Trailing in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Zimmerman stepped to the plate and absolutely crushed a Brad Lidge fastball halfway up the grass beyond the centerfield wall to give the Nationals a 7-5 victory.
Before the home run, Zimmerman just missed a Lidge slider. The next time Philadelphia’s closer went after him, Zimmerman was right on it.
“I hit a fastball, I was late on the slider obviously,” Zimmerman said. “With [Lidge] he throws a slider quite a bit. It’s such a good pitch. That time, fortunately, I was looking fastball and kind of left one over the plate.”
Zimmerman bailed out a bullpen that had given up a 3-1 lead that they had inherited from starter, Ross Detwiler. Relievers Joel Peralta and Tyler Clippard each gave up home runs to Philadelphia batters to tie the game in the seventh inning.
A Carlos Ruiz base hit off of Drew Storen in the ninth looked like it might be the winning RBI as Jayson Werth crossed home plate. The rookie reliever wanted to get right back out and when he saw Zimmerman step to the plate, he knew he had a good chance.
“I wanted to go back out there. I just wanted a tie game,” Storen said. “There are just certain guys who seem to step up in those clutch situations. As a fan I knew [Zimmerman] was going to hit that.”
Things got off to a great start for the Nationals as the team scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Josh Willingham, Ivan Rodriguez and Ian Desmond each had consecutive RBI singles in the first frame. That lead proved to be sufficient for most of the game, especially while Detwiler was pitching.
Ross Detwiler, who made his second start of the season, showed some progress as he is coming off of recent injury. He left the game with a lead after pitching five and a third innings while only giving up one run. Manager Jim Riggleman was impressed with Detwiler’s performance.
“Det did a good job. Ended up throwing a few more pitches than he would have liked to. Phillies did a good job running the pitch count up on him a little bit,” Riggleman said. “He gave us a chance to win the ballgame.”
Detwiler did not seem to mind the bullpen losing his chance to get the win in the box score. What was important to him was a Nationals win.
“It’s a stepping stone,” he said. “It’s definitely not where I want to be, but the team stayed in the game and we ended up winning so it’s a good stepping stone.”
After Detwiler left the game, things got ugly very quickly. Peralta gave up a solo shot to catcher Carlos Ruiz to get the Phillies a bit closer. In the bottom half of the inning, the Nationals added a sac fly from Ian Desmond to supply an insurance run. It proved not to be enough of a lead as Clippard would serve up a two run home run to Raul Ibanez.
But Zimmerman proved once again to be the hero. The walk-off home run was his seventh since his debut in 2005. Since that time that is the most walk off home runs in the major leagues. On a day where everyone was wondering where Adam Dunn, who was on deck, would end up, Zimmerman stole some of the focus at the end of the night.
But at the beginning of the day, all eyes were on Dunn and when he stepped up to the plate, still in a Nationals uniform, he received a standing ovation. So while the stats and standings may remember Zimmerman’s seventh walk off shot being the most important part of the game, Dunn will take away something else.
“I really can’t put it into words,” Dunn said. “It’s just one of those special things that when I retire that will be one of the things on the top of my list to remember.”
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
