Breaking down a 6-3 loss to Houston
Blake Butera was irked with Andrew Alvarez but encouraged by Riley Cornelio. And Dylan Crews missed a golden opportunity to be the hero in the ninth.
In a first half defined by wildly interesting games, both wins and losses, Tuesday’s 6-3 setback to the Astros was rather mundane.
The Nationals got another leadoff homer from James Wood, but they did little else at the plate the rest of the night. Andrew Alvarez pitched deeper than he normally does but also gave up five runs and dug his team into a hole. The lineup had one last shot at rallying in the bottom of the ninth against (guess who?) Josh Hader but came up short, finishing 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Nothing too dramatic there. They’ll try to bounce back Wednesday and win the rubber game of the series with their most-reliable starter, Foster Griffin, on the mound.
But there were some notable developments to break down from this game. So let’s run through those, point by point …
