Mistakes were made by the rookies, a second-year player, and a few veterans. The biggest mistake was ruled a double on a line drive to Trea Turner that went over his head in the 6th inning to score the tying run and the eventual winning run. The Nationals had chances to get back into the ballgame, and with runners on 3rd and 2nd with one out, Stephen Drew entered the game as a pinch-hitter and struck out. The Nationals had errors by Koda Glover and Danny Espinosa. In impact, Michael Taylor was inserted into the game as a pinch-runner, and we all know that he leads the Nationals in TOOTBLAN over the last two seasons, and he made a gigantic error of judgment and was thrown out at 3rd base on a Zimmerman dying quail over the pitcher that landed near the 2nd base bag, but it was Taylor’s hesitation that cost him. A.J. Cole pitched so-so giving up 2 runs over 4 innings, but threw a slider across the plate to Giancarlo Stanton who was looking for it.
The offensive star was Danny Espinosa who pulled a 3 run home run. Wilson Ramos had two hits and led off the 9th inning with a gap double. Chris Heisey added two hits, and was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the 9th inning. Ryan Zimmerman had two hits on the night, but both came with bases empty and was hitless in both at-bats with runners on base, and in the 9th inning was not able to move up Taylor who got thrown out. Trea Turner was 0-4 on the night as was Anthony Rendon.
Dusty Baker made many good moves on the night, but curious moves was infield set in the middle of the basepaths with the go-ahead run on 3rd which was the slow Justin Bour. Another move was bringing in Treinen in relief to face the lefty Deitrich. Pinch-hitting for Difo with Stephen Drew with 1 out was another move that didn’t work out, but execution was the story of this game or lack of as it turned out. Perhaps the biggest play was inserting Michael Taylor in to pinch-run when he is a poor baserunner—yes he is fast, but his baserunning decisions in key spots cost the Nats before and did in this game at a crucial time.
“I can’t speak to what another man is thinking,” Dusty Baker said regarding Michael Taylor’s TOOTBLAN.
