Tanner Roark took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 8th inning, and Roark looked fantastic for the first 7 inning. Then it started to unravel and nothing seemed to work for him in the 8th inning. He walked the lead-off man Joc Pederson on a 3-2 pitch that was so on the edge (see chart below) and could have been called strike 3 and probably should have been strike 3. Then Puig lined a ball off of Espinosa’s glove for a single, and then Yasmani Grandal smoked a 3-run HR to win the game in a 2 strike count.
The Nationals squandered chances on-base all night long, and had a chance to widen the lead several times. This loss extends this losing streak to 4 games for the Nationals.
This is the chart that walked Pederson to start the 8th inning:
Bryce Harper and Danny Espinosa supplied the runs via solo home runs, but the team was 1-10 with RISP and the only hit came from Tanner Roark where Ramos was thrown out at the plate.
Dusty Baker is the manager and the question was do you pull Tanner in the first sign of trouble? In the top of the 8th with 1 out and Ramos on 2nd base, do you pinch-run for him?
Dave Roberts had his pitcher Kazmir intentionally walk Daniel Murphy to load the bases to pitch to Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman struck out and is now 0-9 this season with bases loaded with 4 strikeouts.
