ATLANTA — The giant scoreboard at Turner Field showed the Washington Nationals leading the Atlanta Braves by three runs, with only the bottom of the ninth left. The left-field bullpen door swung open and in trotted manager Frank Robinson’s choice to close out the ballgame.
Saul Rivera?
Yes, Robinson entrusted the lead to the 28-year-old rookie reliever, not to regular closer Chad Cordero (who, it turns out, was unable to pitch because of an ingrown toenail).
So it was that Rivera earned his first career save in nail-biting fashion, surrendering a two-run homer to pinch-hitter Ryan Langerhans and putting two more men on base before retiring Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones to preserve a 7-6 Nationals victory that was marred by outfielder Alex Escobar’s scary shoulder injury.
“My heart is still bumping,” said Rivera, a career minor leaguer who finally got his break in Washington this season. “It feels pretty good. Big-time.”
Rivera found himself in this odd predicament thanks to Austin Kearns, who hit a three-run homer off Atlanta’s Tyler Yates in the seventh inning, bringing the Nationals all the way back from an early deficit.
Three solid innings of relief from Ryan Wagner (1-2) and Jon Rauch carried Washington into the ninth, when Robinson expected to signal for Cordero to come on for his 24th save.
Unbeknownst to the manager, though, Cordero was battling an ingrown nail on his right big toe. Trainers had worked on it before the game, and Cordero believed he would be able to pitch. But after three or four warm-up tosses in the bullpen, he realized it wasn’t going to happen.
“I wanted to go out there,” he said. “But it was just hurting too bad.”
So Rivera, who had pitched in 35 major league games, was told warm up. Once in the game, the young right-hander immediately got into trouble. He allowed a one-out single to Matt Diaz, then served up a two-run homer to Langerhans, cutting the deficit to one.
Marcus Giles drew a walk, and Edgar Renteria singled to left, setting the stage for one of the Braves’ Joneses to win the game.
Who among the crowd of 33,621 could have predicted Rivera would suddenly find his groove, strike out Chipper Jones and then get Andruw Jones to pop out to end the game?
“You had two of the toughest, the best hitters in the game with the game on the line, and he responded very positively,” Robinson said. “He should take a lot of satisfaction in that. I think he grew up a lot tonight. I’m very proud of the way he handled it.”
Elation in the Nationals’ dugout was tempered by Escobar’s latest injury, a dislocated right shoulder that could sideline him for the rest of the season.
Escobar, who had another impressive night, going 3-for-3 with a walk and sacrifice fly, had to make a quick, head-first slide back into first base on Brian Schneider’s ninth-inning line out to right. In the process, he jammed his right hand into the bag and popped his shoulder out of the joint.
Escobar immediately started writhing in pain, and first-base coach Davey Lopes signaled for head trainer Tim Abraham to sprint out of the dugout. It took several minutes for Abraham to get Escobar’s shoulder stabilized to the point where he could walk off the field with assistance.
A Braves team doctor was able to reset the shoulder joint, and X-rays showed no fractures. Escobar, though, will return to Washington today to undergo an MRI that could detect other damage. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list, and the Nationals purchased the contract of reliever Kevin Gryboski to take his spot on the roster.
“I can’t describe how bad you feel for this kid,” Robinson said of Escobar, whose career has been derailed by injuries. “You’re feeling good about him, the way he’s swinging the bat tonight again and then boom, something happens. It’s like he’s got a cloud hanging over his head.”
The wild finish capped a wild game, one in which Nationals starter Ramon Ortiz was tagged for four early runs before turning things around and dominating before departing after the fifth.
Those four runs — three of which came on Giles’ bases-loaded double over Escobar’s head in center — ultimately doomed Ortiz to another unsatisfying night. His final (unconventional) pitching line: five innings, six hits, four runs, three walks, a hit batter and six strikeouts.
Ortiz also dug his teammates a sizeable hole, one they tried to climb out of all night. They managed only two runs in five innings against Braves lefty Chuck James, one on a Schneider RBI single, the other on a sacrifice fly by Escobar.
Washington finally struck in the seventh against an Atlanta bullpen that has been excoriated all season by frustrated fans. Right-hander Chad Paronto, asked to hold a 4-2 lead, surrendered three straight singles to Alfonso Soriano, Felipe Lopez and Ryan Zimmerman.
Lefty Macay McBride came on and got Nick Johnson to ground into a fielder’s choice, with Lopez caught in a rundown between the plate and third, but the righty Yates was torched by Kearns for the game-changing homer — the third in as many games by the Nationals right fielder.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.