As rain poured down, and players rushed off the field around him, MacKenzie Gore shook his head and made a slow trot to the dugout. After a rough outing his last time on the mound, Thursday’s lengthy rain delay couldn’t have been worse for the Washington Nationals pitcher.
And sure enough, by the time action resumed after a 1 hour, 43-minute delay, the Nationals decided to sit Gore for the rest of the afternoon. The team wasn’t going to risk it for a pitcher with a history of elbow soreness, even though the 24-year-old had pitched only 1⅓ innings before the stoppage and tried to keep warm with two simulated innings in the bullpen.
Instead, the Nationals turned to their relievers who put up a valiant effort but came up short in a 5-4 extra-innings loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Washington (34-53) has now lost four straight and was swept in a series for the sixth time this season. The Nationals only have three games left — a homestand against the Texas Rangers — until the All-Star break.
The Reds managed to go ahead at the top of the 10th when outfielder Nick Senzel led off the inning with a two-run home run off Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey. Senzel crushed a first-pitch, 97.8 mph fastball that Harvey left up in the middle of the zone.
The pitch was an unfortunate turn of events for the Nationals — and another standout moment by Senzel. In the inning before, with a runner on second, the 28-year-old robbed shortstop C.J. Abrams and Washington of a likely walk-off victory when he lept at the right field wall and snatched what looked on track to be a double or home run.
“It looked like it was going to go, but he made a really good play on that,” Harvey said of Senzel’s catch, “which is kind of a bummer.”
“I thought it was over,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said.
Rather, after a flyout from Alex Call ended the ninth, extra innings soon began and Harvey didn’t make it through the inning. After recording one out, manager Dave Martinez swapped the 28-year-old for Cory Abbott — Washington’s seventh pitcher of the game.
Thursday’s loss, however, can’t be just attributed to a difference in pitching. As was the case in their first three games against the Reds, the Nationals’ offense again couldn’t come through in the clutch.
Though the Nationals tacked on one run in the bottom of the 10th — Lane Thomas singled to left field to score Call — Washington was unable to score again, despite having two runners on with no outs after the outfielder’s hit.
For the four-game series, the Nationals went 7 of 30 with runners in scoring position — including 2 of 11 in the finale.
The Nationals have struggled in big moments this season in part because of their lack of power. Washington has 69 home runs in 2023, ahead of only Cleveland (56) for the fewest in the league. Near the break, only Thomas (14) and third baseman Jeimer Candalerio (12) have reached double-digits this season.
To make up for their shortcomings and bolster the offense, Martinez has had to get creative. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, the Nationals successfully executed a double steal that advanced Abrams to third and Call to second. That decision, made with two outs, put Thomas in position to drive in two runs — but it almost didn’t happen.
At first, the umpires ruled that Abrams was caught stealing at third — only for Martinez to challenge the call and have it overturned on replay when cameras showed the infielder was safe. With the inning extended, Thomas smacked a four-seam fastball to left field that brought Abrams and Call home.
“I thought it was worth the risk the way we’re swinging the bat right now,” Martinez said.
The rally, though, was short-lived. Each time the Nationals got the lead, Cincinnati would answer. Rookie phenom Elly De La Cruz tied the game at 2 with an RBI double in the sixth, and then — when the Nationals took another lead on a Call solo shot in the seventh — the Reds responded with Joey Votto’s RBI single to left field in the eighth.
The Reds’ response further highlighted Washington’s thin margin of error. All game, the Nationals deployed reliever after reliever in an attempt to quell a Reds offense that had given them fits in the three games prior. And to a certain extent, they did their job: the Reds mustered just six hits — even with their five runs.
But in a quiet clubhouse, that hardly served as a consolation prize.
“A lot of guys stepped up and they got us through it,” Harvey said. “But we just came up short.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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