Bats go silent, Nats split season series with Orioles (updated)

BALTIMORE – The Nationals have not yet closed the gap with the Orioles that has existed for multiple seasons now. One of these teams is headed for its second straight October appearance. The other is spending the next seven weeks identifying which players will be part of a team attempting to win in 2025 and which players will not.

But the gap is shrinking, and the four head-to-head matchups between the two interleague rivals this year underscored that. After getting swept by Baltimore last season and scoring a grand total of one run in the process, the Nats split the Battle of the Beltways this season and actually outscored their opponents by five runs along the way.

Tonight’s finale was right there for the taking, as well, and could’ve given the Nationals their first series victory over the Orioles since 2018. But a lack of offense doomed them on a night when DJ Herz pitched well but took a hard-luck, 4-1 loss at Camden Yards.

Herz allowed just two runs over six strong innings, both runs scoring on one swing in the bottom of the first. His teammates couldn’t match those numbers, though, one night after busting out for nine runs on 15 hits during a lopsided victory.

Tuesday’s big win, coupled with a 3-0 victory back in May in D.C., allowed the Nationals to go 2-2 against Baltimore for the season. And the two losses were highly competitive: a 7-6, 12-inning loss in May, then tonight’s tightly contested affair.

"Like I've said before: It's a work in progress. But we're starting to see progress," manager Davey Martinez said. "We really are. Young guys are starting to get it. We're starting to play a little bit better. I love the way we're coming out and competing every day. We're playing hard for 27 outs. We're getting closer."

The Orioles had never seen Herz before in person, but neither had Herz seen this potent lineup in person, so which side held the advantage? Three batters in, the advantage appeared to be Baltimore’s, which got a leadoff bunt single from Austin Slater and then a towering, 419-foot homer from Gunnar Henderson onto Eutaw Street well beyond the right field wall.

"He just ambushed it," Herz said of his first-pitch fastball to Henderson. "My best offering to lefties is the fastball. The next two at-bats, I threw him even more fastballs. I'm not going to shy away from a first-pitch, ambush fastball. He got that one, and then I got him back the next one."

Herz, who struck out Henderson in the fourth, shook off that early blast and settled in nicely. He didn’t let another batter reach scoring position, and he kept his pitch count to a relative minimum, giving himself the opportunity to continue pitching deeper into the night.

Only twice in 12 previous major league starts had Herz reached the sixth inning, not at all since July 2 against the Mets. And only once had he completed the sixth, his memorable June 15 start when he struck out 13 Marlins.

Herz didn’t come close to duplicating that strikeout total tonight; he finished with a mere five. But he never let the Orioles get anything else going at the plate after that first inning homer. And when he got Anthony Santander to ground out to end the sixth, he hopped off the mound and accepted congratulatory handshakes and high-fives from the dugout.

"It's big," the rookie said of his deeper start. "It helps the team a lot. It takes off some of the bullpen guys that have been pitching a lot. That's our main goal as starters: Let's see how deep we can get in the game. And overall, that will help the team out."

In spite of tonight's effort, Herz departed in line for the loss, having been outdueled by Dean Kremer. The right-hander was less pitch-efficient than his counterpart, but he was just as, if not more effective.

The Nationals’ lone run off Kremer came in the top of the second, when Alex Call drove a ball deep to right and off the leaping Santander’s glove for a two-out RBI double. Otherwise, they barely threatened to score again.

Their best opportunity came in the fourth, when Keibert Ruiz singled and Call followed with another double, this one down the left field line. But with two outs and two runners in scoring position, Ildemaro Vargas grounded to first on the first pitch he saw, quashing that rally and leaving the Nats trailing by a run.

"I think (Kremer) did a great job," Ruiz said. "Their bullpen did a great job, too. It's baseball. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. We've just got to keep our head up and come back tomorrow and play hard."

The deficit grew to three runs in the bottom of the seventh when Baltimore added some insurance against relievers Robert Garcia and Jacob Barnes. It made the final line in this year’s Battle of the Beltways skew a bit more in the Orioles’ direction, but not enough to erase the significant ground the Nationals made up in 2024.

"You can feel that the right things are happening, and it's happening in the right places," Herz said. "You can kind of feel it. I mean, I can feel it. We've played the good teams really well. We've just got to keep doing that."