul, sending struggling right-hander Jason Bergmann -- who made a surprise, and ill-fated, relief appearance yesterday -- to Class AAA Columbus, reinstating closer Chad Cordero from the disabled list and preparing to recall slugger Wily Mo Peña after a hasty rehabilitation assignment.

This after Bowden and Manager Manny Acta watched as the seeds of a blowout were sown in a series of brain lapses, both on the mound and in the field.

"The physical mistakes are going to happen," Bowden said. "The mental mistakes or carelessness is what's not acceptable. And it's going to have to change -- or we'll make more changes."

That started yesterday. The most jarring news on an unsettling day -- one in which the Nationals found themselves down 4-0 before they came to the plate, not an appropriate way to approach Braves right-hander John Smoltz -- came with Bergmann's demotion. Given how he has pitched -- an 11.68 ERA in three appearances -- there was little disputing the move.

"I just think that everything negative's feeding in," Bergmann said. "I'm pressing. I've got good stuff, and I know I do. And I'm just leaving everything over the middle of the plate."

After a horrendous start Wednesday in which he allowed seven fifth-inning runs to the Florida Marlins, he was thrust into the bullpen yesterday because Jon Rauch -- who had filled in as the closer while Cordero was out with shoulder tendinitis -- was with his wife, who gave birth to the couple's second child Friday. Bergmann's next start, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday in New York, was going to be skipped -- a situation made possible by Monday's off day.

But after he gave up the second of Francoeur's homers yesterday, then followed it up by allowing another to catcher Brian McCann, his next start will be in the minors.

"He can't keep throwing the ball over the middle of the plate," Bowden said. "Dumb 0-2 pitches. He needs to make the adjustment. As I told him today, the last couple years I would say, 'You need to go down, straighten out and come back.' I told him I can't say that today."

Bowden believes he could not reassure Bergmann because some promising arms -- right-handers Collin Balester and Tyler Clippard, lefty Mike O'Connor among them -- play for Columbus. "Whoever pitches best is going to pitch here," Bowden said.

The Nationals' problems, though, run much deeper than just Bergmann, than just the starting pitching. Yesterday, the untidy play started in that four-run Atlanta first, when right fielder Austin Kearns got his glove on, but couldn't catch, Mark Teixeira's sinking line drive. "I should've caught it," Kearns said. It went as an RBI single, and Francoeur followed with a three-run homer off starter John Lannan.

If that was the only slipshod moment, it could be easily forgotten. There were others. Shortstop Cristian Guzmán couldn't handle Kelly Johnson's ball up the middle with one out in the fourth. That went as an infield hit and led, eventually, to Francoeur's two-out, two-run single. Matt Diaz led off the fifth with what looked like a single -- until center fielder Lastings Milledge didn't charge the ball, then lobbed it to the cutoff man, a combination of gaffes that allowed Diaz to chug into second with a gift double.

"He's 23 years old," Acta said. "He's learning how to play the game up here, and he's going to keep making mistakes here and there, and we just got to keep talking to him."

Those types of things, though, are noticed in the clubhouse, particularly during such a skid.

"I don't think anyone was pleased with kind of how things went today," Kearns said. "You can always handle it when everybody's going hard and stuff like that. We just make mistakes. Just need to be better. Mentally, physically, everything. . . . It just seems like the cruise button was hit, almost."

If the cruise button is hit now, all the preaching about how it's still early will mean little by the end of the month. Bowden, and others, feel that change -- at this point -- can't hurt.

"You could bring a squirrel in here and he's going to do better than we've been playing," said catcher Paul Lo Duca, who went 0 for 3 and is hitting .212. "Got to do something. . . . We need to clean it up."

Bergmann was part of making the mess. Now, he'll try to clean up his performance in the minors. When, or if, he'll be back is impossible to say. And what he finds when he returns is yet another mystery.

"It's been a tough ride," Bergmann said. "I don't even know how many days in a row now we've lost. It's just a low feeling right now, especially for me, because I'm going down. But these guys will continue to work hard, and they will pull out of it."

If they don't, there will be more changes.