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WASHINGTON -- They won't be sending any videotape of this epic to the Smithsonian as an example of baseball at its entertaining finest.
That has been a theme for the Blue Jays on this trip: Winning ugly. Last night they reversed the trend and lost ugly -- 2-1 in 11 innings -- to the lowly Washington Nationals.
At least in Philly, all sorts of wacky, outrageous and undisciplined stuff happened. This one just made your eyes glaze over. It was such a riveting spectacle that by the time it got into extra innings about half the crowd of 22,860 had scurried for the exits, contemplating the nearly four hours of their lives they would never get back.
By the time they got to the bottom of the 11th, the stragglers were chanting: "Let's Go Home!"
A few minutes later, Adam Dunn obliged by hitting a walk-off single with the bases loaded off Jason Frasor for Washington's first extra-innings win of the year against eight losses.
The two teams combined for 29 runners left on base, 13 of them by the Blue Jays.
It was all zeros for both teams until the bottom of the fourth inning, despite 10 baserunners, six for the Blue Jays and four for the Nats. In that bottom of the fourth, Washington finally broke through after a one-out walk issued to Josh Bard, followed by a Willie Harris double into the right field corner. After an intentional walk to second baseman Anderson Hernandez, the Jays tried to turn Jordan Zimmerman's slow bouncer to Aaron Hill into an inning-ending double play, but the Nats' pitcher legged it out at first base to drive in Bard with the first run of the game.
The Jays tied it in the sixth. Scott Rolen led off with a single. Two outs later, Overbay milked Zimmerman for a walk. Barajas then delivered Rolen from second base with a little flare just over the second baseman's glove to make it 1-1.
That spelled the end of the evening for Zimmerman, giving the Blue Jays access to the Washington bullpen which came into this game ranked 29th out of the 30 teams in major league baseball. But even that enticement couldn't lure the Toronto offence out of its shell.
With Brian Tallet out of the game after five innings, Jesse Carlson got through the sixth but in the seventh, the Nats loaded the bases on Dirk Hayhurst. They laid the foundation for what they hoped would be a big inning when Cristian Guzman beat out an infield single and Nick Johnson boomed a double off the wall in centre. After Ryan Zimmerman struck out, Dunn was walked intentionally. That brought Shawn Camp into the game. He struck out Elijah Dukes, then ran the count to 3-0 with no where to put Bard before throwing three called strikes to end the inning without giving up a run.
In the eighth, the Jays returned the favour, loading the bases with one out on an error, an Alex Rios double and a walk. With the infield in, Rod Barajas hit a ball to Zimmermn at third, who got a force at the plate but the relay to first was late to get Barajas. Pinch-hitter Kevin Millar hit a soft fly ball to centre to end the threat.
As a result, the Jays now are 0-for-16 with the bases loaded on this trip. They have left the bases full in eight of the 38 innings they've played.
KEN.FIDLIN@SUNMEDIA.CA