NL Worst of the Night: Ryan Perry Blows Any Chance at a Nats Comeback

Highlighting a bad performance from the previous night in baseball might seem like a harsh way to start the morning, but look at it this way: If you had a rough night or bad day, here's someone who may have had it worse.

Holding a 3-1 lead going into the ninth inning, it looked like the Philadelphia Phillies would salvage one win from their NL East weekend showdown with the Washington Nationals. 

But the Nats still had the bottom of the ninth to pull off a comeback, much as they did from the same 3-1 deficit on Friday night (though that rally took place earlier in the game). All they had to do was get through a clean inning, keep the Phillies off the board and take their shot in the ninth. 

Then Ryan Perry took the mound.

The Nationals' bullpen is somewhat short-handed, with Brad Lidge on the disabled list for an abdominal injury. Davey Johnson might have pitched him in this spot had he been available. 

But Perry was who he had. His first two outings were mixed, resulting in a combined one run and three hits over two innings. Yet Perry pitched a 1-2-3 inning on Friday against the Phillies, getting three straight ground-outs. So maybe he could do that again.

Or not.

The Phillies manager seemed to give Perry an easy way to settle in by keeping Cole Hamels in to bat first in the inning. Why not use a pinch-hitter and then bring in Jonathan Papelbon (who was practically climbing the walls in the bullpen) to close it out? 

Hamels flew out to left-center, but hit it rather deep, which may have been a sign that Perry was going to be hittable. 

Perry then walked Jimmy Rollins on four straight pitches. And the Phillies' run parade was underway.

Juan Pierre drove in Rollins with an RBI single. Shane Victorino followed up with a triple, scoring Pierre. Perry got ahead of Hunter Pence with a 1-2 count, but Pence fouled off two pitches until he got the one he wanted. 

Perry hung an 82 mph slider, which Pence swatted into the left-field seats for a two-run homer to give the Phillies a 7-1 lead.

Having blown the game, Johnson apparently decided he might as well leave Perry in there. And Perry did get Laynce Nix to fly out to center for the second out of the inning. But then he allowed a double to Placido Polanco, followed by a single to Carlos Ruiz.

That ended Perry's night. And his box score was completed when his last two baserunners scored on a Freddy Galvis single served up by Tom Gorzelanny.

Six runs on five hits (one of them a home run), with one walk and no strikeouts. All in two-thirds of an inning. Quite a night's work for Perry.

But this is what he does. Just when Perry pitches well enough to lull you into thinking he could be a quality middle reliever (and maybe a future closer), he blows up the next time out.

It happened in the playoffs, when Perry pitched for the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. In Game 1 of the series, Perry pitched one and two-thirds scoreless innings, compelling some chumps to declare him the middle reliever the Tigers sorely needed.

Perry lit that idea on fire in the 11th inning of Game 2. With the game tied 3-3, Perry allowed three straight singles to load the bases. Nelson Cruz then rocked him for a grand slam that not only won the game for the Texas Rangers, but was essentially a knockout blow for the series. 

Just when a team trusts Perry to carry a tray of fragile objects, he slips and lets all the valuables crash to the floor and shatter. That inconsistency is what led the Tigers to trade him to the Nationals. Once again, Perry imploded in front of a national audience. 

If Johnson had any thoughts of being able to use Perry in high-leverage relief situations, he can probably put them away now.

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