For a second day in a row, the Nationals have given away an opportunity to win a series in Miami, once again thanks to a meltdown by a bullpen that has been solid lately but faced some serious regression this weekend. Tonight’s meltdown came from Gus Varland, who came in to a 2-2 game in the bottom of the eighth inning, and in the process of recording one out, gave up three runs and the game. Another frustrating, yet predictable, episode of mediocrity from a unit that we knew would be bad, but I think a lot of us latched on to some false hope this week after a group of relievers had seemingly caught fire.
The Action
The Nationals squandered an excellent scoring opportunity right off the bat this afternoon against Sandy Alcantara. James Wood continued his hot hitting by leading off the game with a double, and was then advanced to third on a groundout by Luis Garcia Jr. Unfortunately, Brady House couldn’t get a ground ball past the mound, as Alcantara made a nice play to field it, and get it to the plate in time to cut down Wood trying to score, keeping the game scoreless.
It was a solid pitcher’s duel throughout the early part of this game between Alcantara and Cade Cavalli, not a whole lot of strikeouts, but both pitchers were doing a nice job of checking off outs without allowing much traffic. That was until the bottom of the third inning, when the Marlins broke the scoreless tie. A Liam Hicks RBI single drove in the first run of the ballgame, and a second came in immediately afterwards as Nasim Nunez couldn’t make the play on a grounder hit by Otto Lopez. The 2-0 Miami lead was threatening to grow even larger, but Cavalli was able to induce a clutch 3-6-1 double play to end the inning and keep the game close.
The Nats needed that little kick in the butt to wake their bats up, and that’s just what it did in the top half of the fourth inning. Luis Garcia Jr., who hit the ball very well this afternoon, led off the inning with a triple and was immediately brought in to score on a groundout by Brady House. That cut the Miami lead in half, at 2-1, where it stayed until the fifth inning.
The Nationals closed that gap fully in the fifth, as Luis Garcia stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners and two outs. Once again, he came up big, shooting an RBI double the other way to left field, scoring Jorbit Vivas, and evening the score at two apiece.
Cade Cavalli had to battle some serious command struggles over the course of his outing, especially in the bottom of the sixth as his game was coming to an end. With the game still tied at two, Cavalli hit the first two batters of the inning, giving the Marlins a golden opportunity to take the lead. Blake Butera could have gone out right there and pulled him, but the young skipper gave his rookie starter the chance to work through the jam, and he sure did. Christopher Morel grounded out to first, advancing the runners to second and third with one out, and then Brady House made a nice play on another ground ball to get the runner out at home for out number two. This is where Butera went to his bullpen, bringing on PJ Poulin to try and get the final out of the inning with the tie still intact. Poulin fell behind in the count 3-0 against Joe Mack, before battling back to make it 3-2, and finally getting Mack to ground out to first, ending the rally and sending this game to the seventh inning still tied at two.
- Cade Cavalli: 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 95 pitches
- Sandy Alcantara: 6 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, 89 pitches
The seventh inning saw the game handed over to both bullpens. Calvin Faucher was the first out of the pen for Miami, and he was excellent. The righty covered two innings for the Marlins, pitching the seventh and the eighth while allowing just a walk mixed in between those six outs. For the Nats, it was a different story. Orlando Ribalta came in and did a nice job in the bottom of the seventh to keep the game tied, but when Gus Varland came in for the bottom of the eighth, the game changed completely. Varland appears to have been the one due for a regression outing today, as he came in and the Marlins had no trouble with him. The really frustrating part is that he struck out the leadoff hitter. The inning started in a very optimistic way, as Otto Lopez struck out on four pitches, but after getting ahead in the count 1-2 against the next hitter, Varland threw three consecutive balls to walk Kyle Stowers and put the go-ahead run on base. He then threw four consecutive balls to walk Jakob Marsee, making that seven misses in a row, and the Marlins wasted no time executing a double steal on the first pitch of the next at-bat to put two men in scoring position.
Varland made some good pitches to Christopher Morel, but left an 0-2 slider maybe just a little bit higher than it needed to be in that count, and Morel blooped a single into center to score the go-ahead run and make it 3-2. Heriberto Hernandez would put the nail in the coffin later in the inning, working a nine-pitch at-bat, and on pitch number nine, he lined a single into left field, scoring two more, and blowing the lead up to 5-2.
The Nationals would get a single from Daylen Lile in the top of the ninth, but otherwise went quietly, and just like that, what was a very winnable series does not go Washington’s way. A very frustrating two days of baseball, especially this close to getting their record back to .500. It seems like the past couple of seasons, this is exactly the kind of baseball the Nationals have played when given the opportunity to make their record look much better. Too many mistakes and completely ineffective relief pitching have become the themes way too often for this team.
The Positives
After saying all of that, I need to make sure I do touch on the positives, because there were plenty today. Cade Cavalli, while still not having his best command, battled hard all afternoon and turned in a very solid outing when all was said and done. He gave himself plenty of chances to screw up his own stat line, but held strong throughout the game and gave the Nationals plenty of chances to win.
Orlando Ribalta was very strong in his one inning of work this afternoon, and lowered his major league ERA on the season down to 3.00. It’s been a mixed bag with Ribalta early on in his big league appearances, but going from a guy who wasn’t expected to ever be anything to a major league team, to a guy who might be figuring some things out and primed to contribute in some more high-leverage spots is a major win for him and the Nats.
Luis Garcia was hitting lasers all day, seeing the ball really well on a day where the Nats’ offense wasn’t doing much of anything. He and Daylen Lile both recorded two-hit games today, accounting for four of the six hits the Nats had all game.
What’s Next?
The Nationals will have an off-day tomorrow to rest up and make the trip up to Cincinnati. The Reds have been flashing some serious star power out of their rotation so far this season, and those starters have them in position to possibly make a postseason run this season. Looking at who pitched yesterday and today for the Reds, it looks like the Nats are really going to luck out and not have to face Chase Burns or Andrew Abbott, their two best guys, but it will still be a good challenge for our hitters. The three-game series will start on Tuesday night at 6:40. The Nats will give the ball to Miles Mikolas (1-3, 7.44 ERA), who is coming off a pretty solid start this past week against Minnesota. The Reds will counter with the veteran right-hander Brady Singer (2-2, 5.63 ERA), who has also not had the start to this season that I’m sure he would have liked. Could be a big night for offense. Everyone enjoy the day off tomorrow, and we’ll be back on Tuesday!
Down on the Farm
AAA Rochester
- 8-5 win today at Syracuse
- Riley Cornelio: 5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts (3.77 ERA)
- Christian Franklin: 1-4, home run (3), RBI, 2 walks (BA to .268, OPS to .782)
- Harry Ford: 1-3, 2 walks (BA to .192, OPS to .572)
- Dylan Crews: 1-5, double (BA to .250, OPS to .744)
- Yohandy Morales: 3-4, home run (7), double (BA to .325, OPS to .949)
- Phillip Glasser: 3-5 (BA to .273, OPS to .654)
- Tomorrow: Off-day
AA Harrisburg
- 5-3 win today versus Erie
- Davian Garcia: 4.1 innings, 4 hits, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts (3.60 ERA)
- Chance Huff: 1.2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout (3.26 ERA)
- Cayden Wallace: 2-4, triple, RBI (BA to .282, OPS to .895)
- Kervin Pichardo: 1-4, home run (3), RBI (BA to .268, OPS to .875)
- Caleb Lomavita: 1-3, home run (3), RBI (BA to .221, OPS to .759)
- Max Romero Jr.: 3-4 (BA to .306, OPS to .910)
- Tomorrow: Off-day
High-A Wilmington
- Game in progress at Hub City
Low-A Fredericksburg
- Game in progress at Hill City
