46 Comments
User's avatar
Mark's avatar

Brutal loss and not on bullpen.

Tegwar's avatar

Yes Lovelady pitched well. You have to root for someone who's parents decided to call him Richard with that last name.

Cindy A's avatar

So frustrating!

mulch spider's avatar

Beyond the base running woes, Butera absolutely needs to address situational challenge strategy. Bottom of the 12th down one with two challenges left, there is ZERO reason for Young not to challenge the egregious strike one call, even if he was uncertain in the moment. There's no reason to end a game with all your challenges on the table. Ever since the one game where they ran out of challenges early, hitters have been extremely tentative to challenge. It's on Butera and he needs to adjust. If he can't, he's a AAA manager, no two ways around it.

Stephen Jobe's avatar

Pretty terrible baseball by the Nationals on many fronts.

DaveTheSwede's avatar

Terrible. Had to listen on radio….Dave JAgler lost his mind over Vivas not running out the play at full steam

Travis McGavin's avatar

Glad he did. TV crew didn’t mention it; embarrassing.

Bob Loeb's avatar

what? I was just listening on the radio while driving. They made it sound quite egregious and described it as a blatant failure of effort that cost the game.

DCSportsfan63's avatar

Meads base running was worse in the 9th

Randem's avatar

Always looks like the pros playing the amateurs when Nats go full bonehead, and there’s no shortage of examples.

Josh Sager's avatar

First loss that actually made me upset this season. But we gotta start challenging more pitches man. And is it too early to start thinking we should call Crews back up? I think the Wiemer experiment has started to go bad.

Stephen Jobe's avatar

Maybe try Morales rather than Mead. Inexcusable base running by Mead today. Morales tearing it up at Rochester.

Mike Stuhler's avatar

This was quite possibly the stupidest game of the season.

Josh Sager's avatar

Oh absolutely. That loss was filled with stupidity on both sides.

Steven Davidson's avatar

Wiemer is 2 for his last 13 with 7ks. He does kind of look like the catcher in Major league who can’t throw back to the pitcher? Crews not exactly tearing up AAA, has an OPS of about 750.

Stephen Jobe's avatar

Probably the worst loss of the season. Great crowd, unbelievably poor performance from so many Nationals.

Steve's avatar

And, another 4+ run lead ends in a loss and now, what, 1-7 at home. Brutal.

Travis McGavin's avatar

Mark, please ask why Vivas wasn’t running on play at end of 10th

Stephen Jobe's avatar

And why Mead didn’t slid at third. Inexcusable

Mike Stuhler's avatar

No slide was the icing on the cake. I'm trying to understand why he didn't stop at 2nd.

Susan V's avatar

Someone did ask; I was listening to the postgame radio show on my way home. He said he wasn't sure and needs to (and will!) look at tape and it will absolutely be addressed in tomorrow's meetings. He was very obviously not pleased -- "that can't happen." He said that several times and made clear there will be discussions about that tomorrow, for both the group and individuals.

Steve's avatar

A friend of mine who has been a successful high school coach in multiple sports for many years, says it best: “Good teams find ways to win, bad teams find ways to lose.”

Bottom of the 10th - guy fails, twice, to execute a sac bunt then gets a swinging bunt for a hit to load the bases with no one out - first batter, K’s, non-competitive at-bat, 2nd batter, K’s on a 3-2 pitch by swinging at ball 4, 3rd batter, loafs down the line and thrown out by a step after his teammate busts his hump to get to 2nd safely….

Bottom of 11th - down 1, but with a free “ghost runner” at second and 3 chances to score him to stay alive, not even close to getting him home.

Multiple chances to win - multiple ways found not to win - and the above doesn’t include Mead’s dumbfounding decision to go for 3rd with Abrams due up!

I like the team’s grit, but, in close games, they just find ways to lose. Over and over again.

And what are the Nats in extras since the new rules were put in place, like 5-31 or something. I wonder if they have the worst extra inning record in MLB since the era of the ghost runner began.

Mike Stuhler's avatar

The Bibas baserunning lollygag was glaring, but yes, what the heck was Mead doing trying to advance to 3rd, going in standing no less.

CBinDC's avatar

This is team is still heavy with failure and they just hate playing in DC

Cameron Smith's avatar

Experiencing this and then having to watch Mikolas pitch tomorrow is like being beaten with a bag of nickels.

Mike Stuhler's avatar

I can just smell the sweep.

Robert Mills's avatar

I love this team, but Mead and Vivas need a chat with Butera in the Manager's office after this one. Can't expect the pen to shut down the Giants in three straight "ghost runner" extra innings. And there should be mandatory bunting practice at 8 AM tomorrow morning.

Randem's avatar

How about a demotion?

Bob Loeb's avatar

Or just cutting Vivas to send a message

Randem's avatar

Yes! At some pt Butera/Toboni need to show some teeth. CJ still not running on fly balls.

baseball-birthdays's avatar

no worries... CJ'll be gone come late July.

Tim K's avatar

Unbelievable loss, need to hold players accountable for rookie mistakes

CJ from VA's avatar

This one broke my heart. We have no one to lose but ourselves.

CJ from VA's avatar

I mean no one to blame but ourselves.. LOL

CBinDC's avatar

Maybe this act of using nothing but children as managers is now showing how really thin their influence can be a team. There is no reason to never address clear laziness of play some players seem to lose focus while running and others while trying to throw the ball. And really why do they hate playing in DC

Randem's avatar

CJ again not running on his fly out to center.

DCSportsfan63's avatar

You think Davey ever did that ? Sure as hell didnt seem so. Butera is doing a very good job and he'll address this