Players heed manager’s message to play harder and cruise past Colorado in Nationals Park matinee.
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On Wednesday night, after a lopsided loss to the Colorado Rockies, the worst team in the National League, Washington Nationals Manager Blake Butera called out his team’s effort. They were lacking energy, he said, and didn’t play all out.
On Thursday morning, as the team prepared for the series-finale matinee, Butera gathered his position players and reminded them to fight every day as if they were still in the hunt. They may not be in the playoff picture this year, but he wants them to play competitive baseball down the stretch so they know what it feels like when these games matter.
When they took the field a few hours later, they showed a spark that’s been missing over the last few weeks. They ran out soft grounders, pulled off hustle doubles and made tough defensive plays to beat the Rockies, 7-1, at Nationals Park.
It still wasn’t the most exuberant game — the two teams went a combined 4 for 25 with runners in scoring position and left 25 on base. But the effort was better, and there were plenty of signs that they heeded their manager’s message to play harder.
“All the way around, I couldn’t have been more proud of the effort, how hard these guys played today,” Butera said. “Just as a whole, we handled our business the right way, and we played the game the right way.”
In the first inning, Jake Irvin loaded the bases with three walks, but got out of his own jam without allowing a run. In the bottom of the inning, CJ Abrams and Dylan Crews hit singles, and a wild pitch helped Abrams advance from second to third. He then scored on a single by Daylen Lile, and Crews did the same on a sacrifice fly by Brady House.
Irvin again struggled with command in the third inning, a common theme for his outing. He hit Willi Castro with a pitch, then walked TJ Rumfield and Troy Johnston to load the bases. The Rockies knocked in one run on a single by Brett Sullivan to get within one.
Irvin retired the side in order in the fourth, his only 1-2-3 inning, and Washington extended its lead in the bottom of the frame. The Nationals loaded the bases via walks from Jacob Young, Jorbit Vivas and Abrams (an intentional walk) and scored when Crews grounded out.
Irvin’s day ended after 4⅓ innings. He walked a season-high six batters but managed to allow just the one run.
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“He had to grind through that,” Butera said. “I don’t think that was his normal type of start. Usually he’s in the zone a ton. He had six walks and one hit-by-pitch, but was able to limit the damage and pitch out of it a lot of times, which isn’t easy to do, so happy to see him dig deep and find a way to get out of those jams that he put himself into.”
Irvin passed the game off to Tom Cosgrove with one out and runners on first and second. He struck out Johnston for the second out but then walked Sullivan to load the bases. Cosgrove ended the inning by striking out Jordan Beck.
Lile homered in the sixth inning, his 18th of the season and third in the past four games. He finished the game 3 for 4 and is batting .429 over his past seven games.
“Just trying to finish the year as strong as possible, not only for myself but for my team too,” he said of his performance over the past week.
Cosgrove pitched through the sixth inning, and Erik Tolman, Clayton Beeter and Orlando Ribalta closed out the game.
Keibert Ruiz added a two-run home run in the eighth inning to wrap up the 7-1 win.
If there was a week for the Nationals to get their mojo back, this would have been the one. On Friday, they’ll begin a four-game series against the Miami Marlins, who swept them a week ago on the road. That’ll be followed by two against the Atlanta Braves and then a challenging West Coast swing against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
The challenge for the Nationals will be not only hanging with these potential postseason teams, but continuing to stay motivated to play hard even when faced with the disappointment of their second-half drop-off.
“A lot of us haven’t played important September baseball before,” Young said. “The goal is to finish really strong here and understand what it’s like to play at the end of the season and when it starts getting chilly. I think it’s a big thing to finish what we started this year and finish on a positive note.”
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