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HOUSTON – Michael Soroka took the mound tonight knowing there was a good chance it would be his final start for the Nationals, knowing the better he pitched, the more attractive he might make himself to any interested contenders.
He then found out that’s easier said than done, especially when the opposing lineup makes you work as much as the Astros did.
Unable to complete four innings for the first time this season due to a high pitch count, Soroka didn’t figure in the decision in the Nats’ eventual 7-4 loss. The bullpen was charged with the final five runs, turning a once-tied game into a relatively comfortable victory for Houston.
But the spotlight tonight was squarely on Soroka, who took the mound less than 48 hours before the trade deadline and once again turned in a start that included a combination of positive and negative developments.
Houston’s hitters put up a massive fight from the get-go, battling tough pitches and prolonging at-bats. Their first four batters saw a combined 28 pitches, and a whopping 13 of those were fouled off. Cam Smith then got a pitch he could do something with and sent it down the right field line for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
"I definitely made my job harder than it needed to be early on," he said. "And they did a good job fighting off other good pitches."
That prolonged first inning put Soroka behind the eight ball and perhaps doomed him to an abbreviated start from the outset, even if he did pitch fairly well. He escaped a second-inning jam, thanks to back-to-back strikeouts of Shay Whitcomb and Zack Short, but his pitch count by then was already up to 51.
And when Yainer Diaz connected on a high fastball and sent it flying into the right field bullpen, Soroka looked surprised to see Miguel Cairo walking to the mound and signaling to the bullpen. He hadn’t necessarily been his sharpest, but he had only allowed two runs on four hits with zero walks. Nevertheless, the right-hander was pulled after 74 pitches in 3 1/3 innings, the shortest of his 16 starts this season by both measurements.
"I don't think he was that crisp," Cairo said. "The first three innings, they were hard innings. I just made the decision to bring someone else from the bullpen. But at least he battled. He was trying to keep his composure and navigate through those innings. Sometimes it goes like that."
If this it for Soroka, he departs D.C. with a 3-8 record and 4.87 ERA, numbers that don’t jump off the page. His 1.131 WHIP and 87 strikeouts in 81 1/3 innings, on the other hand, suggest he actually pitched better than the bottom-line numbers suggest.
"The Nationals have done really well by me," said the right-hander, who signed a one-year, $9 million deal over the winter. "It's been fun. Whatever happens, happens. But it's a good place with a lot of good guys. I think I'm ready for whatever comes next."
The Nationals had briefly given their starter a lead tonight, thanks to a most impressive swing by Luis García Jr. Facing an 0-2 count in the top of the third, the Nationals second baseman swung at a changeup near his ankles from Astros starter Jason Alexander and somehow managed to send it flying 370 feet to right for a two-run homer.
"Whenever I had contact with it, I didn't think it was going to be a good ball," García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "But when I was seeing it fly, I saw it was good contact."
That’s all they would get, though, against Alexander, a 32-year-old journeyman who shares a name with the famous "Seinfeld" actor and entered the game with a 6.02 ERA in 25 career big league games. By the time they scored again in the seventh via James Wood’s much needed, two-out RBI single off reliever Bryan King, they trailed by four runs, the result of an unsightly relief appearance by Andry Lara.
After playing matchups in the fourth and fifth with Cole Henry and Andrew Chafin, Cairo then turned to Lara with two on and two out in the fifth of a 2-2 game. The rookie right-hander, thrust into a high-leverage situation for the first time in his career, proceeded to give up the go-ahead single to Cooper Hummel on the first pitch he threw.
Then Lara returned for the sixth and gave up three more runs on four more hits. Then he returned for the seventh and gave up another run on two more hits, ultimately charged with three runs on seven hits in only 1 2/3 innings of relief.
"Sometimes, like I've said before, I want to use everyone in the bullpen," Cairo said. "I can't be using the same guys every day. I don't want to break their arms, either. Sometimes when they come into those situations, they've got a job to do."
The only saving grace? A potential throwing error by Lara on a little dribbler toward the mound was wiped out when plate umpire Will Little called batter Cam Smith out for running inside the baseline en route to first. Yes, for the third straight series in this ballpark between these two teams, that particular play occurred. But for the first time, the call finally went the Nationals’ way.
