The Washington Nationals Must Stand Strong in Wake of this Defeat

I felt pretty good about the Washington Nationals winning their series against the St. Louis Cardinals when the score was 6 - 0 after three innings.  In fact, I began to watch a new episode of CSI New York and thought no more about turning back to check on the score.  The Yankees had already finished off the Orioles and I figured that the Nationals would hold it down for the Beltway area.

I was totally shocked when I scanned my headlines on the Internet and discovered that the Cardinals scored four runs in the 9th inning on a pair of two run singles to win the game.  They were down o the final strike on both at bats that delivered the win.  Talk about a series filled with drama.  Jason Werth hits the walk off homer in the 9th inning previously to force a game 5.  The Washington faithful waited almost 80 years to witness playoff baseball and it ended badly.

Philadelphia fans know the pain of defeat.  We were the first and only franchise to reach 10,000 losses in MLB history.  We were downtrodden for years until we won a pennant in 2008.  What a great feeling it was to be the best in baseball for a year.  We lost in the World Series to the Yankees and got sent home by the Giants and Cardinals in successive years.  We missed the playoffs altogether this year.  Success is truly fleeting.

The Nationals brass might get flack for shutting down Stephen Strasburg late in the season.  His arm could have made a difference in one of these games.  Gio Gonzalez, in spite of an excellent regular season, could not stop the onslaught of the Cardinals in this game.   Davey Johnson might not have too many chances at redemption in this day and age. The baseball gods are truly fickle.  The Nationals had the best record in the majors this year and couldn't make it  out of the first round.  I want to wish the Nationals luck next year.  I am a Phillies fan for life but they added excitement to the NL East and made the fans in DC proud.  

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