House homers twice, but Nats walked off by Brewers (Ogasawara optioned to Triple-A)

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals entered Saturday’s matchup with the Brewers needing to put Friday night’s loss behind them. They struggled mightily against opener DL Hall and regular starter Quinn Priester, who combined to hold them to just three runs over the course of the series opener.

But today, the Nats would only need to face one Milwaukee starting pitcher before manager Pat Murphy turned it over to his traditional relievers. The problem was that one starter was Brandon Woodruff.

That mattered little to two Nationals rookies, who hit two home runs off the two-time All-Star and then one more late in the game. But that was not enough to power their team to a win, as the Nats were walked off by the Brewers in the ninth for a 6-5 loss.

Handed a two-run lead following CJ Abrams’ sacrifice fly in the top of the inning, Kyle Finnegan immediately ran into trouble in the bottom of the ninth.

The Nats' closer issued a first-pitch infield single that bounced over third baseman Brady House's head to lead off the frame. He then walked Christian Yelich on four pitches and gave up a two-run double to Andrew Vaugn that tied the game at 5-5. After a groundout moved the runner to third and an intentional walk to set up a potential double play, Caleb Durbin hit a single down the right field line to give the home team the walk-off celebration.

“The infield single, not an ideal way to start. I felt like I got a soft contact there. That's baseball. Sometimes it doesn't bounce your way," Finnegan said after the game. "What really killed me was the walk to Yelich. I was trying to work away to him and just couldn't quite get it there. So first and second, nobody out, not a good place to be. I had to try and get back in the zone. Just trying to throw a strike and he put a good swing on it, and all of a sudden, the game's tied. So from there, just tried to keep it tied, limit the damage. Got the ground ball. One out, third base, tie game, it's just trying to get a strikeout there, just anything to get some momentum back on our side. And I just didn't throw the ball well tonight.”

“He attacked the strike zone," said interim manager Miguel Cairo. "We just didn't have any luck today. But the guys battled.”

The loss was especially crushing since one of the Nats’ young stars had his coming-out party earlier in the afternoon.

Brady House, who has impressed more with his glove than his bat in his short amount of time in the majors, knocked the first two homers of his career, the second one being a two-run shot that gave the Nats an eighth-inning lead.

“I'm not really focused on it that much, honestly, because you'll hear a lot of people say that home runs are accidents,” House said before the game about his lack of power thus far in the majors. “So I'm just trying to put a good barrel on it, and it'll eventually go over.”

He put a good barrel on a 2-0 slider from Abner Uribe in the eighth inning. House launched the go-ahead longball 102.5 mph off his bat and 401 feet to left field. That is no accident.

“It was great," said House. "Like I said, just trying to get out there and whenever there's a runner on, just trying to get him over and get him in. And it ended up being a home run, so I was happy about it. But like I said, I was just trying to get the runner over the best way.”

Unfortunately, the dramatic two-run shot became just a footnote in the Nationals' seventh loss in their last eight games.

“It's tough because it was a great game," Finnegan said. "We stuck with them the whole time. Got a big swing to get ahead. ... I came in and I wasn't able to do my job.”

But that was not House's first house call. Nor was it the only one a Nats rookie hit this afternoon.

Following multiple injury setbacks over the last few years, Woodruff made just his second start of the season and his first in Milwaukee since Sept. 17, 2023, which coincidentally also came against the Nats.

The announced crowd of 35,015 at American Family Field gave their oft-injured right-hander plenty of ovations leading up to and during the game. But he gave them a mixed bag of results.

Yes, he struck out 10 Nationals. But he also let two rookies take him deep to give the visitors an early lead.

Daylen Lile struck first, hitting the second homer of his young career with two outs in the second. The lefty bat got a hold of a 3-2 fastball on the inside part of the plate and turned it 369 feet into the right field bleachers for a 1-0 lead.

“Lile's been getting good at-bats," Cairo said. "Since he came back from Triple-A, he's been one of our guys that has been making adjustments in the big league level.”

Then House knocked the first homer of his career two innings later. The righty power bat crushed a first-pitch sweeper that was a no-doubt home run over the left field wall.

“That was beautiful. It was good," the interim skipper said. "Now he's getting to the rhythm of hitting. He can play defense. So that's something that there's no question about it. So it was nice to see him start hitting a little bit.”

Again, hitting a ball 108.7 mph off the bat and 427 feet is no accident. But House still thinks it is.

“For sure," said House, who received his first home run ball from the young Brewers fan who caught it in exchange for some autographs and pictures. "I quickly realized after the first at-bat that I wasn't where I needed to be. So I kind of made some adjustments mid-game and just tried to catch it out front and put it in the outfield somewhere. And I ended up staying through it.”

On the mound, Shinnosuke Ogasawara had much better results than his major league debut, when he was charged with four runs and seven hits in 2 ⅔ innings against the Red Sox. The 27-year-old Japanese left-hander faced the minimum the first time through the Brewers' order, thanks to a lot of weak contact. He was able to take advantage against an overly-aggressive lineup with his unusually low velocity.

“He was mixing it up good," Cairo said. "His fastball, changeup. He used his really slow curveball to keep the guys off balance. He mixes really good.”

But the Brewers found more success against him the second time around. After he was just given a 2-0 lead, Ogasawara started the bottom of the fourth with a hit-batter, a single, a run-scoring double (that was misplayed by James Wood in left field), a strikeout and a two-run double to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead.

“The last inning, there was no outs. And then I tried to get the strikeout," he said, via interpreter Kiyoshi Tada. "But at the same time, I just needed to be coming down. Just not panic and just pitch and focus on the pitch. That's what I just needed to do.”

Brad Lord entered out of the ‘pen to start the fifth and pitched 2 ⅓ perfect innings, proving that he can provide some length.

“He's been doing that the whole year," Cairo said of Lord. "You give the ball to him and he goes and attacks the strike zone. He makes the hitters swing and he's been doing a really good job out of the bullpen.

Although Ogasawara’s final results aren’t typically considered a good outing by a starting pitcher – four hits, three runs, one walk, two strikeouts and a hit-batter on 56 pitches over four innings – they are an improvement from his first outing.

“If I succeed in the fourth innings, I could be in the fifth inning," Ogasawara said. "So that's the next goal, and that's what I'm going to try to do.”

The question for the Nationals over the break is will that be enough for Ogasawara to keep his spot in the rotation to start the second half? Or will they make some adjustments, like moving Lord back to a starter’s role, when they start a six-game homestand on Friday against the Padres?

"As of right now, we're waiting to see what's gonna happen after the All-Star break," Cairo said. "That's what I got.”

They didn't have to wait that long. About an hour and a half after Cairo gave that answer, the Nationals announced they optioned Ogasawara to Triple-A Rochester. The southpaw leaves 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA and 1.800 WHIP in 6 ⅔ innings over two starts.

But the rest of the rotation is a problem for next week. For now, the Nats have to suffer through this loss despite the pop from two young bats.

“It's tough right now, but we're going to bounce back," House said. "I feel like we're playing good ball right now and I know we're going to bounce back. We're going to show up tomorrow and do what we can to produce.”




After earning promotion with bat, House impressing...