The Washington Nationals mistakes cost them in Atlanta, and the Braves took advantage via a walk-off single to win 4-3, extending the Nats’ losing streak to 6-games.
The losing streak went to 6-games as the Washington Nationals lost another heartbreaker. This time to the rival Atlanta Braves via a walk-off single. However, there were basic mistakes that you have to wonder what these Nats’ players are thinking.
For instance, a 9th inning poorly executed bunt right back to pitcher Jackson Rutledge, his catcher Keibert Ruiz needs to be yelling TWO TWO TWO so he can throw the ball to second base for the force-out. With his back to second base, Rutledge threw to first base which put the winning run at second base — and of course that runner scored eight-pitches later on a single to walk-off. Rutledge did the right thing. He wasn’t told to throw to second base. Yes, that was the safe move to first base, but the absolute issue was: How did that runner get on-base you might ask? Oh, he hit a well-located sinker from Rutledge as a groundball directly to Nasim Nuñez at second base. Nuñez just didn’t handle it. The official scorer credited the batter with a single. Huh? The ball had some mustard on it at 101.6. That needs to be fielded.
Some are saying that this loss is manager Dave Martinez‘s fault, and that he should have had his closer, Kyle Finnegan, in the game. I disagree. Finnegan on the road has to wait for the Nats to take the lead if there is a 10th inning. At home, yes, you use your closer in that situation in a tie game in the 9th inning because there won’t be a save.
“We don’t go to Finnegan when you’re on the road in the ninth inning. Typically it’s been like that for years. You don’t use your closer [in that situation]. If we run out of pitching, yeah, you have to do it. But these [relievers], they threw the ball well.”
— Martinez answered the media after the game
If the Nationals capitalized on earlier opportunities, we aren’t even having this discussion about a 9th inning tie game. In fact, if not for a 9th inning error on a wide throw by the Braves, the game could have ended in the top of the 9th inning. The Braves tried to hand the Nationals the game in the 8th inning. Atlanta had some guy named Daysbel Hernandez doing an impersonation of Lucas Sims. You know, a pitcher who hits a batter, and can’t find the strike zone after that. Jose Tena led off the 8th inning with a double followed by a first pitch HBP on pinch-hitter Alex Call. Then CJ Abrams stepped in — and this was where the game went off the rails.
First off, Abrams has been playing like an All-Star and hasn’t been one of the guys chasing pitches. Maybe the adrenaline of playing in front of dozens of family and friends in his hometown got him fishing. Hernandez had lost all control. He was going to walk the bases loaded if Abrams let him. Look where those pitches crossed the plate. Instead in a 3-1 count, Abrams chased ball-4 and sent a screaming grounder at 107.9 mph right to Ozzie Albies who fielded it (unlike Nasim Nuñez in the 9th inning) and turned a room-service 4-6-3 double-play to neutralize the threat. Hernandez then clicked in and threw 5-sliders to James Wood to K him and end the inning.
If Abrams took his walk, he loads the bases with no outs. No way Hernandez clicks back in, and maybe the Braves pull him. We wish we knew how that inning would have gone if Abrams took his walk. The Nats chased in other at-bats. There were also some bad umpiring calls throughout the game. Heck, first batter of the game, starter Jake Irvin didn’t get a strike call. He was squeezed a few times. Credit to Martinez on this night for not sending Irvin out to pitch the 7th inning. Irvin gave his team a quality start by the definition. A little unlucky on the BABIP at times.
But on this night it really was about chasing pitches. Some credit to the Braves pitchers. But when you face a guy that has no control like Sims, you better stay patient. There were some terrible at-bats by Ruiz who went from a 2-0 count to a K on five pitches out of the zone earlier in the game. Josh Bell chased pitches and struck himself out in the 7th inning in a key situation when he represented the tying run and was batting right-handed to face the lefty reliever.
Again, chase pitches will happen when they are well-executed by the pitcher. But Ruiz and Abrams in 2-0 counts, for now, need to just TAKE the next pitch and make the pitcher throw a strike. By doing that, the scouting will change, and then you might find that pitchers go fastball in the zone in 2-0 counts because the scouting report says you normally take the pitch in a 2-0 count.
The MLB average on what they call O-Swing (a chase out of the zone) was 31.8 percent last year. Sometimes you make bad contact in O-Swing, and often-times it results in the classic swing & miss.
Ruiz’s O-Swing has him at 37.9 percent, Luis Garcia Jr. at 36.3, Abrams at 36.1, and Jose Tena is next at 35.2 percent as the biggest offenders of the current starters.
Does the 3rd base coach need to think for the batters and put up the take sign? Has it risen to this level of ineptitude where the Nats have to do this because so many batters lack the proper discipline? The only Nats batters who are better than league average on O-Swing are Nathaniel Lowe, James Wood, Jacob Young and Alex Call.
“I talk about it every day that we had some opportunities, and in those situations, we chased some pitches out of the zone. … We just got to continue to work on it, continue to talk about it. Everybody in the league knows that we’re going to go up there and swing — but we got to start swinging at strikes.”
— Martinez said after last night’s game a speech that he has made numerous times before
The scouting report on Ruiz is crystal clear because I asked a scout. Get him to swing on inside breaking pitches in the bottom half of the zone, even in a 2-0 count, and “watch him swing.” We see it all the time. Why throw Ruiz a real strike? He is a catcher. They are supposed to have a great eye and pitch recognition.
For the most part, I think Martinez managed a good game, even though some don’t want to hear it. Most of the problems I see go back to batter preparation and what Darnell Coles, the hitting coach, should be getting right.
Personally, I would have pinch-hit with Amed Rosario for Josh Bell as soon as Braves manager Brian Snitker brought in a lefty to face Bell and turn him around to bat to the right-side. Bell is just 2-for-28 against LHPs and that is an .071 batting average, and Rosario is batting .325 in those situation.
Other than that, what are you going to do. So many offensive players failed. Bell failed in the 7th inning with Garcia standing on 2nd base, and then Bell failed big time in the 9th inning with 2-men on-base and one out as he tapped the ball back to the pitcher who couldn’t handle the ball initially, and still Bell couldn’t leg out an infield single. Fortunately, Dylan Crews hustled out an infield single that scored two runs with an errant throw to tie the game. You know the rest.
