Over the last couple of days, there have been some painful playoff exits. The Phillies and the Tigers both got sent home in agonizing fashion. Detroit got sent home in a 15 inning thriller in Seattle, while a brutal decision by Orion Kerkering cost the Phillies their season. Nationals fans are all too familiar with these heartbreaking games, so let’s turn back the clock.
4. 2016 NLDS Game 5 vs LA Dodgers:
The
first game on this list is one of three winner-take-all contests we have here. This 4-3 loss was somehow the least agonizing of the Game 5’s over the years. In the other two game 5’s, it felt like the Nationals were the better team and deserved to advance. However, in this series, I just think the Dodgers outplayed the Nats over the five games.
Of course, that 2016 team was awesome. It is one of my favorite Nationals teams ever. Daniel Murphy and Max Scherzer were both so electric that season, with Mad Max winning a Cy Young and Murphy finishing second in MVP voting. Dusty Baker’s composed managerial style was also a breath of fresh air after the 2015 Matt Williams debacle.
The game was a 1-0 Nats lead going into the 7th. Max Scherzer was cruising through six innings. However, after a Joc Pederson homer to start the 7th, Scherzer’s day was done after 99 pitchers. In hindsight, maybe Baker should have rode his Cy Young winner a little longer.
That set the stage for a slow motion collapse where five Nats relievers appeared in the 7th inning. None of them had much luck and by the end of the inning, it was 4-1 Dodgers. It really felt like Dusty Baker had over managed.
However, the Nationals were not gonna go down without a fight. In the bottom of the 7th, Chris Heisey hit a 2-run homer to make it a one run game. After that, there was tons of traffic, but the Dodgers always got out unscathed.
The critical moment came in the bottom of the 9th. After two walks by Kenley Jansen, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw came in to close out the game. He came in to face the dynamic Daniel Murphy with two on and one out. Murphy missed a cookie from Kershaw and popped it up.
Wilmer Difo was the last man on the bench and struck out to end the game. However, the game was really over when Murphy popped up. It was a tough loss, but there are worse ones coming.
3. 2014 NLDS Game 2 vs San Francisco Giants
The Mariners vs Tigers game last night actually reminded me of this game. Innings just kept coming and going with nobody wanting to score. That is what happened when the Nats met the Giants in the NLDS in 2014. Except this game took 18 innings to be decided, not 15.
This is the only game on this list that was not an elimination game, which shows how painful it really was. There were a couple brutal losses in this series, with this game and the one where Aaron Barrett couldn’t throw the ball accurately to the catcher for an intentional walk. Of course, nowadays you don’t have to throw the four pitches.
This game will always be known as the one where Matt Williams did not let Jordan Zimmermann finish the job. After finishing the season with a no-hitter, Zimmermann picked up right where he left off in the NLDS.
The Nats had lost game one of the series at home, so they needed this one. Through 8.2 innings, Zimmermann was unbelievable. He had allowed 3 hits and 1 walk. However, after walking a batter in the 9th with two outs, Matt Williams had seen enough.
He pulled Zimmermann for closer Drew Storen. This was an awful decision. Storen was the author of the brutal collapse in 2012 and Zimmermann was dealing. He was only at 100 pitches as well. However, Williams went to his closer anyway.
Of course, this would not work out. The Giants got two straight hits off of Storen to tie the game. After the Nats got shut down in the bottom of the 9th, the game would go to extras.
In extra innings, it was a marathon where nobody wanted to score. Yusmeiro Petit pitched an insane six scoreless innings of relief for the Giants that night. The ever reliable Craig Stammen tossed three scoreless frames for the Nats.
It was a battle of attrition, who would blink first. The Nats were sadly the team to blink first. In the 18th inning, Brandon Belt launched a home run deep into the DC night. It was a no doubt shot. Even though the Nats had the bottom of the inning, that felt like a dagger.
It was the kill shot, and the Nats would not score. The Nationals would actually beat Madison Bumgarner in San Francisco to extend the series to four games, but they lost in that game four. Just a devastating game.
2. 2017 NLDS Game 5 vs Chicago Cubs
After an iconic game four win to split the series, the Nats had forced a game 5 against the defending champions. They had all the momentum after a gutsy Stephen Strasburg start and a Michael A. Taylor grand slam.
After the Cubs struck first, the Nats crushed Kyle Hendricks in the 2nd inning. Daniel Murphy hit a solo shot and then Michael A. Taylor had another huge moment with a 3-run homer. It looked like smooth sailing.
However, Gio Gonzalez just didn’t have it that night. He only gave the Nats three innings and allowed three runs. That meant it was 4-3 entering the fifth inning. Nats ace Max Scherzer came in to try to give the Nats big innings.
It was not Scherzer’s day though. After getting two quick outs, things collapsed. Scherzer got unlucky with some cheap hits and it cost him. His catcher Matt Wieters also had a disaster of an inning. A double made it 5-4, but after that, Max got let down.
He got his strikeout which should have ended the inning. However, Wieters couldn’t catch the ball and the batter got to first and a runner scored. Just a disastrous sequence. Things got even worse after a catcher’s interference by Wieters. After a hit by pitch with the bases loaded, it was 7-4. Just an apocalyptic inning.
However, the Nats fought back. After the Cubs made it 8-4 on a horribly misplayed ball by Jayson Werth, the Nats cut the lead to two in the bottom of the frame. However, the Nats couldn’t hold the Cubs yet again and the game was 9-6.
Cubs closer Wade Davis came in during the 7th inning. He was not very sharp and the Nats scored on him in that inning and in the 8th. However, a mental mistake cost the Nats big time when Jose Lobaton was picked off.
It was 9-8 in the 9th, but Davis locked in. He got a 1-2-3 inning. The image of him striking out Bryce Harper is burned in my brain. It really felt like the Nats were never going to get it done at that point. However, this was somehow not the most brutal loss.
1. 2012 NLDS Game 5 vs St. Louis Cardinals
Of course this one was going to be number one. It was the most agonizing game in Nats history. I remember leaving the ball park in tears that October night. All Nats fans thought the team had advanced to the NLCS, but we lost a game that was tough to lose.
It was all Nationals early. The Nats were all over Adam Wainwright. Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse all homered in the first three innings. It felt like a coronation for the Nationals. They were cruising against the defending champs.
However, the Cardinals would slowly cut away at the lead. Gio Gonzalez was shaky in his five innings of work, allowing three runs. After a scoreless sixth, the Cards struck again in the 7th and 8th to make it a one run game. Things were beginning to get stressful and the Nats were tight.
Then the Nats got an insurance run. Kurt Suzuki got a massive hit to make it 7-5. The crowd let out a massive sigh of relief. It seemed like the Nats had things under control again. Young closer Drew Storen had a two run cushion to work with and he had been lockdown all season.
However, we know what happened next. Frankly, I don’t even like talking about it because it is so sad. After a Carlos Beltran double, Storen got two quick outs. Then he had so many chances to end the game. The Nats were a strike away from victory on multiple occasions. Storen couldn’t put Yadier Molina or David Freese away though. He walked both of them and the Nats were in trouble.
Then two of the Cardinals pipsqueaks broke Nats fans hearts. Daniel Descalso tied the game on a single. However, the real villain of this story is the Cardinals light hitting shortstop Pete Kozma. His name makes me sick.
The little shortstop provided the dagger, with a base hit to make it 9-7. A young Sam Sallick was bawling his eyes out and left the stadium in my parents arms. It was devastating. At that point, the whole crowd knew it was over and it was. The Nats would go quietly into the night and Nats fans learned what baseball heartbreak was like.
So to Tigers and Phillies fans, we know what heartbreak is like. However, the great thing about baseball is that there is always next year. It is a clean slate and hopes are high when you enter Spring Training.
All those battle scars made 2019 even sweeter. The ghosts of Pete Kozma and Drew Storen no longer haunted Nats fans. So keep your head up, because next year can always be the year.
