Correction Appended
For the third night in a row the Washington Nationals went into extra innings. For the second in a row, they lost, falling to the Florida Marlins 6-5 in 11 innings May 13.
In the top of the 11th, Marlins’ second baseman Omar Infante led off with a single to center field. His at bat was followed by third baseman Greg Dobbs, who hit a double down the right field line. A close play at home in which Infante just got his fingertips on home plate before being tagged by Wilson Ramos ended up being the winning run for the Marlins.
Though the play was controversial, replays show that Infante clearly touched the plate before the tag.
“He was safe. He made a great slide,” Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman said. “He put his hand out there, then pulled the hand back and put the other hand out there and Infante just made a great slide.”
Nats’ starter Tom Gorzelanny struggled from the start, giving up a two-run home run to Gaby Sanchez and a solo shot to John Buck before escaping the first inning.
The Nationals got one back in the bottom of the third inning when third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. led off with a single off of Marlins’ starter Chris Volstad. Gorzelanny then sacrifice bunted, followed by back to back singles by center fielder Roger Bernadina and shortstop Ian Desmond, respectively, allowing Hairston to score. However, the Nats could not find a way to tack on more runs as right fielder Jayson Werth struck out and first baseman Adam LaRoche grounded out to second to end the inning.
Gorzelanny gave up yet another home run in the top of the fourth inning, this time to Marlins’ right fielder Mike, to put the Marlins up 4-1.
The Nats got a homerun of their own in the bottom of the fourth off the bat of left fielder Laynce Nix. A two-run double from Bernadina later in the inning tied the game at four.
Marlins’ left fielder Logan Morrison hit the team’s fourth home run of the night in the bottom of the eighth inning, a solo shot off of Nats’ reliever Tyler Clippard to put Florida up 5-4.
However, the Nats scored a run in the bottom of the eighth after a double by Nix knocked in Werth to tie the game at 5-5.
Drew Storen pitched two perfect innings in the ninth and tenth for the Nats, but the offense could not come through.
Friday was an off night for Gorzelanny. While he came into the game with a 2-2 record, a 2.87 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched, he left Friday’s game against the Marlins with four earned runs in only four innings of work. While he was certainly not impressive on Friday night, Riggleman is not concerned, citing the fact that this was Gorzelanny’s second straight start against the Marlins.
“It’s tough to pitch against the same club sometimes that quickly back to back,” Riggleman said. “He threw some great pitches. He got swings and misses. He got some strikeouts. They’ve just got a good lineup.”
While Riggleman certainly was not happy with last night’s loss, he saw some reason to be encouraged.
“That was a great ballgame,” he said. “We played really good baseball. It was really a great effort by our guys. I hate to lose that game. I know they’re agonizing over it but that was great baseball.”
blasky@theeagleonline.com
