Nationals just miss ending slump

By Dave Utnik

Published: April 10, 2008

WASHINGTON – The pitching mound at Nationals Park is, at least symbolically, a land of opportunity.

A tiny dirt oasis rising above the plush green infield grass, it is a place where young hurlers are being groomed for greatness and select veterans, like Odalis Perez, are being given a chance to rejuvenate their careers.

In Thursday’s night’s 4-3 loss to the Florida Marlins – the Washington Nationals’ seventh straight – Perez threw like a guy trying to break into the league rather than stay in it.

“Odalis gave us a great start. He gave us a chance,” Nationals manager Manny Acta said.

Just seven years ago, Perez was a National League All-Star. He’s pitched in the playoffs and has twice been ranked among the league’s ERA leaders – most recently in 2004.

But even after winning 64 combined games for the Braves, Dodgers and Royals from 1998-2007, the 30-year-old left-hander didn’t have a job until he signed a minor league contract with the Nationals on Feb. 19.

Though he was not guaranteed a spot in the rotation, Perez seized the opportunity and wound up making the team when the staff’s anticipated ace, Shawn Hill, went on the disabled list with forearm tightness.

It was Perez, not Hill, who stood on the mound on Opening Night as the country got its first glimpse of majestic Nationals Park on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. It was Perez who held the visiting Braves to one run on four hits in five innings that night and it was Perez who climbed that same patch of dirt on Thursday and reminded the world that he can still bring it.

Matched up against Florida lefty Mark Hendrickson on a evening that harkened the dawning the spring, Perez carried a three-hit shutout into the sixth before Hanley Ramirez doubled and scored on a single up the middle by Jeremy Hermida.

Perez turned the ball over to the bullpen two batters later and walked to the dugout to a sizable ovation from a crowd of 24,549. But the Marlins ruined that feel-good moment as Jorge Cantu doubled in a run off reliever Saul Rivera and later delivered an RBI single against Luis Ayala.

That left Perez with another impressive showing and nothing to show for it. He allowed two runs on six hits and struck out six in 5 2/3 innings but all he received in the way of support was a solo home run by Ronnie Belliard – his first of the year – in the third inning.

“Unfortunately I lost with a good effort but that’s part of the game,” Perez said. “Everybody is trying to do their best. We haven’t done it but we’re going to keep trying. It’s not only me. Everyone who goes out there expects to have a good outing.”

Hendrickson felt that way too. Like Scott Olsen the night before, he had little trouble negotiating the Nationals lineup.

He retired 14 of the final 15 batters he faced and wound up yielding only one run on three hits in seven innings enough for the Marlins to sweep the three-game series despite pinch hitter Johnny Estrada’s RBI single in the eighth and Nick Johnson’s run-scoring double in the ninth – a line drive to the top of the wall in left field that Willingham knocked down before it could leave the park.

“We’re not putting any pressure on ourselves. There’s a hundred and some games left. We have a lot of time to come back,” said center fielder Lastings Milledge, who extended his hitting streak to eight games and is now batting .310. “We did our job, we just fell short.”