Let’s just say it, Albert Hammond was full of it when he sung, “It Never Rains in Southern California” in 1972. The pregame had a Pacific storm blow in with heavy rain, and the game started on-time with drizzle. There was one short downpour mid-game. There is no crying in baseball, and the rain might have masked the tears from the young Washington Nationals fan sitting in front of me. He told me he was frustrated. Can you blame him? We are all frustrated.
At some point, the luck has to turn for the better, right? There is no way the Washington Nationals had another blown-save loss against the Dodgers. It was a bad dream that became a reality. This one tied the all-time record of 37 blown saves.
In this one, it was a Washington Nationals 5-4 lead in the 8ᵗʰ inning that would turn into déjà vu all over again. You saw it the night before. This time it was Will Dion who had two outs and gave up a harmless single but then the dreaded walk followed by a 3-run homer. Just a slightly different Hollywood script from the night before that went walk, single, then the 3-run homer.
Add insult to injury, the Nats best reliever this season, Orlando Ribalta has forearm soreness and will most likely be shutdown for the remainder of the season.
The Nationals should have gone 4-2 against the Dodgers this season instead of 0-6. Of course the reigning World Series champs are a great team. The ‘clutch’ they show is undeniable. A team built on taking their walks and moving the line to the next man has worked so well for them. Give the Nats some credit as they had leads of 3-0, 6-1, 4-2, and 4-1 in four of those six games. All winnable.
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 — by a lot.
Last night marked Dion’s first blown save of the season and his 2nd loss. He had recorded five outs before disaster struck last night as it was hard to tell if it was the rare rain that was falling in Los Angeles or tears streaming down the Nats’ faces in that inning. Clearly, we all felt it.
The Nats got 4 1/3 decent innings from starter Andrew Alvarez who could have escaped with just two earnies, but Brad Lord immediately came in and allowed his one inherited runner to score making it three runs on Alvarez’s ledger. The lefty grew up thirty minutes away in Orange County. He had a lot of family and friends in attendance. Alvarez continues to impress with his 3.60 ERA. One of the bright spots on this season.
Another bright spot was from CJ Abrams who hit his 30ᵗʰ home run with a solo shot off Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski in the fourth inning, Abrams joins teammate James Wood in Washington’s 30-homer club for 2026. The milestone marks the first time since 2019 that two Nationals teammates have reached 30 home runs in the same season. Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto accomplished that feat during Washington’s World Series championship season.
After the game, Dion stood at his locker to face the music, ❝When you fall behind, mistakes happen. I feel like when you get ahead, it’s, I wouldn’t say easy, but you’re more in a pitcher’s advantage count. When you fall into the hitter’s count, it’s a little tough to get out of.❞
Let’s see how Dion bounces back from this outing. He has been really good. Walking Tommy Edman with two outs in that 8ᵗʰ inning was the issue as you didn’t want to face Mookie Betts with the tying run on second base. Worse than that, Betts crushed a near-middle 4-seam fastball 387 feet for the game-winner.
“Our bullpen looks a lot differently right now than it did two, three months ago. We have some good arms down there, but we’ve got to figure out the right time to deploy those guys, how long they can go, what innings they can handle, that type of stuff. As we look forward, we’ve got to evaluate what this looks like and make sure that we’re getting better.”
— manager Blake Butera said after the game
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.
The Nats lead all of baseball in blown saves (37), bullpen home runs (100), and bullpen walks (295). The Nats are second to last in bullpen K% at 18.9 percent. These are all inter-related issues leading to the failures of this bullpen.
Again, you just can’t make this up.
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