Long day ends in another home loss for Nats (updated)

As soon as the skies opened in the top of the second at Nationals Park, this was guaranteed to be an unconventional day at the yard.

The grounds crew would need to put in extra work to get the field playable once the storm passed. Bullpens would need to be asked to work overtime, with starters burned up. Benches would be emptied, players would switch positions, designated hitters would be forfeited.

In the end, the path may have been different, but the result was not. The Nationals lost yet another home game, this time by a count of 5-4 in 10 innings to a Reds team that just completed a four-game sweep in impressive fashion.

Nick Senzel’s two-run homer off Hunter Harvey on the first pitch of the 10th was the deciding blow, though it was Senzel’s defensive efforts in the bottom of the ninth that made it possible in the first place.

With a chance to win it in regulation, the Nats got a one-out double from Riley Adams and then thought for a moment they got at least a walk-off double (if not a homer) from CJ Abrams. But Senzel’s leaping catch at the wall in right denied the home team a chance for a rare celebration, and ultimately sent the game into extras.

"I thought (the game was over)," manager Davey Martinez said. "He made a nice catch. And then he comes up and hits a big homer for them. But CJ did a good job, hitting the ball hard like that."

Harvey, who had retired the side on 15 pitches in the ninth, was brought back for the 10th, with an automatic runner placed on second base. Senzel would immediately crush his first-pitch fastball to left to break the deadlock.

"(The rest of the bullpen) kept us in the game," Harvey said. "The back end, we didn't do our job today. And it's what happens."

The Nationals would rally in the bottom of the 10th, scoring their automatic runner and advancing the tying runner into scoring position. But Dominic Smith (who had replaced Joey Meneses for defense two innings earlier), Corey Dickerson (who replaced Stone Garrett for a platoon matchup two innings earlier) and Keibert Ruiz (who was DHing instead of catching) each made an out to leave the runner stranded.

Thus did the Nationals lose for the 14th time in their last 15 home games, the last four of those at the hands of a resurgent Reds club whose rebuild has taken off far quicker than the Nats’ comparable overhaul.

"They're really athletic," Harvey said. "They're aggressive. They play hard. And they just do everything really good."

With pop-up storms looming throughout the region, the game began on time but with the understanding it might not be completed without interruption. Sure enough, two batters into the top of the second, the skies opened and everyone ran for cover as crew chief Adrian Johnson called for the tarp.

Everyone, that is, but MacKenzie Gore, who remained on the mound for several seconds with a look of both confusion and disgust on his face. The young lefty clearly wanted play to continue, perhaps realizing any disruption might bring an abrupt and unfortunate end to his afternoon.

The delay wound up lasting 1 hour, 43 minutes, with Gore doing everything he could to keep himself available for the resumption. He appeared in the bullpen once the rain eased and threw two simulated innings, with a break in between, trying to stay warm as he tried to make his case not to be pulled.

"MacKenzie's a competitor. He's one of the most competitive guys on the team," Adams said. "You saw him slowly walk off the field once they called for putting the tarp on. That just shows you how bad he wanted to stay out there. I wish he could've come back out, but obviously that was a longer rain delay than what we all expected."

Indeed, the delay was too long for the Nationals to feel comfortable putting their 24-year-old lefty in that kind of jeopardy. When the teams re-took the field, it was Mason Thompson on the mound trying to prevent Elly De La Cruz from scoring from third with one out. And the big right-hander pulled it off, inducing a 6-2-3 double play off Tyler Stephenson’s bat to end the inning.

Thompson would give up a run in the third but kept his pitch count low enough to be able to get through the fourth as well and help set up the rest of the game for the rest of the Nationals bullpen.

A lineup that continues to need so many things to go right to score runs in bunches finally got several things to go right in the bottom of the fifth. With runners on first and second and two out, Abrams took off for third but initially was called out on a bang-bang play. The Nats challenged the call and got it overturned, with Abrams managing to elude De La Cruz’s tag on a risky, but ultimately effective, double-steal. That proved quite important, because moments later Lane Thomas singled through the left side hole, scoring not only Abrams with the tying run but Alex Call with the go-ahead run as well.

"I thought it was worth the risk, the way we're swinging the bat right now," Martinez said. "We're trying to get guys in scoring position. Lane with a big hit right there for us that put us ahead. We felt good about it."

The teams then took turns scoring one run at a time, the Reds tying the game in the sixth on De La Cruz’s RBI double off rookie left-hander Jose A. Ferrer, the Nationals re-taking the lead in the seventh on Call’s solo homer to left, the Reds then re-tying the game in the eighth on Joey Votto’s pinch-hit RBI single off Kyle Finnegan.

By the time this one was decided, lineups had been rearranged, pitchers had been burned up, not one of Cincinnati's nine starters was still playing the same position from the start of the game and those who stuck it out the entire afternoon were left to watch the home team lose once again before their eyes.