Nats sloppy once again in Independence Day loss to Reds (updated)

The home runs surrendered – all three of them – were bad. They accounted for five of the eight runs the Nationals allowed today during an 8-4 loss to the Reds.

If you’ve paid any attention to this team this year (or recent years, for that matter), you know that matters less to Davey Martinez than the quality of baseball his team plays. Which is why this Independence Day performance, in which the home club made just about every manner of fundamental mistake possible in the sport of baseball, was far more alarming than the glare of the bombs bursting in air rocketed off the Reds’ bats.

There were extra bases taken by Cincinnati and extra bases handed over by Washington. There was a successful pickoff attempt that turned into one of six Reds stolen bases after Dominic Smith's throw tailed past Luis García's reach. There was a popup into shallow left-center that fell in between three fielders. There was an uncontested steal of third that put the runner in position to score moments later on a sacrifice fly, then another uncontested steal of third the following inning that mercifully didn't cost them in the end.

"We've got to play better," Martinez said. "We came off a (6-3) road trip that we played really, really well. We've got to get better. ... Today, the defense wasn't there. We couldn't hold their runners on. They were stealing everywhere. We've got to get better holding runners on. We can't let them just get out there and run."

All of that made for a frustrating game to watch for a Fourth of July crowd of 30,434 that desperately wanted to see better play from the home club, but instead could only watch the young and aggressive Reds win for the 18th time in their last 22 games and wish the Nationals played like that.

Perhaps the Nats will get there some day in the not-too-distant future. For now, all they can do is admire the way Cincinnati is successfully playing a brand of baseball they entered the season wanting to play themselves. Instead, they continue to make fundamental mistakes in every regard.

"We knew. Coming into this series, we told them: 'These guys will run,'" Martinez said. "They're going to run on you, so you better pay attention to them."

The sloppiness today was on display right from the start. The top of the first saw Cincinnati score two runs via four hits, none of them entirely conventional. Matt McLain turned a single down the left field line into a hustle double. Jonathan India then pulled off a rare hit-and-run with a runner taking off from second base, driving in McLain with an RBI single. Elly De La Cruz also singled to right, taking second as Lane Thomas’ late throw to third sailed wide.

Then Spencer Steer popped up a ball into shallow left-center for what should’ve been a simple play, if not for the manner in which the Nationals butchered it. With both Corey Dickerson and Derek Hill playing deep in left and center fields, CJ Abrams wound up attempting to make an over-the-shoulder catch of a play that should never be a shortstop’s to make. The ball found the turf, a run scoring as many in the early-arriving crowd booed the lack of fundamental play in the field.

"I didn't hear anything, so I probably should've kept going for it," Abrams said. "But it dropped. We tried to get out of the inning after that."

"The outfielder's got to come get that ball," Martinez said. "That's not a play for a shortstop to go out that far. That ball's up in the air long enough that somebody's got to call it and try to catch it."

Patrick Corbin created his own problems after that. He put two on with one out in the third, then hung a slider to Nick Senzel that was hammered to left for a three-run homer. Another hanging slider to India one inning later resulted in another Cincinnati home run.

"The three-run homer, just a mistake slider there," Corbin said. "I made a couple mistakes today. ... I just wasn't as sharp as I'd like to be. I'll try to correct that going into the next one."

By the time he departed following the fifth, Corbin had been charged with six runs on 10 hits and three walks, a far cry from the seven scoreless innings he tossed last week in Seattle. Cory Abbott would allow two more runs in relief, one via homer.

There was also a lack of fundamental execution at the plate from the Nationals, who had a golden opportunity to get back in this game but squandered it.

Trailing 7-2 when they came to bat in the bottom of the sixth, the Nats got Joey Meneses’ first RBI hit since June 25 and Dickerson’s first RBI hit since June 19. And when Riley Adams was hit by a pitch, they had the bases loaded with nobody out, the go-ahead run at the plate.

But both Abrams and Hill struck out on pitches out of the strike zone, and Thomas skied a ball down the left field line that was caught for the third out, officially ending the Nationals’ best chance to rally and make up for all their sloppy play earlier in the day.

"I'd say I probably let the nerves get to me a little bit," said Abrams, who doubled twice and drew a walk in his three other plate appearances today but couldn't deliver in that key spot in the sixth. "I swung at some pitches I shouldn't have. It happens. Couldn't get the job done. Should've. Onto the next."