By Joe Strauss, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
WASHINGTON — The St. Louis Cardinals have spent six months constructing a narrative of constant obstacles, some self-imposed, some happenstance. Within that context, what happened Thursday evening at Nationals Park was completely appropriate, albeit doubly frustrating.
The Washington Nationals concluded a pitchers’ night with one big swing, right fielder Jayson Werth’s towering blast that both led off and ended the ninth inning against reliever Lance Lynn.
When Werth’s ball landed in the home bullpen the Nationals had a 2-1 win and an E-ticket into Friday night’s decisive Game 5 of the National League division series. The Cardinals will be there waiting with Adam Wainwright and an opportunity to win their fourth all-in game within a calendar year. The Nationals will start 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez.
“It will be a lot like today,” promised Werth, whose walk-off blast came less than 24 hours after his former Philadelphia Phillies teammate, Raul Ibanez, did the same for the New York Yankees. “It’s what it’s all about.”
“It’s going to be like it was a year ago: their guy against our guy,” said third baseman David Freese.
“This was a really competitive game,” said first baseman Allen Craig. “It wasn’t a game where each team got a bunch of hits. There was a lot of good pitching and good defense. We just couldn’t break through. They just got the big swing at the end.”
The Cardinals would prefer a different ending. Nationals manager Davey Johnson thought it perfectly apt. Werth won the game by turning around the 13th pitch of a riveting duel with a pitcher who ended the season in the Cardinals’ rotation but was making his fourth appearance in five postseason games.
“That’s the way that game should have ended, with Jayson Werth hitting a home run,” Johnson said.
Lynn, who projects as the Cardinals’ Game 1 starter should they reach the National League championship series, warmed three times before inheriting a ninth-inning tie. Lynn took control with consecutive strikes before Werth leveled the count while fouling seven two-strike pitches. Werth then barreled a fastball to thrill a capacity crowd of 44,392 that witnessed the District’s first postseason win since 1933.
“It was a matter of time,” Lynn said. “I was challenging him. He was up for it.”
Lynn didn’t work to the corners but chose to challenge Werth. He nearly struck him out on a 2-2 curve before a fastball caught too much plate.
The ninth inning fell to Lynn because manager Mike Matheny wanted to hold closer Jason Motte for a save situation. Lynn was projected to pitch one inning before introducing younger arms into the fray.
Matheny noted that Motte converted each of the team’s 42 regular-season saves. “If we take a lead there at any point you’re asking one of our guys, especially one of our young guys who have never been in that situation, to come in and close out a game. That’s a lot to ask.”
The ending culminated a laborious night for hitters who dealt with plate umpire Jim Joyce’s liberal strike zone in addition to dominant outings by starting pitchers Kyle Lohse and Ross Detwiler.
Pitching with precision to both sides of the plate, Lohse allowed two hits in seven innings. First baseman Adam LaRoche put the Nats on top when he smoked a full-count pitch for a second-inning home run to center field. He would be the only Nationals hitter to reach scoring position against Lohse, who struck out five against one walk in what could have been his final start with the organization.
The teams conspired for only three at-bats with a runner in scoring position. The Cardinals took them all.
Detwiler held the Cardinals to three hits through six innings. The Cardinals tied the score without a hit in the third inning when a leadoff walk of shortstop Pete Kozma, Lohse’s bunt and shortstop Ian Desmond’s boot of Jon Jay’s one-out grounder positioned Kozma to score on right fielder Carlos Beltran’s fly ball.
The rally died when Detwiler froze Matt Holliday on an outside pitch for one of his two strikeouts. Holliday became the first in a string of Cardinals to voice their displeasure to Joyce about his zone.
The starting efforts contrasted the regular season, when the Nats jumped Lohse for 17 hits and 12 runs in 11 2/3 innings covering two starts. The Cardinals exploited four hits, five walks and shabby defense to chase Detwiler after only 2 1/3 innings in his final regular-season start.
A Nationals bullpen vulnerable in the series’ first three games rose up this time.
Jordan Zimmermann appeared in relief for the first time in his major-league career, followed by Tyler Clippard and closer Drew Storen. The trio struck out eight of the 11 hitters they faced. Johnson called the collaboration “electric.”
The Cardinals had reached the Nats’ well-worn bullpen for 10 hits, seven walks and four runs in the series’ first three games. Thursday found them overpowered. They failed to advance a runner past first base after the sixth inning and beyond second base after the third inning.
Craig accounted for two of the Cardinals’ three hits. He and Kozma each reached base three times. The rest of the team reached base three times, including an intentional walk of Freese.
A disciplined, focused approach helped the Cardinals to their edge. Hitting coach Mark McGwire preached a philosophy of bringing the Nationals over the plate by focusing on fastballs, a stance that had obvious benefits against Zimmermann in Game 2 and Edwin Jackson early in Game 3. The Cardinals then consistently reached hitters’ counts and pounced. That philosophy failed to mesh with Thursday’s liberal strike zone, which appeared to be applied consistently to both sides.
“Sometimes there’s a tendency to do that,” Beltran said when asked about expanding his hitting zone. “If you see he’s calling some pitches off the plate, you do that. But you have to stay within yourself and try not to do that. If you do, you’re going to put yourself in a position where you swing at very bad pitches.”
Cardinals players were instructed to say nothing disparaging about Joyce’s strike zone, though several privately conceded that its parameters necessitated a modified approach. Of the Cardinals’ 10 strikeouts, three were called.
“We knew after a few innings that Jim had a pretty wide zone,” Freese said diplomatically. “You have to work with what you have. Both sides had to deal with it.”
Catcher Yadier Molina uncharacteristically waved at back-to-back pitches out of the zone in the eighth inning. Two batters earlier, Holliday looked at a called third strike that left him doubled over laughing.
Jay, an infrequent complainer, turned on Joyce after a called third strike in the seventh inning.
“My emotions got the best of me there,” Jay said. “I don’t like striking out, especially in a situation where I’m the table-setter. I was frustrated at myself.”
