The Nats had this game in hand this afternoon, lost it, held on just tight enough to send it to extras, and then recaptured it for good in the tenth inning. That would be my one-sentence summary of today’s ballgame, but luckily, I have plenty more room to offer a little bit more than that. While the first nine innings were pretty rough offensively for the Nationals, they were kept alive by one of the best starts of Jake Irvin‘s career, as he paced them for 5.2 scoreless innings, striking out 9 as well. This was necessary, as Noah Schultz for Chicago was dealing in his own right, but a two-run fourth inning for Washington was what gave them the runs needed to send this game to extras, to set up for a four-run top of the tenth.
The Action
This one got off to a pretty strong start for both pitchers, as Jake Irvin worked out of a first and second with two outs jam in the bottom of the first, and from there, he didn’t allow another runner to enter scoring position until the fifth inning.
Similarly, the Nationals mounted their first rally in the top half of the third, putting runners on second and third with nobody out, but Noah Schultz worked his way out of there unscathed thanks to two well-timed strikeouts and a groundout to the shortstop to end the inning.
The Nats had yet another great opportunity in the fourth, with runners on first and second with nobody out, and this time they cashed in. A Jacob Young strikeout followed by a Joey Weimer groundout threatened to snuff the rally out just like the previous inning, but Nasim Nunez was having none of that, as he pieced a two-run single back up the middle and into center field to get the Nationals on the board first and ahead 2-0 for a cruising Jake Irvin.
The next scoring opportunity for the White Sox was the aforementioned bottom half of the fifth inning as Edgar Quero advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Luckily, there were already two outs in the inning, and Irvin would put a stop to that very quickly, striking out Munetaka Murakami to end the inning, and give him his third strikeout of the inning.
He did the same thing in the bottom half of the sixth, except unfortunately the Nats only got credit for two outs from it, as the first one was washed out by a bad throw to first by Keibert Ruiz, allowing Miguel Vargas to instead end up on second to lead off the inning. Irvin would respond by striking out the next two hitters before being pulled with two outs for Mitchell Parker. If the error did anything positive, it was setting the Nationals up to do something extremely rare, that being striking out four hitters in a single inning, which they did on Parker’s inning-ending strikeout of Tanner Murray.
- Jake Irvin: 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 9 strikeouts, 88 pitches
- Noah Schultz: 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 4 walks, 8 strikeouts, 85 pitches
Skipping ahead to the bottom of the eighth, the Nats entered leading 2-0 and ran Mitchell Parker out there for another inning. Turned out, he’d probably gone as far as he needed to go today, as he walked the leadoff batter on five pitches, and then hit Colson Montgomery on the first pitch to immediately get the Nats in a jam. Blake Butera went to Gus Varland to try and preserve the lead, and on the first pitch he threw, Everson Pereira singled to left, bringing a run in, and making it a 2-1 ballgame. Two batters later, the game was tied on a sacrifice fly by Chase Meidroth, and you could feel the air leaking out of the Nationals’ dugout, but thankfully Varland limited the damage there, and we moved to the ninth tied up at 2.
Both teams went down quietly in the ninth, giving us extra baseball at Rate Field. The tenth inning, not traditionally a good one for the Nationals, was strange but productive this afternoon. A leadoff walk followed by a single loaded the bases with nobody out, and James Wood would come in to put the Nats ahead on a wild pitch to the next batter. A strikeout followed by an intentional walk loaded the bases again, this time with one out, and after Jorbit Vivas struck out, it looked like Washington may have to settle for defending the 3-2 lead. That was until Joey Weimer worked a masterful six-pitch walk to drive in a second run, and Nasim Nunez checked in with his second two-run single of the game, busting this game open and putting the Nats ahead 6-2.
Brad Lord got the assignment for the Nats in the bottom of the tenth, and while the extra innings runner did score on a sacrifice fly by Tanner Murray, that would be all the damage done, as Lord stamped this one closed to even up this weekend’s series at one apiece, and give Washington a rare extra innings success story.
What’s Next?
This series will conclude tomorrow afternoon with some more day baseball, this one getting underway at 2:10. The Nats will go with the left-handed Foster Griffin (3-0, 3.38 ERA), looking to continue his stretch of impressive starts to begin his season, and Chicago is going to counter with a left-handed opener, Bryan Hudson (0-0, 1.54 ERA). This is likely to be a bulk game for their right-handed starter, Sean Burke (1-2, 4.10 ERA) who is a University of Maryland product. But Hudson will be called on to deal with the lefties at the top of the Nats’ order.
Down on the Farm
AAA Rochester
Game postponed today, doubleheader will be played tomorrow (Andrew Alvarez pitching game one, game two starter is TBD)
AA Harrisburg
Game postponed, game tomorrow versus Altoona at 1:00 (Kyle Luckham pitching)
High-A Wilmington
- 4-1 loss today at Frederick
- Yoel Tejada: 4 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
- Ronny Cruz: 1-4
- Ethan Petry: 1-2, 2 walks
- Elijah Green: 1-4, stolen base
- Tomorrow: 3:00 game at Frederick (Isaac Lyon pitching)
Low-A Fredericksburg
- 11-4 win today at Salem
- Carson Fischer: 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
- Eli Willits: 2-4, double, RBI, walk
- Luke Dickerson: 2-4, home run (3), RBI, walk
- Yeremy Cabrera: 1-4, double, walk, stolen base
- Jack Moroknek: 2-4, home run (3), 4 RBIs
- Tomorrow: 2:05 game at Salem (Leuris Portorreal pitching)
