Friday’s game against the Seattle Mariners was an important barometer for the Washington Nationals, as they attempted to put Wednesday’s disastrous bullpen implosion behind them.
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After leading 9-1 two days ago, the San Francisco Giants came back to win 11-10 on a walk-off grand slam. The loss hurt, manager Blake Butera said, perhaps more than any other he had ever been a part of.
But they were ready, he said, to flush it. And how they played on Friday would not only set the tone for this three-game series but go a long way toward proving this team is different from the rebuilding ones that came before them, the ones who would have let one bad loss blossom into a losing streak.
Then the rain stopped and the game started. After a two-hour and 11-minute rain delay, the Mariners drove out starter Zack Littell after just 1 2/3 innings and took game one 10-2.
Heading into the series, it was the Mariners’ pitching staff that concerned Butera. The rotation holds a 3.76 ERA, the sixth-lowest in Major League Baseball, and Friday’s starter Bryce Miller had a 1.33 ERA in his five games since returning from the injured list.
Miller lived up to that. He pitched eight innings, allowing just two runs, a pull-side home run from James Wood in the fourth inning into the second deck above the Nationals’ bullpen and a another solo home run from Dylan Crews in the eighth inning. Miller gave up only two other hits, singles to Wood in the first inning and Jorbit Vivas in the sixth inning.
“He just has really good stuff,” Butera said. “He’s able to locate and command five different pitches and he’s throwing 97 with some good movement.”
Turns out, though, the real challenge for the Nationals was the Mariners’ lineup. Zack Littell, after a rough start to his tenure with the team, had pitched at least five innings in his last five outings since May 15, holding opponents to six earned runs during that stretch.
On Friday, Littell said his stuff felt as good as it had during the last month and that this was just a “weird night.”
“I think that’s what’s frustrating about baseball in general, to have the stuff, command to feel good like I did tonight and the result not been there,” he said.
He made it through a quick 1-2-3 first inning after the lengthy delay. But in the second, he couldn’t put hitters away or make the pitch he needed to get players to chase, and the Mariners took advantage.
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Randy Arozarena hit a single to open the inning, then stole second. Luke Raley then walked, and Dominic Canzone tripled to drive in Arozarena and Raley.
Littell finally made an out when Miles Mastrobuoni hit a deep fly ball to right field, but it came at the expense of another run as Canzone was able to score on the sacrifice fly. Littell then gave up another hit to Johnny Perada and a two-run homer to Colt Emerson to give the Mariners a 5-0 lead.
Littell got one more out before Butera made the decision to take him out. They try not to let pitchers thrown more than 35 pitches in an inning for safety reasons, and Littell was already at 43.
It was his shortest outing of the season.
“I thought I threw the ball fine,” Littell said. “They had a really good plan. They executed it really well. They forced me deeper into counts.”
Riley Cornelio, a starter in the minor leagues, was able to provide 4 1/3 innings of relief. He allowed three runs, all in the fifth.
The Nationals made no roster moves on Friday, instead deciding to keep their bullpen intact, even the ones who were part of Wednesday’s disaster. That included Paxton Schultz, who gave up five runs in Wednesday’s loss. He made it through the seventh, allowing two hits but no runs, but gave up a solo home run in the eighth inning.
In the ninth, Gus Varland allowed a solo homer to Naylor as the Mariners completed their 10-2 blowout.
This wasn’t the rebound they were hoping for. But this team, Wood said, still believes in themselves and can look at the things they’ve already accomplished this season as proof they can be successful.
“I think you can just go back to even games we’ve won, even games we’ve lost, and just knowing how close we are in most of the games we play,” Wood said. “I have no doubt that we’ll be able to bounce back from this.”
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