Two pitches doom Haren in loss to Phillies

Photo by USA Today

Sometimes a baseball game can come down to one pitch. In the Nats’ 5-3 loss to the Phillies on Saturday, it may be traced back to just two.

Starter Dan Haren was grooving through the Phillies lineup in the top of the second, having struck out four of the first five batters he faced, when back-to-back home runs put the game in Philadelphia’s hands. The Nats would come back to tie it up later on, and then lose it, but a contest decided by two runs in many ways came down to two consecutive pitches.

The first was to Phillies left fielder Dominic Brown. Haren was in control, trusting his stuff after mowing through the first five batters. But Brown is on a hot streak and took the first pitch he saw, a curveball aimed outside, straight into the stands in right-center field.

It was a play that left catcher Kurt Suzuki almost in disbelief, off a pitch they had intended to be out of Brown’s range.