Kyle Finnegan picks the worst times for his blowup outings. The Nats played a pretty solid all around game tonight, had a 5-3 lead headed to the bottom of the ninth with their closer entering, and blew it. In a season where it feels like no win has come easy, this one was a particularly tough pill to swallow, in a game that really felt like it was in control at the end.
The youth movement for the Nationals was on full display at the plate today, beginning with Daylen Lile. The rookie outfielder put the Nats on the board first in the top of the second inning with a solo shot, his second big league home run. That lead was doubled in the top of the fourth thanks to another rookie, this time it was Brady House checking in with his first big league home run as part of his two home runs and three RBIs in this game. A breakout game for House who tallied three hits.
Shinnosuke Ogasawara allowed just one hit over a scoreless first three frames, but as has been the case with the other Nats starters recently, there’s always that one inning. The fourth inning rolled around and, maybe it was because they were seeing him for a second time, but the Brewers got to him. Jackson Chourio got them on the board with an RBI double that should have been caught by James Wood who had a costly jab step in, and then couldn’t adjust going back on it.
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Two batters later they took the lead on a two-run double from Andrew Vaughn. That would be the end for Ogasawara, whose four innings and three run stat line did not accurately represent the overall pretty solid outing he had today. Another case of defense matters.
- Shinnosuke Ogasawara: 4 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, 56 pitches
- Brandon Woodruff: 4.1 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 0 walks, 10 strikeouts, 81 pitches
The score remained 3-2 Milwaukee through the middle innings and into the late ones thanks to great performances by both bullpens. Then Brady House struck again. The only thing better than hitting your first big league homer? Hitting your second in the same game. That’s exactly what he did in the top of the eighth, a two-run go-ahead shot to put the Nats ahead 4-3.
Jose A. Ferrer threw a scoreless bottom of the eighth, and the Nats added one in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by CJ Abrams. That gave Kyle Finnegan, whose had little to nothing in terms of high leverage action in the past week or so, to shut the door on a great win for the Nationals.
That’s not what ended up happening. It wasn’t until the fourth batter of the inning that he recorded the first out, one batter before that, Jackson Chourio tied the game with a two-run double to even the score at 5. Next batter, Jake Bauers, grounded out to move the winning run to third with one out. Then after an intentional walk, Caleb Durbin put an end to the tension with a walk-off RBI single to end a very disappointing loss for Washington.
There’s not much I can say about this one that you all probably haven’t already thought. So I’ll just get straight to the positives. The Nats got an unbelievable relief outing from Brad Lord, who has been one of my team MVP picks at this point in the season. Andrew Chafin and Jose A. Ferrer also turned in scoreless work out of the bullpen this afternoon. Offensively, Brady House gets the gold star of the day, with a three-hit game that included his first two big league home runs. Josh Bell and Jacob Young also recorded two hits apiece to help supplement the Nats’ offensive attack. One guy I will call out is James Wood, while he can’t always be Superman, the Nats need a little better than 0-5 with four strikeouts, his line today. Since his 5-5 game against the Tigers a week and a half ago, he’s been just 3 for his last 29 with 12 strikeouts mixed in there, especially in the games this week against the Cardinals and Brewers, he’s struck out a ton.
The Nats have one more game left before the break, game three of this series in Milwaukee will get underway tomorrow afternoon at 2:10. Jake Irvin (7-4, 4.78 ERA) will get one last start before the break, and he’ll be opposed by the Brewers’ ace, Freddy Peralta (10-4, 2.74 ERA). The Nats need a feel good win in the worst of ways, and tomorrow they’ll need two of them as they’ll pick first overall in the MLB draft shortly after the conclusion of the game tomorrow.
