The Nationals’ 11th straight loss looked quite a bit like their previous 10. They did very little at the plate against the opposing starter. They got a solid outing from their own starter, who made one costly mistake. And they left themselves needing a last-ditch rally, once again falling short with the game on the line.
This 3-1 loss to the Rockies could’ve happened last weekend against the Marlins, or last week against the Mets, or the previous weekend against the Rangers. They’re all starting to run together at this point, the commonalities all too evident.
The only truly unique aspects about tonight’s loss? It included a 1-hour, 45-minute rain delay. And it included some legitimate bad luck for the Nats, who hit 11 balls with an exit velocity of at least 98 mph but saw only four of them land for hits because a terrible Colorado defensive unit played what had to be its best game of the year.
Bad luck or not, results are results. And this was the 11th consecutive bad result for the Nationals, who have fallen from a respectable 30-33 less than two weeks ago to a miserable 30-44 now. They’ll give it another shot Thursday afternoon in the series finale, hoping not to match the club’s all-time worst losing streak of 12 set in August 2008.
The Nationals desperately wanted to put pressure on German Marquez and score an early run or two off the Rockies starter. And considering their leadoff hitter reached base in each of the game’s first three innings, and in each case attempted to steal second base, they seemingly were putting that strategy into play with perfection.
The only problem: They couldn’t bring any of those leadoff baserunners home. They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in the first two innings alone. Jacob Young was thrown out trying to steal second after a leadoff single in the third. And even though they still loaded the bases after that, Brady House’s 101.3-mph liner to third was snagged by a diving Orlando Arcia to kill that rally.
The Nats legitimately hit the ball hard on a number of occasions and had nothing to show for it. In addition to House’s third inning lineout, Josh Bell hit a ball 110 mph toward deep center field in the second only to be robbed by Brenton Doyle. Bell also hit a 107-mph laser up the middle in the fourth, only to be robbed by shortstop Ryan Ritter. All told, a Rockies team that ranks last in the majors with minus-42 Defensive Runs Saved made four highlight-reel gems in the field tonight.
House and Bell teamed up again to hit back-to-back rockets with two outs in the sixth, each of them singling. (That made House a solid 4-for-10 with two walks to begin his major league career.) But with a chance to finally break through, Daylen Lile grounded out against reliever Jake Bird to leave the Nationals a dismal 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
With zero run support from his teammates, Parker had zero margin for error. And for the better part of six innings, the left-hander made zero errors. Despite getting himself into a couple of early jams, Parker got himself out of them, stranding runners in scoring position in the first and third innings.
He then turned to his two breaking balls – curveball and slider – to leave Colorado’s hitters completely baffled for a stretch. At one point, he struck out six of seven batters faced, all of them on breaking balls.
And then came Parker’s one and only mistake. After falling behind in the count 2-0, he fired off another curveball and left it just enough over the plate for Michael Toglia to blast it into the left field bullpen for a 1-0 lead. He would depart at the end of the inning, having surrendered one run while striking out eight and walking nobody, yet still on the hook for the loss if his teammates couldn’t rally.
And they found themselves needing an even bigger rally when the Rockies scored another run in the top of the seventh off Brad Lord, who probably deserved better himself. Arcia led off the inning with a sinking liner to right and wound up on third base when Lile made a diving attempt and saw the ball squirt past him. Ryan Ritter then somehow managed to get a squeeze bunt down despite Lord throwing a fastball near his face, Arcia sliding home to make it 2-0.
The clutch hit by the home team finally came in the bottom of the seventh when Abrams drew a two-out walk and scored on James Wood’s 116.2-mph double to the gap in right-center. But any positive momentum generated from that run was washed away soon after when Jose A. Ferrer served up a homer to Jordan Beck in the top of the eighth, leaving the Nationals again facing a two-run deficit with time running out to put an end to this miserable losing streak.