Nationals blow lead in ninth, lose to Reds on back-to-back home runs
CINCINNATI — With two outs in the ninth inning Sunday afternoon, Kyle Finnegan bent down with his hands on his knees. He knew he had thrown a pitch — a splitter over the middle of the plate that the Cincinnati Reds’ Will Benson sent over the center field wall for a two-run homer — that he could not throw again.
He didn’t know what would come next. Maybe, if Jonathan India hadn’t smacked a double on the 10th pitch of the previous at-bat, Trey Lipscomb would have been the hero in his second major league game. Maybe, if Finnegan could better locate the next few pitches, the Washington Nationals could have mustered up an entirely different narrative in extra innings. A few different pitches would have earned the Nationals their first season-opening series win since 2018 and their first over-.500 record — at any point — since 2021.
But narratives don’t always sing such a charming tune for rebuilding teams. On an 0-1 delivery, Christian Encarnacion-Strand connected on another Finnegan splitter right over the plate, one that looked like a dagger home run the instant it popped off the bat, as the Nationals fell, 6-5, at Great American Ball Park.
“It’s a tough one,” Finnegan said. “Two mistakes on a pitch that I usually execute pretty well. That hurts.”
That’s not to say there wasn’t progress Sunday. It began in the form of Lipscomb. A day before, the 23-year-old meandered around, his eyes darting, his mind racing, his memory capturing bits and pieces of a lifelong dream coming true. Solid play in the field aside, that wasn’t the same even-keeled Lipscomb the Nationals (1-2) were used to after a red-hot spring training, though that tends to be forgiven in an MLB debut.
Advertisement
The next day, hours before Washington’s loss, it was as if Lipscomb was back at spring training: He was sporting an easy smile, not one that indicated a half-shocked disposition. He had now been there before, even if it was just once before, just a day before. Sure, he was hitting ninth again, a move Manager Dave Martinez said was to assuage his nerves a day earlier after he filled in for Nick Senzel, who fractured his thumb hours before Opening Day began.
But this time, Martinez didn’t really need to do that. Martinez says Lipscomb’s strong suit is delivering what the team needs in a given situation. In the seventh inning, he did just that: When Reds right-hander Buck Farmer tossed him a 92-mph fastball in the meatiest part of the plate, he hammered it into the first row of the right field seats to give the Nationals a 4-3 lead.
A day after Lipscomb secured the ball from his first hit, the Nationals got his first home run ball back, too.
“Got the nerves out of me yesterday,” he said. “… That’s what I was doing all spring training, battling with two strikes.”
Progress came in the form of the day’s starting pitcher, too. The new-look version of 27-year-old righty Jake Irvin had a fastball that touched 98 mph early and hovered around 95 to 96 but lost a bit of its zip at times. Irvin also debuted a new pitch — the first cutter of his career induced a double play in the second inning. He said he liked how it played, but he didn’t throw it much in his five-inning outing.
Advertisement
He still had tenets of the old Irvin: He got out of a few jams while occasionally laboring, he threw a first-pitch strike to just 11 of 21 batters, and his two walks to the bottom of Cincinnati’s lineup in the third inning helped the Reds (2-1) grab a 2-1 lead. That deficit became 3-1 when Elly De La Cruz tripled and scored in the fourth.
“Felt like I was missing more late,” Irvin said. “Goal is always to stay in attack mode.”
Washington’s veteran additions were a mixed bag. Eddie Rosario, who shined in the first two games, struck out three times. Jesse Winker, who has played the best of the newcomers, went 2 for 3 with a walk but couldn’t drive in an insurance run with runners on second and third in the eighth after Lane Thomas’s sac fly made it 5-3. Joey Gallo twice went up to bat with two on and two out and couldn’t move anyone across. He is 0 for 12 to start the season.
Advertisement
But several members of the Nationals’ young core were stellar. One day after leading his team to a comeback win, CJ Abrams hit a 429-foot home run in the third for a 1-0 lead. It was not just the longest homer of his career but the kind that made Reds right fielder Jake Fraley give up pursuit after just two steps. Then came Thomas, who notched his first hit of the season by lining a cutter off Reds righty Nick Martinez to bring home two in the fifth and knot the score at 3.
After Irvin exited, the Nationals held off Cincinnati with three innings of scoreless relief, and Lipscomb pushed them in front. But the positive narratives budged after Finnegan’s 91-mph splitter over the heart of the plate that Encarnacion-Strand sent 387 feet into the seats in left.
“You do everything right for nine — for almost nine innings,” Martinez said. “You get two outs and things just don’t go your way. … I’m not ever going to question what pitches they throw. Just if he throws a splitter, it’s got to go down. They were just up.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeBcHySaGpqZ56Wwaq7zZqjrGWimrG0ecqyo55llp67r7HGmqVo