After a disastrous road trip and traumatic trade deadline, Washington earned a feel-good victory.
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It had been a long week by the time the Washington Nationals returned to their home clubhouse Friday afternoon. A team in the wild-card hunt, losing three key contributors at the trade deadline, during a stretch of seven losses in eight games at two division rivals — “rough,” as Daylen Lile put it with a shrug and a frown.
So maybe it was a form of exacting pent-up frustration, but when Lile saw his third pitch of the night in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds (56-59), his bat couldn’t turn quickly enough. It didn’t hurt that when the ball landed in the second deck in right field, CJ Abrams and Brady House were on the corners. Neither did it hurt that three innings later, Lile decided he still had more to release, this time off the right-field wall for a double.
Only when catcher Harry Ford notched his second MLB homer, driving in Lile, did the outfielder smile. After a disastrous road stint during which the Nationals (57-61) fell from a game above .500 to five games below, a 5-3 win was a necessary confidence boost.
“The biggest thing is just getting our confidence back,” Manager Blake Butera said. “Playing some good baseball and playing with energy.”
With James Wood on the IL, offense needed to come in doses. Covering for an MVP candidate leading the major leagues in runs (100) and walks (90) isn’t the work of a call-up alone, no matter Andrew Pinckney’s efforts on Thursday.
“We need production from everybody a little bit more, right, to be able to fill that gap that Woody leaves, of course,” Butera said. “We need some guys to step up and play well.”
Specifically, Washington would need a bit more from some of the established contributors. Butera joked before the game that it could be Lile’s night, as the last time the Nationals faced Cincinnati in May, he had five hits, three homers and seven RBI in the series. Hopefully, “seeing that uniform again brings some confidence,” he said through a grin.
Then it just happened. Exactly as Butera said. And he just kept smirking in the dugout. By the time Lile struck out in his third at-bat, the Nationals had a two-run lead, something unimaginable in recent days.
“We’re doing a lot of good things, and I feel like we’re just taking advantage of the opportunities we’re given,” Lile said. As for this Reds thing? “Yeah, it feels good playing them.”
Butera made other attempts at jostling Washington’s offense to life. Abrams leading off was the most recognizable to the box score watcher. No need for a long debrief on that one. Butera’s strategy has always been to get his best hitters to the plate as many times as possible. Abrams registered only one hit from the new slot, and Ford’s homer essentially did the rest of the damage, accounting for a pair of RBI.
The duo of youngsters, Lile and Ford — though anyone on the Nationals, really, fits that bill — embraced on the field as the game concluded. It had been a long week.
Since Washington last took the field at Nationals Park, it traded away its starting first baseman and its staff ace. The primary return was pitchers, lots and lots of pitchers, a number of whom were arms to add to a historically shaky bullpen. Why?
A circadian rhythm has developed in Navy Yard this season. Washington’s starter would manage through roughly six innings, allowing limited damage. And then the bullpen gates would fling open, and parents would cover their children’s eyes. No need to sour a prospective baseball fan with the Nationals’ relief arms.
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Friday had all the makings of another nightmare on the Anacostia. Righty Cade Cavalli started on the mound, riding a 3.52 ERA without having allowed more than three runs in an appearance since June 7. Confidence was high.
“We’ve leaned on him a multitude of times this year when we’ve needed somebody to pick us up,” Butera said. “And he’s done that.”
Cavalli allowed solo homers to Elly De La Cruz, Eugenio Suárez and Matt McLain in the second and third. But he found a rhythm, striking out eight Reds, and after fielding a grounder off the bat of Héctor Rodríguez for the final out of the sixth, he wandered to the dugout with a two-run lead and only three innings left for his replacements.
“Felt like I still had my stuff with me,” Cavalli said. “Made some good pitches.”
From there, as atypical as it’s been, Yovanny Cruz, Orlando Ribalta and Clayton Beeter made it the rest of the way without allowing any further damage. Cruz provided the heaviest lift, coming in for Cavalli in the seventh with runners on the corners without an out.
In four pitches, he struck out McLain swinging. After walking De La Cruz, he induced a double play from Reds first baseman Sal Stewart, letting out a scream as Nasim Nuñez fired to Abimelec Ortiz at first.
“I was really mentally prepared for whatever opportunity they needed me,” Cruz said. “In that situation, I was able to get out.”
In a way, Friday night served as a good barometer. After a gruesome week against the National League East’s finest, one in which a sparkling season of hope entered a somewhat inevitable rain delay, a game against another club in the wild-card fight helped gauge what was actually left of these Nationals.
If a series-opening win against the Reds can be any indication, Washington is still very much in playoff contention, at least among those it’s most directly competing with.
“We’re in this thing. We’re still trying to get a playoff spot. Like we’re not, we’re not mailing this thing in,” Butera said. “We got to play our best baseball right now. We got to play our best baseball every single day the rest of the way.”
Notes: The Nationals requested unconditional release waivers for pitcher Zack Littell on Friday afternoon, opening the gates for his departure from the club. The move comes two days after he was designated for assignment following a four-run start against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Before this week, Littell appeared to be making some progress: He has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his past eight appearances. Yet his ERA was at 4.97 after Tuesday’s rough outing.
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