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ATLANTA — At the end of a 3-week stretch of bad baseball that had seen the Nationals find new soul-crushing ways to lose ballgames on a nightly basis, this sure felt like rock bottom: Down eight runs after two innings, with an unsuspecting rookie pitcher forced to take a beating in his major-league debut for the good of the team.
This was going to be the night that would confirm everyone’s worst fears about the Nationals, a team supposedly destined for greatness that instead was crumbling before our eyes.
But inside the visitors’ dugout at Turner Field, an unexpected emotion swept through players’ minds.