Nationals do 180, drop series finale to Braves
2nd straight crushing loss hands back previous gains
WASHINGTON — After everything that had happened in the past day, the Washington Nationals still had a chance to salvage a series win against the Atlanta Braves. They had struggled to generate offense all Sunday afternoon, mostly against journeyman relievers, but they had given themselves opportunities in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings.
None panned out. Instead, the decisive blow came in the top of the 10th on a two-run pinch-hit home run from Atlanta’s Johan Camargo, which created a deficit the Nationals could not overcome in a 4-3 loss at Nationals Park. On the mound, reliever Tanner Rainey spun around and watched as what was once a 97-mph fastball sailed over the wall in right field, as the game, and the series, slipped away.
“He just yanked the fastball,” manager Dave Martinez said of Rainey’s pitch to Camargo. “He just yanked really bad. It was supposed to be away. It came in.”
The Nationals mounted a rally in the bottom of the inning, scoring one before stranding two. It wasn’t enough.
The extra-inning loss soured the end of an11-day homestand that, less than 24 hours earlier, seemed as though it couldn’t have been going better. During this stretch, the Nationals had started to reposition themselves as legitimate contenders in the NL East, completing a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and securing a dramatic 4-3 win over the Braves on Friday night. On Saturday, they built and maintained a lead that climbed to four runs in the sixth.
Then everything unraveled. The bullpen allowed as many runs as it got outs (nine) in what became a 13-9 loss. The collapse’s catalyst, embattled reliever Trevor Rosenthal, was released before Sunday’s game. The Nationals needed to call up a new Sunday starter, Austin Voth, because they had used one of their candidates, Joe Ross, out of the bullpen the night before.
If the Nationals had secured both games, they would be 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Braves heading into a series against the last-place Miami Marlins.
But Sunday’s loss instead tugged them down to 8 1/2 games out.
“We know we’re capable of keeping up with any of these guys,” catcher Yan Gomes said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win today. It just didn’t come our way. But no shame, no hanging our heads. We’ve still got to look forward.”
Amid the chaos of the weekend, the team received steadiness from a surprising source, as Voth shone in his season debut.
The spot starter gave the Nationals six efficient innings, working fast, striking out seven and walking none on a day Martinez seemed to intimate that his fifth starter role was far from decided. Even though Voth allowed solo home runs to Josh Donaldson and Ronald Acuna — the game’s only scoring until the seventh — he still gave the Nationals more than they could have expected.
“I really liked what I saw,” Martinez said. “We’ll see where he fits in, but I was very impressed.”
Voth’s increased command was made more impressive by his huge jump in velocity, which he attributed to nine days of rest since his last start and the fact that he gained 10 pounds while working out this offseason. Last year, during his first toe dip into MLB, his fastball averaged 91.3 mph. In this start, he averaged 93.9 and regularly touched 95 and 96 mph on the corners, making opposing hitters flail. In Voth’s first two times through the Braves’ batting order, he struck out Acuna and Dansby Swanson both times with a fastball in that range.
“Curveball and change-up (kept them off balance), as long as I kept them down was the main thing,” Voth said. “I threw a couple pitches that were up in the zone that I got away with, but when I was down in the zone was probably when I was at my best.”