Nats' collapse turns winnable game into blowout loss (updated)

LOS ANGELES – Michael Soroka was cruising, - dominating, if we’re being honest - a Dodgers lineup that rarely finds itself in such a position. And thanks to Nathaniel Lowe’s latest clutch blast, the Nationals were in control at Chavez Ravine, looking to pull off what could only be considered an improbable weekend series victory over the defending World Series champs.

The sixth inning, though, has been Soroka’s personal nightmare most of the season. And today, it became not only Soroka’s nightmare, but Jose A. Ferrer’s as well. Only to be upstaged minutes later by the absolute disaster Ryan Loutos and Cole Henry made of the seventh inning.

Thus did the Nats somehow turn a three-run lead into an eight-run deficit in the span of about 25 minutes at Dodger Stadium, suffering one of their worst meltdowns of the year en route to a 13-7 loss that doesn’t begin to hint at how winnable this game actually was at one point.

Max Muncy’s grand slam off Ferrer flipped the affair from Washington's to Los Angeles' favor. Shohei Ohtani’s three-run triple off Loutos added to the misery. And Muncy’s three-run homer off Henry – giving the veteran infielder seven RBIs in two innings – felt downright embarrassing to the Nationals, who were in prime position to win not only this series but the season matchup with the Dodgers, only to go down in flames in the finale.

"I don't think you want to look at the score. A loss is a loss, whether you lose by one or you lose by six," said center fielder Jacob Young, whose team trailed by 10 before scoring four runs in the top of the ninth off position player Kiké Hernández. "I thought we actually played a pretty good game, and they had two big swings that blew it open and caused it to be uglier than it was. It was a chance to win a series, and that's what we wanted to do when we came here. We just didn't get it done."

It was all going so well for five innings, with Soroka at his absolute best and Lowe providing the controversial three-run homer – after a lengthy review, replay officials determined his drive to left-center caromed off Hyeseong Kim’s glove, then the top of the wall, then a fan stationed behind the wall, turning a double into a homer – to give the Nats a 3-0 lead.

Soroka set the tone immediately, striking out both Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in a 1-2-3 bottom of the first that included a 96.5 mph fastball, his second-fastest pitch of the season. He would proceed to retire the first eight batters he faced, giving in only to No. 9 hitter and backup catcher Dalton Rushing, who drew a two-out walk in the third. No matter, because Soroka followed up that little blip with another strikeout of Ohtani, this time on a slider that made the famed two-way star (who pitched a scoreless top of the first but wasn’t allowed to go any further) look foolish at the plate.

That was a common theme of the day for Soroka. With an ability to tunnel all four of his pitches (fastball, slurve, sinker, changeup) and make them look the same coming out of his hand, Soroka had the Dodgers either flailing or looking silly by taking pitches over the plate.

"His fastball was electric, but his changeup and breaking ball were really, really good today in those first five innings," Martinez said.

He finally surrendered his first hit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth when Kim sent a double to deep left-center. But he responded by getting Michael Conforto to swing through a 95-mph fastball, his 10th strikeout of the day to establish a new career high.

Soroka’s pitch count was a modest 74 at that point, so there was no reason for Martinez not to let him return to the mound for the bottom of the sixth, aside from the obvious red flag: He’s been terrible in the sixth inning this season, by far his worst of any frame he’s pitched. And sure enough, Soroka quickly found himself in trouble for the first time all afternoon when the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out via a ground-rule double by Rushing, a four-pitch walk drawn by Ohtani with a couple borderline calls that didn't go his way and an errant 0-2 slurve that plunked Freeman.

"That breaking ball to Freddie was just finished a little too hard," Soroka said. "He probably swings at it if it's a few more inches over the plate. It's very, very close. It's one where you're trying not to hang the 0-2 pitch, because I've seen him for many years hit in-zone breaking balls over the fence. I just got a little excited, but all in all, I still thought I made good pitches."

So, Martinez made the call to his bullpen, entrusting Ferrer to get out of this jam. That didn’t come close to working out. Ferrer, who retired all five batters he faced during Saturday night’s win, looked out of sorts from the outset, at one point asking for the grounds crew to repair a hole near his landing spot on the mound. After that delay, he went back to work and almost immediately grooved a 98 mph fastball over the plate to Muncy, who launched it to left-center for the inevitable grand slam that gave the Dodgers the lead.

"The count was 2-2, so I had to go with a fastball," Ferrer said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "I couldn't throw a secondary pitch, because we had one out and guys on base."

Ferrer surrendered the massive hit, but Soroka was charged with three of the runs, leaving his sixth-inning ERA now at an unfathomable 22.85.

"We've got to keep building him up," Martinez said. "He comes from injuries. He came from being in the bullpen. He looks really good, he gets to that point, we just have to keep getting him out there. I thought his stuff looked really good throughout the day. And then he gets out there in that inning, and things kind of unravel a little bit." 

As much of a gut-punch as that was, the Nationals still only trailed 4-3, with three innings of baseball left to play. But they played those final three innings nothing like they played today’s first five, and that was true on both sides of the ball.

Such as the top of the seventh, when Jacob Young drew a one-out walk but then overslid the bag on an attempted steal of second, thrown out for the eighth time in 13 attempts this season. He also suffered a cut on his right palm on the play, though he did finish the game.

"There's nothing wrong with the decision there: He picked over twice, I got a great jump, beat the throw by plenty," Young said. "Just hard ground, and I wasn't able to catch the base on my slide."

The bottom of the seventh only extended the misery. It began with Luis García Jr.’s misplay of a routine grounder to second. It continued with five more batters reaching base safely against Loutos, who was pulled without ever recording an out. And it ended with Henry, who mysteriously had yet to pitch in the series, giving up Muncy’s second homer in as many innings, a fitting capper to a disastrous 25 minutes of baseball for the Nationals.

"I liked the matchup with Loutos down at the bottom (of the L.A. lineup)," Martinez said. "We had to use Henry up at the top when we got there. But I liked Loutos at the bottom."

None of the decisions worked today. And that's how a game that was right there for the Nats to take turned into one of their most lopsided losses of the year.

"Process is great, but results matter here," Soroka said. "It's time. We've got to do better. We've got to make better pitches. I've got to make better pitches, so I don't put guys in that situation. They've worked hard. They've thrown a lot of innings for us. That's baseball sometimes. I think we've got to keep our heads down and keep working, because we're close to being able to turn it around and go on a run opposite of what just happened with that string of losses. I think we're past that. I still think we're a good team that can string a bunch of wins together."