Ask just about any of the 27,483 fans who made their way into RFK Stadium yesterday for the Washington Nationals’ rare late-afternoon game against the Philadelphia Phillies and they would have said the atmosphere could not have been better.
The sun was shining, the temperature hung in the low 70s, and the 4:35 p.m. starting time allowed most to put in a near-full day of work and still make it to the ballpark for Esteban Loaiza’s first pitch.
Ask just about any player in either clubhouse following the Phillies’ 3-0 victory and you got a decidedly different answer.
’I don’t know whose idea it was to play at 4:30,’ Nationals second baseman Jose Vidro said incredulously. ’I don’t know if we have any more games at this time, but if there is, someone should do something because it’s not fair.’
Even the Phillies were complaining about how difficult it was to see the ball in the late April twilight. And they won the game.
’I even asked the umpire at one point, ’How are you even calling balls and strikes?’ ’ Philadelphia pitcher Brett Myers said. ’It was that hard.’
Ballplayers never want to make excuses for their performance, and the Nationals were careful not to place too much blame on the glare and shadows of RFK when they managed a piddling four singles off the Phillies’ pitching staff and wasted a brilliant start from Loaiza.
But it was hard to look at yesterday’s game objectively and not point the finger squarely at the difficult playing conditions.
’It was very difficult for hitters to pick up the spin of the ball,’ Washington manager Frank Robinson said. ’They’re standing in the box, and in center field there’s a bright light out there on the batter’s eye. It’s very difficult to pick up the spin of the ball or where the ball’s going to be and to have good swings.’
Want proof? How about the fact that 12 of the 21 combined strikeouts in yesterday’s game came with the batter looking at strike three.
’If you didn’t see the ball come out of [the pitcher’s] hand, you were pretty much out,’ said Myers, who gave up no runs in seven innings and struck out seven.
Perhaps most baffling was that no one could figure out why yesterday’s starting time was necessary. Both the Nationals and Phillies have today off, so there was no travel-related reason for it. Washington has only two more late-afternoon home games scheduled this season — a 3:05 p.m. game against Atlanta on May 30 (Memorial Day), and another 4:35 p.m. game against San Francisco on Sept. 22 (after which the Giants must fly to Colorado).
’No one could ever tell me why this game was at 4:35,’ Robinson said. ’No one could give me a reason for it.’
As troublesome as the conditions were in the batter’s box and in the outfield, both club’s pitchers had to be confident every time they toed the rubber yesterday. Loaiza certainly enjoyed pitching in the twilight, as evidenced by the two hits and 11 strikeouts (matching a career high) he posted through his first eight innings.
But by the time the veteran right-hander came back out for the ninth with nothing but zeroes on the board for both teams, the big clock in center field was approaching 7p.m. — the typical weeknight starting time. The glare was gone, the batter’s eye was dark green again and Phillies leadoff man Jimmy Rollins saw Loaiza’s 2-1 inside cutter perfectly.
The next thing Loaiza knew, Rollins was trotting around the bases, having clubbed a solo homer into the right-field bullpen to break the scoreless tie.
?One bad pitch cost me the game,’ Loaiza said.
The Nationals fell apart after that. Loaiza (0-2) gave up a single to Kenny Lofton before departing to a standing ovation. Reliever Joey Eischen entered and gave up a single to Bobby Abreu through the right-side hole before getting Jim Thome to ground into a fielder’s choice. Robinson then summoned Luis Ayala from the bullpen, and the right-hander gave up run-scoring singles to both David Bell and Placido Polanco to make it 3-0.
That was all the offense anyone would see all evening. Wagner retired the side in the order in the ninth, striking out both Jose Guillen and pinch-hitter Tony Blanco to earn his fifth save and make a winner out of reliever Rheal Cormier (1-1).
Afterward, the Nationals were still beating themselves for not taking advantage of some early scoring opportunities. In the first inning, leadoff hitter Brad Wilkerson got himself picked off first base by Myers, then watched as No. 2 hitter Ryan Church was stranded on third base with one out. Terrmel Sledge also was left standing on third one inning later, the last time a Washington player ever made it past first base.
At the time, no one could have known how critical the squandered opportunities would be. But as Loaiza and Myers continued to post dueling zeroes on the scoreboard as late afternoon turned to twilight, the early miscues grew larger.
’You don’t want to spoil that type of performance from your starting pitcher,’ Church said. ’That’s all you can ask from the guy. We just unfortunately couldn’t get that one hit, that one run in from third base. That’s all it takes in this game.’
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