On a night in which Josiah Gray matched his career high with 10 strikeouts and pumped strikes like a man on a mission, the Nationals faced the unenviable task of scoring enough runs off Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara to somehow emerge victorious.
It was a task that required precise execution, the seizing of what few scoring opportunities became available. The kind of challenge you can’t afford to botch by getting a runner thrown out at the plate. Certainly not twice in the span of 60 seconds.
Alas, this is how the Nats opted to squander their one real shot at taking down Alcantara tonight during a 5-2 loss to Miami. They sent six batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. Five of them successfully reached base. Only one of them scored. Because two of them were thrown out at the plate, each in cringe-worthy fashion.
There were other reasons the Nationals lost their sixth straight game to fall to 6-13. Gray, for all the positives on this night, also suffered a brief but crushing meltdown in the top of the fourth. Alcides Escobar failed to make another makeable play in the field, leading to another run.
But the bang-your-head-against-the-desk baserunning sequence the Nats put together in the bottom of the fourth represented the defining moment of this ballgame on a rainy Tuesday night in front of an announced crowd of 12,613. It was as ragged a back-to-back series of events as this team has displayed to date in 2022.
The scenario: Down 3-0 but threatening against Alcantara (who entered with a sparkling 1.86 ERA), the Nationals got a one-out RBI single up the middle by Yadiel Hernandez to get on the board. They then got another base hit up the middle by Keibert Ruiz, one which should’ve left the bases loaded for Maikel Franco. But third base coach Gary DiSarcina decided to wave around Josh Bell, who within the last week had to depart games with injuries both to his left knee and right hamstring, and watched as the lumbering first baseman was thrown out at the plate.
"I saw what DiSarcina saw: The guy hadn't even reached the ball yet by the time (Bell) got past third base," manager Davey Martinez said. "It's just Josh is not running well. But I saw exactly what he saw. I thought for sure he was going to make it, or he wouldn't even throw the ball."
"I felt pretty good for the majority of the game," said Bell, who noted the hamstring remains a slight issue but the knee no longer is bothering him. "I just wish I could've turned it on a little more on that play, in that instance. But I just couldn't."
Wouldn’t you know what happened next. Franco singled to right, a hit that should’ve scored Bell but now was merely going to leave the bases loaded for Alcides Escobar. At least, that was DiSarcina’s thought, which explains why he clearly raised both hands in the air, instructing Hernandez to hold up at third.
Except Hernandez just kept running. Straight through DiSarcina’s stop sign. Straight toward the plate, where Jacob Stallings eventually would be waiting with the ball, narrowly tagging him out before he could get his foot on the plate.
"In reality, I didn't see him," Hernandez said via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "With two outs, I was going all the way. I just had that in my head, to try to score there with two outs. And by the time I did catch a glimpse of him on the side, it was too late for me to stop. I had to keep going."
The crowd watched in disbelief as the inning came to a close, the Nationals having completely squandered that opportunity by having back-to-back runners thrown out at the plate.
"It's frustrating, but we've got to try to score runs," said Davey Martinez, whose team has totaled only 13 of them during this six-game losing streak.
It stung all the more because it happened as Gray was putting together one of the best starts of his young career.
The right-hander’s first trip through the Marlins lineup went about as well as it could possibly go. Pounding the strike zone like he never has before, he retired eight of the first 10 batters he faced on 34 pitches, a whopping 28 for strikes. Five of those batters struck out, all via breaking balls - sliders to righties, curveballs to lefties.
"I think that was definitely the best I've felt throwing both of them," he said. "I'm not sure how many of them I threw (31 sliders, 28 curveballs) but I knew it was a considerable amount."
And then came a very notable hiccup in the top of the fourth. Facing that order for the second time, Gray issued a leadoff walk and a one-out single, then moments later watched Joey Wendle belt a first-pitch slider deep to right for a three-run homer.
"One bad pitch to Wendle there," Gray said. "I've got to get that pitch down. But for the most part, I thought I was in command of the game."
He was. Just when it looked like the wheels might fall off on his start altogether, Gray rediscovered his command from earlier in the evening and finished strong. (Or, at least, would’ve finished strong if his defense made one more play behind him.)
Gray cruised through the fifth inning on 13 pitches, then recorded his 10th strikeout (matching his career high set last August in Atlanta) for the second out of the sixth. All that stood in his way was Stallings, the Marlins’ No. 9 hitter. And when Gray got Stallings to send a soft, 79 mph liner toward the hole at shortstop, it looked like he would get out of the inning. But Escobar could only get his glove on the ball, not secure it, and just like that Miami scored a tack-on run that ended Gray’s otherwise impressive night after 5 2/3 innings of four-run ball.
"One pitch from having a really good outing," Martinez lamented. "I thought he threw the ball well. I was very impressed."