The recent string of one run losses by the Washington Nationals have to be devastating to both the team and its fans. To come so close to victory, but then have it snatched away by either luck, bad luck or just plain lack of fundamentals by the team is poisonous. It happened again on Memorial Day Monday as the Philadelphia Phillies edged the Nationals 5-4 at Nationals Park.
The Nationals had a 4-3 lead going into the seventh-inning thanks to home runs from Michael Morse, Danny Espinosa and Laynce Nix, but in that inning starter Livan Hernandez began to tire and reliever Sean Burnett was brought in to put the Phillies out of commission. Unfortunately it was the reverse. Burnett gave up an RBI single to Ryan Howard followed by a Raul Ibanez sacrifice fly to give the Phillies a one run lead.
The Nationals had an opportunity to tie the game in the eighth, but a base running gaffe by infielder Alex Cora caused him to get caught in a run down and tagged out taking the Nationals out of scoring position. After that, the Nationals unceremoniously played the game to its miserable conclusion.
The Nationals fall to 22-31 on the year with little answers coming for their struggles.