I was able to go to my first ballgame of the year on Saturday! Never a bad day for baseball as I like to say, since whenever I get out to a game, I have fun whether my team wins or loses. It was a beautiful 74 degrees in DC, and Nats fans showed out with an announced attendance of over 37,000 people. Unfortunately, the outcome was not so beautiful as they fell 4-2 against the St Louis Cardinals, and it was the middle game of a weekend sweep. No one wanted that to happen, but hey, baseball shouldn't be taken for granted. The City Connects were out, it was Harry Potter day at the Navy Yard, which created better vibes with a quidditch jersey giveaway, but the Nationals didn't have enough magic for a win. Here's a full breakdown.
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| Nationals Park in Washinton DC, which can be reached via the Navy Yard Metro stop. |
In this matchup, Trevor Williams got the start for the Nationals while the Cardinals sent Andre Pallante to the hill. These two guys are similar in how they pitch, since they have an old school approach of generating weak contact rather than hunting a strikeout and working deep into ballgames giving their team a chance to win. That's exactly what happened, except one excelled while the other pitched well enough outside of one inning to give the bats a shot late in the game. In a certain way, it was a pitcher's duel, just not an exciting one. I knew going into the game these guys aren't exciting, and it wouldn't be a matchup to write home about, but these guys got the job done and were exactly who I thought they would be.
Trevor Williams got through a clean first inning, featuring a nice play from Luis Garcia at second base going into shallow right field to put out Cardinals' shortstop Masyn Winn. Sadly, the second inning wasn't so smooth. Williams gave up all four runs he would allow in the game, with catcher Pedro Pages driving in first baseman Wilson Contreras followed by centerfielder Victor Scott II's RBI scoring second baseman Nolan Gorman. Right fielder Lars Nootbaar then knocked in Pages and Scott II for a two-run double, and that was all the scoring the Cardinals did in this game. Williams would go on to pitch four scoreless innings as he worked in and out of traffic on the bases and in total threw six innings allowing four earned runs on seven hits and struck out four with one walk to boot. Williams has been a solid starter/Swiss army knife in the past, but the numbers aren't in his favor so far this year. He's a nice reliable starter on a good team, and the Nats need it as they still try and come out on the other side of their rebuild, it would be nice if Williams turned things around to become a trade chip at the deadline. While it was a decent enough start for a good team to win a ballgame, the Nats aren't there yet.
On the other side, Andre Pallante was fantastic. The true art of pitching was on full display, as he just got ground ball after ground ball, going 1-2-3 inning by inning so seamlessly. Pallante's style may be going the way of the dinosaur, he is one of a limited crop of pitchers who can still massage his way through a lineup without overpowering stuff, which is getting more important each day to succeed at this level. He even had some outstanding defense behind him, as Victor Scott II snared a line drive by Nats first baseman Nathaniel Lowe for a diving catch in the bottom of the second. Utilityman Brendan Donavan, who was starting in left field, showed some extreme range with a diving catch on the warning track off a backside fly ball by Nats shortstop CJ Abrams in the bottom of the third and another running grab into shallow left center, once again off the bat of Abrams, this time in the bottom of the sixth. The only damage done to Pallante was done by right fielder Dylan Crews in the bottom of the eight on a hanging 95 MPH sinker for a two-run homer. Crews drilled it at 105 MPH off the bat 393 feetto left field, putting the Nats right back in the game. Pallante was lifted after 7.1 innings with only five hits allowed, no walks, and seven strikeouts. Regardless of no shutout, Pallante pitched a remarkable game and got the win.
The Nats made it interesting in the ninth of Cardinals' closer Ryan Helsley, but he shut the door. Third baseman Jose Tena singled with one out, got to second on a wild pitch, Josh Bell came off the bench for centerfielder Jacob Young and walked, and then was pinch ran for by infielder Nasim Nunez, Tena and Nunez pulled off a double steal, Dylan Crews walked to load the bases, but CJ Abrams ended the game on a strikeout after much anticipation coming into a big spot. It would have been really nice to see the Nats walk it off, but the Cardinals pitching got the best of them with steadiness. I was excited to see James Wood, Dylan Crews, CJ Abrams, and other Nats youngsters, but I walked away truly appreciating what a guy like Andre Pallante can do, making him my player of the game. This game and series have boosted the Cardinals' eight game winning streak as of the date of writing this article as they hang around the top of the NL Central while the Nats sit in fourth place in a stacked NL East. That is my recap, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed and check out other amazing articles here at the I95 Sports Report.
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