TORONTO – The Nationals’ season-opening schedule, with four straight matchups against likely contenders, didn’t look kind on paper. It hasn’t looked kind in practice, either.
The Nats needed a win Sunday to avoid getting swept by the Phillies. They found themselves right back in the same position today against the Blue Jays, with perhaps their first favorable pitching matchup of the young season to hold their hats on.
That matchup didn’t even help. The Nationals couldn’t touch fill-in Toronto starter Easton Lucas, while MacKenzie Gore couldn’t duplicate his efforts from an Opening Day gem. The end result: a lackluster 4-2 loss and a demoralizing three-game sweep at Rogers Centre.
One week into a season of promise, the Nats are 1-5. They’ve gotten decent starting pitching. They’ve hit more homers than in recent years. Keibert Ruiz and CJ Abrams have looked great. But they need more than that. And they haven’t gotten more. The challenge doesn’t get any easier, with the Diamondbacks and Dodgers coming to D.C. over the next week.
Today’s offensive effort included five hits, three of them coming with two outs in the ninth, and two walks. This despite the presence of an unknown, relatively unaccomplished opposing starter.
Lucas wasn’t even supposed to start this game, the Blue Jays planning to use him out of the bullpen instead. Each of his previous 14 big league appearances (12 of them with the Athletics and Tigers) came in relief, and his career ERA stood at a hefty 9.82 when he took the mound this afternoon.
Manager John Schneider, though, said he thought the 28-year-old left-hander matched up well with the Nationals lineup, and he wasn’t wrong. Lucas allowed only three batters to reach base over five scoreless innings, none of them advancing beyond first base.
And though Abrams did greet reliever Brendon Little with a leadoff homer in the sixth, the Blue Jays bullpen barely broke a sweat in churning out the final four innings to finish off the victory and the sweep.
The Nationals didn’t want to be asking Gore to stop the bleeding this afternoon. But if someone had to be tasked with that assignment, he’s the guy they wanted on the mound.
The Nats hoped for a repeat of Gore’s Opening Day performance. They instead got something that resembled his more erratic outings of the past, though to his credit he managed to minimize the damage and at least give his teammates a chance.
Gore enjoyed only one clean inning, otherwise forced to deal with traffic on the bases throughout his five frames. The Blue Jays got to him for a run in the first (via back-to-back two-out hits), a run in the fourth (via George Springer’s homer to left) and another in the fifth (via a sacrifice fly.)
It could’ve been a lot worse if not for some stellar defense, most notably by Dylan Crews. One day after getting benched for the first time this season, he returned to the lineup and shifted to center field for the first time this season. The rookie looked extremely comfortable there.
Crews nearly made a spectacular catch of Myles Straw’s drive to deep right-center, the ball popping out of his glove as he crashed into the fence. No problem, because Crews still teamed up with second baseman Amed Rosario and catcher Keibert Ruiz for a perfectly executed relay that nailed Ernie Clement at the plate. Moments later, Crews did complete a spectacular catch, charging hard to his right and in to make a diving stab of Bo Bichette’s sinking liner to end the inning.
Gore also came through with a big pitch to end his day, getting Tyler Heineman to pop out and strand the bases loaded. He walked off the mound having thrown 95 pitches over five innings, but in keeping Toronto to only three runs despite nine hits, he did show some resolve.
That might not have been a problem had Gore’s teammates supplied him with any run support. There was no run support today, though, not against the unheralded Toronto starter nor against the reliever who followed him.