Inexperienced Nats once again hand game to Phillies (updated)

The Nationals understand there are going to be growing pains as they play out the string of a season that has now long since morphed from one with legitimate visions of success into one that is solely about starting a difficult organizational rebuild.

But it's one thing when those growing pains come in the form of rallies made possible by a superior opponent's performance. It's quite another when they come in the form they did this afternoon during a nightmare of a 7-6 loss to the Phillies.

A game the Nationals led by six runs entering the sixth inning somehow was lost amid a bullpen and defensive meltdown the likes of which haven't been seen much around here, even in this town that has seen plenty of those over the years.

Five relievers combined to allow seven runs in three innings, the worst culprits proving to be newcomers Mason Thompson (who didn't retire any of the three batters he faced in the sixth) and Patrick Murphy (who retired only one of the four he faced in the eighth).

And even in spite of all that, the Nats were still in position to get out of it with a two-run lead intact until 21-year-old second baseman Luis García made back-to-back gaffes on routine grounders that directly allowed three runs to score. García let a potential 4-6-3 double play roll under his glove, then froze on a subsequent grounder to him, looking to throw to the plate for inexplicable reasons, before finally throwing to second too late to start another possible double play.

"There's a lot of plays that occur during a baseball game, and you can learn from each and every one of them," García said in a postgame Zoom session with reporters, interpreted by Octavio Martinez. "You live and learn, basically, from the mistakes and move on to the next day. And hopefully the next time, you're able to make that play."

Andres Machado was the unfortunate victim of the sequence, the rookie reliever having done his job to get out of the jam with the lead intact but instead departing with his team trailing.

So it was that the Nationals (who stranded the tying run at third base in the bottom of the ninth) lost late yet again to the Phillies in what mercifully was their final matchup of 2021. They wound up 6-13 against their division rivals, and remarkably seven of the losses came in games they led by three or more runs at some point. According to STATS Inc., that's a record for such losses to one opponent in one season in the modern era.

"It's pretty tough. I'm the kind of guy that likes to win," right fielder Juan Soto said. "But it is what it is. We've been trying so hard. I know those guys, they're trying. Those pitchers, they're trying. It's just not going our way."

Closing out games has become such a chore for this team since the mass sell-off one month ago. And with de facto closer Kyle Finnegan also away from the team now while on paternity leave, the challenge Tim Bogar faced today to piece together nine innings from this pitching staff was steep, to say the least.

"The challenge of putting the bullpen together is just putting the guys in the best position possible to succeed," said Bogar, who was filling in filling in as manager while Davey Martinez was watching from his office following a pre-planned, minor foot procedure this morning. "That's what we thought we did today, and it just didn't work out."

Bogar could only keep summoning inexperienced relievers from the bullpen and hope that early 6-0 lead might somehow hold up.

The offense came in bursts for the Nationals, and it came in no small part from one of the best hitters in the league. Soto continues to amaze, even when opponents are reluctant to pitch to him, taking advantage of what few opportunities he gets to swing the bat.

Soto got several of them today after drawing a walk in his first plate appearance. With a runner on first and two out in the third, he got a curveball from Aaron Nola and proceeded to blast it to center field for his 23rd homer of the season and a 3-0 lead. (Lane Thomas supplied the first run with a solo homer to center two batters prior.)

"Sometimes I get to the plate and I'm thinking they're going to walk me, but they don't. They were throwing right at me, and I wasn't ready for it," said Soto, who has now drawn a major league-high 106 walks for the season. "Now I just try to stay ready, stay locked in. I don't mind if they walk me. Just be ready to swing every time."

The Phillies couldn't pitch around Soto in the bottom of the fifth, not after Nola loaded the bases with nobody out. Joe Girardi decided to entrust left-hander Bailey Falter with that no-win situation, and sure enough Soto responded with a two-run single to right.

Add a Josh Bell RBI single after that, and the Nats had themselves a 6-0 lead after five innings, setting up a nice and easy finish to this afternoon, right? Not exactly.

This was the fifth time Paolo Espino has faced the Phillies this season, his second start against them, so familiarity had to be on everyone's mind as he took the mound. The 34-year-old, though, was really sharp early on, retiring the first seven batters he faced, striking out both Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto to the delight of the sparse crowd.

Espino got Harper again to escape a third-inning jam, inducing a chopper to short with the bases loaded. And when he cruised through the fourth and fifth with no trouble, everything seemed to be set up splendidly for the Nationals.

Espino, though, needed to get through the top of the Phillies lineup a third time. And though he did just about everything he could, it wasn't quite enough. Harper's little dribbler up the third base line was good for an infield single, and so with two on and one out, Bogar strolled to the mound and took the ball from his starter.

"It gets to you a little bit," Espino said with a laugh and a shrug. "I think it was definitely a good pitch. He just was able to hit it where nobody was fielding. That's something you can't control. You can't do anything about it. A little frustrating, but that's baseball. You can't do anything about it."

Espino departed to a nice ovation from a crowd that appreciated his 89-pitch effort but now held its breath as Thompson entered to face the heart of the lineup. And the only words that subsequently came out of anyone's mouth were unprintable as Thompson walked Realmuto, served up a three-run double to Andrew McCutchen and then walked Brad Miller on four pitches.

Back to the mound strolled Bogar, this time signaling for Sam Clay and hoping for better results. Which he got; Clay threw four pitches (all strikes) and recorded two outs to end the inning with a 6-3 lead intact.

Next up: Alberto Baldonado, the 28-year-old lefty called up from Triple-A Rochester on Wednesday and now summoned to face the top of the Phillies lineup in his major league debut. And Baldonado responded in impressive fashion with a pair of strikeouts during a scoreless seventh, capped by a 96 mph fastball past an unsuspecting Harper immediately after he saw five straight sliders.

"When he got him 0-2, he was trying to throw a slider to get him to chase, but then he came with the fastball to strike him out above the zone," Bogar said. "He had it inside of him to give him his best stuff, and then got it by him. That was nice to see."

Encouraging stuff, to be sure. But there were still six more outs to get. And these days, with this team, that's often too much to ask.