Thomas departs with injury before bullpen takes loss to Dodgers (updated)

The Dodgers’ baserunning tonight helped put them in position to win.

The Nationals’ baserunning tonight left one of their regulars limping and ultimately departing the game due to injury, then cost them one final chance to pull off what would've been a dramatic comeback in the ninth.

So it was the three key moments in a 4-1 series-opening loss to Los Angeles came on the bases. In the first two cases, those runners were successful at stealing second, but the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández eventually came around to score the go-ahead run while Lane Thomas eventually came out with a left leg injury that will require an MRI. Then in the third case, a late stop sign from third base coach Ricky Gutierrez forced Luis García Jr. to slam on the brakes in the bottom of the ninth, with trailing runner Joey Gallo not paying attention, leading to a killer rundown. 

"That's a tough lineup," manager Davey Martinez said of the Dodgers. "When we have a chance to put some runs on the board, we've got to capitalize."

With a crowd of 27,806 in attendance to see the mighty Dodgers and their star-studded lineup, these two teams played another low-scoring, tight game, not all that different from last week’s series on the West Coast. The Nats took two out of three at Chavez Ravine; they’ll need to win the next two nights to pull off the same achievement on South Capitol Street.

They actually got a highly effective start out of Patrick Corbin, the left-hander’s first scoreless start since June 28, 2023, in Seattle. But they couldn’t give him much run support. Nor could the bullpen keep the shutout intact.

In the end, the decisive runs were charged to Hunter Harvey, who had to get out of a seventh-inning jam and then return for the eighth. Hernandez led off that inning with a walk, then swiped second for the all-important stolen base that put him in position to score shortly after on James Outman’s bloop double to right.

A subsequent RBI single by Miguel Rojas off just-promoted reliever Jacob Barnes brought home an insurance run that also was charged to Harvey. And when Shohei Ohtani wowed his scores of fans in the building with a no-doubt homer off Matt Barnes in the ninth, the Nats’ deficit was now three.

"It stinks, because Pat pitched his butt off tonight, and we kind of let him down," Harvey said. "Hopefully next time we can pick him up."

There was no comeback in this one, only a squandered golden opportunity in the bottom of the ninth featuring a killer out on the bases. Down three with one out and the tying run at the plate, Gutierrez initially waved García around third on CJ Abrams' single to right, then put up the stop sign just as García reached the base. García managed to slam on the brakes in time, but Joey Gallo (the trailing runner) didn't see what was happening in front of him and kept running, leading to García ultimately tagged out in a rundown.

Two batters later, with the bases now loaded, Jesse Winker struck out against Dodgers close Evan Phillips to end the game.

"You know what, we're going to be aggressive (on the bases)," Martinez said. "I mean, people are praising us for the way we run the bases. That's just how we're going to play. ... That last play, I thought Ricky did a good job. I really did," Martinez said. "García's run didn't mean nothing. We're down three runs. Joey just had his head down, was running full speed. That kind of stuff happens. We'll talk about it tomorrow."

All of that came after Thomas' cringe-inducing play in the fifth in which he was injured. Despite successfully stealing his 11th base of the season (one behind the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz for the major-league lead), Thomas’ left leg got caught twisted up on the slide. He went down in pain as a trainer ran out to check on him.

Though he was able to walk it off and remain in the game at the time, Thomas couldn’t finish the game. He was replaced in right field by Eddie Rosario in the top of the seventh and was gone by the time reporters entered the clubhouse afterward, mentally preparing for an MRI on his knee Wednesday morning.

"Once he got to the outfield, I told (director of athletic training Paul Lessard) to keep an eye on him; he might get stiff," Martinez said. "He did get stiff. He's getting iced up right now. We won't know anything until tomorrow."

Even if the MRI comes back clean, Martinez admitted the Nationals will be summoning someone from the minors to come to D.C. in case a roster move needs to be made before Wednesday's game.

"I think we'll get somebody moving," the manager said. "He's pretty stiff."

Having just been roughed up by this same lineup last week in L.A., Corbin took the mound tonight hoping for different results. Given the left-hander’s track record in recent seasons, few could be blamed for doubting the likelihood of that development this time around.

And yet, Corbin was effective in the rematch. Not dominant, because he found himself pitching with traffic on the bases much of the night. But effectiveness, nonetheless, in large part because of his ability to retire the most famous ballplayer on the planet all three times he faced him.

The tone was set right away in the top of the first, with Corbin shattering Ohtani’s bat on a full-count slider, then getting Hernandez to ground out and strand two runners on base. He breathed a sigh of relief when Ohtani (playing in D.C. for the first time in his career) lined out to center his second time up. And though he fell behind in the count 2-0 with two out and Mookie Betts in scoring position, he managed to jam Ohtani just enough with an inside fastball to induce a fly ball to center to end the top of the fifth.

The zeroes were plentiful for Corbin, but so was the pitch count. He ended the fifth at 80, and though Martinez let him retake the mound for the sixth, the plan was to let him face only one batter: Freddie Freeman. Corbin retired the longstanding Nats killer with a ground ball, then handed the ball to his manager following his 86th pitch and returned to the dugout to a nice ovation from the crowd.

"You understand the score, the team we're playing, things like that. You go until ... they're ready to take you out," Corbin said. "I felt good up to that point still. But that's what the decision was today, which you understand. We have guys in the bullpen that throw hard. And especially against this team, maybe letting them see another arm is sometimes better."

At this point, Martinez has pretty much established the hierarchy at the back end of his bullpen: Jordan Weems pitches the seventh, followed by Harvey in the eighth and Kyle Finnegan in the ninth. Who’s the manager’s most-trusted reliever beyond those three? He has been most inclined to use Derek Law in the sixth with a lead, and that’s who he used tonight.

Law, who has struggled to strand inherited runners, didn’t have to worry about that this time, because there was nobody on with one out. But after retiring the first batter he faced, Law gave up a groundball single to Hernandez, then walked Max Muncy, then gave up an RBI single to Kiké Hernández, bringing the tying run home and denying Corbin a shot at his first win of the year.

The margin for error was as thin as it gets, because the Nationals managed to score only one run off James Paxton despite making the Dodgers lefty work from the start. Paxton needed 52 pitches just to complete his first two innings, which saw five of the first nine batters reach base.

But the only run came via small ball, with Ildemaro Vargas doubling to lead off the second, then taking third on Luis García Jr.’s infield single and scoring on Jacob Young’s perfectly executed safety squeeze. (Young actually wound up safe at first after a replay review.)

There were chances for more, though. Riley Adams grounded out with two on and two out in the first. CJ Abrams struck out and Thomas lined out following the squeeze play in the second. And with two on, two out and reliever Michael Grove fresh in the game in the fifth, Joey Meneses sent a lazy fly ball to center to end the inning.

"You play a lineup like that, it's going to be to ever win a game with one run," Young said. "Corbs, of course, gave us a chance by pitching so well. We had a chance in the ninth, too, just kind of ran ourselves out of it. We battled all night. You just have to score more than one run against a team like that."