Washington falls at Nationals Park on a day it allowed 12 hits while failing to spark much offense.
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Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Nationals took an early lead behind the bat of one of their young stars. This time, it was CJ Abrams who crossed the plate in the fourth. Their starter logged a handful of inspiring innings. This time, it was Zack Littell who made it 4 2/3 innings without giving up a run.
And after such inspiration, a slew of relievers rattled along, each competing with the next to see who could throw fewer pitches before Washington’s pitching coach Simon Matthews would join them on the mound.
This time, it was in a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Nationals Park on Wednesday in which Washington (55-54) allowed 12 hits while failing to spark much offense after Abrams scored. The result: the Nationals’ first series loss since the all-star break, losing two of three this week to Toronto (50-59) as the postseason race nears.
“We had some tough luck,” Nationals Manager Blake Butera said. While this one wasn’t nearly as brutal as the late-inning collapses that marred the past few weeks before the break, his message is growing in usage. “We were just out of reach on a couple big plays.”
Nationals right-hander Max Kranick let in the first run, but Patrick Schultz was the primary offender. After making his first appearance since June in the first game of this week’s series, pushing one scoreless inning, he took the mound and in fewer than 10 minutes, Blue Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto doubled on a ball missed by Jacob Young, scoring two.
All said and done — which is to say, after two outs — Schultz allowed four hits and three runs in the top of the eighth before he was ushered away. To his credit, the Blue Jays peppered Washington with somewhat low-percentage dinks between the infield and outfield.
“It’s just bad luck,” Washington’s James Wood said. “I felt like pitchers were doing a good job being the lead contact, but sometimes that’s just how it goes.”
Five relievers ended up taking the mound, adding another chapter to the concern that’s defined Washington’s season: its bullpen. With the trade deadline next Monday, rumors have reached the cyclone point. Most circulate pitching upgrades, even after the Nationals dealt blossoming third baseman Curtis Mead to the Boston Red Sox for a young lefty starter, Connelly Early.
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A sliver of positivity? After Butera announced Tuesday that pitcher Trevor Williams would be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, where he’d lingered rehabbing from a partial UCL tear last July. Butera immediately put him to work. Williams closed the last 1 1/3 innings without giving up a run.
“To have the success that he had today was huge,” Butera said. “And hopefully gives him some confidence that … he’s as good as he was before.”
Littell was also impressive for the second start in a row, following a five-strikeout, one-run outing against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. The improvement, he agreed, was a product of command and a bit of confidence.
“[He was] landing the split more often and throwing it more often is really good for him. It’s a really good pitch,” Butera said. “It keeps [hitters] off balance, and they have to respect that pitch, and it allows the fastball to play.”
What makes the Nationals’ pitching worries most pertinent is that their offense is doing more than enough to be a playoff team. They lead MLB with 594 runs, more than 30 ahead of the second-best squad, the Pittsburgh Pirates, which is a larger gap than that between MLB’s second- and seventh-best run scorers.
In this single case study, it wouldn’t have been noticeable. Washington’s stars, Abrams and Wood, each did their part, scoring the team’s two runs. Wood reached base for an MLB-leading 48th time in the first inning. Otherwise, though, Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage had his best stuff, allowing just a single run for the first time this month. He navigated 6 2/3 innings to the tune of three hits and one run, escaping a couple late moments with multiple runners on base.
Deep in a 17-game sprint, the vibe was down as folks packed bags for a road trip to Atlanta, which commences Thursday. With roughly two months on the calendar and a wild-card race at least eight teams deep, these games matter, right?
“I wouldn’t say no,” Washington outfielder Daylen Lile said.
“It’s just baseball,” Wood added.
But only so much baseball remains with each series loss, especially with the current NL East pacers, Atlanta and Philadelphia, spanning Washington’s next eight games. Not to mention the deadline, hopes for the first playoff berth since 2019, the pitching …
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“It wasn’t really talked about,” Butera said.
