For those who stayed up past their bed time hoping that the Washington Nationals 4-2 lead would turn into the team’s first win over the Dodgers — uh no, it was déjà vu all over again. You’ve seen this before. Clayton Beeter’s first blown save of the season was against the Dodgers in Nationals Park on April 5ᵗʰ, and that was the team’s second blown save of the young season at the time.

Here we are now at 36 blown saves for this Nats’ bullpen that tied the 2021 Washington Nationals, and just one from tying the record 37 blown saves by the 2024 Chicago White Sox. These ignominious records are not the type to be proud of. In fact, this horrific bullpen is one of the main reasons as to why the Nats are not in the playoff hunt.

Go to mid-May when President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, admitted that when the team record was 23-24 that they could have been at least 5-games better. ❝We could be 4-or-5 games above .500 right now,❞ Toboni said in mid-May. Ask that same question now, and Toboni would need to adjust those numbers.

Last night marked Beeter’s 7ᵗʰ blown save of the season and his 5ᵗʰ loss. We didn’t even include Beeter in our ‘locks’ for our 2027 bullpen projections this past week.

While Beeter will take most of the blame for the loss after issuing a walk and then a single followed by a 3-run homer in his two-thirds of an inning of work, the Nats almost tied the game up in the 9ᵗʰ as the team was down by two runs. They came up one run short of tying the game.

A valiant effort on a night when Cade Cavalli finished with 6.0 innings of 2-run baseball. Those two runs scored in the first inning after he missed first base on a double play opportunity because his first baseman was ready for the throw and standing on the base. The Dodgers took advantage of the gaffe and would only score those two runs off of Cavalli who lowered his ERA fractionally to 3.11987. Another quality start with eight strikeouts and no walks. Cavalli did his job — others didn’t do theirs.

Cavalli took all of the blame for that botched double play ball that cost him many more pitches and the two earnies. ❝That’s 100 percent on me,❞  Cavalli said after the game. ❝I should have said ‘I got it, I got it.’ I just assumed, and there’s an issue when you assume. That’s my fault. It’s something we can learn from, something I can for sure learn from and communicate better.❞ 

In the bigger picture, the weak links will not be part of the future. And the stars of the team like Cavalli will be the ones you count on. His ERA has him as the 16ᵗʰ best starter in baseball at the moment. That is ace type of stuff. As far as Beeter goes, how many more chances should he get? Should he have been pulled earlier in that inning?

Last week, Butera made it clear in another blown-save-loss that he can only pitch the players he has. ❝… My job is to do the best job I possibly can with the team we have — and the bullpen we currently have. … We can’t keep giving up these leads.❞ Nothing has changed from that quote. They keep giving up these leads.

In the end, Butera had to bring in Erik Tolman to finish Beeter’s inning. Tolman was warmed up and could have come in earlier. Butera chose not to, and possibly because of the matchup with a switch-hitter. Beeter has made his own issues with more walks and significantly fewer strikeouts this year. His K-rate is down by 32.8 percent this year. Last year, he looked like he could be a future closer. Now, he looks like a pitcher who has lost his way.

When a key reliever loses his way, that generally translates into losses. And that is exactly how this team is at 36 blown saves. Again, you can see where the weak links are with this team. All of this makes the clean-up of the messes that much easier when the next roster is built.

The Nats lead all of baseball in blown saves (36), bullpen home runs (99), and bullpen walks (292). The Nats are second to last in bullpen K% at 19.0 percent. These are all inter-related issues leading to the failures of this bullpen.

The stench of an impending collapse can be sensed by an opposing team like an aggressive fish going after chum. The Cardinals infamously said in the 2012 NLDS final game, ❝… you could smell the blood in the water.❞ Someone wrote last night that if you turned the volume up high enough you could hear Beeter’s heart beating fast.

Bullpen pitchers are of a different breed. When you pitch long enough, everyone has failure. The key is how you bounceback from your worst outings. They will happen. Even Mariano Rivera had 80 blown saves in his career. But he had 652 saves for an 89 percent success rate in his career.

Blown saves are demoralizing. But with this 2026 Nats’ team, it’s been almost anticipated how they will lose a close lead — and last night was just a clear case of seen it — done it, and déjà vu all over again.

Photo by Marlene Koenig/Nats.Talk