原文:http://goo.gl/vn9dd
MZ出品，超長的，強者幫忙。
Sunday, September 25, 2011, 7:16 p.m.
By Mark Zuckerman
Nationals Insider
CSNwashington.com
As the crowd of 37,638 roared and members of the Nationals doffed their caps
one last time before disappearing down the dugout steps, Jayson Werth turned
to Michael Morse and offered up a prediction.
"This is how it's going to be," Werth told his teammate.
If there's one thing to take away from Sunday's 3-0 victory over the reeling
Braves in the season's home finale -- and there's plenty to take away from it
-- that ninth-inning scene stands out above all else.
A near-capacity ballpark had been cheering all afternoon, applauding Ross
Detwiler for pitching out of a couple of jams, giving Morse a curtain call
after he clubbed his 29th home run, roaring for Henry Rodriguez with each
101-mph fastball, chanting "Drewwwwww" when closer Drew Storen entered from
the bullpen and then exploding for the team as a whole when it wrapped up its
final home win of the season.
At that moment, Washington felt like a real baseball town. Not because of
some special event, an Opening Day or a rookie flamethrower's debut. No, this
was a genuine celebration of an improving ballclub that is closing out 2011
in fine fashion.
"This is what our goal is, to be in this kind of atmosphere," Morse said.
"They're looking at a good team out there and cheering us on every day."
There remain three more games (at Florida) before the Nationals' seventh
season in the District is complete. As those seven years have progressed,
often slogging along at a painful pace, local baseball fans have tried to
cling to the notion that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
For the first time, that light is clearly visible. It's not off in the
distance. It's right in front of everyone's faces. The Nationals have every
reason to believe they will be a good team next year.
"Everyone sees the process taking place, and that's the exciting part,"
reliever Tyler Clippard said. "Three years ago, we were kind of in shambles.
We're tightening up the screws right now, and everyone can see that. It's
exciting for us."
Even the most optimistic of Nationals fans couldn't have drawn up a better
script for the home finale. The shutout victory over an Atlanta club hanging
on for dear life in the NL wild-card race was satisfying enough. But the fact
nearly every Nationals player who contributed to the win was a key member of
their long-term plan made for the sweetest sight of all.
Start with Detwiler, the former first-round pick who finally in the last
month came into his own and positioned himself to make the Opening Day 2012
rotation. With six stellar innings Sunday, the left-hander finished his
season with a 3.00 ERA over 15 games (10 starts) and 13 1/3 consecutive
scoreless innings against the Phillies and Braves.
"I kind of had to step back after [a ragged Sept. 2 start] against the Mets
and re-evaluate myself and say: 'What do I need to do better?'" Detwiler
said. "And we found it. [Pitching coach Steve McCatty] sat down with me and
just pointed everything out to me."
A victim of poor run support in the past, Detwiler this time took advantage
of the three runs his teammates gave him, all via home runs. Ramos sent a
laser beam just over the left-field fence in the bottom of the fourth for his
15th homer (far and away the most ever by a Nationals catcher, even though
he's a rookie). Three innings later, Morse crushed an opposite-field, two-run
blast for his 29th homer of a remarkable season.
An injury-prone backup through his career, the 29-year-old burst onto the
scene this season with a breakthrough performance that has earned him the
cleanup spot in the Nationals' lineup entering 2012.
Nearly everyone in the crowd Sunday recognized that, refusing to stop
cheering until Morse hopped up the dugout steps and doffed his cap for a
rousing curtain call.
"That was awesome," he said. "That's my first ever."
Staked to a comfortable 3-0 lead, the Nationals bullpen sealed the deal with
its best performance of the season. Rodriguez, Clippard and Storen combined
to retire all nine batters they faced, striking out six.
Rodriguez's star shone the brightest. In striking out the side in the
seventh, he reached 101 mph multiple times, got Braves catcher David Ross to
symbolically wave the white flag by attempting to bunt with an 0-2 count and
nobody on base and put away Jack Wilson with an 88 mph slider that had the
clubhouse still in awe an hour later.
"I told him today: How he pitched, nobody can hit it," Ramos said. "You keep
doing that, nobody can hit it."
"It was like a Nintendo pitch," Storen said. "Create a player, and max him
out."
Clippard continued the dominance with a 1-2-3 eighth inning that included two
strikeouts. Storen then finished it off with a quick ninth inning, all of it
taking place in front of a packed ballpark with nobody sitting down.
And when Storen got Freddie Freeman to ground out to end the game, the
Nationals had wrapped up their sixth win in seven games over the last week
against the two top dogs in their division. They wound up going 10-8 against
the Phillies, 9-9 against the Braves.
"They're playing for all the marbles," manager Davey Johnson said. "They've
had a great year, and they're a great ballclub and we didn't cut them any
slack. Even though we weren't in the race, I could sense the feeling that we
were. We played like we were fighting for a playoff spot. That's a great
sign."
Reality shows this was nothing more than the Nationals' 78th win of the
season. They would need to sweep the Marlins the next three nights to finish
with their first winning record since arriving in town.
But after winning 59 games in both 2008 and 2009, then improving to 69 wins
in 2010, this franchise has taken significant steps to overcome its
regrettable past.
There's still another major step to take -- "the hardest step," third baseman
Ryan Zimmerman said -- but for the first time since baseball returned to
D.C., there is a real sense that moment has arrived.
"There's a growing up here," Johnson said. "There's a lot of pride on this
ballclub, and there's a lot of guys that really are not satisfied with this
year. You could probably ask everybody in that room, and they'd probably tell
you they wished the season would have started tomorrow, again. I think that's
the sense I get from this ballclub."
Ask any of the 37,638 in attendance Sunday, and you'd probably get the same
answer.
There won't be another ballgame played in Washington this year, but there
isn't a baseball fan in town who isn't already counting down to the day this
club will be back on this field, primed for what a lot of people believe
could be something special.
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