Washington and its fading playoff hopes stumbled into town last night, with Max Scherzer on the mound against Kevin Gausman in what was a close to a ‘MUST WIN’ game as you can get shy of an actual elimination tilt. But, Mad Max ran into the April Braves and Atlanta ran off with a 10-5 drubbing, and in the process, may have clinched the Cy Young Award for Jacob DeGrom.
After an ‘uneventful’ 1st – if you define a lead off double by Ronald Acuna Jr. uneventful – it was scoreless going into the 2nd. Juan Soto led off with a walk, and went first to third on a Ryan Zimmerman double to left. That was a generous scoring, as it was more like a single and taking second on the throw to third. Soto was initially called out but replay overruled the call on the field. Matt Wieters drove in Soto with a grounder to second, and Wilmer Difo hit a sac fly to plate Zimmerman. 2-0 gNats.
Atlanta hopped off the mat in the bottom of the frame. Charlie Culberson took one for the team, and moved to third on the first of Ender Inciarte‘s doubles. Scherzer rallied though striking out Tyler Flowers and Dansby Swanson. Things looked good as Gausman headed to the plate, but Scherzer couldn’t put him away and walked the opposing pitcher. Acuna then flared one into right to tie it up. I hereby nominate the Guasman walk for the ‘Most Underrated Plate Appearance Of The Year’ Award, alongside Kurt Suzuki getting hit by a pitch in Philly and that time Ozzie Albies didn’t swing at the first pitch he saw.
Gausman worked a scoreless 3rd, pitching around a one out single to Trea Turner, who stole second, went to third on a grounder and was stranded when Anthony Rendon flew out deep to left. Atlanta took the lead in the bottom of the frame, when Nick Markakis worked a one out walk, and was doubled to third with two down by Inciarte. Flowers then put one in play that ticked off the glove of Rendon, deflected past a sliding Turner, and plated both Atlanta runners.
Unfortunately, Gausman gave it back in the top of the 4th. Soto hit the first pitch into the leftfield stands, and Difo doubled home Zimmerman. But Difo ran the gNats out of further opportunities when Ender gunned him down at third on Scherzer’s flyball. Well, gunned as in – Difo overslid the bag and Culberson kept the tag on him. At this point you could be forgiven for thinking that the Bravos had let Max off the hook, and Scherzer would settle down. But, it was not to be, as Atlanta plated two more in the bottom of the 4th, with RAJa tripling with one out, an Albies walk, a Freddie Freeman sac fly, with Ozzie ‘stealing’ second on Difo’s failure to cover the bag, and Neck’s run scoring single.
Gausman managed to pitch a 1-2-3 5th inning, and the gNatspos turned to their bullpen, as Austen Williams shut down Atlanta. In the 6th, Rendon led off with a single, but Soto grounded into a double play. But after Zimmerman walked, Snitker brought the hook. Jonny Venters came in and walked Wieters, but got Difo to ground out to escape the jam.
Atlanta added a run in the bottom of the frame, with a two out Ozzie double, a FabFiveFreddy intentional pass, and a Markakis unintentional walk. Folk Hero 2.0 managed an infield single to score Ozzie, making it 7-4 Atlanta.
Washington got the run back in the top of the 7th, with an Adam Eaton walk followed by a Turner double off Dan Winkler. (I swear to Og, every time I look up Trea F’ing Turner is standing on second in a Braves game. I’m pretty sure when I checked in on Wednesday afternoon on the Facebook game against San Fran, I saw Turner on second in PacBell Park in the bottom of the 4th.) Anyway, Atlanta brought in Jesse Biddle and traded the run for an out as Bryce Harper grounded to Swanson. After Rendon walked, Biddle struck out Soto to end the threat. Nice AB when you had the chance to turn the Rookie of the Year race around there, Juan.
Did I mention the April Braves? I did, didn’t I? Remember the three alarm April bullpen that somehow found its way out of trouble? Well, the 8th was a reminder of those days. Brad Brach sandwiched a hit by pitch to Wieters around a Zimmerman groundout and strikeout of Difo. But mark Reynolds just missed tying it up by doubling to center – I’m still not sure how Wieters didn’t score – and a walk to Eaton loaded the bases. But Turner flew out.
Atlanta added the Rietsma Room in the bottom of the 8th. Nick driving in Acuna and Albies, and Freddie scoring when strike three to TFlo got past Wieters for a wild pitch. A.J. Minter came on for an easy 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth. Win, win, win. I can get used to this.
Magic number over Phillies down to nine, and six over the gNats. Let’s knock another one off tonight.
Thanks for the recap! But we’re going to have to knock one off this afternoon. The Braves have gone gnational, and it was switched to a 1:00 game.
Is the game being televised? ESPN?
If it was moved to being a 1:00 p.m. Saturday game, it’s probably on FOX.
Yep. 1 pm on Fox.
It’s on Fox. I had the same feeling that I was watching the April Braves again last night. Excellent reference, Seat Painter. Acuna and Albies made the diamond look like a roulette wheel – just had to decide which base the wheel was going to stop on.
I do think, for all the crap we saw from the bullpen last night, that it was better than the April pen. Even with 4 walks and a HBP, they only gave up one run. Of course, they had a little help from Diaz, but who’s counting. The humid conditions preyed on every pitcher.
The mental battle between Diaz and Harper was fun to watch. Harper baited him from CF and Diaz was very unprofessional about it. He took revenge on Harper with the strike call and forced Harper to hit a pitch he didn’t want to. Usually you don’t get a good sideshow like that to go with your baseball.
I need someone to kick me when I’m down. I just sold off some of the oldest cards in my collection without checking on updated values and I think I sold about $500 worth of cards for $100. Including a ’71 Clemente, ’71 Reggie, ’71 Munson, and ’71 Baylor (rookie). Those four cards should have gone for $200 all by themselves. Very good condition but not mint or anything. Please bring down the shame on me. I deserve it after owning those cards for over 40 years.
@6
When we collect we hoard…miser like
you have, inadvertently, shared, generously…good for you
@7 Thank you for not listening to me. 🙂
I have to admit the fellow told me he is a Sheriff’s deputy so I guess I could consider it as donating to the local police department.
Turner’s foot came off the bag. He’s out.
Is that Pierzynski announcing? He made a Chip statement just now as in “he was clearly out except for his foot coming off the bag – safe except for a technicality”
Sounds like AJP. He’s certainly talking a LOT.
Is Julio ever going to have a good 1st inning? He’s getting 2 strikes on every hitter and can’t put them away.
Soto hit a good pitch.
Hey, the Fox broadcast must be on a delay. The second ball to Julio popped up on Gameday before I saw it live. Weird.
Aw, Julio just missed that. Hit it hard, though.
Fangraphs had a chart with all the playoff teams’ records against each other and, for all the talk about us only beating weak teams, it looked to me like we’ve done OK against all the best teams (about .500) except, of course, the West (Dodgers and Rockies). I think I’d rather face the Rockies in a short series than the Dodgers.
The Dodgers won their division the past five years. This cannot stand. Go Cardinals. Go Rockies.
Bad Julio!
Bases loaded on three walks.
C’mon Julio, the walks are going to get to you. And stop letting soto steal, you’re giving him ROY as well.
Oh come on. Take Julio out.
Come on…
Talk about a free run. They didn’t even put a single ball in play to get it.
He is so damn frustrating.
Julio doesn’t trust himself enough to throw anything that could be in the heart of the strike zone.
I don’t know that he doesn’t trust himself as he just lost it there. Had the bottom of the order and just couldn’t throw anything close to a strike.
Its occasionally happened to me (and everybody, I would think) when pitching. Heck I always wanted to do one of those mlb fantasy camps, but I was always afraid of that happening, or dropping an easy pop up or something like that
If we’re gonna throw this game away, at least let Viz have an inning. Gotta see if he can throw more strikes than the others.
Rob, you missed on the UTEP prediction….
Another walk that scores. Ugh.
Ten walks.
I don’t want to be a “doooomed” guy, but I can’t help but think this is going to be their undoing in the playoffs. All the walks and 3-1 counts aren’t going to fly in the postseason.
Touki has walked three in one inning. So much for the idea of using him as a reliever.
You just can’t assume that a good starter will also be a good reliever.
I cannot understand the choice of relievers. If someone could explain the logic to me, I’d appreciate it.
I’d prefer to see Touki get starts and have an expanded rotation or use him to give one starter a rest in each turn, but what do I know?
Yeah I can’t explain the logic behind the bullpen use today. And yet I find them beating scherzer and being nearly shut out by scrubs today even more puzzling.
Holy Geez. 12 walks and it’s only the 7th. Let’s just pack up and go home.
All the walks. I just don’t get it.
Sam Freeman’s starting to look pretty good……..
They act like they’re playing baseball, but they’re really taking a day off.
Opponent plate discipline is our kryptonite.
At least Viz looked pretty good, walk and all.
That was a gift. Once Touki blew up, Snitker started experimenting.
for masochists only, recapped