Drew Storen dejected after causing Washington Nationals’ elimination from post-season - MLB Update
Washington Nationals’ relief pitcher Drew Storen sits in his locker room heartbroken and dejected. As he became the reason why the Nationals lost after coming so close to victory, he is extremely disappointed with himself.
It will take a while now before he returns to normalcy.
Storen could not handle the pressure in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He gave up runs at a time when the game was about to end up in the favour of the Nationals and hence take them ahead for playing in the
National League Championship Series.
He stepped on the mound in the ninth inning when the Nationals were ahead of the Cardinals by two runs. A couple of strikes by him will have easily helped the Nationals protect their lead.
Unfortunately Storen, despite showing command and control at the start of his inning, could not carry his momentum forward. As soon as he leaked one run, his confidence went down.
This, along with the pressure of such a crucial game, led him losing his control. In a matter of minutes, he buried the Nationals’ hopes for proceeding further in the season.
As Storen is unable to escape the agony of causing defeat for the Nationals, his team-mates have come to console him.
Tyler Clippard, who side by side with Storen carried out the closing job for the Nationals in the season, speaks words of encouragement for him. In order to instill confidence in him, Clippard has explained to Storen that any player can have a tough day
and that it is hardly any aberration that he struggled on the mound.
“I’ve been in the situation,” Tyler Clippard encouraged him. “I told him I do it all the time. You tend to put it all on your shoulders and think, ‘I lost the game for us.’ And he’s got to realize it’s not all on him. It’s a team game. There was five runs
on the board when he took the mound. It’s going to take him a while, but you just got to know in your heart it’s not all on you. That’s what I told him.”
Regardless of how players sympathise with Storen, he will take some time for recovery from his nightmarish outing at the mound.
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