Nationals rally to tie before bullpen blows up again (updated)

CHICAGO – With a chance to win another road series, with a chance to use their few remaining reliable relievers late, the Nationals yet again put themselves in position to emerge victorious.

This time, despite an inspired rally to tie the game in the eighth, they watched as one of those few trusted relievers gave up the eventual winning run minutes later. Then they watched as one of the unproven relievers turned this game into another rout in a matter of seconds.

Mason Thompson, entrusted with a tie game in the bottom of the eighth, was the pitcher of record in what finished as an 8-3 loss to the Cubs. Cory Abbott gave up the grand slam that blew things wide open after Thompson was pulled with the bases loaded later in the inning.

Through injuries, demotions, promotions and a flurry of transactions in recent weeks, the Nats bullpen has devolved into a mess in its current incarnation. There's no immediate help coming. They have no choice but to keep putting the same group on the mound and hope things will finally click.

"It's still the same game," Thompson said. "At the end of the day, we've just got to go out there and do a better job of helping the team win."

It looked like the only resemblance this game would bear to Tuesday night’s fiasco was the 3-3 score at one point. Unlike the previous night, when a string of unproven relievers combined to allow a staggering 14 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to turn that tie game into an ugly rout, this time the early bullpen arms managed to keep things close and give their teammates a chance to rally.

And rally they did. After a frustrating night that saw them go 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position through the first five innings, the Nats finally got the clutch hits they needed in the top of the eighth.

Jeimer Candelario led off with a homer to left-center, his second of the series and 15th of the season. Dominic Smith and Corey Dickerson then ignited a two-out rally with back-to-back singles.

Up came Luis García with a chance to tie the game, and the young second baseman came through with a first-pitch single to center, leaving the crowd of 28,197 murmuring in frustration and leaving the rest of the game in the hands of the back end of both bullpens.

"What I loved about him was ... he was aggressive in the strike zone," manager Davey Martinez said. "With runners in scoring position, that's kind of what you want to do. That was a great at-bat. He goes up there, gets a pitch up in the zone and he smokes it."

But then everything imploded for the Nationals again. Thompson, who recorded four outs in Monday’s 7-5 win, wasn’t up to the task this time. He quickly loaded the bases on a single, a walk and a bunt single, then fell behind pinch-hitter Yan Gomes 3-1. He didn’t walk in the go-ahead run, but Gomes’ hard lineout to left did bring Seiya Suzuki home from third to put Chicago back on top.

As this all played out, it was tough not to notice Thompson's faltering mechanics. As he did during a ragged month of May, he began short-arming his pitches, leading to poor command and pitches landing nowhere near their intended target.

"I just felt a little rushed," he said. "I felt like I wasn't quite going after them like I have been. Just overall I've got to do a better job of getting ahead, staying ahead and making better pitches out there."

And when Thompson couldn’t record the third out of the inning and saw his pitch count rise to 33, Martinez pulled the tall right-hander in favor of long man Cory Abbott.

"His mechanics were a little off today," Martinez said of Thompson. "And after throwing that many pitches, I started to get worried. We've got to get him back to where he was a few days ago, really."

Martinez was hoping Abbot, a former Cub, could at least keep the deficit at one run and give his team a chance to rally again in the ninth. Abbott didn’t keep the deficit at one run. He expanded it to five runs on the grand slam he surrendered to Nico Hoerner, turning a close game into another lopsided one after a decent-if-inefficient performance by the Nationals’ starter.

"I was just stupid: Threw him a fastball he could hit," Abbott said. "Plain and simple."

Trevor Williams’ night got off to an inauspicious start, with Mike Tauchman driving his second pitch the other way and over the left field wall for a leadoff homer. It was the seventh first-inning homer Williams has surrendered in 20 starts this year.

"It's become an unfortunate trend," he admitted. "I should just give up one in the bullpen before the game and go from there. But it's part of pitching. You're going to give up homers. You're going to give up runs. It's a matter of getting back up on the mound and executing."

The veteran right-hander nearly suffered a disastrous first inning when he loaded the bases with two outs following the homer. He managed to wriggle out of the jam, but with a pitch count of 25, he was already behind the eight-ball from the get-go.

Williams would pitch only one clean inning, but he would allow only one other run, that one coming on Tauchman’s two-out RBI double in the fourth, with the Nats starter one pitch away from getting out of that inning unscathed.

A nifty turn by García on a 1-4-3 double play allowed Williams to end the fifth at 98 pitches. Martinez could’ve possibly let him re-take the mound for the sixth, but rather than risk a mid-inning change, the manager opted to go to his bullpen at that point and hope for the best.

"It would've been nice to get Trevor back out there again (for the sixth) but he got 98 pitches after coming off a two-inning (rain-shortened) game his last outing," Martinez said. "I want to be definitely careful with our starting pitching. But I think those guys will step up and start pitching deeper in games, and then we'll figure out the back end as we go."

Jordan Weems got through a 1-2-3 sixth but faltered in the seventh, allowing an RBI double to Tauchman (who drove in all three of the Cubs’ runs to that point). Joe La Sorsa did get a big out against Cody Bellinger, the lefty-on-lefty matchup playing in the Nationals’ favor to keep the deficit at 3-1 and set up the lineup for its rally in the eighth.

Who knew what still was to come from a bullpen that is in a really bad way right now.