Mock Leaves Reds With Blank Look

Pitcher Goes Six Scoreless Innings, Helps Nats End Three-Game Skid: Nationals 2, Reds 0

CINCINNATI, Aug. 14 -- If Garrett Mock's career progresses with the ideal arc -- if he establishes himself as a deserving big leaguer; if he parlays his current opportunity into a merited starting rotation job -- he will face situations far more significant and hitters far more dangerous than those he encountered Friday night. Goodness knows, baseball stages scenarios where better-known forces collide. This was just a mid-August game in a half-empty ballpark. The sixth inning. Two outs. Mock pitching. A guy named Craig Tatum batting.

Dismiss, if you like, the mass appeal of that at-bat -- a contest between players who one month ago were both in the minors. But don't dismiss its significance. For now, at least, each and every Mock outing doubles as an opportunity, and each opportunity generally narrows, at some moment, to a tipping point: One at-bat, or even one pitch, that divides progress from harm. In those moments, careers develop or stagnate.

Mock, on Friday, tipped everything in the right direction. His 101st and final pitch of the night, with the game on the line, preserved what became a 2-0 Washington Nationals' victory against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park and secured the best start of the rookie's career. Mock, with the bases loaded in the sixth, found his night teetering on one pitch. Here he was, deep in a 1-0 game, pitching to Tatum, sweating, close to a knockout, just as close to getting knocked out.

At that moment, as Tatum came to the box -- laying his bat across the plate, as if taking a surveying measurement -- Mock had thrown 95 pitches. It was already looking like the best start of his career. He'd dominated the first four innings, limiting the Reds to just one hit, keeping the game scoreless. He'd gotten help from the defense, too: Ryan Zimmerman had made a charging barehanded play in the third inning on a Willy Taveras bunt attempt, and Nyjer Morgan had thrown out a runner (pitcher Aaron Harang) at home plate in the fifth, redeeming himself for an earlier popup that he'd allowed to drop in front of him.

But in the sixth, now protecting a 1-0 lead -- the result of a Ronnie Belliard homer to left -- Mock needed to save his outing with his own resolve.

The scenario: The bases were loaded. Two were out. Mock, in succession, had just intentionally walked Jonny Gomes and walked Adam Rosales. Up stepped Tatum, a rookie catcher who actually had plenty in common with the man on the mound. Both are 26. In 2004, they were both drafted in the third round, eight picks apart. This past July, they were promoted to the big leagues, five days apart. Tatum, at this moment, had just four hits in 29 big league at-bats.

"I was glad [interim manager Jim Riggleman] let me stay out there after we intentionally walked Gomes, and after I walked Rosales," said Mock, who, until Friday, had gone six innings in just one of five starts this year. "I was really, really glad he let me stay out there, because I wanted to finish that inning."

Riggleman contemplated removing his pitcher.

But he reconsidered, thinking Cincinnati would use a pinch-hitter if Mock was pulled.

Plus, Riggleman said, "Mock was throwing the ball as well as any matchup I could get out of the bullpen at that moment. So we just left him in there."

Mock, careful to keep the ball low, jumped ahead of Tatum 0-1, then 1-2. Mock nearly coaxed a strikeout with his fourth pitch of the at-bat, a low changeup, but Tatum just flinched, and an appeal to the first base ump ruled it a ball. When Mock just missed outside with his next pitch, the count swelled to 3-2. A crowd of 19,606 rose, roaring, ready for a pay-off pitch with the game in the balance.

Tatum briefly stepped out.

The umps called timeout.

Mock had one more pitch.

He knew it; he was up second in the next inning, after all.

"I was just thinking about the next pitch," Mock said. "I wasn't thinking about anything after that."

Mock threw a 94-mph fastball, one of his fastest pitches of the night. Tatum popped it up to second, and easy play for Belliard, and Mock's night (six innings, six hits, no runs) was over. Cincinnati had left the bases loaded. When catcher Wil Nieves swatted a solo homer to right in the seventh, the Nationals had their insurance run. When closer Mike MacDougal finished off three innings of scoreless bullpen work by four relievers, Mock had his second win as a starter this year, and his best accomplishment yet.

"That last pitch was just a good old-fashioned heater down the middle," Mock said. "He's either gonna beat me or I'm gonna beat him. I'm glad we got the guy to pop up."