Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
Most fans show up at the ballpark to see their team hit home runs, and they just assume the defense will be good. With the Washington Nationals, you just can’t assume error-free defense. They have more errors and passed balls than games played in a 47 to 42 ghastly lead. And since we’ve written it repeatedly, you know the Nats lead all of baseball in errors (41) and unearned runs (34) as well as the most passed balls (6) in the National League.
Once considered an elite defender, Brady House has been struggling in this 2026 season with the glove. After manager Blake Butera got his team onto the field early at 1:15 pm to work on defense in Cincinnati on Tuesday, it was House who booted a ball at third base hours later. That error could have been catastrophic since it was a bases loaded situation. As of now, the official scorer ruled the run that scored as unearned. The Nats had two fielding errors and a costly passed ball that turned a strikeout into a free base.
You are coached as a kid to think in the field of the situation and what you will do if the ball is hit to you. Both TV booths (Reds and Nationals) were very critical of House’s defense. These quotes from the respective booths were in the heat of the moment so you got some raw emotion.
❝Bobbles the ball. He lost it. The defense, the demise for the Nationals. … The 7th error for House. You just can’t do that at this level.❞ — Reds booth
❝The 40th error for the Nationals this season … I don’t know where he was going [with the ball]. To me, there is where you go home. Visually, it doesn’t look right. That’s not a tough ball. You kind of preset your feet to go home knowing that slow ball, you’re going to get the guy at home. … He had no intention to go there.❞ — Nationals booth
Fortunately for the Nationals, on the very next play, the Nats turned an inning ending double-play ball and kept their 3-2 lead and kept the Reds off the scoreboard until the 9th inning when they scored two garbage time runs to make the Nats a winner at a final score of 10-4.
Yes, the Nats offense saved the day again, and the bullpen really did a great job sans those two 9th inning freebies. The Nats rank second in runs scored and second in runs allowed. But the onus isn’t totally on the pitching if you accept who they are as a staff for the past four years which is a pitch-to-contact staff which means you need great defenders and the left side of the Nationals infield has been the worst in baseball in terms of errors and they aren’t great in range either. This isn’t just House (7 errors). It’s Jorbit Vivas (3 errors at third base), it’s CJ Abrams (7 errors at shortstop), and it’s Nasim Nunez (2 errors at shortstop) too.
As they always say, get the lead runner first, before you rush your mechanics to get a double-play. Nunez on Sunday was playing shortstop and booted a tailor-made double-play ball. Because you cannot assume a double-play, the run that scored was an earned run. This is why the unearned runs don’t even tell the full story. And there were other booted balls ruled hits by official scorers. While Nunez will turn some tough plays, the infield rarely makes a spectacular play — and they struggle to make the routine plays. You can’t do that with a pitch-to-contact pitching staff. In fact, Butera addressed this in his pregame presser yesterday.
❝When we’re not getting a ton of whiff [from our pitchers, … we also have to play really good defense — something we haven’t done up to this point. No sugar-coating that one. Something we will continue to work on.❞
— Butera said yesterday
At some point, it really could be on individual players. At some point you coach up a player, and it is up to the player to execute. The OAA rankings show the clear line of demarcation. And OAA’s one flaw is that it does not give credit for balls caught above the wall. The stat doesn’t recalculate as it basically doesn’t see fences or even the side walls, railings or screens. But you get a fairly good idea of the defense from this stat.
As someone said, “Any time a ball is hit on the ground to this infield, I hold my breath. The routine is never a given.” Last night, case and point.
❝We can’t lead the league in errors and expect to win.❞
— Butera said last week
❝We want to play winning baseball. We want to win a lot of games — and in order to do that — we can’t make this many mistakes.❞
The first part of this problem is admitting you have a problem, and Butera did just that. Giving up .81 unearned runs per game is a model that doesn’t work. And errors, passed balls, and other mistakes are generally extending innings and adding to pitch counts.
If you use the Nats runs scored of 227 via the offense and compare that to the 200 earned runs, you would think this team would be over .500 in wins. But that is where those 34 unearned runs change everything. This is why the Nationals are two games under .500. Contrast this with the Padres who have only given up five unearned runs. There are many teams that have 15 or fewer unearned runs. Defense Matters.
