The Washington Nationals lost by a touchdown. “It doesn’t get more abysmal than this,” was a thought from one of the Apple TV broadcasters calling the game tonight. And I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Nationals just allowed 25 hits and 16 runs in a game to a team whose manager sat in the dugout eating ‘pocket’ pancakes during the game.
The more shocking thing is that the Nats were at one point winning this game, if only major league games were just an inning long. This was most definitely not the game to watch alone in my dark bedroom, so let’s do the most healthy thing I can think of to do and go right back over how we got here.
As I said, if this game were only an inning long, I would be sitting here recapping a 1-0 win over one of the best teams in the league. CJ Abrams led off the game with a double on the first pitch of the night from Jose Quintana, and was driven in later in the inning by Luis Garcia Jr.‘s RBI single. Then Mitchell Parker returned to his uglier form.
Ex-Nationals minor leaguer, Blake Perkins, got the Brewers on the board in the top of the second inning with a solo homer off Parker, his first of the season, and spoiler, not his last one even of the night. For the time being, though, Parker held them at bay, and at the end of two innings, we were locked in a 1-1 tie, with little knowledge of the impending attack on our sanity that was to come.
That attack kicked into gear at the top of the third thanks to a trademarked Mitchell Parker blowup inning, stop me if you’ve seen one of those before. Tonight’s began with an RBI single by Andrew Vaughn, another guy we’ll hear from later, and was continued with a sacrifice fly by Brewers’ newcomer Danny Jansen. That 3-1 lead didn’t last long as Andruw Monasterio, two batters later, brought home two more with a double, and the final jab of the inning came from Joey Ortiz with an RBI double of his own to extend the lead to 6-1. It was at this point that I figured things wouldn’t get much worse and our bullpen would limp to the finish line. I was right about one of those things, the pitching staff sure put on a limp-job of a lifetime.
Before the onslaught could commence, it was broken up by a little bit of positivity for the Nats, coming via a Paul DeJong solo homer in the bottom of the third to make it a 6-2 game. It was even followed by a bounce-back scoreless top of the fourth from Parker to make things seem alright. Going into the bottom of the fourth, the Nats had a shot to make this a game again with just a run or two. They had an opportunity, getting two runners on with two out, but Jacob Young, who has just been horrific at the plate the last week or two, grounded out to eliminate the threat.
Miguel Cairo‘s biggest mistake of the night, besides bringing the team out of the clubhouse to play tonight, was leaving Mitchell in for the top of the fifth. The Brewers got a leadoff single off of him, and then Blake Perkins delivered the knockout punch with a two-run homer for his second of the season and the night. Parker left an 8-2 game, and the bullpen did absolutely nothing to make it look any better. Before the fifth could even finish up, Jackson Rutledge surrendered an RBI single to Christian Yelich before stranding the bases loaded to get out of the jam.
The Nats got the first two batters on base in the bottom of the fifth as well, but two straight strikeouts and a groundout took care of that very quickly. The hitting with runners on base was certainly tilted in the Brewers’ favor tonight, and it wasn’t even close.
- Jose Quintana: 5 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 94 pitches
- Mitchell Parker: 4 innings, TWELVE HITS (how is that even possible??), 8 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 84 pitches
Zach Brzykcy is going to get a whole two sentences devoted to him in tonight’s article because he is the only Nats’ pitcher to appear in this game that didn’t allow a run. He even got high praise from the Apple announcers as he tossed a scoreless top of the sixth.
The Nats’ offense showed their appreciation for his efforts in the bottom half of that inning, once again drawing closer thanks to a Daylen Lile RBI triple and an RBI single by Abrams to make it 9-4. To their credit, both of them had excellent nights at the plate despite this game being completely non-competitive. I respect the heck out of the guys like them and Hassell and Brady House, who ignored the scoreboard and put on a respectable showing for themselves and the fans in attendance.
Now back to the pitching staff’s rendition of “How To Get Demoted In One Inning.” Our next contestant, Ryan Loutos! It was not a good night for Ryan Loutos. Not even close, my heart goes out to him. The Brewers jumped on him in the seventh, getting a two-run homer from William Contreras (who had five hits tonight, FYI), another run scored on a tapper back to the mound that Loutos just couldn’t get a handle on, and failed to get an out anywhere. Then Milwaukee added two more, one coming on a single by Monasterio, the second on a groundout by Joey Ortiz. By the time Loutos struck out Brandon Lockridge to end the inning, we were staring at a 14-4 deficit.
It didn’t get any better in the eighth with Andry Lara, who immediately gave up a two-run homer to Andrew Vaughn. That would be all for the top half of that inning. Meanwhile, in the bottom of the eighth, we saw Robert Hassell get his first at-bat back from Triple-A, and all he did was scorch a double over the center fielder’s head. He didn’t score or anything, but I was really happy to see him smacking the ball again.
The Brewers mercifully went down scoreless in the top of the ninth, setting the stage for one of the best offensive innings the Nats have had in a while. The Nats put together five runs in the bottom of the ninth on four hits and two walks, while working in some new faces just back up from Rochester. Brady House started the scoring with a two-run single to bring home James Wood and Jose Tena. Tena got his first at-bat back with the big league squad, and he got himself a single. Daylen Lile then followed with an RBI double for his second extra-base hit of the game, and then Hassell smashed another hit, this time a line-drive RBI single to right. This late rally brought the score t0 16-9, where it would finish.
The positives tonight were just about exclusively from the offensive side. I’ll go ahead and mention Zach Brzykcy and send the rest of the pitching staff to hit the showers. The Nats’ offense put up nine runs and 15 hits tonight against one of the better pitching staffs in baseball; most nights, that’s enough for a nice win. Just not tonight. CJ Abrams had himself a three-hit night, with the two outs he made being long fly balls to the fence that were well hit. Garcia, House, Lile, and Hassell all contributed two-hit nights of their own, giving us a really nice night from the guys who are supposed to be the next young core of this lineup.
Unfortunately, there are still two more games to play against these guys. Game two will get underway at 4:05 tomorrow afternoon, with Jake Irvin (8-5, 4.69 ERA) taking on Brandon Woodruff (2-0, 2.01 ERA). Woodruff faced the Nats in Milwaukee just a couple of weeks ago, allowing two runs over 4.1 innings. Let’s hope the Nats’ offense can have a similar productivity day as tonight, and the Nats’ pitching staff can stumble upon some competent baseball between now and gametime tomorrow.
