Defense betrays Crowe in debut, Nats lose nightcap (updated)

Because he doesn't possess the kind of eye-popping "stuff" his counterpart Sixto Sánchez has, Wil Crowe wasn't going to win tonight's battle of rookie pitching debuts unless his eight Nationals teammates around him on the field did their part to make every play they had a chance to make.

And because those guys didn't come close to making every play they had a chance to make, Crowe was left to suffer a hard-luck loss to Sánchez in the nightcap of today's doubleheader at Nationals Park.

Though the Nats hit a pair of homers off the electric Sánchez, their defensive miscues made it moot during a 5-3 loss to the Marlins that came shortly after they hung on for a 5-4 victory in the opener of this unusual, 2020-style doubleheader that included seven-inning games and the teams switching home-road designations for the second contest.

They weren't officially charged with any errors, but the Nationals certainly didn't play a clean game in the field. And it cost them a chance at a doubleheader sweep and a chance to inch closer to the .500 mark as they inch closer to the midway point of this lightning-quick baseball season.

"When you give other teams seven or eight extra outs, it's tough to compete," manager Davey Martinez said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "That's what we did tonight."

After a tenser-than-it-should've-been win in the late-afternoon opener, the Nationals took the field 45 minutes later for the nightcap wearing white jerseys but serving as the visiting team for what officially was a makeup for one of the three games that were postponed last month in Miami following the Marlins' coronavirus outbreak. As he did when the Blue Jays served as the home team here, Nationals Park PA announcer Jerome Hruska read the Nats lineup in a monotone voice while hyping up the Marlins players.

So even though he was wearing a black jersey and gray pants and coming out of the visitors' dugout, Sánchez was the first of the two rookie starters to take the mound and throw his first major league pitch.

And what a pitch it was. Sánchez started Trea Turner off with a 99 mph fastball, then dialed it up to 100 for Adam Eaton. Even his changeup was jaw-dropping: It ranged between 88-93 mph and initially registered as a two-seam fastball by Major League Baseball's official pitch-tracking system.

But big leaguers can still hit 100 mph when it's over the plate, and Yan Gomes reminded Sánchez of that when he blasted a third-inning fastball to left-center for his second homer in 24 hours and 101st in his career.

"I don't know if I've ever seen 100 come out so easy," Crowe said of his counterpart on the mound. "It was cool to face up against him. I'm sure it won't be the last time we go against each other."

Crowe couldn't come close to matching Sánchez's electric stuff, but the 25-year-old right-hander acquitted himself well by using a five-pitch repertoire that attempted to keep the Marlins' hitters off-balance. He positioned himself to emerge with a solid pitching line, but a string of less-than-perfect plays in the field all around him spoiled his evening.

A first-inning blooper to shallow center field fell in between three defenders. A foul popup on the third base side couldn't be caught by Turner (who as the only player on the left side of the shifted infield had to run a country mile) or Gomes (who was much closer from his catching position).

That missed foul pop really proved costly, because Corey Dickerson launched a two-out, two-run homer to center shortly thereafter, giving the Marlins a 2-1 lead.

"It's just baseball. It's the way it happens," Crowe said. "Sometimes the ball falls in your favor and sometimes it doesn't. Just got to keep on keeping on and moving forward and go after the guy with the next pitch. Once it's done, it's out of your control."

Things really fell apart in the bottom of the fourth, an inning that should've ended with Crowe on the mound and no runs across the plate but was extended when Turner couldn't make a play on Jon Berti's two-out grounder to short.

In came Seth Romero, and on continued the mishaps. The rookie left-hander couldn't handle a comebacker, prolonging the inning. He struck out Magneuris Sierra, but because his breaking ball bounced in the dirt and skipped to the backstop a run scored and the inning continued. One more play not made by Turner at short brought home yet another run to make it 4-1 and close the book on Crowe, who deserved better.

"If I can make that first play, it ends the inning real quick, and then we don't have to worry about it," Turner said. "If we want to win ballgames, I've just got to play better defense. We've got to play better defense."

The Nationals did try to mount a rally, one that included a thunderous blast by Victor Robles, whose two-run homer to left off a sinker from Sánchez left his bat at 109 mph and trimmed the deficit to 4-3.

But the first unimpressive inning of relief in Dakota Bacus' burgeoning career gave Miami a key insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. And in a seven-inning game, that meant time was running out for the Nats.

They gave it another shot in the sixth, but Gomes' deep drive to left with two on and two out died at the warning track. And though they put two more runners on with two out in the seventh, Asdrúbal Cabrera grounded to first on the first pitch he saw from Marlins closer Brandon Kintzler, dashing the Nationals' last-ditch hope of pulling off a doubleheader sweep and keeping them staring up in the standings at 10-14.

"If we all compete whenever it's your turn ... give it whatever you've got, I always say if you do that we'll end up in a good spot," Turner said. "It hasn't gone our way so far, but we've got to keep our head up and keep going and keep pushing. This is still wide open. We've still got a good shot at it."