After another delay, Nats drop first road series in month (updated)

ST. LOUIS – At the end of a long weekend that included three rain delays, one suspended game, one extra-inning game and way too much time spent looking at red, yellow and green blobs on the Doppler radar, the Nationals experienced the rarest outcome of all: a road series loss.

With an 8-4 loss to the Cardinals today, the Nats dropped two of three on the road for the first time since June 13-15 in Houston.

They came into the day hoping to keep their winning ways away from D.C. alive, seeking their fourth straight road series win. But they couldn’t overcome a ragged and laborious start by Josiah Gray, nor a rough bottom of the sixth from the relievers who replaced him.

It appeared for a few moments the game might be called in the middle of the seventh, the Nats already trailing by five runs and an intense line of storms approaching from the west. Crew chief Bill Miller called for the Busch Stadium grounds crew to roll out the tarp for the third straight day this weekend and the game went into delay.

The storm indeed arrived about 10 minutes later and dumped heavy rain on the ballpark along with high winds. And given the disparity on the scoreboard, there was perhaps some consideration to calling the game right then. But the system cleared out quickly, and because the infield was pre-emptively covered, very little prep work was needed to restart the game after a mere 38-minute delay.

Everything after that point, though, was academic. The Nationals scored one more run but didn’t seriously threaten to come back and wound up totaling only four hits, snapping an majors-best streak of 54 consecutive games with at least six hits.

"It's been tough scheduling, but it shows you how tough we have to be mentally to be prepared and go out and try to win games," first baseman Dominic Smith said. "I think St. Louis had the same grind we had, so it's really no excuse. We had to come in and try to make adjustments to win the game. We came up short. We played hard, but it's something we know we can be better at."

One of the overriding narratives of Gray’s progress this season has been his ability to pitch his way out of jams and not let innings spiral out of control the way they did last year. Which isn’t entirely accurate, to be honest. Though Gray has indeed been very good escaping jams, entering today with a .198 opponents’ batting average with runners in scoring position, he actually was better last year (.165 opponents’ average).

Still, the first three innings of this game only served as further evidence of Gray’s ability to wriggle his way out of trouble. He allowed a leadoff hit, then another batter to reach base, in each of those first three frames. A staggering 67 of his first 79 pitches were thrown from the stretch, not the windup. And he somehow didn’t allow a run during that stretch, the Cardinals going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

"He had traffic from the first inning on," manager Davey Martinez said. "He couldn't really establish his fastball today. He was throwing a lot more sliders, a lot more cutters. But he got out of some jams and gave us all he had."

It was, however, too much to ask Gray to pull the magic trick off a fourth time. He again let St. Louis put two on with nobody out. This time, he faltered, surrendering RBI singles to Andrew Knizner, Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar.

A solo homer by Nolan Gorman in the fifth added to the Cardinals’ lead, and left Gray ultimately in line for the loss after being charged with four runs on 10 hits (matching a career high) while throwing 95 pitches over only five innings.

"Just trying to execute my pitches, knowing I'm an out away. I'm a popup away. I'm a groundout away. I'm a flyout away from things being a little different," he said. "That's the mentality I've taken all year, and it's worked out. Today, it didn't work out so well. But it's going to be what I take through the rest of this year: I'm one out away from being in a better position."

The Nationals did attempt to rally and get their starter off the hook but came up one clutch hit short after getting a big one from a most unlikely source.

Entering the sixth, they had only one hit (Keibert Ruiz’s solo homer in the second) and one walk (Corey Dickerson in the fifth) off Jack Flaherty. But CJ Abrams jumpstarted things with a one-out triple in the sixth, and when Lane Thomas followed with a walk, the Nats had the tying run at the plate in the form of their best clutch hitter: Joey Meneses.

Meneses, a .416 hitter with runners in scoring position, didn’t deliver this time, striking out and putting the rally on the shoulders of Smith. Bumped up to the cleanup spot after Jeimer Candelario was scratched with a bruised right thumb, Smith stepped to the plate batting a miniscule .088 with two outs and runners in scoring position this season. He responded with a two-run double to right-center, his first extra-base in 82 plate appearances with runners in scoring position.

"We really take the mentality of the next man up," Smith said. "I know (Meneses) didn't get the job done. So I was just trying to do my best to capitalize, and I was able to get a hit to fall."

The rally fizzled there, though, so the Nats still trailed 4-3 when Martinez turned to his bullpen for the bottom of the sixth. At which point the deficit grew by a wide margin. Jordan Weems and Jose A. Ferrer combined to allow four runs on three hits and a walk, and just like that the Cardinals led 8-3 as the storm approached from the west.