June 23, 2009: Red Sox beat Nationals in first DC appearance in 38 years

On June 23, 2009, the Boston Red Sox made their first trip to the US capital since their 4-3 victory over the Washington Senators on September 19, 1971. From the American League’s founding in 1901, the Red Sox were regular visitors to Washington. They had played Washington’s original AL team, known as the Nationals and Senators, 662 times there from 1901 through 1960.1

After that franchise relocated to Minnesota and the AL awarded Washington an expansion team for 1961, Boston played 98 road games against the Senators through 1971.2 Red Sox history in Washington included Griffith Stadium’s first-ever game in 1911, Boston legend Ted Williams’s first game back after World War II in 1946, and Camilo Pascual’s record-setting 15-strikeout Opening Day performance for the Senators in 1960.

Washington’s second AL team moved to Arlington, Texas, at the end of the 1971 season, and the city was left without major-league baseball until the Montreal Expos relocated there and became the Washington Nationals in 2005. Even with interleague play in effect, however, the Red Sox played the National League’s Nationals only once from 2005 through 2008, a three-game sweep by Boston at Fenway Park in 2006.3

When the 2009 Red Sox arrived on a warm summer night at Nationals Park, then in its second season, they faced a team on an entirely different trajectory. The Red Sox had broken their 86-season World Series drought in 2004, then won another World Series in 2007. They had reached the 2008 AL Championship Series but lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, and they entered this game at 43-27, four games ahead of the second-place New York Yankees.

The Nationals had lost 89 games in 2007 and 102 games in 2008 and entered this game at 21-47, the worst record in the majors. Even with a recent four-game win streak, which included two wins over the Yankees, through 68 games they were only two wins ahead of the 1962 New York Mets, who finished with the worst 162-game record in major-league history.4

The Red Sox were also in the midst of a 504-game sellout streak at Fenway Park, dating back to 2003, and it was common for the team to get a lot of support on the road.5 This game was no different. The Red Sox and Nationals took the field in front of 41,517 fans, then a record for Nationals Park. Given the partisan leanings of the crowd, Washington may as well have been a satellite city of New England.6

The Nationals sent 24-year-old John Lannan to the mound for his 15th start. Six days earlier, he had beaten the Yankees with an 8⅓-inning performance. He started this game by setting the side down in order.

Washington took the lead in the bottom of the first off veteran Red Sox starter Brad Penny.7 Adam Dunn hit a two-out double to right field to score Ryan Zimmerman, who had snapped a 0-for-17 streak by hitting a single.

Boston’s Jason Bay hit his 19th home run of the season on a 3-and-2 count to lead off the second and tie the game. Bay – headed for All-Star and Silver Slugger honors in 2009 – got Boston started again with a leadoff single in the fourth. The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead when Jacoby Ellsbury brought Bay home with a two-out triple. Ellsbury was stranded at third after Lannan intentionally walked Nick Green and induced a groundout from Penny.

Zimmerman led off the bottom of the fourth with a single. One out later, a pair of walks loaded the bases. Penny compounded his problems by throwing a wild pitch that scored Zimmerman from third, tying the game, 2-2, and then walking Willie Harris to load the bases. But the Nationals were near the bottom of the order, and Anderson Hernández grounded to first, which allowed Kevin Youkilis to throw to the plate to get Josh Willingham on the force out. Lannan struck out to end the inning.

The Red Sox retook the lead in the fifth after reigning American League MVP Dustin Pedroia led off the inning with a single. A wild pitch to Youkilis moved Pedroia to second, and he scored when Youkilis singled to left, giving Boston a 3-2 lead.

Ellsbury continued his big day by leading off the sixth with a single that bounced off Zimmerman’s glove at third. He stole second – number 30 for the season, on his way to leading the majors with 70 steals in 2009. Green’s fly ball pushed Ellsbury to third with one out, but Lannan retired Penny and Pedroia to keep it a one-run game.

The Nationals again tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Josh Bard hit a two-out single and scored on Harris’s double to right. Red Sox manager Terry Francona removed Penny from the game and inserted Manny Delcarmen, who got out of the inning by getting a fly ball from Hernández.

Lannan started off the top of the seventh inning by striking out J.D. Drew, after which Nationals manager Manny Acta pulled a double switch, inserting Julián Tavárez, a member of Boston’s 2007 championship team, on the mound and replacing second baseman Hernandez with Alberto González. Youkilis hit a routine groundball to Zimmerman – the NL’s Gold Glove Award winner at third in 2009 – but a low throw to first baseman Nick Johnson allowed Youkilis to reach safely on the league-high 65th error for the Nationals.8 Bay singled to left field to move Youkilis to third base, and then Tavárez loaded the bases by intentionally walking Mike Lowell. Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly to left-center scored Youkilis from third.

After Youkilis’s score, Acta pulled Tavárez from the game and inserted lefty Ron Villone, who walked Ellsbury on five pitches to load the bases again. A fly ball from Green got the Nationals out of the inning and kept them within a run of the Red Sox.

The game turned irreversibly in the Red Sox’ favor in the top of the eighth. Pinch-hitter Rocco Baldelli hit a line-drive single to left, which led to Villone’s departure. Kip Wells got Pedroia to fly out but walked Drew and Youkilis to load the bases.

Wells was removed in favor of Jesús Colomé, who gave up a two-run single to left by Bay. Varitek brought home the third run of the inning with a line drive over the head of shortstop Cristian Guzman, who made an attempt at a leaping catch. Youkilis scored and Bay went to third.

Ellsbury brought Bay and Youkilis home with his second triple of the game for his second and third RBIs of the game. Ellsbury scored on Green’s single. Baldelli returned to the plate for his second at-bat of the inning and grounded to short for the third out. The Red Sox scored six runs in the inning to take a 10-3 lead.

The Red Sox made it an 11-run night by scoring in the top of the ninth against Washington’s sixth pitcher, Joel Hanrahan. Pedroia led off with a line-drive double to right field and scored on Youkilis’s double to left.

Daniel Bard, who had made his major-league debut a little over a month earlier, three years after the Red Sox selected him in the first round of the June 2006 amateur draft, came in to wrap things up at the bottom of the ninth. Catcher Dusty Brown, playing his first big-league game, substituted for Varitek behind the plate. The Nationals loaded the bases with one out, but Johnson grounded into a double play to end the game.

The Nationals’ struggles continued while the Red Sox moved to a five-game lead over the Yankees on the strength of a season-high 17 hits.9 Ellsbury was the star of the show, getting four hits (with two triples) and a walk in five plate appearances with one run scored and three runs batted in.

The Red Sox went on to finish second to the Yankees in the AL East. Reaching the postseason as a wild card, they were swept by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL Division Series. The Nationals finished with the worst record in the majors at 59-103, the worst for the franchise since the 1976 Montreal Expos went 55-107 in their last season at Jarry Park.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Jacoby Ellsbury, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS200906230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2009/B06230WAS2009.htm

Notes

1 The Red Sox had a 297-354-11 record in DC against Washington’s first AL team.

2 The Red Sox had a 43-55 record in DC against Washington’s second AL team.

3 When interleague play began in 1997, baseball’s schedule matched teams from the leagues’ respective East, Central, and West Divisions. Accordingly, the Red Sox and Expos played three-game series every season from 1997 through 2001. From 2002 on, the schedule rotated divisional pairings.

4 “Something to Cheer About,” Culpeper (Virginia) Star Exponent, June 23, 2009: 9.

5 “Passion for Red Sox Igniting Nationwide,” Washington Times, June 23, 2009, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/23/passion-for-red-sox-igniting-nationwide/.

6 “Bay’s, Ellsbury’s Big Nights Pace Boston’s Bats as Red Sox Overwhelm Nationals,” ESPN.com, June 24, 2009, https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/290623120.

7 Penny was a 14-year major leaguer, but 2009 was his only season with the Red Sox.

8 Adam Kilgore, “Sox Capitalize on a Woeful Foe: Ellsbury, Bay Sparkle in Rout of Washington,” Boston Globe, June 24, 2009: C1.

9 Kilgore.