Red-hot Nationals shut out by Orioles in 2-0 loss (updated)

For nine innings the crowd at Nationals Park waited anxiously for the rally that was sure to come at some point. This was the Nationals lineup, after all, and this was the Orioles pitching staff, after all.

It was going to happen at some point, right? The seventh inning? The eighth inning? How about the ninth inning?

Nope. Nope. And nope.

The Nationals, both the hottest team and owners of the hottest lineup in the majors at the moment, were shut out tonight by the Orioles, who most certainly aren't the hottest anything in the majors right now. Two first-inning runs off Patrick Corbin were all Baltimore needed to pull off a 2-0 victory that left the crowd of 24,946 shocked, bewildered and whatever other adjective you wish to use to explain the reaction to the most surprising loss of the season.

A Nationals club that had won 12 of its last 14 and five in a row while scoring a ton of runs in the process, never managed to cross the plate against unheralded Orioles starter Aaron Brooks and four relievers.

"The object of the game is to score more runs than the other team," manager Davey Martinez said. "We didn't do that tonight. We didn't hit."

They didn't even give themselves many legitimate opportunities to score. The best came in the bottom of the eighth, when Trea Turner ripped a one-out triple down the left field line to finally bring the crowd to life. But Adam Eaton, after fouling off six straight pitches from rookie flamethrower Hunter Harvey, swung through the eighth pitch of the at-bat (a changeup) for the second out of the inning.

"He's throwing 99, so just missing it," Eaton said. "And then I knew he had a changeup and a breaking ball. With those two pitches in my mind, in the back of my head, I kind of have to be in between. It's kind of a crappy place to be. But when a guy's throwing 99 with two pitches that he throws (more than 10 percent of the time), it's kind of tough. The first changeup I saw was straight and kind of just went down. That was the one I fouled off. And then the one I struck out on had really good two-seam run and kind of went away from me. Credit to him."

Back-to-back walks drawn by Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto kept the pressure on Harvey and brought Asdrúbal Cabrera to the plate with the bases loaded for the biggest at-bat of the night. But the veteran infielder, upset by umpire Jeremie Rehak's strike two call on a pitch off the outside corner, struck out on a 99 mph fastball over the plate to kill the rally.

"As soon as he called that pitch (for strike two), I'm going to stay with my approach," Cabrera said. "He threw a pitch right down the middle, and I missed it."

The Nationals then went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth, suffering a loss that dropped them to 1-2 against the Orioles this season heading into Wednesday night's Beltway Series finale. They failed to hold a lead in the eighth inning or later for the first time in 20 games. They failed to at least tie the game in the seventh inning or later for only the fifth time in their last 62 games.

They also failed to take advantage of the Braves' 3-1 loss in Toronto, their second straight setback after winning eight in a row, leaving them 5 1/2 games back in the National League East.

"It's not easy to flush (this loss away), believe me," Martinez said. "I'll go home and watch the game. ... But we've got to come back tomorrow, play tomorrow and take care of tomorrow."

Five batters in, tonight's game already had a less-than-ideal look from the Nationals' perspective. The Orioles were all over Corbin's fastball in the top of the first, scoring two runs via a single, a hit batter, a double and two scorched line drives.

To his credit, Corbin figured things out quickly after that. He was able to get ahead in the count with his fastball, then start retiring hitters with sliders and changeups. He proceeded to retire 15 batters in a row, and that streak only ended when Hanser Alberto led off the sixth with a well-placed bunt between the mound and third base.

"They got a couple hits, got a couple runs (in the first)," Corbin said. "But like you guys said with our offense, I thought if I minimized damage, pitch as deep as I could ... I mean, not many times we are going to get shut out."

The Nationals never really put up a fight against Brooks. Turner led off the bottom of the first with a single and then stole second but never moved an inch farther after Eaton, Rendon and Soto each struck out, each on sliders.

The only other hit off Brooks was a two-out bunt single by Victor Robles, which accomplished little. Robles had a chance to drive in a run in the bottom of the fourth after Rendon astutely went from first to third on a groundout to the right side, recognizing nobody was covering the bag because the Orioles were in a shift. But with two on and two out, he fouled out on the first pitch he saw to quash that potential rally.

The Nationals figured to have plenty more chances to make something happen. They did not. And so they were left to contemplate a most surprising result.

"It's baseball, at the end of the day," Eaton said. "Let's not get too high or too low. Let's get back to where we were two days ago. We'll wash it and try to split tomorrow."