House's debut spoiled by blown save, ninth straight loss (updated)

The Nationals promoted Brady House from Triple-A Rochester today not because they believed their 2021 first-round pick was going to singlehandedly snap their eight-game losing streak, but because they believed his presence would at least help the cause.

There was nothing, of course, House could do about what transpired during a nightmare top of the ninth with Kyle Finnegan on the mound, one that sent the home team to the worst yet of its nine consecutive losses.

Serving up a pair of home runs to Hunter Goodman and Mickey Moniak, Finnegan turned a one-run lead into a 6-4 loss to the worst-in-the-majors Rockies, leaving a season-low crowd of 11,370 stunned and dismayed at the new depths the Nats have now reached.

"When you get a chance to put your closer in for the ninth, that's what you want," manager Davey Martinez said. "Today, we just came out on the wrong side of the field. I'm excited about the way the kids played. ... Those guys are going to be all right. They'll help us win games. This was a tough one."

Finnegan took the mound with a 4-3 lead in hand, made possible by homers from Daylen Lile and James Wood, a quality start from Jake Irvin and two perfect innings of setup by Brad Lord. He needed merely to record three outs against a weak Colorado lineup. That was easier said than done. Goodman, who had already homered off Irvin way back in the top of the first, mashed a 97 mph fastball to left-center for the game-tying homer.

Four batters later, Finnegan was one strike away from at least sending the game to the bottom of the ninth tied, only to watch in horror as Moniak turned on another 97 mph fastball and sent it into the right field bullpen for a two-run homer that left the Nationals closer crouched near the mound in agony.

"I did a lot of things that lead to an outing like that today," said Finnegan, who was charged with his fifth blown save in 23 chances. "Trying to do too much. Falling behind. And then getting predictable and missing. I missed in the spots they hit. That's what happened both times."

Now needing to rally from two runs down in the bottom of the ninth, House came to the plate representing the tying run after Luis García Jr. drew a leadoff walk. He worked an impressive, eight-pitch at-bat against flamethrower Seth Halvorsen but still wound up grounding into a 4-6-3 double play on a 101-mph fastball. Josh Bell then grounded out to end the game and extend the losing streak to nine.

"Of course you see what their velo is before you go up to bat," House said of his final at-bat. "But as I was in the moment batting, it wasn't really going through my mind. I was just trying to be on time for the fastball."

This game started in an all-too-familiar manner: runs on the board off Irvin. Goodman’s two-run blast to cap an eight-pitch at-bat put the Nationals in a quick 2-0 hole and continued Irvin’s season-long struggles to get out of the gate running. He has now allowed 18 first-inning runs in 15 starts, good for a 10.80 ERA.

Fortunately, Irvin has been quite good after that, and he continued that trend tonight. He followed up the early homer by retiring 10 straight batters before surrendering a double to Thairo Estrada in the top of the fourth. He did give up another run in the fifth after a leadoff triple by Moniak and a follow-up RBI single by Michael Toglia. But that was all he allowed.

Irvin cruised through a quick top of the sixth and ended his evening having recorded a quality start: three runs over six innings on 91 pitches. His updated ERA after the first inning: 2.70.

"We competed from pitch one," he said. "(Goodman) put a good swing on a ball and hit it out of the park. But altogether, we competed really hard and hit all our targets."

Now it was time to find out if Irvin’s teammates could provide him some run support. Early on, that proved a tougher challenge that it probably should have been against a rookie opposing starter with a 7.77 ERA in five career starts.

Rockies left-hander Carson Palmquist, though, used his funky delivery to keep the aggressive Nationals hitters off-balance, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced. Then they finally began to show some patience and took advantage of a pitcher who was averaging 5.3 walks per nine innings.

The Nats got on the board in the bottom of the fourth without benefit of a hit. CJ Abrams, Andrés Chaparro and House all drew walks, House’s perhaps the most impressive because he displayed patience beyond his years after falling behind in the count 0-2. That set the stage for Amed Rosario to loft a sacrifice fly to left, bringing home Abrams with the team’s first run of the game.

"I feel like I was just trying to get my pitch and not expand to what everyone else wanted me to expand my swing at," said House, who also made four plays in the field, including one tough play on a slow roller that required an on-the-run throw across the diamond to record the out. "I feel like I kind of stayed true to myself tonight and looked for a pitch that I wanted."

The Nats showed patience in the bottom of the fourth. Then they broke out the lumber in the bottom of the fifth to knock Palmquist from the game and take the lead at last. Lile led the charge by destroying an 87-mph fastball into the second deck above the right field bullpen. After barely missing his first career homer on multiple occasions during his previous big league stint, the 22-year-old finally got to enjoy that momentous trot around the bases after this 412-foot blast.

"That was the best feeling in the world," Lile said. "It sounded good off the bat, and I saw the way it was flying. It felt awesome."

Two batters later, Wood did what he’s already done countless times this year and drove a ball to the opposite field with authority. His 18th homer of the season went out to left in a hurry and gave the Nationals a 4-3 lead they now needed to hold to end this interminable losing streak and make sure House’s debut was one to remember.

It wound up being one to forget after one of the few veterans on this young team couldn't finish things off in the top of the ninth.

"We played a great game," Finnegan said. "The team did everything that we needed to do to win. And my job was to come in there and get the last three outs, and I wasn't able to do that today. All I can do is show up tomorrow ready to go, and get after it tomorrow."