ARLINGTON, Texas – Forced to field a lineup missing their four best hitters from only a month ago, the Nationals knew the odds were stacked against them tonight against Jacob deGrom. Not that they needed that much offense against the two-time Cy Young Award winner or the Rangers bullpen. Thanks to their own strong pitching performance, only a couple of runs would have extended the game into extra innings.
Alas, even that relatively minimal benchmark was too much to reach on this night. Held to one single and four walks, the Nats never got anything going at the plate and suffered a 2-0 loss, their second shutout loss in three nights here at Globe Life Field.
Playing without CJ Abrams, who sprained his left ankle in the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s win, the Nationals faced an especially uphill battle deGrom. And their depleted lineup (also missing the injured James Wood and the traded Luis Garcia Jr. and Curtis Mead) did next-to-nothing, with Brady House reaching base twice (single, walk) and nobody else reaching at all during deGrom’s six scoreless innings, during which he struck out 10.
“Even if we had our A lineup out there tonight, I think just deGrom being who he is and who he’s been in this league for a long time … as we saw tonight, he’s really good,” manager Blake Butera said. “We knew we were going to have to scratch and do anything we could to push runs across. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get much going tonight.”
The Nats pitching staff at least gave the offense a chance. Andrew Alvarez allowed a solo homer to Corey Seager in the bottom of the third but otherwise kept the Rangers off the board by escaping three separate jams with runners in scoring position. Orlando Ribalta and Clayton Beeter then tossed a scoreless inning a piece, with Butera making good on his attempt to start using his best relievers earlier in hopes of keeping games close.
Tom Cosgrove, though, surrendered a key insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, with Daylen Lile unable to haul Ezequiel Duran’s flyball to deep right field, playing it into a triple. And the Nationals lineup had no final rally in the ninth, in the process falling to 1-51 this season when trailing after seven innings.
“I told the guys a couple days ago: I felt like early on, if we were down, it didn’t really feel like there was any sense of concern or frustration,” Butera said. “Lately, it has felt like these guys, when they’re put in a hole early on, they tend to maybe press a little bit too much. I don’t think that was anything tonight, but I do think it’s something to note. We haven’t scored late in games to come back. It’s something we’re all aware of, and these guys want to get better at it.”
HITTING HIGHLIGHT: On an otherwise dreary night at the plate, House did stand tall. Getting the start against a right-hander – a potential Hall-of-Fame right-hander at that – the young third baseman put together three quality plate appearances. House singled to right in the second inning, then worked a full-count walk against deGrom in the fifth. He worked another walk against reliever Jakob Junis in the seventh, the third time he reached base on a night in which the rest of his teammates collectively reached base only twice.
“We’re just working as hard as we can to produce,” House said. “We get that sometimes that doesn’t happen. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to quit by any means or give up. We’re still here. Show up and play hard and try to win every game that we go out there and play.”
PITCHING HIGHLIGHT: Alvarez reverted back into some troublesome old habits when he started nibbling around the zone, leading to three walks and an elevated pitch count. But the left-hander did buckle down when he needed to and escaped jams in the second, fourth and fifth innings alike, holding the Rangers hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position. In the end, his only mistake was a high fastball in the third, which Seager launched to left for a solo homer. Otherwise, Alvarez was effective over his five innings, giving his teammates a chance and lowering his ERA to a very solid 3.60.
“You want to write it up like that, to get out of (jams),” he said. “You don’t want to get into them, necessarily, but you’ve just got to keep your composure and trust in the defense. I got a couple key strikeouts and kept the team in it.”
NOTABLE: X-rays taken on Abrams’ left ankle came back negative, and he’ll remain on the active roster. Butera said he was unable to do any baseball activity today, though, and will probably be out of the lineup again Friday night, with the hope he can return to play Saturday.
UP NEXT: The Nats won’t arrive in Miami until around 4 a.m. and then have to open their weekend series against the Marlins at 7:10 p.m. EDT. Brad Lord did fly ahead of his teammates and will be well-rested when he takes the mound Friday against right-hander Ryan Gusto. TV: Nationals TV RADIO: 106.7 FM
The AAA lineup with King, Yoyo Morales and Trey Limpscomb is better than a lineup with Tena, Vivas and Nunez. Seems like we are tanking for a draft pick