Nats can't convert in clutch, lose World Series home debut (updated)

They came looking for a party, fully expecting the first World Series game played in the District of Columbia in 86 years to produce the same kind of thrills that have become commonplace here all month long, only ratcheted up to an entirely new level that would leave the Nationals on the precipice of a championship.

What the overflow gathering at Nationals Park tonight got instead was 30 minutes of pregame nostalgia and anticipatory hype, then four hours of frustration as the home team squandered opportunity after opportunity to take down Houston's pitching staff for the third straight game.

And because the visitors did convert their scoring opportunities for the first time in a long time, the Astros walked out of here with a 4-1 victory in Game 3 and sent a reminder to everyone else that they aren't about to roll over and let Washington coast to a title this weekend.

"That's a really good team, like I've said the past three or four days," Ryan Zimmerman said. "They're not going to quit. They're going to fight. To beat them, we're going to have to play good baseball. We just couldn't get the big hit tonight."

No, they most certainly could not, as opposed to the Astros. With four runs scratched out against Aníbal Sánchez, Houston (which had been batting .127 with runners in scoring position over the last two rounds) managed enough offense to take the lead and rely on its pitching staff to hold on the rest of the way. Which is precisely what happened, the Nationals (who had been batting .367 with runners in scoring position the last two rounds) going 0-for-10 tonight to send the crowd home disappointed on a night many thought they'd never experience.

In capturing their first win of the series, the Astros snapped the Nationals' eight-game winning streak and denied them a chance to win one more and set a new postseason record. They also ensured there will be at least two more games played here this weekend, with Sunday night's Game 5 now guaranteed to be held.

"It just happened. A bad day," said Juan Soto, who celebrated his 21st birthday by going 0-for-4 and committing an error in left field. "I think we just, we need to keep doing the same thing we've been doing. We just missed an opportunity today. Tomorrow we're going to get a chance and we got to get it done."

It was a frustrating night for the Nationals, who lost while wearing their navy blue script jerseys for the first time in 10 tries this postseason but more importantly lost Kurt Suzuki to a right hip flexor injury. The veteran catcher hurt himself blocking a ball in the dirt in the top of the sixth and did not bat in the bottom of the inning, a concern for the Nats, though Suzuki told reporters after the game that strength tests on the hip "were good."

Never before had there been this much anticipation for a baseball game on South Capitol Street, with 43,867 fans plus a lot more media members and team officials cramming their way into the ballpark hours in advance while thousands more hung around the neighborhood to experience it all tangentially.

The crowd was whipped into a frenzy long before 8:07 p.m., cheering throughout player introductions, a splendid anthem performance by fan favorite D.C. Washington and a pair of ceremonial first pitches (one from Buzz Aldrin, the other from 2005 Nationals Chad Cordero and Brian Schneider).

"I will say this: The fans were awesome," manager Davey Martinez said. "I mean, it was electric. The boys in the dugout, they were fired up. I'll relay a message to the fans: Bring it again tomorrow. It was great. I loved it."

The fans brought it tonight, but the home team didn't. The Astros put pressure on Sánchez throughout his start, with only one 1-2-3 inning through the sixth. And unlike the first two games of this series, they actually converted with runners in scoring position.

Josh Reddick blooped a single to left to score Carlos Correa in the second. Michael Brantley hit a rocket back the mound that deflected off Sánchez's glove for an RBI infield single in the third. Brantley added another RBI single to right in the fifth, this one coming immediately after two pitches at the knees were called balls by Gary Cederstrom, prompting the usually stoic Sánchez to glare at the plate umpire and angrily ask what was wrong with his pitch.

And when Robinson Chirinos ambushed a first-pitch sinker in the top of the sixth and clanked it off the foul pole, the Astros had four runs off tonight's Nationals starter, equaling their total from Games 1 and 2 combined.

"When I don't have the location, or I don't have the call on the corners, I have to throw more in the strike zone," Sánchez said. "Especially against the Astros lineup. They're pretty good. They're strong. They can hit pretty well. So if I'm not able to put the ball in the corners, I pay for it."

Not that the Nationals didn't have plenty of opportunities to do the same to Zack Greinke. They put at least one runner in scoring position in each of the game's first six innings. They didn't drive any of them in.

The only run came in the bottom of the fourth, when Victor Robles tripled into the left field corner, scoring Zimmerman all the way from first. Otherwise, there were a whole lot of chances and a whole lot of squandered chances.

Sometimes the big boys in the middle of the lineup got too overanxious. Anthony Rendon and Soto combined to make four outs on the first pitch of an at-bat, three of them with at least one runner on base.

"We're always aggressive," Soto said. "If we see something good to hit, we're going to swing."

Sometimes they worked quality at-bats but couldn't finish them off. Suzuki, Asdrúbal Cabrera, Zimmerman and Trea Turner all battled to at least a 2-2 or 3-2 count with runners in scoring position only to strike out.

"I liked my at-bat there," Zimmerman said of his fifth-inning strikeout on a full-count changeup from reliever Josh James. "He made a heck of a pitch 3-2. Sometimes big league pitchers do that."

The end result of all that: The Nationals went a ghastly 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, a stark cry from just about every other game they've played this month. That didn't make this historic evening any less frustrating for the overflow crowd that came to party but departed with an uneasy feeling not felt in these parts for some time.

"We didn't get a big hit," Zimmerman said. "If we put that many people on base every night from here on out, I'll take my chances."