On Thursday, the Washington Nationals did something that has become a common theme over the last few years. Every time the team has had an opportunity to move their record to .500, they have ended up falling a tad short. Thursday was not the first time this year it has happened, and it might not be the last.
Thursday's game, however, was never even close. The game itself was basically over before it started, and stellar offseason acquisition Foster Griffin had his first true disaster outing in a Nationals uniform. Everything began to go downhill in the 2nd inning following a Matt McLain 2-run home run, and it only got worse from there.
Griffin stayed in the fight and managed to get out of the 2nd with just those 2 runs allowed, and then fired a scoreless third inning. However, things took a turn for the worse in the 4th and 5th innings, as Griffin got tagged for 4 runs in the 4th inning before allowing another 3 in the 5th and getting pulled after 92 pitches.
His final line was ugly, as he surrendered 9 earned runs on 7 hits with 3 walks issued and a pair of homers given up. He did still fire 7 strikeouts, so perhaps it was a case of him just having a blip on the radar blowup outing rather than the beginning of a new pattern.
The final score of the game was 15-1, and the Nationals' offense that had scored 18 runs in the first 2 games of the series only mustered up 1 lowly run on just 3 hits. Perhaps it was the hangover of a dramatic victory in extra innings last night, but the Nationals as a whole just came out flat while staring a series sweep right in the face.
On the positive side, Luis Garcia Jr. continued his recent hot hitting as he finished 1/2 with a double and a pair of walks, and hopefully he is able to get healthy and find more of that power stroke. Additionally, righty Zak Kent was optioned to AAA Rochester after today's game, and the Nationals have yet to announce a corresponding move. As soon as something drops, we will update the site with the news, but for now we can only speculate.
What do you think of the Nationals taking 2 of 3 from the Reds on the road? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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