Nats win again, then manager Riggleman resigns

WASHINGTON - Manager Jim Riggleman abruptly resigned after the surprising Washington Nationals beat the Seattle Mariners 1-0 Thursday for their 11th win in 12 games.

General manager Mike Rizzo said that Riggleman quit after he requested the team pick up the option on his contract for 2012 and the club declined.

The team will name an interim manager Friday before the Nationals face the White Sox.

Riggleman has been seeking more security for some time. He had a $600,000 contract this year and the nationals held a team option for 2012 at $600,000. He took over for Manny Acta on an interim basis during the 2009 season.

"I know I'm not Casey Stengel but I do feel like I know what I'm doing," Riggleman said.

Clearly, Riggleman, felt momentum was on his side in picking now to press his case, CBSSports.com's Scott Miller says.

"I'm 58," he told reporters in Washington after the resignation. "I'm too old to be disrespected."

Rizzo said the Nationals were stunned by the move that comes as the Nationals were playing some of the best baseball in the big leagues. The victory Friday gave the team its first winning record this late in the season since the next-to-last game in 2005.

Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez unexpectedly quit Sunday, but Florida was in the middle of a horrible slump.

Riggleman's resignation came moments after Laynce Nix hit a game-ending sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, pushing Washington (38-37) over .500 for the first time since April 20.

Nix's fly to left off Chris Ray (3-2) was deep enough to score Danny Espinosa, who easily beat a throw from Mike Carp that was well up the first-base line.

The Nationals swept the Mariners with three one-run victories, putting Seattle (37-38) below .500 for the first time since May 25.

Michael Morse opened the ninth with a single to left, and Espinosa followed by dragging a bunt for a single. Ivan Rodriguez bunted to move the runners over, but first baseman Adam Kennedy threw late to third to try to get the lead runner, leaving the bases loaded with none out.

Shortstop Jack Wilson kept Seattle alive by making a diving backhand stop on a grounder by Jerry Hairston with the infield in, then throwing from his knees to force pinch-runner Brian Bixler at the plate.

But Nix took Ray's 0-1 pitch to the opposite field to settle a game that had earlier been dominated from the mound by Seattle's Michael Pineda and Washington's Jason Marquis. Marquis allowed three hits over eight innings with three walks and four strikeouts, while Pineda gave up four hits over seven innings with nine strikeouts and one walk — and an impressive 70 of his 97 pitches were strikes.

Tyler Clippard (1-0) pitched the ninth for the Nationals, who treated their return to .500 on Wednesday as a milestone event, the result of a climb from a nine-games-under hole in just two weeks. But, as Riggleman said before Thursday's game: "We're not striving to be .500; we've got to raise the bar."

Yet the Nationals never seem to run out of ways not to score. In the first, Jayson Werth doubled and went to third on a wild pitch, but he was out at home trying to score on a short flyball to center by Ryan Zimmerman. Franklin Gutierrez' throw was wide of the plate, but catcher Miguel Olivo went up the line and made the catch-and-tag in one motion, apparently scraping the merest piece of fabric on the jersey as Werth ran by.

In the fourth, the Nationals had the bases loaded with one out, but Pineda struck out Espinosa and Rodriguez back-to-back on fastballs in mid-90s. In the seventh, Riggleman's recent decision to start batting the pitcher in the No. 8 spot came into play when Marquis came up with two outs and men on first and second. Marquis struck out swinging.

The Mariners' usual hitters couldn't solve Marquis, so it was left to an American League pitcher getting a rare interleague at-bat to break up the prospective no-hitter. Pineda hit a weak bloop to center for his first career hit with one out in the sixth.