Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats rally late, but Phillies walk off with 3-2 win

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ loss to the Phillies in CBP…

FACING NOLA:

Davey Martinez knew his club was in for a tough game, going up against Phillies’ starter Aaron Nola last night in Citizens Bank Park. Nola started the outing with a 1.42 ERA (2 ER over 12 ²⁄₃ IP) and a .098/.229/.268 line against in two starts against the Nationals in ‘24.

“Nola has been tough. He’s got the good breaking ball,” Martinez told reporters before the second of four in Philadelphia.

He went with a right-hand heavy lineup, though the 31-year-old righty had a .239/.284/.461 against left-handed hitters on the year going in, vs a .236/.288/.371 line against vs righties, so not much of a split there.

True to form, Nola kept Washington’s offense in check, tossing 6 ²⁄₃ scoreless on 111 pitches, giving up seven hits and two walks while striking out four, with his teammates providing a 2-0 lead in the top of the third (though that’s all they managed off Nats’ starter Patrick Corbin, who went just 4 ²⁄₃ innins), but kept it close before handing it off to the bullpen, with Jacob Barnes (1 ²⁄₃ scoreless) Robert Garcia (who threw a scoreless seventh inning), then to Derek Law (scoreless eighth).

Then in the top of the ninth inning, the Nationals scored two runs against Phillies’ righty Carlos Estévez, who’d allowed just one earned run since May 21st.

Luis García, Jr. singled to start the inning, took second on a single by Juan Yepez, and then scored on an RBI single by José Tena, 2-1, then Nasim Nuñez, who came in to run for Yepez, scored from third on a grounder to second by Jacob Young as the Nationals rallied to tie it up, 2-2 after eight and a half.

Kyle Finnegan tried to send it to extras in the bottom of the inning, but gave up a leadoff hit by Brandon Marsh, on which a throwing error by Alex Call in right allowed the runner to get to second. Marsh took third on a bunt by Cal Stevenson, who reached base when both Tena at third and Finnegan let the ball roll through the left side.

An intentional walk to Kyle Schwarber (after he got up 3-0) loaded the bases and then Trea Turner walked it off with a fly ball to deep left field, 3-2 Phillies.

“We don’t field a bunt, it cost us a big run, we got behind on Schwarber, we threw the ball away, which could have kept the runner on first base, that was the difference,” Martinez said after the loss.

“If he bunts the guy to second we could walk Schwarber, we get a fly ball from Turner, it’s two outs, but we made too many mistakes that inning.”

Breaking down what went wrong on the bunt, in particular, Martinez said it was just a bad decision by Tena at third.

“José, he broke back to the base thinking that Finnegan would get the ball to try to get that lead runner, but at that point you’ve just got to get an out. We got to get an out right there, and we got our closer in there, if we just get an out, we can do something different.

“The boys fought though,” he added. “I mean, they had their closer in, we come back and scored two runs, tied the game up.”

And they did it with the sort of good at-bats they struggled to put together early.

“They had good at-bats, they had good at-bats that inning to tie the game,” Martinez said.

“But those mistakes. As we say, when you play a good game like this, the mistakes are going to get you.”

What’s the difference early in the game vs late?

“I think swings, they get big,” he said, “… they’re trying to do too much, they want to score early, and then all of a sudden they settle down a little bit and they start moving the baseball the way they’re supposed to. We’re really good, we hit the ball hard when we use the whole field. [James] Wood, double to left field. García, a couple hits, one up the middle, one to left field, when we do that, we’re good.

“But we got to do that with guys on base too, they get up there and all of a sudden they want to swing and try to hit that long ball. Sometimes all we need is a ball in the gap.”

Martinez’s club went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and nine left on base in the one-run loss.

And Nola was pretty good for 6+ innings.

“Nola wasn’t too shabby tonight,” Martinez said. “He was pretty good. He hit his spots, didn’t give us a whole lot to hit. When he got in trouble he made some really good pitches. But then again, we got to learn how to just — like we did the last inning — take what they give us, hit the ball stay in the big part of the field, and try to drive the ball in the middle of the field, and we did that really well. We got to do that from the first inning on and good things will happen.”