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Dukes' huge night helps Nationals avoid collapse

Jun 6, 2008 - 4:43 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Elijah Dukes' two-run, walk-off homer to center field lifted the Washington Nationals to a wild 10-9 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and a split of Thursday's day-night doubleheader.

Cristian Guzman led off the ninth with a single to center - his fourth hit of the game - off Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin (2-2). Dukes followed by belting a 2-2 slider to dead center, his first homer of the season that helped the Nationals avoid the embarrassment of squandering a 7-0 lead.

"I ain't been hitting home runs this year, but it wasn't my first time hitting a home run," Dukes said. "Right away, I knew I got it, and it felt good."

"I tried to throw a slider down and away off the plate - the pitch that I threw him a couple pitches before and he swung and missed - but I just didn't get it there," Franklin said. "I've been around a long time, man, but that was pretty exciting. You just don't want to end up on the raw end of the deal."

It appeared the Nationals would end up on the wrong end when Joe Mather belted a 3-2 slider from Brian Sanches (2-0) over the wall in left field in the top of the 10th to give St. Louis a 9-8 lead.

"A little slider," Mather said with a big grin. "He left it up and threw it for a strike, which I'm sure he was trying to do - probably hoping I wasn't looking for it - and I was lucky enough and saw it and put a good swing on it."

Mather momentarily thought he had the game-winner.

"Yeah, I was hoping," he said with a chuckle. "But Tony (La Russa) always says: 'Go back out there, we've got some game to play.' And so I took that advice, but it definitely was in the back of my mind."

However, the Nationals had different plans. Dukes responded with the game-winning blast, which helped the Nationals improve to 21-0 when leading after eight innings.

"After Mather's home run, I said: 'You've got step it up. Don't hang your head,'" Dukes said. "Manny (Acta) said 'be aggressive.' I went up there, and I was tired. I was a little sluggish. I said, 'I've got to do this. I've got to step it up. It's one strike.'

Washington entered the ninth with an 8-6 lead, but closer Jon Rauch, who had retired a career-best 18 consecutive batters, was unable to keep the perfect mark intact.

With one out, pinch hitter Brendan Ryan doubled to right field before Albert Pujols, who was batting for Cesar Izturis, took a called third strike for the second out. Skip Schumaker then drilled a triple off the wall in center field that scored Ryan.

Aaron Miles followed with a single up the middle that scored Schumaker, knotting the game at 8-8.

"The whole year, we haven't scored a whole lot of runs, and our pitching has very much had to be perfect," Rauch said. "Tonight, it seemed like we got a bit of leeway. We didn't exactly do what we wanted to do out there, and the hitting picked us up. Winning is a relief, but to do it like that is a huge boost."

The Nationals, who had scored only two runs in their previous 36 innings, erupted for eight over the first four frames in this one. Washington scored twice in the first, and Kory Casto's two-run double capped a three-run second.

Guzman delivered an RBI double and Dukes added a run-scoring single in the third as the lead swelled to 7-0.

However, Troy Glaus began the Cardinals' comeback with a solo homer in the fourth, and starter Mike Parisi added a two-run double later in the frame.

Ryan Langerhans stretched the Nationals' lead to 8-3 with an RBI single in bottom half. However, Mark Worrell, who relieved Parisi in the fifth, drew the Cardinals within two with a three-run blast in the sixth off Nationals starter Tim Redding.

"I was just trying to put it in play and put a good swing on it," Worrell said of homering on his first major-league at-bat. "Some of the guys were telling me that was amazing. Honestly, I wasn't even feeling it at first. I was just in amazement myself.

"When I was running around the bases I felt like I was in a dream or something."

That was perfectly fitting for this game.

"You've got to commend the effort of both teams to play the back game of a day-nighter and put that kind of effort into it," La Russa said. "It was a great game to be a part of. They had the last hero."