Today was another ‘burn the tape’ day for a Nationals club that’s had way too many of them already this season. Anyone who tuned in any later than five minutes after first pitch likely never saw a close game today, as the Padres opened this game with a five-spot on MacKenzie Gore, the worst first inning of his career so far. The bats weren’t much help to him either, as the Nationals scored just seven runs in this weekend’s series across all three games. Of course, credit needs to be given to the San Diego pitching staff, but as a fan base, we have every right to be critical of such a low output, especially when it seems to be becoming the new normal.
As I said, the Padres made this game a laugher very quickly. This game started walk-single-walk, and then in an instant, it was 4-0 thanks to a grand slam by Xander Bogaerts. Also, something to note, that was the Padres’ second grand slam of the weekend against the Nats, who haven’t hit a grand slam yet this entire season. The Pads added on later in the inning with an RBI double by Jake Cronenworth, and before the Nats even touched a bat they were down 5-0.
The score wouldn’t be any closer than that for the rest of the game. The Padres made it 6-0 in the top of the second thanks to an RBI single by Gavin Sheets. Gore just did not have a feel for his stuff in this one, the Padres were constantly on his fastball, forcing him to go to his offspeed pitches to try and get guys out, and for whatever reason those just weren’t working like they normally do. His curveball was particularly ineffective, as there were some concerningly wide misses throughout his short outing with that pitch.
Mackenzie’s day was over with just one out in the third inning, as a two-run home run by Elias Diaz was the final straw for Miguel Cairo, who was forced to go take the ball from Gore, down 8-0. The best news from today is that San Diego wouldn’t score again, Jackson Rutledge, Andry Lara, and Cole Henry would combine to throw 6.2 scoreless innings in relief this afternoon.
The Nats finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth as Riley Adams hit his fifth homer of the season, breaking up Nick Pivetta’s run of 11 straight scoreless innings against the Nats this year. For what it’s worth, his six innings of one-run ball this afternoon made it 13 innings of one-run ball thrown against Washington over two starts for him this season. Sometimes you just come across a guy that year after year seems to have your team’s number, Dylan Cease is certainly one of them, we saw him Friday night, and Nick Pivetta has blossomed into another of that sort.
- Nick Pivetta: 6 innings, 3 hits, 1 run (1 earned), 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 87 pitches
- Mackenzie Gore: 2.1 innings, 8 hits, 8 runs (all earned), 3 walks, 2 strikeouts, 75 pitches
The Nats did at least get something resembling a rally going in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases for CJ Abrams with two outs, but they were unable to cash in at all as Abrams would fly out to left to end the inning.
That 8-1 score would hold the rest of the way. The Padres got a scoreless seventh from Bryan Hoeing and two scoreless innings from Alek Jacob to finish this one off, giving them the win in the weekend series.
In handing out the positives today, I’d like to give an extra shoutout to Jackson Rutledge. He’s had some bad luck of late but he came into today’s game in the third inning when the Nationals needed length, and he tossed 3.2 scoreless innings to keep the Padres right where they were. Andry Lara was good in his third big league outing, going two scoreless, and Cole Henry also registered a scoreless outing in relief. Offensively, Luis Garcia and Paul DeJong both had multi-hit games today, and James Wood picked up his first hit since the Nats were in St. Louis a couple weeks ago. It would be a huge lift for the Nats’ offense if he can break out of his slump this week and get back to his usual self.
The Cincinnati Reds are flying into town, and the Nats will see them for three games beginning tomorrow night at 6:45. Brady Singer (7-7, 4.32 ERA) will get the ball for the Reds against Jake Irvin (7-5, 4.58 ERA), who threw five innings with no earned runs allowed in his last outing in Milwaukee. The Reds took two out of three in New York against the Mets this weekend, the Nats will have to get back to playing good fundamental baseball this week if they want to get a better result out of this next series.
