Perhaps the most telling aspect of today’s ballgame at Nationals Park was that the home team had far more success at the plate when it chose not to swing the bat than when it did.
Until the bottom of the ninth, when they finally started making real contact and nearly pulled off a stunning rally that nevertheless finished as another disheartening loss.
Despite scoring two runs and loading the bases with one out against Anthony Bender, the fifth and only ineffective Marlins reliever of the day, the Nationals could not push across the tying run and wound up losing 4-3 to extend their losing streak to seven games.
Unable to do anything offensively all afternoon against Miami’s pitching staff – aside from a second-inning run scored via bases-loaded walk – the Nats at long last strung together some quality at-bats against Bender in the bottom of the ninth.
Alex Call jumpstarted the rally with a blooper down the right field line for a leadoff double, then stole third base when the Marlins didn’t bother to hold him on or cover the bag. Josh Bell walked, then both runners advanced on a wild pitch, Call scoring to cut the deficit to 4-2. Luis Garcia Jr. ripped a double to deep right field, putting two in scoring position, still with nobody out. And when Eric Wagaman couldn’t handle Robert Hassell III’s grounder to first for an error, Bell scampered home and Garcia advanced to third, keeping the rally alive.
Needing to push across one more run to tie the game, the Nationals watched as Keibert Ruiz (pinch-hitting for Riley Adams) grounded out to first. And after CJ Abrams was intentionally walked to load the bases, Amed Rosario lofted a fly ball to shallow left field. With pinch-runner Jacob Young poised to tag up, third base coach Rocky Gutierrez instead put up the stop sign as Kyle Stowers’ throw sailed well wide of the plate and into foul territory.
That left it all up to James Wood, who had to face Miami closer Calvin Faucher. The young star popped the ball up down the left field line, with shortstop Otto Lopez ultimately catching the ball as he bumped into Stowers for the final out.
The Nats saw their losing streak grow to seven, including two straight to the cellar dwellers of the National League East (who have now won four of five against them this season). At 30-40, they are a season-worst 10 games under .500.
The Nationals have now scored 30 total runs in 12 games this month, and nine of those came late during Friday night’s 11-9 loss when they were desperately to claw their way back from a six-run deficit. They’ve scored 21 runs in 11 other games this June.
There were other issues contributing to today’s loss, including some shaky work from an overworked group of relievers and a ghastly error by Garcia Jr., who dropped a popup over his left shoulder in the top of the eighth to allow a run to score.
After getting only 3 1/3 innings out of Mitchell Parker and then needing four relievers to throw a combined 113 pitches after that during Friday night’s 11-9 loss, the Nationals handed the ball to Trevor Williams today needing length from their No. 5 starter, even if it included a number of runs.
Williams managed to provide some length while also keeping the run count to a relative minimum in one of his more effective starts of the season. The veteran right-hander did have to work for it, though.
Williams pitched his way out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first, striking out Stowers with a changeup. He stranded another runner on base in the second, retiring the bottom of the Marlins order. He couldn’t make it through the third unscathed, done in by a leadoff double by Jesus Sanchez and an RBI single by Liam Hicks.
Williams would retire eight in a row after the Hicks single, though, making it through five innings of one-run ball on 70 pitches. Nationals manager Davey Martinez has often pulled him at that juncture, not wanting him to face an opposing lineup three times in the same game. But perhaps given the bullpen considerations today, Martinez felt compelled to keep his starter out there, so Williams took the mound for the top of the sixth.
He lasted three batters, surrendering two groundball singles before getting a popout. Martinez decided to make the move there, Williams departing at the 80-pitch mark and Brad Lord entering from the bullpen for the second time in roughly 15 hours. Lord has been highly effective, but the rookie also just threw 38 pitches over two scoreless innings. He proceeded to allow an inherited runner to score (on another groundball single) and then served up a solo homer to Jesus Sanchez after retaking the mound for the top of the seventh.
All told, Lord threw 50 pitches over parts of four relief innings in back-to-back games played with minimal downtime in between. It would be a lot to ask of an experienced bullpen arm, let alone a rookie who was a starter throughout his career and is now learning on the fly how to handle a reliever’s workload at the big league level.
In spite of all that, the Nationals’ pitching staff still allowed only three runs through those first seven innings. A modestly productive lineup would have been able to overcome that. Not this lineup, not on this day.
Whatever good vibes were created by the seven runs they scored late Friday night didn’t show up this afternoon, despite Miami finding itself in a real pitching predicament. Only hours after using up seven relievers to win Friday night’s game, manager Clayton McCullough was going with a bullpen game.
That meant three pitching changes within the first three innings, from left-handed opener Cade Gibson to right-hander Ronny Henriquez to lefty Anthony Veneziano to right-handed bulk guy Janson Junk. The only real production the Nats came up with against that group came when they chose not to swing the bat.
A typically impatient lineup managed to show enough restraint to draw three walks in the bottom of the second, including back-to-back free passes from some of the unlikeliest batters in baseball. But Hassell finally drew his first walk in 72 major league plate appearances to load the bases, then Adams finally drew his first walk in his 51st plate appearance of the season to force in the Nats’ first run of the game.
That would be their only run against those relievers, who dominated so long as they kept the ball close enough to the strike zone to induce swings. Junk, in particular, cruised along, tossing 3 2/3 perfect innings on a scant 33 pitches before finally surrendering one hit (a single) in the seventh. He wound up going 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball on 64 pitches before handing it over to Anthony Bender for what turned into a dramatic – but ultimately unfulfilling – bottom of the ninth.