The Nationals hammered the Reds Tuesday night, 6-1, the 11th time in the last 14 games Washington has beaten the Reds.
Danger Zone?
The Nationals already clinched their third straight series against the Reds and now the Reds are in danger of getting swept for the first time this season.
Of more importance, the Reds are making no headway in their chase for a wild card spot. They are 10-11 in their last 21 games.
The Nationals, losers in nine of their previous 12 games when the Reds hit town, are 7-14 against the National League Central and four of those wins are against the Reds.
Rookie Chase Burns made his fifth major league start and for four innings he was dynamic and dominant — one run (a solo home run by Josh Bell), two hits and nine strikeouts.
He struck out the next two after Bell’s home run with his 100 miles an hour fastball and dipsy-diving slider.
Meanwhile, the Nationals started Brad Lord, who hadn’t pitched in 10 days and hadn’t pitched more than 2 1/3 innings during his previous three appearances.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Reds collected six hits off Lord in the first four innings, but plated only one run on a fourth-inning leadoff double by Elly De La Cruz and a single by Gavin Lux.
The Nationals made it 3-1 in the fifth on a leadoff single by Brady House and he came around to score on No. 9 hitter Jacob Young’s two-out first-pitch double. C.J. Abrams also doubled in a run.
So it was 3-1 when Washington came to bat in the sixth and Burns was not the same guy who started the game.
He loaded the bases with no outs on a double by Nathaniel Lowe and two walks. And he nearly escaped on a force out at home and a strikeout.
But with two outs, Riley Adams, hitting .160, shot a single to right field that scored two and a third run scored on the play when right fielder Jake Fraley threw wildly to home and it was 6-1.
And Burns was done. He expressed a fatigue factor after the game.
“I think I’ve felt fatigue every night,” Burns told reporters after the game. “It is just when is it going to creep up and hit you. It creeped up in those later innings and they put some good swings on it.”
Reds manager Tito Francona mildly disputed the fatigue factor and told reporters, “After the Bell home run he struck out the next two.
“He’s still learning,” he said. “He did throw some changeups tonight and as that develops, that’s when you are going to see him turn that lineup over the third time through a lot more and a lot easier.
“Right now everything is pretty hard (fastball, hard slider) so if he makes a mistake, he has a chance of getting hit harder than maybe if they have to respect another speed.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Burns said the changeup is improving with use.
“The changeup is feeling really good,” he said. “I have the fastball, slider and curve, and the changeup is a weapon I’ve been working on. Having the changeup against a stacked lefty batting order will help a lot.”
Nationals starter Lord left after four innings and Nationals interim manager and former Reds infielder Miguel Cairo inserted left-hander Konnor Pilkington, who a day ago was pitching for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.
He pitched a 1-2-3 fifth and struck out the side in the sixth. Luis Garcia pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and the Reds put up a mini-rally in the eighth against Kettering native Andrew Chafin.
With two outs, TJ Friedl and Matt McLain singled, but on a full count Elly De La Cruz took a called third strike.
The final insult came in the ninth when Cairo sent to the mound a 22-year-old rookie, Andry Lara, who began the season pitching in Single-A.
He gave up a one-out single to Gavin Lux, but nothing else. Lux was 4-for-4, four of the Reds 10 hits. Matt McLain had a pair of hits, extending his hitting streak to eight games.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“We knew their starter (Lord) wouldn’t go deep, by design,” said Francona. “Pilkington came in and gave ‘em two real good innings. About that time we’re down 3-1.
“And it looks like Burnsie is gonna wiggle out of it (bases loaded, no outs), but they got that big hit that kinda spread the game out,” he added.
Of his team amassing 10 hits but scoring only one run, Francona said, “We got hits, we just didn’t string them together.”
The burden of preventing an abominable sweep to the Nationals falls on the left arm of Nick Lodolo when he faces Michael Soroka (3-7, 5.10 ERA) at noon Wednesday.
NEXT GAME
Who: Cincinnati at Washington
When: 12:05 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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