With a chance to win a series against a playoff team, the Nationals needed a strong offensive showing against an opposing left-handed starting pitcher.
Yes, the Nats roster right now is heavy with lefty bats. And the right-handed options haven’t consistently produced. But something needed to change after David Peterson came within one inning of tossing a complete game against the Nats for the second time this season.
“We've got to do something about it,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said after Tuesday’s 8-1 loss to Peterson.
Luckily, Peterson wasn’t on the mound this afternoon. Instead it was veteran Sean Manaea, who entered the game with a 7.98 ERA over his three August starts. And it was off this southpaw that the Nats were finally able to score some runs en route to a 9-3 victory in front of an announced crowd of 20,127 on a cloudy, misty and unusually chilly August day in D.C.
Facing a 3-0 deficit in the fourth, the Nats lineup, with only three left-handed hitters, started chipping away at Manaea. They loaded the bases and got on the board thanks to a Dylan Crews groundout, but stranded two runners in scoring position, leaving a golden opportunity on the field.
They came right back to load the bases with only one out in the fifth. Paul DeJong pushed one more run across with a sacrifice fly, but it seemed like they were going to waste another scoring chance.
That was until Riley Adams delivered a go-ahead, two-run single to center field by getting under a low sinker from right-handed reliever Tyler Rogers, who entered from the bullpen to record the inning’s last out.
Then the Nats provided some extra cushion against Rogers in the sixth when Daylen Lile singled, stole second and scored on Jacob Young's single to center. Cedric Mullins just missed making a diving catch, allowing the Nats to take a 5-3 lead.
And when Adams drew a leadoff walk in the eighth and advanced to second on Crews’ walk, the Nats scored another insurance run on an RBI single by Brady House, the young third baseman’s third hit of the game.
The final stamp was James Wood’s three-run blast that came two batters later. The young slugger’s 26th homer of the season traveled 109.1 mph off his bat and went 390 feet to left-center field. It was his first homer since Aug. 98 in San Francisco and just his fourth since the start of July.
The Nationals also needed a strong outing from their starting pitcher. Over the last three games, Nats starters have pitched to a 10.38 ERA by allowing 15 earned runs (16 total) in just 13 innings. Unsurprisingly, the Nats went 1-2 in those games.
The good news was they had their ace on the mound in MacKenzie Gore, who was coming off back-to-back quality starts for the first time since June.
But unlike his last time out against the Mets, which was the first of those two June quality starts in Queens, Gore was hit hard and gave up too many free passes.
The writing on the wall for Gore’s afternoon was immediately visible. After falling down 2-0 to Francisco Lindor, the left-hander served up a leadoff home run to the Mets shortstop with a 95 mph fastball down the middle. Although Gore came back to strike out each of the next three batters – Juan Soto, Starling Marte and Pete Alonso – all on curveballs, it was a bad sign the Mets were going to be all over his stuff.
Sure enough, Gore gave up a lot of loud contact over his 4 ⅓ innings. The Mets’ average exit velocity of the five balls put in play off his curveball was 104.9 mph, of the two balls put in play off his cutter was 104.6 mph and of the four balls put in play off his fastball was 100 mph. Overall, the Mets hit eight balls over 100 mph off Gore.
It was also evident in the outs he produced. Aside from his five strikeouts and a 1-3-6 caught stealing of Lindor, Gore only induced one groundout while getting five flyouts, several of which landed just short of the outfield wall.
After Juan Soto hit one of those flyouts just short of the wall in the third, Starling Marte connected on a curveball for a deep shot to center to make it a 2-0 Mets lead.
But given the hard contact, Gore did a good job of limiting the damage. The only other run he surrendered was a sacrifice fly by rookie Hayden Senger (his first-career RBI). He just didn’t provide length, giving way to Jackson Rutledge after issuing back-to-back one-out walks (his third and fourth of the game) in the fifth.
But the big righty reliever did his starter a solid and got two quick outs to close Gore’s line at just three runs and keep the Nats in the game. And the rest of the bullpen – as it did in relief of Brad Lord in last night’s victory – kept that door shut once it had the lead.
Along with Rutledge, Clayton Beeter, PJ Poulin, Cole Henry and Jose A. Ferrer combined to pitch 4 ⅔ shutout innings of relief, giving up only one hit and one walk along the way.
And by doing so, the Nats found themselves as winners of five of their last eight and seven of their last 12 heading into their road trip to Philadelphia and New York.