Teams continue to play Walk-a-Bryce (Nats win 5-3)

Joe Maddon started the trend last weekend in Chicago. Now the craze is catching on elsewhere. Everybody in baseball wants to play Walk-a-Bryce.

The Marlins became the latest team to pitch around Bryce Harper, walking the Nationals star in each of his first two plate appearances, not even making much of an attempt to give him anything to hit.

Right-hander Tom Koehler walked Harper on four straight balls in the bottom of the first inning. Two innings later, he walked him on five pitches - though his 3-0 pitch that was called a strike appeared to be inside off the plate.

Thus, Harper has now drawn a walk in 20 of his last 34 plate appearances, a streak of pitch-arounds that began one week ago when Maddon instructed his Cubs pitching staff not to give the reigning National League MVP anything to hit. That plan culminated with a record-tying, six-walk game on Sunday and 12 consecutive plate appearances that did not include one official at-bat.

The Nationals and Harper can live with that strategy, as long as the guys hitting behind in the lineup can make opposing teams pay for it. They managed to do that several times during this week's series against the Tigers, but they haven't been able to deliver early on tonight.

Daniel Murphy, batting in the cleanup spot for the second straight game, popped up to the catcher following Harper's first walk tonight. Murphy then grounded out his second time up.

As a result, the Nationals haven't scored through four innings, despite three hits and five walks against Koehler.

Fortunately, Gio Gonzalez has been in top form himself. The left-hander allowed a first-inning single to Christian Yelich, but proceeded to retire 10 consecutive Miami batters, keeping this game scoreless through four innings.

Update: The Marlins have taken a 2-0 lead thanks to some really ugly defense by the Nats in the top of the fifth.

Murphy booted as routine a 4-6-3 grounder as they get, putting Miami in business. Moments later, he was charged with his second error of the inning when he threw wildly to first on another grounder. Though blame goes to Gonzalez, who was late to cover first on the play, and Ryan Zimmerman, who got caught in no-man's land. Worse yet, both Gonzalez and Zimmerman completely gave up on the play, the ball still sitting in fair territory right in front of the Nats dugout. By the time Zimmerman retrieved it and threw to the plate in vain, the Marlins had scored two runs on easily the ugliest play of the year so far for the Nationals.

Update II: This game is tied. For that, the Nats can thank Yusmeiro Petit and Oliver Perez, who combined to pitch out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the sixth. And they can thank Stephen Drew, who smacked a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the sixth. That was the Nats' fifth pinch-hit homer in 35 games this season, matching their total from the entire 2015 season.

Update III: Bryce Harper has struck again. With a man on first and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, Mattingly didn't have much choice but to pitch to the MVP. And he paid the price for doing it. Harper crushed a two-run homer into the second deck in right field, hammering a 3-2 slider from Kyle Barraclough. That was only the second home run Barraclough has allowed in 39 big league appearances. Both have been hit by ... Bryce Harper. How about that? And how about this: In his last eight games (dating to the start of the Cubs series) Harper is hitting .357 with a .722 on-base percentage and .643 slugging percentage. Wowza. Nats lead 4-2 after seven.

Update IV: It's now 5-3 Nats after eight. The Marlins got a run back when Harper couldn't make a jumping catch at the wall of Stanton's deep drive. That became a double, and Stanton scored on a pair of productive groundouts. But the Nats got the run right back thanks to yet another pinch-hit homer, this time by Chris Heisey. That's Heisey's third of the season, the Nats' sixth. So we go to the ninth, and with at least one lefty due up, Dusty Baker is sending out Felipe Rivero, not Jonathan Papelbon in the save situation. Though Papelbon is warming in the pen as well. Stay tuned.

Update V: Ballgame. Nats win 5-3. Rivero hit a batter and then struck out another. Then Papelbon entered and struck out J.T. Realmuto, then got Martin Prado to ground to deep short for the final out.