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SEATTLE – It’s one thing to be aggressive at the plate. It’s quite another thing to have so little success being aggressive at the plate and making no obvious adjustment to reverse that trend.
The Nationals have often shown that unfortunate propensity in recent seasons, and tonight they took it to new (and increasingly agonizing) lengths. During a 9-1 trouncing at the hands of the Mariners, they made quick outs early against Logan Evans, then continued to make quick outs against Seattle’s rookie starter and never did anything to fix it.
By the time Eduard Bazardo completed what Evans started, the Nats ensured tonight would rank among the most futile offensive efforts in club history: They saw 98 total pitches, tied for the 11th fewest they've seen in a nine-inning game over the last 20-plus seasons.
"We're trying to work and see pitches. But when he's like that and you know he's attacking like that, you've got to go up there and be ready to hit," manager Davey Martinez said of Evans, who threw 65 of his 88 pitches for strikes. "You might get just one pitch like that down the middle, and then all of a sudden you're fighting. Tip my cap to him. He kept going out there and kept throwing strikes."
The Nationals nearly failed to draw a walk for the third consecutive game, a distinction they had achieved only once before in club history (September 2016). Josh Bell’s free pass in the top of the eighth finally snapped their streak of impatience at 26 innings.
"When guys make mistakes in the zone, you want the at-bat to be over. You want to drive the ball over 100 (mph), with the right launch," Bell said. "You can't go up there looking for walks, especially when a guy is attacking the strike zone like that."
Combine that level of offensive futility with another shaky start from Mitchell Parker, and it’s not hard to see how the opener of a six-game West Coast trip turned into a rout for the opposition.
This lineup’s erratic results remain the most baffling development of the season (which, by the way, is now 33 percent complete after tonight’s game). During their recent five-game winning streak, the Nats scored 37 total runs, often jumping on an opposing starter within the first two innings to take a comfortable lead.
But they’ve now scored only six runs over their last four games, three of them losses, all of them defined by a lack of success against the man on the mound for the opponent.
"I think getting starters out of the game in the first four or five innings is important," Bell said. "That's our No. 1 prerogative: Getting on the starter, getting into the bullpen early, especially early in the series. Hopefully we can do that to (George) Kirby tomorrow."
To the list you can now add Evans, who in his sixth career start pitched with the success and efficiency of peak Greg Maddux. The rookie right-hander retired the evening’s first nine batters on a measly 24 pitches.
James Wood did manage to inflict his usual damage, launching a 448-foot homer (longest of his brief career) off the batter’s eye in center with one out in the fourth for the Nationals’ first hit of the game. There was little else of consequence put forth by his teammates, who kept swinging early in the count and kept making quick outs (even if there was occasional hard contact).
Evans made it to the eighth inning while averaging fewer than 10 pitches per frame. Thanks to Bell’s walk and Luis García Jr.’s double, the Nats made him “work” a bit harder and convinced Mariners manager Dan Wilson to pull his starter after 88 pitches and let Bazardo handle the ninth.
"Speaking for myself, he was making good pitches, and I just kept swinging at them," Wood said. "I wasn't really super patient. He made good pitches, and you've got to give him credit. But you've just got to be a little tougher laying off the bad stuff and making him work a little bit more."
Not that all of Parker’s struggles can be boiled down to one issue, but you can’t ignore one consistently troubling theme: the first inning. He’s had a devil of a time recording those pesky first three outs of a game without suffering some kind of damage, and it happened once again tonight.
J.P. Crawford led off the bottom of the first with a single to left. That was nothing compared to what happened next: Back-to-back homers by Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh. The first came on a splitter, the second came on a fastball, each came on a pitch up in the zone.
So it was that Parker allowed his ninth, 10th and 11th first-inning runs in 11 starts this season, good for a 9.00 ERA. That’s more than 35 percent of all the earned runs he’s surrendered. His ERA after the first inning? A respectable 3.60.
"I need to get to that second time around (the lineup) as early as possible, get to that mindset as early as possible in the game," he said. "Don't wait for it to be three, four runs to finally get to that point."
True to form, Parker settled down tonight once he got through that disastrous opening frame, though he still saw his pitch rise to an unhealthy 52 after only two innings. Turning more to his curveball, he was able to record a pair of strikeouts in the third. And by the time he got to two outs in the fifth he had faced the minimum since there had been one out in the second.
Parker’s final pitch of the night, though, was troubling to say the least. It registered as an 87.2 mph four-seam fastball, a full 4.5 mph slower than his average fastball this season and well below any other he threw in this game. He confirmed afterward it was a misread splitter. Regardless, it resulted in Raleigh’s second homer of the night and an immediate trip to the mound from Martinez, who signaled for Jackson Rutledge out of the bullpen.
"Today was a product, I think, of him coming out and throwing 91-92," the manager said. "All of a sudden, he gives up the three runs and it's 94-95. He's got to come out from the chute and get after it. That first inning is important. If he can throw up a zero that first inning, it loosens everybody up."
The Nationals trailed 4-1 at that point, and given the way they were hacking away at everything Evans threw in their general direction, their chances of mounting a comeback felt minimal. It only got worse when Rutledge gave up three runs in the bottom of the sixth, though it wasn’t entirely the reliever’s fault.
One run scored on a chopper to third, with José Tena’s throw to the plate too late. Another scored on a popup into shallow center field, with García inexplicably trying to make an over-the-shoulder catch instead of deferring to Robert Hassell III, who had a much easier play charging in from the outfield but wasn't calling off his teammate.
"That's Hassell's ball," Martinez said. "The rule of thumb is: When the infielder has his back turned toward the infield, the outfielder's got to come catch the ball."
