Through six innings, yesterday’s game was actually close. Mitchell Parker earned a quality start by giving up three earned runs. The problem was that his own defense, and the rest of his infielders had their share of issues fielding and throwing. The offense scored only one-run and that run did not even earn an RBI because it came via a no-out bases loaded double-play off of the bat of Keibert Ruiz. The Nats had a 1-0 lead — it should have been more. They never scored again and lost to the Bears, err Cubs, after they scored two touchdowns in a 14-1 shellacking.
The game was certainly one step backwards after the Nats took two games from the Yankees prior to this series. Actually, in this weekend series against the Cubs, each game was close at points, and the Nats actually led in each one of them early, but “early” doesn’t matter because in the end the Cubs won every one of the games. In the standings, only the final scores count. So these young Nats have to learn how to win, and take two steps forward.
Clean up the mistakes. The fundamentals. The baserunning blunders. The proper way to do a rundown. And how to field your position. The official scorer was more than kind on not assessing more than three errors to the Nationals. Even the Nats’ MASN announcers were surprised that a grounder to Luis Garcia Jr. that he swiped at and missed was ruled a hit for Cody Bellinger. There was an earlier grounder that CJ Abrams couldn’t handle that was ruled a hit. Jose Tena had two errors that easily could have been three if not for being saved by a scoop from his first baseman. At times, the Nats’ pitchers deserved better. The Cubs did not even hit any home runs or triples. It was taking their walks (4), singles (14), and doubles (4).
Yes, you can win games without hitting home runs. Yesterday was proof of what we saw with Isaac Paredes guiding a ball at an exit velo of 85.4 mph for a 2-run single off of Parker in a 1-2 count. That was the pitch that Parker wanted back. It was the third consecutive changeup in a row that he threw to Paredes. He should have gone fastball for a chase above the zone. Never throw the same pitch three times in a row to a good hitter unless you nail the location. Lesson to be learned. An expensive lesson that cost Parker two earnies. Paredes sat back on it an served it like a tennis forehand over Garcia’s head.
The tough MLB debut for Zach Brzykcy shows how unforgiving this game is. He was one strike from a no-out inning of relief that was spoiled when he could not put away Michael Busch in a 2-2 or 3-2 count. That happens. Sometimes you grip the ball too hard when the adrenaline is flowing. Take a page from DJ Herz, and just “Breathe.” Get back out there and relax. Your stuff got you to this point. Take advantage of that.
The best part of the game for the Nationals was the 9th inning pinch-hitting MLB debut for Darren Baker. He took the first pitch he saw and drove up the middle of the field for a single. The crowd loved it, and his father, Dusty Baker, celebrated with Darren’s mom from behind homeplate.
When you look for the silver lining, sometimes you have to dig deep. Baker provided the best moment of the game. If Brzykcy got out of his inning unscathed, we would have been talking about his strikeout of Bellinger. Maybe we would have talked about Parker’s eight strikeouts if only Paredes did not spoil his solid outing.
How’s about Jose A. Ferrer? He pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings, and that was a big positive on the day. Again, there were some bright spots. The outfield defense was excellent. The Nats only struck out twice in the game. But they did not take some walks that were there for the taking. Only two walks by Nats’ batters.
But defense in the whole series was really where these games got away from the team. Most of them on routine plays. Many didn’t show up as errors. Some were poor decisions like trying to be the hero and throwing out a speedy runner at home when you had the out at first base. That was one of the mental mistakes by Andres Chaparro that occurred earlier in the series that led to three more runs scoring. Not all mistakes show up as errors in the boxscore. Plenty of blame to go around. Then manager Dave Martinez went on a rant after the game in his postgame presser.
“We’re going to pound the same message: We’ve got to catch the baseball. It was awful today. I can’t say nothing about it. Our defense was not there.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after the game
“I thought [Mitchell Parker] threw the ball really well. We’ve got to play defense behind him. You can’t drive in runs — and let in three or four more runs. You’ve got to catch the baseball. Defense is a big part of the game. I say that all the time. We’ve got to catch the ball.”
My thoughts summed up, “Defense Matters,” and hoped Davey would have said those words. Instead he said, “Defense is a big part of the game.” Yes, that is true.
Also, you have to score runs when you have the pitcher on the ropes. The Nats did not do enough of that in this series.
The Nats flew to Miami last night, and have the day-off today with an early evening team event that a source told us that Gerardo Parra set up. Sure, have some fun, but tomorrow should be all business when the Nats play the Marlins in a two-game series.
A team record was set yesterday with seven rookies starting the game. But none of that matters unless you learned some lessons on what you will do to improve. That is what this game is all about. Learning from mistakes and then working at it so those mistakes are not repeated. That’s how you take one step backwards, and two steps forward.
