How to Lose a Game of Chicken

Brewers 4, Nationals 3 (10 innings)

I went from stupified, to livid, to fatalistic, all in the span of about 20 seconds (which is to say, all before Ron Darling had managed to formulate a syllable). 1B Ump Paul Schrieber blew the call. Clearly, obviously, indisputably blew it. But if Frank had taken Livan, his 136 pitches and his bad right knee out before the Brewers best hitter came to bat in the bottom of the eighth, or if Vinny could have hit a decent fly ball in the top of the eighth there wouldn't have been a 10th inning. If Jose Guillen hadn't chosen this series to do his best Christian Guzman impersonation, or if the Nationals had managed to convert 11 hits into more than 3 runs, it never would have come down to this.

If you believe in karma, then this is what the Nationals get for coming out on top in all those one run games, for convincing the umpires to convert homeruns into long foul balls, for being statistically out-played but still winning. And so the Nats lead shrinks like Paul Schrieber's credibility.

Nats NL East Lead: 1.5 games