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The Nationals lengthened their lead in the top of the 9th inning for closer Sean Doolittle to a 3-run cushion to work with to face the 5-6-7 batters in the Mets order, and he gave up a double, single, and a 3-run home run to blow the save in a combined total of just 9 pitches. It literally happened that fast and before Doolittle could even record an out. The Mets crowd went wild, and the game was not even won at that point.
After that, Doolittle’s job turned to salvage mode where he just needed to maintain a tie game to get his offense another chance. But that became a difficult task also. With two outs and two runners on-base via singles, Doolittle then gave up a walk-off single to lose the game. This should have been an easy save after Stephen Strasburg gutted through 7.0 innings while never allowing the Mets to take a lead, and Daniel Hudson got the hold with a scoreless 8th inning while facing the top of the Mets order and their biggest slugger Pete Alonso. So many of the Nats players contributed to what could have and should have been a Nats win.
There are few ways to explain what happened here besides some very poor pitches. The 3-run home run to blow the save came off of the bat of Todd Frazier in the 9th inning on a pitch that could not have been more center-cut, and Frazier bat flipped on Doolittle as if the wound was not sliced deep enough. The crazy part was that Frazier did not win the game and just tied the game, and the Nats could rally back if Doolittle could hold the tie at 6-6, but he could not even do that. Continue reading →
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