The home run hat and American flag suit are both back in the Nationals’ dugout, as was an energy and excitement level that we haven’t seen in weeks. The Nationals broke out of their offensive funk tonight, and it’s no coincidence that they seemed to genuinely be enjoying themselves for the first time in a while. Interim manager Miguel Cairo was rewarded for his efforts tonight with his first career win as a big league manager in the Nats’ 8-2 victory in St. Louis.
The offense jumped out to a lead very early on. CJ Abrams led off the game with a double, then Josh Bell worked a two-out walk to bring Nathaniel Lowe to the plate in a first-inning RBI opportunity. Lowe got a curveball right down the heart of the plate and didn’t miss it, sending a line drive homer out to right field to give MacKenzie Gore a 3-0 advantage before he ever touched the field. Gore worked 6.0 innings of 1-run ball to push his ERA down to 3.03 going into the All-Star break. Of course Gore will head to Atlanta to participate in the All-Star game.
“Everyone contributed, and a good team win. … This was for my friend Davey.”
— Miguel Cairo said after the game
The Cardinals got one run back in the bottom of the first on a two-out RBI single by Alec Burleson, but Gore would buckle down and limit the damage there. That would also be the last run he gave up tonight in an excellent outing in his final start before the break.
Fast forward to the top of the fourth when the Nationals broke the game open against Cardinals’ starter Andre Pallante. Alex Call started the scoring with an RBI double to make it 4-1, that was soon followed by a two-run single by Jacob Young, making it a 6-1 Washington lead before the inning would end. Interim manager Miguel Cairo chose to start the right-handed hitting Amed Rosario tonight against a righty starter, something Dave Martinez very rarely did. That decision paid off to lead off the top of the fifth, Rosario got a fastball at the top of the zone and got every bit of it, sending it over the bullpen in left to make it a 7-1 ballgame.
MacKenzie Gore allowed some traffic on the basepaths early in his outing, but as he often does, he got better as the game went on. The lefty had just three strikeouts in his first four innings of work, before striking out four guys over his final two frames en route to six great innings on a night where the Nationals really needed a good outing from a starting pitcher.
- MacKenzie Gore: 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 run (1 earned), 1 walk, 7 strikeouts, 89 pitches
- Andre Pallante: 6 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 100 pitches
The Cardinals also went to their bullpen in the seventh inning, and reliever John King was greeted rudely by a man we haven’t heard from in a few nights, James Wood. Wood had been pitched pretty well by St. Louis in these first two games, until King threw him a sinker in on his hands that he did not miss. The solo blast traveled 433 feet out to right center, making this one an 8-1 game, and giving Wood his 24th homer of the season.
Cole Henry struggled tonight, tasked with pitching the bottom of the seventh. The Cardinals generated a lot of traffic in the inning, but only scored one on an RBI single from Masyn Winn, cutting the Nats’ lead to 8-2.
That would be where it ended. The Nats’ bullpen got a night off from using closer Kyle Finnegan, and kept the Cardinals a healthy bit out of this game, helping to leave no doubt. This really was a great all-around performance tonight, and a much needed one at that, the only slight note I’ll add in there is that I really wish we could see more all around games like this on nights where MacKenzie Gore isn’t on the bump. Let’s see if we can get some better performances the rest of the week from the other four members of the rotation, and hopefully they’ll have some run support to back them up.
The positives tonight were healthy in quantity. Gore threw yet another excellent outing against a good team, bringing his season ERA down to 3.02. The Nats also got scoreless relief outings from Jackson Rutledge and newly acquired reliever, Luis Garcia, in his Nats debut. Offensively, Nathaniel Lowe was the only multi-hit performer this evening, but the Nats got hits from eight of the nine offensive starters, showing a truly balanced attack all night. Josh Bell and Alex Call did add a walk apiece to their respective hits, making them the only other two to reach base mutliple times tonight.
The Nats have a chance to win a series tomorrow night, and what a bounceback that would be for a club that just fired its Manager and General Manager. The rubber match will start tomorrow night at 7:45. Michael Soroka (3-6, 5.40 ERA) will be on the mound, trying to bounce back from his rough outing last Friday against the Red Sox. He will be opposed by the veteran right-hander, Miles Mikolas (4-6, 5.26 ERA). The Nats have a real shot at taking a series on the road from a postseason contender if they can get to the struggling veteran Mikolas tomorrow night. Until then, let’s enjoy this one, because the boys really did have fun tonight and as someone who’s watched a lot of rough baseball this year, that really does make me smile.
