Dayton Daily News

REDS’ LATE RALLY FALLS SHORT ON MONDAY AGAINST NATIONALS

- By Howard Fendrich

Washington WASHINGTON — Nationals closer Sean Doolittle added to his career high by getting his 27th save Monday night and there

— are more than 1½ months to go in the season.

He’s already easily eclipsed his total for number of games finished in a year, too.

After pitching for the fifth time in seven games and hanging on to save Washington’s 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, Doolittle acknowledg­ed what seems rather obvious, even if he was throwing in the mid90s mph: The lefty is tired.

“I’m starting to feel it a little bit,” said Doolittle, who has struggled lately and blown five of his 32 save chances this year. “These are the nights where you’ve got to dig deep and grind it out.”

Trea Turner and Matt Adams homered, Erick Fedde threw well after allowing a solo shot on the game’s first pitch and the depleted Nationals made a 7-2 lead stand up. But barely.

After former Reds reliever Tanner Rainey allowed a two-run homer to Cincinnati rookie sensation Aristides Aquino — it was the record eighth round-tripper in his first 12 major league games for the NL Player of the Week — Doolittle came in for the ninth with a 7-4 lead.

His first pitch of the evening became Phillip Ervin’s pinch-hit homer.

“That ball was crushed,” Doolittle said. “It was supposed to be in — and it was middle. And it was a really loud sound.”

The next batter singled, then came around on Joey Votto’s two-out double off the wall in left on a ninepitch at-bat. After an intentiona­l walk, Doolittle ended things on Josh VanMeter’s foul popout.

“We came up short,” Reds manager David Bell said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Doolittle was asked whether he needs a reduction in his workload or just must handle what’s asked of him by manager Dave Martinez, who said relievers Wander Suero, Hunter Strickland and Daniel Hudson were unavailabl­e.

Doolittle said he has to figure out “how to deal with it.”

“It’s mid-August. Everybody’s gassed. It’s a marathon, for sure. The good teams find a way — the good players find a way — to catch that second wind. You really want to be playing your best baseball in September and peaking at the right time. There’s still every opportunit­y to do that,” he said. “I’ve hit a couple of speed bumps here, recently. It hasn’t been as smooth as I wanted it to be.”

Coming off a 5-4 trip that left them tied for the lead in the NL wild-card race, the Nationals opened a sixgame homestand without three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, left fielder Juan Soto or first baseman Ryan Zimmerman — all injured — while second baseman Brian Dozier was ill and limited to pinch-hitting duty.

 ?? PATRICK MCDERMOTT / GETTY IMAGES ?? Phillip Ervin celebrates with Reds teammate Jose Peraza after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning Monday. The Reds scored twice in the ninth to close the gap before falling 7-6 to the Nationals.
PATRICK MCDERMOTT / GETTY IMAGES Phillip Ervin celebrates with Reds teammate Jose Peraza after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning Monday. The Reds scored twice in the ninth to close the gap before falling 7-6 to the Nationals.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States