The left-hander, having a breakout season, was charged with all six runs in a 6-2 loss to the Braves.
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ATLANTA — Foster Griffin doesn’t show his emotions much. His ability to stay even-keeled has helped him excel in his return to MLB after three years in Japan. Even when the left-hander is having a bad start — and he hasn’t had many — his Washington Nationals teammates and manager have remarked that he’s still the same guy.
But Griffin’s voice did quiver, ever so slightly, when he was asked what his time with the Nationals has meant to him after what could have been his last start for the team. It was far from his sharpest — he allowed six runs in 5⅓ innings as the Nationals fell to the Atlanta Braves, 6-2, suffering their third straight loss and falling below .500.
With Monday’s trade deadline inching closer, Griffin’s fate rests in the hands of the Nationals’ front office.
“I’m human, right?” Griffin said. “It’s not easy. The last week or so, it is what it is. We’re professionals, right? I still have to go out there and play and execute. That’s not an excuse for how things went tonight, but that’s just the situation I’m in right now.”
Like the since-traded Curtis Mead, Griffin is a success story for the new staff. After that deal, President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni felt mixed emotions: pride in the work Washington and Mead had put in to turn his career around, and a bit of sadness shipping it all away. But he had to balance that feeling with business, and acquiring Connelly Early is a major boost to a lacking pitching staff.
Now, the Nationals must decide what to do with Griffin. His situation isn’t as clear cut as Mead’s. While Washington had Brady House — a former first-round pick — ready to replace Mead at third base, the team doesn’t have ample pitching it can rely on, even with Griffin still in the equation.
He’s been the stalwart of the rotation: Even after Friday’s rough outing, he has pitched to a 3.06 ERA while averaging nearly six innings per start. He also was selected to his first all-star team and has become an integral part of the clubhouse, taking younger pitchers such as Cade Cavalli and Andrew Alvarez under his wing.
“It’s not even about pitching,” Griffin said when he reflected on what it’s meant to be on the Nationals. “It’s kind of just about the camaraderie in this clubhouse we’ve created — the culture in here is great. I feel like the team has a lot of bright stars in here and a lot of up-and-coming stars as well, something that’ll be able to compete in this division and this league for a long time.”
Griffin doesn’t have social media on his phone, but he still knows the scenarios surrounding him. When he walked into the stadium today, he jokingly asked Manager Blake Butera if he was still starting after New York Mets scratched Freddy Peralta and Tigers did the same with Casey Mize. Like Griffin, they are trade candidates who could be moved before Monday’s deadline.
“All the talks that he’s been involved in, with his name out there on social media, and what’s real and not real, and dealing with a lot mentally — he had a lot going on out there,” Butera said.”
There were signs from the start that Friday wasn’t Griffin’s day. He gave up a solo home run to Matt Olson in the first inning on a first-pitch cutter right down the middle. An inning later, Jim Jarvis’s RBI single made it 2-0 Braves.
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In the fourth inning, CJ Abrams hit a solo shot, his 28th homer of the season, to get Washington on the board.
Griffin faced the minimum in the fourth and fifth innings, but things unraveled in the sixth as the Braves grew more aggressive, swinging and executing on first pitches. After a double from Olson and a single from Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II hit a three-run home run on the third pitch of the inning to give the Braves a 5-1 lead.
Mauricio Dubón followed with a single before Griffin finally got the first out by striking out Austin Riley, but the damage had already been done.
“Going back out for the sixth with the heart of the order, I felt like I definitely had some work to do because I felt like they were maybe seeing me maybe a little bit better than usual,” Griffin said.
Trevor Williams took over, letting in a run on another Jarvis single. The right-hander, in his second appearance back from an internal brace procedure in his elbow, finished the game for Washington without allowing another run.
The Nationals had their chances to make it interesting, but for the second game in a row, they failed to produce in big situations. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, making them 0 for 17 this series. Five out of six of their runs in the last two games were scored on solo home runs, including a blast by Andrés Chaparro in the ninth inning Friday.
As Griffin walked off the mound in the sixth inning with his head low, his thoughts were on his frustrating outing, not on the whereabouts of his next start.
If this was the end of his time with the Nationals, he said he’s thankful they took a chance on him and appreciative of his teammates for the support that they’ve given.
“As of right now, I’m a player for the Nats,” Griffin said. “In a few days, we’ll see where I am. I’ll be grateful for any opportunity, whether I’m still here and we’re going to try and do this thing, or if I’m with another team. The competitiveness in me and the will to win will never change whether I’m here or somewhere else.”
Note: Luis García Jr. left the game in the seventh inning with right knee soreness. He slipped while running out of the box in the first and felt some tightness. The feeling worsened as the game went on and he was removed as a precaution. After the game, he said the knee was already feeling better.
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