The formula has become so routine at this point, it almost feels like a cruel joke when it keeps happening.
The Nationals get five good-to-great innings out of their starter, then watch him fade in the sixth inning before handing it over to the bullpen, which proceeds to make an absolute mess of a once-low-scoring ballgame.
But wait, there’s more. Despite facing a suddenly daunting deficit created by their relief corps, the Nats battle back to turn this into a high-scoring nailbiter late. At which point everyone holds his or her breath to see how it will end.
Sometimes that formula has produced dramatic victories, as it did Tuesday afternoon. And sometimes it has produced mind-numbing losses, as it did this afternoon in an 8-6 loss to the Guardians to wrap up a wacky interleague series.
Completing three full, nine-inning games in less than 24 hours, the Nationals wound up losing two of three to Cleveland. They certainly had a chance to duplicate their rousing success from a 10-9 win in the opener of Tuesday’s doubleheader in the finale, but instead they were done in by yet another bullpen disaster and an inability to complete a potentially rousing rally.
The Guardians scored all eight of their runs during a harrowing top of the sixth that began with Michael Soroka pitching a shutout in his return from the injured list and ended with Soroka, Jorge López and Andrew Chafin giving it all away and then some.
Soroka was one of the primary stories of spring training, a former standout rookie with the Braves whose career was derailed by injuries, feeling healthy again and looking to make the Nationals look good for signing him to a $9 million contract this winter. He looked healthy and effective in West Palm Beach and was excited to make his season debut March 31 in Toronto, only to suffer a biceps strain in the sixth inning and be forced to depart.
What Soroka initially hoped would be a brief shutdown instead turned into a five-week stint on the IL that included three minor league rehab starts to get him ready for today’s return. And for five innings, it felt like the extended wait was worth it.
Soroka was outstanding, pounding the zone with a deadly fastball-slider combo that had Cleveland’s batters baffled. He completed five innings on a mere 67 pitches (47 strikes). He struck out eight batters, four swinging and four looking. He was in complete control of the situation.
And then, as was the case five weeks ago north of the border, it all fell apart in the sixth inning. Last time, it was due to injury. This time, it was due to well-placed contact, most notably Carlos Santana’s three-run double down the right field line that turned a 3-0 Nationals lead into a 3-3 tie game and brought an abrupt end to Soroka’s otherwise brilliant afternoon.
Davey Martinez tried to give his starter a chance to pitch out of the jam, both because his pitch count was so low and because his bullpen options remain underwhelming. But after Santana’s three-run double, and with nobody out yet in the sixth, he made the move and held his breath, hoping his relief corps could stop the bleeding.
It could not. López, who was part of Tuesday’s seventh-inning meltdown, faced three batters today and did not retire any of them, with two runs scoring on Angel Martínez’s single to center. Chafin, who had been reliable in his first two appearances since signing with the club last week, allowed two inherited runners to score plus another of his own making via a groundout, a wild pitch and an RBI single.
By the time Chafin finally recorded the final out of the top of the sixth, 27 minutes had passed since the end of the fifth, the Guardians scoring eight runs to take complete control of the game.
Or so it seemed, because the Nationals – as so often has been the case – still had plenty of battle left in them.
Having squandered a number of opportunities to pad their lead earlier in the afternoon, they finally began converting in the bottom of the seventh, plating three runs while batting around the order. The key hits: a two-out RBI single by CJ Abrams off Matt Festa, then a two-run single by Amed Rosario off Cade Smith, turning an 8-3 deficit into a more manageable 8-6 deficit.
And still, there were more missed opportunities. By the end of the seventh, the Nationals had taken a staggering 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position, yet produced only four hits. A game they should’ve controlled all along instead required a late rally because of an inability to convert earlier.