Nats fall to Braves on Abrams' 10th-inning error (updated)

ATLANTA – They got the best start they’d seen from MacKenzie Gore in weeks. They got nine hits off Chris Sale and found a way to push across two runs despite a lineup missing CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. They overcame what appeared to be a serious left foot injury to Alex Call that could throw a wrench into their plans to promote top prospect Dylan Crews three days from now.

The Nationals put themselves in position for an unlikely win over the Braves tonight, if only they could finish the job late.

Alas, they could not. Unable to push across another run late despite several opportunities, they instead watched as Atlanta won 3-2 on Abrams’ throwing error with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.

"It sucks," the All-Star shortstop said. "We all fought. It came down to the wire, extra innings. We wanted to continue to fight, and it just ended like that."

A tight ballgame that saw both talented lefty starters pitch effectively turned into a contest of bullpens late. The Nats couldn’t score against the Braves relievers. The Braves did score against their counterparts, getting the tying run home against Jacob Barnes in the seventh, but did not get the winning run home in regulation, with Barnes and Robert Garcia combining to retire the side in the eighth and rookie Eduardo Salazar cruising through a 1-2-3 ninth to force extra innings.

The Nationals, though, could not convert in the top of the 10th, with Abrams (who came off the bench as a pinch-hitter) popping up and Joey Gallo (who replaced the injured Call earlier in the game) committing an even worse sin and grounding into a double play to leave James Wood stuck in the on-deck circle.

"We did have our opportunities," manager Davey Martinez said. "But I thought we played really well."

That forced Salazar back to the mound for the bottom of the inning. The right-hander did his job getting a ground ball to short and then a line out to third, but with the winning run 90 feet away and a left-handed batter coming up, Martinez signaled for the left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to try to escape the jam and extend the game.

Ferrer did his job: He got Michael Harris II to hit a sharp grounder to short. Abrams, though, skipped his throw to first, and Juan Yepez couldn’t make the tough scoop, allowing the run to score on a killer throwing error.

"It was low. I've just just got to make a better throw, in that situation, especially," Abrams said. "Maybe take a little more time. I think I had more than I thought."

As rough as the last two months have been for him, Gore did enter this start with some small bit of confidence knowing he had beaten the Braves twice earlier this season, allowing a total of two earned runs over 10 1/3 innings while striking out 17 batters in the process. Then he opened this outing with a high slider to Harris, who blasted it to right-center for a leadoff homer and a 1-0 Braves lead.

To his credit, Gore shook off that quick ambush by Harris and stuck with his game plan, which involved attacking the strike zone with everything he had. He completed the first inning on only 10 pitches, nine of which were strikes. He completed the second on 14 pitches, 11 of which were strikes.

"He stayed in the moment today really well," Martinez said. "He didn't get frustrated with the leadoff homer. ... He threw the ball fantastic."

With his fastball showing a bit more life than in recent starts, clocking in between 95-97 mph, the left-hander pitched with a confidence not seen much from him in weeks. He made a nifty play on a second-inning comebacker, snagging the ball and firing to the plate to get the lead runner and keep Atlanta from adding to its lead. And he never let up the rest of the night.

Gore enjoyed only one truly clean inning, but he shrugged off the baserunners he did allow and pitched his way out of any potential jams, especially during the bottom of the sixth in which he induced a 4-6-3 double play out of Matt Olson and later struck out Whit Merrifield looking at a changeup to end the inning.

"Look, when you're facing Sale, you kind of have an idea what kind of game it's going to be," he said. "That was big for us."

All told, Gore needed only 88 pitches to complete six innings, 61 of those strikes. For the first time since his May 29 start here at Truist Park, he did not walk a batter.

"That was important," he said. "Walks can really hurt you, especially when they come in bunches. There's always situations in a game where you don't want to give in and throw a cookie, but I thought when we got in certain counts tonight, we went after guys and we were able to put them away."

All was not rosy for the Nationals on this night, though. Though Gore successfully got out of that second-inning jam by inducing a popup by Orlando Arcia to second baseman Ildemaro Vargas, the more significant development on that play happened behind Vargas when Call came charging in from right field and fell to the ground in serious pain without ever running into anyone or anything.

As most of his teammates trotted back to the dugout, unaware what happened behind them, Call remained down on the ground, waiting for a trainer to tend to him. And though he was able to get up to his feet, he was not able to leave the field under his own power. It required a ride on a golf cart through the center field gate, a scene that surely felt too familiar to anyone who remembered Stone Garrett’s devastating leg injury at Yankee Stadium exactly one year ago.

"We went out there, and he couldn't put any pressure on it," Martinez said. "So we called for the cart. Hopefully he's OK."

Call was cautiously optimistic after the game. Standing in the clubhouse with crutches leaning against his locker, he noted he has been dealing with plantar fasciitis for a little while. He said he felt something in his foot "snap" as he came running in on the play tonight and worried he might have suffered a serious injury to his Achilles' tendon or something else in his foot. But an MRI suggested he may have torn the already strained plantar fascia, which in a counterintuitive way actually could help relieve the pain.

"I'm still kind of waiting for everybody to figure it all out, but apparently it might be a good thing," said Call, who is batting .343 in 30 big league games this season. "You guys have probably seen me limping around the field, dealing with the plantar issue. So maybe this is kind of more of a snap to release some of the pressure that I've been feeling down there. When I heard that, I was really excited."

Martinez’s only option to replace Call in right field tonight was Gallo, who had terrible career numbers vs. Sale (1-for-12, nine strikeouts) but did manage to line a single off him in the top of the fifth. The question now: Will the Nationals need to make a move to replace Call on the roster for the rest of the weekend? And if so, would they promote Crews two days before originally planned and miss the opportunity to let him debut at home?

"I don't know that yet," Martinez said. "I've got to talk to (general manager Mike Rizzo)."

First things first, the Nats had a game to try to win tonight. And to do that, they needed to find a way to score some runs off the NL Cy Young Award favorite.

The Nationals did manage to record nine hits off Sale, but getting those runners across the plate proved quite the challenge. It didn’t help at all that they ran into three outs on the bases, with Jacob Young getting thrown out trying to steal third four innings after he was thrown out trying to score on Nasim Nuñez’s safety squeeze attempt.

They did convert once, though, with an assist from Atlanta’s sloppy defense. With two out and a runner on first in the top of the fourth, Keibert Ruiz lofted a high fly ball down the right field line. Jorge Soler, just activated off the injured list, appeared to have time and space to make the play, but he inexplicably pulled up and watched the ball land in fair territory for a cheap double. Moments later, Andrés Chaparro made him pay for it with a two-run double to left-center.

That’s all the Nats would get against Sale, though, which meant Gore and the bullpen needed to be perfect the rest of the way.

They were not. Barnes surrendered a one-out double to Gio Urshela in the bottom of the seventh, then let Urshela take third on a wild pitch that proved costly moments later when Arcia lofted a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game and prevent Gore from earning what would’ve been a well-earned win.

"We played well," Martinez said. "We played really well, until the last play of the game."