Tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals, baseball’s vampires, delivered a devastating shot to the solar plexus of the Nationals and their growing legion of fans, rising up from twice being one pitch from defeat to score four runs with two outs in the 9th inning to win the 5th and final game of the National League Division Series, 9-7. The Cardinals’ comeback marked the biggest recovery from a deficit in a deciding game in playoff history. Not the distinction the Nationals and their fans wanted.

Oct 12, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Like Nationals fans, second baseman Danny Espinosa cannot believe his team blew a two-run lead with two outs in the 9th inning to drop the 5th and final game of the NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-7. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE

After Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper and Michael Morse blasted home runs to stake the Nationals to a 6-0 lead after three innings, it looked as if the Nationals might enjoy a rare easy victory and move on to face the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series, with the first game Sunday at Nationals Park. Cardinals’ starter Adam Wainwright, without the afternoon shadows to hide his pitches, threw 2 1/3 innings of batting practice to the Nationals hitters. In addition to the home runs, Jayson Werth doubled and Harper tripled.

Starter Gio Gonzalez looked like he had overcome his first game rustiness and jitters as he retied St. Louis batters with ease over the first three innings. After four innings, the Nationals led, 6-1.

However, these are the defending World Champion Cardinals, who won two elimination games last season, defeating the 102-win Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and then, after being in the exact same situation as tonight, defeat the Texas Rangers in Game 6 of the World Series.

In the 5th inning, Gonzalez came unglued. Despite a five run lead and facing the bottom of the Cardinals order, the Nats’ starter let game MVP Daniel Descalso double and issued three walks. When the damage ended, the Cards had closed a large gap to a manageable three runs and chased Gonzalez from the game.

As the Nationals Park record crowd of 45,966 alternately cheered and fidgeted, St. Louis, as champions do, continued to chip away. Releivers Edwin Jacskon and Tyler Clippard allowed runs in the 7th and 8th innings narrowing the gap to  a single run, 6-5. Nervous Washington pitchers issued six walks leading up to the 9th inning. Somehow, though, the Cardinals still trailed, mainly due to going 1-12 with runners in scoring position.

In the Nationals’ 8th, the club, after going into hibernation since the third inning, scored what appeared to be a huge insurance run when catcher Kurt Suzuki lined a 2-out RBI single to center off of nasty St. Louis closer, Jason Motte, who ended up being the game winning pitcher.

In the 9th, all-star Carlos Beltran (3-3, 2 walks), led off the inning with a double. Washington closer Drew Storen, who pitched brilliantly the previous afternoon and was working his third consecutive game, quickly settled down and retired Matt Holliday on a grounder to third and struck out Cardinals’ clean-up hitter Allen Craig.

One out, one pitch separated Washington from a series win and absolute bedlam on South Capitol Street. Then, after getting one ball, two strike counts on both Yadier Molina and David Freese, Storen appeared reluctant to throw a pitch in the strike zone, instead trying to get St. Louis’ veteran hitters to chase a slider. Neither did, though Freese nearly went too far on a check swing to end the game. In the end, Storen, a “strike thrower” with a 3 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio, uncharacteristically walked both hitters, loading the bases.

After the game, Washington manager Davey Johnson said, “Giving up all those free passes, that’s not how you win ballgames. We had the right people there. We just…got a little too cautious.”

Storen’s wildness cost the Nats dearly. Light-hitting Descalso roped a line drive up the middle, just off shortstop Ian Desmond‘s glove. Desmond appeared to stumble on his first step toward the ball and it ended up deflecting off his glove into short centerfield. Lightning fast pinch runner Adron Chambers scored from second to tie the game. Five pitches later, light-hitting Pete Kozma lined a single to right, putting St. Louis into the NLCS and plunging a dagger into the hearts of Nationals’ fans at the ballpark and watching on television all over the D.C. Metro area.

How did Storen, working his third consecutive day, have such an inexplicable meltdown? Johnson said, “I think he tried to be too fine. He wasn’t alone. You can’t win big ballgames by giving free passes. You have to trust your defense behind you and go at them.

“You gotta make them earn it. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”

Champ of the Game: The Cardinals had many, but Descalso gets the nod for his home run in the 8th to bring the game to a run and his clutch hit in the 9th to erase a two-run deficit when failure meant the end of the season. Descalso is a poor hitter, but he came through in the clutch tonight.

For the Nats, Bryce Harper played excellent centerfield, tripled, homered and scored two runs. The future is bright for this young man and — hopefully — his team.

Chump of the Game: The Nationals pitching staff. Even in the playoffs, even against the Cardinals, seven runs should be more than enough to win, even a deciding playoff game. Unfortunately, Nationals pitchers walked 8 batters, inexcusable with a 6-run cushion. Give any team enough chances, especially the defending champions, and they will eventually kill you. It took a long time, but the free passes finally haunted the team and resulted in a crushing defeat, the most excruciating day of baseball in Washington since 1933.

For the Cards, Molina and Craig combined to go 0-7, but with 3 walks.

Unsung Heroes: The incredible fans of the Washington Nationals. They turned out in droves, cheered their hearts out, and got their hearts broken. Anyone, anywhere who claims Washington is not a baseball town after this season is simply a jerk or an idiot. Those folks have been forever exposed as the fools that they are. Nationals fan proved they are the equal of any in baseball.

Next Game: None. The Washington Nationals wonderful, 100-win 2012 season is over. Pitchers and catchers report next February.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, October 3, at Nationals Park, a life long dream unfolded before my eyes.

In Washington, D.C. a packed ballpark overflowed with joy. As the Nationals completed their regular-season closing 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, a few folks, including nearly all of the tiny group rooting for the visitors, headed for the exits. Most, including many clad in brand new “2012 East Division Champion” t-shirts stayed and celebrated.

Oct 03, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Fans revel in the Nationals’ 98th victory, securing the best regular season record in the major leagues. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE

They cheered as the first-place ball club below exchanged high-fives and handshakes to mark their 98th win, ensuring the #1 seed in the National League Playoffs and baseball’s best record. At least for the regular season, a six-month, 162-game examination of stamina and sanity, the Nationals earned the title of baseball’s top team.

The crowd’s standing ovation roared on as each National departed the field and entered the first base dugout. Before folks could stop clapping, whistling, cheering and smiling, the players and coaches, most now clad in red warmup hoodies, reappeared. They jogged around the ballpark, toward the cheering fans. Each flung red curly W t-shirts into the stands.

A moment later, highlights of the 2012 season played on the giant video board above. Between the season’s golden moments, the team’s stars — Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Tyler Clippard, Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond to name a few — thanked fans for their passionate support of the best baseball team in Washington, D.C. in seven decades.

As the video played, Gio Gonzalez, the 21-game winner and ace of the Washington pitching staff, strode toward the stands in left field imploring fans to cheer louder. He pointed into the stands and shouted, “Thank you! This is for you.”

The crowd responded, chanting, “Gio, Gio” and “Cy Young!” A smiling Gonzalez flung his last few shirts to the adoring fans.

As all memorable moments do, eventually the video ended, the t-shirts ran out, the players left the field, and fans returned home, awaiting the next chapter in the 2012 Nationals remarkable season. The scene marked an unforgettable time of connection and affection between team and town that, just a few seasons ago, seemed a decade away and which detractors claimed, even with a successful team, would never happen.

The journey to that joyful scene, under a warm October sky in the nation’s capital, began to heal a generation-worth of broken promises and dashed dreams. It also silenced a veritable army of naysayers and sloppy, lazy or biased reporters who denigrated D.C. as a “bad baseball town” that could never fall in love with the game or a team, no matter how talented. Last Wednesday and all season long, 2.34 million fans proved them all wrong. But, more importantly, they had been wrong a long time ago, years before baseball returned to Washington in 2005.

Sure, D.C. had two teams move away. The first, after the 1960 season, at the behest of a skinflint, likely racist owner who snapped up the last available western market, following teams from New York (the Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers), Philadelphia (Athletics moved to Kansas City, then Oakland), Boston (Braves to Milwaukee). Only one team, the downtrodden St. Louis Browns, moved east (to Baltimore). Like other cities, fan support had nothing to do with it.

The other reason — white flight — as African-Americans moved to major cities in the northeast in search of decent jobs and to escape Jim Crow — remained unspoken publicly, until Calvin Griffith was dumb enough to allegedly admit it to Thomas Boswell on a bus trip to a World Series game. The old man apparently had no idea Boswell was a reporter for The Washington Post.

In 1971, an in-debt-over-his-head Bob Short moved the Senators to a dust filled minor league stadium outside Dallas, Texas to snap up a sweetheart deal before he lost it all, including his profitable trucking business and empire of radio stations. As he did after purchasing the Minneapolis Lakers years before, moving them to Los Angeles, and selling the team, Short sold the Rangers three years later at a handsome profit large enough to pay off most of his debt.

He cared not a whit for fans. He charged them the highest ticket prices for one of baseball’s worst teams. He let trash pile up in the aisles and under the seats until each home stand ended. The predictable drop in the gate gave Short a convenient excuse, but it was self-inflicted, much as Bob Irsay did in the early 1980s in Baltimore.

Contrary to all the nonsense past and present, the fans cared. They loved baseball, even bad baseball, and longed and worked for its return. I know, because I witnessed the passion first-hand nearly 30 years later. Tom Holster and Jim Hartley, leaders of the Washington Baseball Historical Society, decided, in 1998, to hold a reunion for the 1969 Senators. Rookie manager Ted Williams led that club to a shocking 86-76 record. The best Washington baseball team until this season.

Hartley and Holster booked the Westfields Inn and Conference Center in Chantilly, Virginia. How much did Washington baseball fans remember and care? In less than two weeks, all 500 tickets to the event had sold out, despite the historical society having nothing but word of mouth for marketing.

Fans cared. Deeply. Before the reunion’s main event, a breakfast where folks got to sit at a table with one of the former players and hear a brief speech from Williams, people milled about the Westfields’ lobby, waiting for the locked doors to the dining area, where the 1969 Senators sat, to be opened. One fan said, “I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.”

When hotel workers flung open the doors, people rushed in and glimpsed their former baseball heroes, most for the first time since they were children or teens. Many wept. What they were about to witness and what they had lost overwhelmed them. My own eyes behold this passionate, emotional display for a team that had not set foot on a baseball field for 30 years and for fans who had endured, then, 27 seasons without a team to call their own. From that moment, I never doubted that Washington was, is and will be a town that loves baseball. Deeply.

In sports, wins heal a host of problems and can burst a half-century’s worth of falsehoods. Washingtonians have loved baseball all along. All they needed was, first, a team, second, a club worthy of their affection, and, third, financially stable local ownership committed to making the team good and part of the city’s fabric. As soon as the key piece, a winning team, arrived, their hearts overflowed. That is the biggest victory of the 2012 season, regardless of what the playoffs hold.

First, the bad news — Edwin Jackson (9-11), in his return to St. Louis, did more to help his former team than the Nationals. Jackson threw his worst game of the season and the worst outing of any Nationals starter all season, allowing 9 runs, 8 earned, in 1 1/3 innings as the St. Louis Cardinals blasted Washington, 12 to 2. Jackson’s mess of a game increased his ERA to 4.13.

September 28, 2012; St. Louis, MO. USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) congratulates catcher Yadier Molina (4) after Molina scored a run during the first inning against the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Now, the good news. In Atlanta, on Chipper Jones Night, the lowly New York Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves, 3-1. The Braves’ loss reduces the magic number for the Nationals to clinch the National League East Division to two. (And one more piece of minor good news, the Miami Marlins, on a walk-off single by Carlos Lee, defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, thus eliminating the Phillies from playoff contention).

The Cardinals’ victory eliminated the Arizona Diamondbacks from the playoff race. The Cards magic number to clinch the first-ever second wildcard berth is, at most, three over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As for the Nats’ performance in St. Louis, little good can be said as the game was, by far, the club’s most wretched performance of the season. The Cardinals have one of baseball’s best offenses and they certainly displayed that today, banging out 12 hits, including home runs from Yadier Molina (22nd) and Shane Robinson (3rd).

The game unraveled after the Nationals took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning against St. Louis starter and winner Adam Wainwright (14-13). Adam LaRoche singled in Uncle Bryce Harper for his 99th RBI. Harper’s run was his 95th of the season, bringing him within five of his goal to score 100.

In the home half of the first, the Cardinals erupted for five runs on four singles, two walks and yet another error by Ryan Zimmerman, his 19th of the season, far too many for someone with Gold Glove aspirations. His skittish defense could cost the Nationals dearly in the playoffs.

St. Louis added four more runs in the second inning and the game was over except the shouting. As Charlie Slowes commented on the Nationals radio broadcast, the best moment of the night for Nats’ fans came courtesy of Lucas Duda‘s three-run homer off of Tim Hudson in the Mets’ half of the 7th inning in Atlanta.

The only other bright spots for the Nationals — a Roger Bernadina home run, his 5th of the season and 6 2/3 innings of shutout relief from Tom Gorzelanny, Christian Garcia and Zach Duke.

Champ of the Game: The St. Louis offense. The Cardinals poured 12 runs across the plate on 12 hits. First baseman Allen Craig went 4-4 with two runs and two RBI.

For the Nationals, Harper continued his hot hitting, going 2-3 before being lifted from the game.

Chump of the Game: Jackson. When he is bad, he has difficulty escaping jams and gives up runs in droves. Tonight, he was bad, but his defense also betrayed him. Nats fans can only hope he will have no such meltdowns in the playoffs.

Unsung Hero: Jonathan Niese, Manny Acosta, Justin Hampson, and Bobby Parnell, who combined to hold the red-hot Braves to one run on four hits, allowing the Mets to help the Nats take one more step toward a division crown. Nats’ fans are doubtless singing “I Love New York” tonight.

Next Game: Tomorrow, Saturday, September 29th, 7:15 p.m. at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Jordan Zimmermann (12-8, 2.90) faces Cardinals’ ace Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.77). Obviously, things don’t get any easier for the Nationals.