I sat on my couch, head in my hands, in utter shock at what I was witnessing during this afternoon’s circus-show of a performance. We’ve seen Nats pitching have blowup innings; that’s nothing new. But in the bottom of the third inning this afternoon, the Nationals gave us the mother of all blowup innings. Cade Cavalli and Shinnosuke Ogasawara, in one single inning (that took 41 minutes by the way), allowed nine runs on five homers, faced 16 batters, and needed 77 pitches to get three outs.
This horrific half inning was the story in what was just a ridiculous showing by the Nationals, a game in which they allowed nine runs in an inning, six home runs across the whole game, didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning, and had a relief pitcher take an at-bat in the fifth inning, to look at three consecutive strikes, and THEN not even start the next half inning. I didn’t get to ask Robert Hassell or Daylen Lile after the game, but I’m sure they would have loved to get a chance to bat there instead of watching Ogasawara do his best “stand still and look menacing” impression for 45 seconds. I understand this team is seen as a joke, but I’ve never had more texts from fans of all teams pop up on my phone to make fun of us than I did as a result of the Ogasawara at-bat.
If you had work or some other reason not to watch this game, congratulations, besides the Yankees, you guys are the real winners of today. The game began in a way that could only happen at Yankee Stadium, as the Yanks jumped on top just one batter into the bottom of the first inning. Trent Grisham took a good fastball from Cade Cavalli, which was off the inside part of the plate, not even a strike, and hit it 332 feet to the short porch in right field, where it barely snuck over the fence. For those of you who like to rag on Yankee Stadium for allowing such balls as that one to get over the fence (myself included), feel free to guess how many MLB ballparks that ball gets out at. Spoiler alert, it’s just one. The ball didn’t even register as a hard-hit ball; the exit velocity on this particular home run was 93 mph.
Unfortunately, that homer would set the table for the rest of the game, particularly the bottom of the third inning. The wheels came completely apart in this frame, as the Nationals needed 77 pitches to get the required three outs, the second most pitches thrown in an inning this century, second only to the 2003 Marlins. Aaron Judge got the parade started with a two-run home run, and was immediately followed by Cody Bellinger, who blasted a solo shot of his own to make it 4-0. The Yankees added on a few batters later on an RBI double by Jasson Dominguez, then Ryan McMahon delivered the big blow with a three-run homer to make it an 8-0 laugher of a game. The damage didn’t end when Cavalli exited the game. Shinnosuke Ogasawara allowed a solo homer to Ben Rice and an RBI infield single to Dominguez before the inning mercifully ended. When Anthony Volpe struck out to finish off the inning, the scoreboard read an embarrassing 10-0 in favor of New York.
While this monstrosity was going down, the Nationals’ offense was getting absolutely nothing done against Max Fried, continuing the abysmal job they’ve done against lefties this year.
The onslaught picked right back up in the bottom of the fourth as Austin Wells went deep to make it an 11-0 game. Thankfully, this would be the last run the Yanks put up in this game, but by then the damage was more than done.
The Nationals finally broke through against Fried in the top of the sixth as Jacob Young started off the inning with a single for their first hit of the game. He was followed by singles from James Wood and CJ Abrams, Young coming in to score on the Abrams single. Unfortunately, the rally ended there, as Fried later completed seven innings of one-run ball to hand the Nationals another pathetic stat line against a left-handed starter.
- Cade Cavalli: 2.1 innings, 8 hits, 8 runs (7 earned), 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 76 pitches
- Max Fried: 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 run (1 earned), 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, 94 pitches
The offense didn’t even do us the courtesy of putting together their usual end-of-game meaningless rally that cuts the deficit from ten to five or six. All we were given today was a solo home run by Andres Chaparro in the top of the ninth to make it 11-2, which would end up being the final tally.
As ridiculous as it seems to be pointing out positives from this one, sometimes you have to see some good in what was otherwise a disaster of a game. PJ Poulin, Jose A. Ferrer, Konnor Pilkington, and Jackson Rutledge all threw scoreless innings this afternoon, preventing the Yankees’ offense from exploding for what looked like it could easily be a 15-run outburst, or worse. Offensively, James Wood gave us a 2-4 day, but besides him, it was a pretty pitiful day from the bats. I was really looking forward to seeing our young guys get to play in such a historic setting this week, but I could not be more disappointed with how these three games went. The Nationals played on one of the biggest stages in the sport for three days, and completely and utterly embarrassed themselves.
The biggest negative from this afternoon was an injury to Drew Millas, sustained in that nightmare third inning. Millas took a pitch off his finger while catching, fracturing and dislocating the second finger on his left hand. This is an injury that should involve some time off, putting the Nationals in a really rough spot with Keibert Ruiz still sidelined due to injury. Riley Adams, while performing better lately, has not shown anything that warrants giving him the reins as the everyday catcher. We are getting CJ Stubbs called up from Triple-A Rochester for a while, not ideal considering he’s batting .148 in 66 games combined between Double-A and Triple-A this season. This is not a situation I was looking to see. Millas was the only one of the catching tandem the Nats have used lately to give us any hope at all, and now we’re going to have to return to a ‘zero expectations’ attitude for the catcher’s spot in the batting order.
The Nats finally get to play a team with a record below 500 this weekend, as the Rays are on their way to DC for a three-game series beginning at 6:45 on Friday night. That’s about all the good news I have for you, as Mitchell Parker (7-14, 6.01 ERA) is being given the ball again, despite now officially holding the title of ‘Worst starter in the league.’ I’m sick and tired of seeing him continue to go out and get shelled every five days, but at this stage we don’t really have many other options. He’ll be opposed by Adrian Houser (7-4, 2.88 ERA), a trade deadline acquisition from the White Sox, the veteran has had a surprise breakout season this year, and gets a chance to continue it with a start against the struggling Nats’ offense. Enjoy the off-day tomorrow guys, as fans we’ve earned it. One day to put away our bottles of Aspirin, and enjoy a day in God’s creation without wondering how bad the Nats are getting killed today.
