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ST. LOUIS – By the time they took the field tonight, the Nationals had ample time to process the events of the last 48 hours. Not only did they have an off-day after arriving in St. Louis late Sunday night to consider the firing of their longtime general manager and manager, they also had a two-hour, 19-minute rain delay that pushed back first pitch of their series opener at Busch Stadium until 9:04 p.m. local time.
The question then was: What kind of effort would they give in their first game under an interim manager and GM? Would they be inspired by the shocking changes, or would they have trouble summoning up the energy to right this wayward ship?
The answer: The effort was fine, but the performance was pedestrian.
With Jake Irvin surrendering a pair of home runs and the Nationals lineup managing only one rally over the course of nine innings, Miguel Cairo found himself on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss to the Cardinals in his debut as the team’s interim manager. Mike DeBartolo, in his first game as interim GM, watched it all unfold from a booth adjacent to the press box, the one game he’ll watch in person this week as he now heads back to D.C. to oversee preparations for the No. 1 pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft.
"I like to win. I don't like to lose," Cairo said. "But the most important thing after the last 48 hours, the players, the guys were ready to play. You can tell the energy. You can tell they wanted to go out there and do their job. That's what we're looking for. We'll get them tomorrow."
All things considered, this didn’t look much different from a game the Nats could have played with Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez in charge. Not that the result of one game should offer definitive proof one way or the other about the team’s chances for improvement in the wake of major change.
"It's something that's tough to comment on, because Davey and Riz both had great, long careers here and they were a part of allowing me to have an opportunity and a chance at this level. I'm grateful to them for that," Irvin said. "But when ownership makes a change like that, you hope that it's with the best interest of the club and the organization in mind. At the end of the day, we just have to go out there, compete, focus on what we have to do to win. As professionals, I think that's what's most important: Taking it day to day, focusing on the tasks that we need to help the Nationals be successful."
Cairo, Martinez’s former bench coach who only accepted the job after getting his longtime friend’s blessing, had only a few opportunities to make in-game decisions. He pinch-hit Amed Rosario for Luis García Jr. in the top of the eighth with a left-handed reliever on the mound. (Rosario lined out to right.) He summoned Andrew Chafin and Mason Thompson out of the bullpen in relief of Irvin. Each tossed a scoreless inning.
Otherwise, it was as nondescript a ballgame as it gets after a 48-hour period that was anything but nondescript.
"I mean, it was definitely like a weird feeling," left fielder James Wood. "Just a lot of different things before the game. But I think once you step on the field, that all kind of goes away and you're just competing like any other day."
The top of the third did feature a series of events that suggested the Nationals (37-54) were inspired to play a better brand of baseball. Behind some aggressive-yet-smart baserunning – something that had been in short supply through the season’s first 90 games – the Nats took a 2-0 lead on Sonny Gray. The inning included a one-out walk drawn by Jacob Young, an opposite-field single by CJ Abrams on which Young hustled from first to third, an RBI single up the middle by Wood on which Abrams hustled from first to third and a fielder’s choice grounder by García on which Wood wisely pulled up short of second base to prevent an inning-ending double play before Abrams could score.
"Ideally, any type of run production is great," Wood said. "It's not always going to be the case where you're hitting doubles and homers in the gap. I think we've just got to find other ways to manufacture runs."
Alas, that small-ball rally by the Nationals was undone two batters into the bottom of the third when the Cardinals played good, old-fashioned power ball. Victor Scott II led off the inning with a double to the warning track in right-center. Brendan Donovan followed seconds later with a two-run homer to right off a high, 90-mph fastball from Irvin, leaving the game knotted up.
St. Louis kept the pressure on when Masyn Winn singled to right and scored when first baseman Nathaniel Lowe couldn’t make a quick-reflex, backhand stab at Alec Burleson’s grounder just to his right, the ball winding up down the right field line for the go-ahead double.
"The results are unfortunate," Irvin said. "I hate giving up runs, and I hate putting the team in a position to lose a ballgame. But at the end of the day, you control what you can control. And executing pitches is what we're in the business of."
Despite a high pitch count (and slightly diminished velocity) on a muggy Midwest night, Irvin made it through six innings on 98 pitches. He did, however, suffer one more bit of damage, leaving a changeup over the plate to Lars Nootbaar, who mashed it just off the top of the right field wall (just beyond Daylen Lile’s leaping attempt) for an insurance-run homer in the sixth.
"A few mistakes, but he threw fine," Cairo said. "He threw really good. I'm proud of the job he did. You know, people make mistakes. I'm going to make mistakes. It's part of the game."
Irvin’s teammates, though, didn’t have much else in the tank in the way of run support. They put runners in scoring position in the second, fourth and sixth innings but couldn’t convert, with Riley Adams (once again the No. 1 catcher with Keibert Ruiz going back on the seven-day concussion IL) and Brady House each grounding into inning-ending double plays.
Wood helped keep the deficit at 4-2 when he nonchalantly reached up to rob Winn of a potential seventh-inning homer, the 6-foot-7 left fielder barely even leaving his feet in the process. But though they brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth, there was no inspired rally to send their interim manager to victory.
"This team is resilient," Cairo said. "We're going to play 27 outs. We're going to be in it to the end. Those were really good at-bats by everyone, and that's what you're looking for. Today was a good first step, and we're going to keep going."
