Game Summary
The Diamondbacks were coming off a draining victory the night before against their arch rivals and, possibly as a result of that, they just didn’t seem to have any life on either side of the ball on what was apparently Pride Night at Chase Field. Merrill Kelly had his worst start in over a month and the hitters couldn’t find any open grass against the surprisingly stiff Nats defense.
The game seemed to get off to a weird start when we were delayed because Merrill Kelly just wasn’t around in the dugout. My first thought was there was an injury during warm-ups, but I was thankfully wrong. Well, sort of thankful. When Merrill finally did take the mound and the game got underway, he did not look sharp, spraying pitches all over. Many pitches were not even close to the strike zone, and many of the pitches that did find the zone ended up getting smoked into the seats or into the outfield grass. A leadoff walk followed by a 2-run homer set the tone for the night and it did not let up from there as Merrill ended up giving up 6 hits, 3 BB and 3 HR.
The bullpen’s performance wasn’t much more inspiring. Philip Abner and Kade Strowd made their first appearances after being recalled on Thursday from Reno and both went poorly. Abner loaded the bases and then gave up a Grand Slam before recording a single out, but he was eventually able to record 4 outs (while also allowing another homer). Kade Strowd, making the first appearance by any of the returns from the Blaze Alexander trade, started off well enough, getting the final 2 outs of the 7th inning including striking out James Wood looking on a cutter at the knees, but then it all went downhill. Strowd was extremely wild when he came back out in the 8th and loaded the bases while recording only one before leaving with the trainer and handing the ball off to Adrian Del Castillo to finish off the laugher. For ADC’s part, he only allowed one of the inherited runners to score in the 8th and allowed 1 run to score in the 9th. Better than the average for tonight’s crew!
Finally, we come to the offense. I won’t say they were awful, but they just couldn’t find any open grass at all. The Nationals are a middle-of-the-pack defense or worse by all metrics I could find, but on this night, they looked like a lineup full of Gold Glovers. Several plays looked like possible hits, but instead were turned into harmless outs by some outstanding athleticism and glove work. It wasn’t necessarily bad luck and hitting right into the defensive positioning, but more like a night where you just tip your cap to the other side and admit they outplayed you.
Geraldo Perdomo had his second night hitting down in the order, and for the second night in a row he got results like the Perdomo of old. Domo finished the night with 2 hits and hit the ball with authority. I won’t say that the move down the lineup made some sort of mental change and freed him up to play looser because he was still hitting the ball well before, it just seemed like he always hit it right at the defense. Tonight, he was the only one who didn’t get hit with some sort of amazing play to rob him of a hit. Aramis Garcia hit his first home run since 2022 for our only run of the night and Tommy Troy contributed 2 hits (one the benefit of some hometown scoring on a should-be error by CJ Abrams) and that was about it for the offense on the night.
This was a frustrating game to watch. Maybe they’re just out of gas after a 4 game set against Guggenheim’s Billions and playing their 21st game in 22 days. Hopefully they snap back and win out to complete a series win.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
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Start off with the question likely on everyone’s mind, Groover was not using Santana’s now famous purple first baseman mitt tonight.
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The home run Merrill Kelly gave up in the first inning didn’t appear to be a bad pitch. A fastball several inches inside but credit to Luis García Jr. turning on it and just sneaking it fair into the visitor bullpen.
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Merrill recorded the first out of the game with an unconventional ‘kick save’ on a groundball up the middle. He stuck foot out behind him and the ball miraculously hit his cleat and stuck right there, allowing Merrill to easily bend down, pick up the ball and throw the runner out at first.
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Ryan Waldschmidt looked to hit a sure double into the right field corner in the 1st inning, but James Wood covered a ton of ground and turned it into a routine fly out. That defense was then one-upped by an incredible line drive snag by the Nationals second baseman to rob Corbin Carroll of a 2-out knock. The defender was fully airborne and parallel with the ground when he caught the liner and then was able to corral it without touching the ground when it squirted out of his glove.
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Ryan Waldschmidt returned the defensive favor by recording the first out of the second inning by laying out to catch a fly ball to shallow left. The defense in this game has been crazy and we’re only 7 outs in!
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Merrill gave up 4 runs in the third inning and it wasn’t some defensive miscues or seeing eye singles getting strung together that came back to bite him. The Nats were just all over Kelly. Merrill wasn’t sharp with his command, missing the zone badly when he missed; then when he came in the zone, the Nats were drilling the ball. On top of 2 walks, exit velocities that inning were: 106, 66, 108, 84, 103, 103.
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Tommy Troy’s sharp grounder just under the glove of the Nats third baseman in the 5th was the Diamondbacks first hit through the defense on the night. Aramis Garcia hit a home run in the third, but every ball hit into the field of play somehow found the glove of a Washington defender. Some nights, it’s just not your night.
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Philip Abner came on in the sixth for his first action after getting recalled Thursday from Reno and got bushwhacked. 2 homers, 1 of them a Grand Slam, and other assorted hits. Exit velocities included 114, 104, 106 and 101. Not exactly making a strong case to stay with the club past Taylor Clarke’s return to the active roster.
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Ildemaro Vargas made an appearance in tonight’s contest thanks to the lopsided score, and of course, one night after leaving the game because he ran into a dumptruck, he gets hit by a pitch in his only plate appearance. How is he still walking at this point?
Comment of the Game
The GameDay Thread was definitely light tonight. Understandable considering the rout was on early. A final tally of 146 comments at time of publishing, but since no comments went red after the crews nightly introductions, we’ll just chalk this up as a total loss and not name any COTG.
Coming Up
The Diamondbacks face the Nats for the second game of this 3-game set tomorrow afternoon with a rare Saturday 1:10pm first pitch at home. Righthander Zack Littell (5-4, 5.01 ERA) will take the mound for Washington and The Hologram (5-1, 2.24 ERA) takes the ball for the good guys.
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