Tumultuous road trip ends with fourth straight loss (updated)

PHOENIX – A road trip that began on the heels of a no-hitter, then included an extra-inning win, a 14-run explosion, back-to-back walk-off losses, a 17-run blowout loss and the trades of three popular veterans ended this afternoon with the closest thing the Nationals have had to a normal day in the last week. And even then, there was still some top-of-the-ninth drama just to make sure nobody got too complacent.

After eight relatively sleepy innings at the plate, the Nats came up to bat down three runs in the ninth, got two runs home and loaded the bases with two outs before coming up just short to seal a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks.

They nearly pulled off the kind of improbable comeback Arizona pulled off against them Monday night, getting an RBI double from CJ Abrams and then back-to-back walks drawn by Juan Yepez and James Wood to knock closer Paul Sewald from the game. But with the bases loaded and one out, Harold Ramírez struck out against Ryan Thompson. And though Thompson allowed another run to score on a wild pitch, he proceeded to get Riley Adams to bounce out to second to end the game.

"We worked good at-bats. We tried to get the ball in the zone," manager Davey Martinez said of his team's approach in the ninth. "We've got to be conscious of that from the first inning on. When we get the ball in the zone, we hit the ball well."

With a chance to at least emerge from this tumultuous trip with a 3-3 record, the Nationals instead got an improved-but-not-great start from MacKenzie Gore and then a mess of a relief appearance from Jacob Barnes that left them in a 5-1 hole in the sixth.

"It's been a frustrating week for us, with all that's happened," Gore said. "We've got to figure out how to reset tomorrow on this off-day and figure out what we want to do as a group these last two months."

This game also saw Keibert Ruiz depart in the fifth, one inning after the catcher appeared to be in serious pain after taking a foul ball to the groin. Ruiz, who had to be hospitalized after a similar incident two years ago in St. Louis, was replaced behind the plate by Adams for the rest of this game.

Ruiz afterward said this one wasn't nearly as bad as the one in 2022, and he was relieved to be able to fly home with the team tonight.

The focus entering the day was on Gore, whose mission was simple: Get quick outs and get deep in the game, two things he had not been able to accomplish in a while. Over his previous four starts, the left-hander had allowed 18 runs on 20 hits and 14 walks, averaging a mere 3.75 innings per game while averaging an astounding 22.8 pitches per frame.

Gore insisted he was more upset by these developments than anyone and vowed to be better. And sure enough when he took the mound this afternoon, he put his money where his mouth was.

There was no better way for Gore to start this outing than to record an out on his very first pitch, setting the tone for the day. He didn’t necessarily get ahead of hitters, but he got outs even when down in the count 1-0 or 2-1 and coasted through his first two innings on 25 pitches.

"I loved the efficiency," Martinez said. "He was pounding the strike zone. I thought he threw the ball really well."

The Diamondbacks made Gore work more in the third and scored the game’s first run, though that wasn’t entirely Gore’s fault. With two outs and nobody on, he hung a curveball to Jake McCarthy, who lofted the ball to right-center. Travis Blankenhorn, making his first start since replacing the traded Lane Thomas, took an offline route toward the ball and couldn’t make the play, giving McCarthy a triple on a hit that had an expected batting average of only .140. Moments later, McCarthy scored on a wild pitch charged to Gore that nicked off Ruiz’s outstretched mitt.

That sequence added 14 pitches to Gore’s total count, so by the time he reached the sixth he was up to 84. He made it to that point with only one run allowed, though, a marked improvement from his previous appearances. His velocity was down a tick, and he recorded only one strikeout, but he also issued only one walk and avoided significant damage.

"We didn't get a lot of swing-and-miss, and strikeouts, there wasn't a ton of two-strike counts," he said. "That's kind of the game plan they had the whole series. I think it was a little mix of my stuff not being as good, and also they were aggressive."

The top of the sixth, though, came apart for both Gore and the reliever who followed him. The young starter found himself facing a second-and-third, no-out jam, then couldn’t help but sigh when Pavin Smith’s broken-bat dribbler barely stayed fair down the first base line to push across the go-ahead run.

Barnes entered from the bullpen and proceeded to give up three straight run-scoring hits, the first of them charged to Gore, the other two charged to himself, all of them combining to leave the Nationals in a 5-1 hole.

That hole felt even larger because of the Nats’ inability to do much of anything at the plate since the middle stages of Monday’s series opener. After scoring eight runs in their first six innings in the desert, they proceeded to be shut out over the next 15.

They finally snapped the streak in the top of the fourth today when James Wood singled and then came all the way around to score on Ramírez’s double to right, pulling off a nifty slide past Jose Herrera’s tag at the plate to get his team on the board at last.

But that’s all the Nationals did against Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen, who departed after six innings of one-run ball on 91 pitches. And though the ninth-inning rally brought some life to the proceedings, they couldn't finish the job and closed out the road trip having scored 32 runs in three games (two of them wins) and only seven runs in the other three (all losses).

Where will offensive consistency come from for this team?

"Just having a plan at the plate," Abrams said. "You've got to attack the pitcher, nine v. one. We've got to get back to that, I think."