MONDAY, AUGUST 19 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D3
HOW THEY SCORED
NATIONALS FIRST
Trea Turner singles. Adam Eaton walks. Trea Turner to
second. Anthony Rendon pops out. Juan Soto flies out.
Matt Adams homers, Adam Eaton scores, Trea Turner
scores. Victor Robles homers. Brian Dozier grounds out.
Nationals 4, Brewers 0
NATIONALS SECOND
Yan Gomes singles. Erick Fedde out on a sacrifice bunt.
Yan Gomes to second. Trea Turner walks. Adam Eaton
triples, Trea Turner scores, Yan Gomes scores. Anthony
Rendon grounds out. Juan Soto strikes out swinging.
Nationals 6, Brewers 0
NATIONALS THIRD
Matt Adams singles. Victor Robles doubles. Matt Ad-
ams to third. Brian Dozier homers, Victor Robles
scores, Matt Adams scores. Yan Gomes doubles. Erick
Fedde out on a sacrifice bunt. Yan Gomes to third. Trea
Turner pops out. Adam Eaton walks. Anthony Rendon
homers, Adam Eaton scores, Yan Gomes scores. Juan
Soto homers. Matt Adams pops out.
Nationals 13, Brewers 0
BREWERS FOURTH
Ben Gamel homers. Orlando Arcia singles. Aaron Wilk-
erson called out on strikes. Trent Grisham grounds out.
Orlando Arcia to second. Eric Thames grounds out.
Nationals 13, Brewers 1
BREWERS FIFTH
Christian Yelich singles. Keston Hiura doubles. Chris-
tian Yelich to third. Mike Moustakas homers, Keston
Hiura scores, Christian Yelich scores. Manny Pina
grounds out. Ben Gamel lines out. Orlando Arcia sin-
gles. Aaron Wilkerson grounds out.
Nationals 13, Brewers 4
NATIONALS FIFTH
Trea Turner grounds out. Adam Eaton homers. Anthony
Rendon flies out. Juan Soto homers. Matt Adams flies
out to deep right field.
Nationals 15, Brewers 4
NATIONALS EIGHTH
Brian Dozier homers. Yan Gomes singles. Gerardo Parra
grounds out. Yan Gomes out at second. Trea Turner
flies out.
Nationals 16, Brewers 4
BREWERS NINTH
Keston Hiura singles, advances to second. Throwing er-
ror by Trea Turner. Mike Moustakas homers, Keston Hi-
ura scores. Manny Pina grounds out. Ben Gamel sin-
gles. Orlando Arcia homers, Ben Gamel scores. Yasmani
Grandal strikes out on a foul tip. Trent Grisham flies
out.
Nationals 16, Brewers 8Nationals 16, Brewers 8
MILWAUKEE ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Grisham cf ..................... 5 0 0 0 0 0 .250
Thames 1b-rf ................. 5 0 0 0 0 3 .253
Yelich rf.......................... 3 1 2 0 0 0 .335
Pérez ph-rf-p.................. 2 0 0 0 0 0 .235
Hiura 2b ......................... 4 2 3 0 1 0 .313
Moustakas 3b ................ 4 2 3 5 1 1 .265
Piña c.............................. 5 0 1 0 0 0 .225
Gamel lf ......................... 5 2 4 1 0 0 .249
Arcia ss .......................... 5 1 3 2 0 0 .229
Anderson p..................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .033
Wilkerson p.................... 2 0 0 0 0 1 .333
Jackson p ....................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Grandal ph-1b ................ 2 0 1 0 0 1 .255
TOTALS 42 8 17 8 2 6 —
WASHINGTON ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Turner ss........................ 5 2 2 0 1 0 .292
Eaton rf .......................... 3 3 2 3 2 0 .289
McGowin p ..................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333
Rendon 3b ...................... 4 1 1 3 0 0 .318
Cabrera ph-3b ................ 1 0 1 0 0 0 .346
Soto lf ............................ 5 2 2 2 0 1 .286
Adams 1b ....................... 5 2 3 3 0 0 .244
Robles cf ........................ 5 2 2 1 0 0 .252
Dozier 2b ........................ 4 2 3 4 1 0 .236
Gomes c ......................... 5 2 3 0 0 1 .209
Fedde p........................... 1 0 0 0 0 0 .133
Grace p ........................... 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000
Parra rf........................... 1 0 0 0 0 0 .275
TOTALS 40 16 19 16 4 3 —
MILWAUKEE................. 000 130 004 — 8 17 0
WASHINGTON.............. 427 020 01X— 16 19 2
E: Turner 2 (11). LOB: Milwaukee 11, Washington 6. 2B:
Moustakas (27), Hiura (16), Robles (23), Gomes (8).
3B: Eaton (7). HR: Gamel (7), off Fedde; Moustakas
(30), off Fedde; Moustakas (30), off McGowin; Arcia
(14), off McGowin; Adams (19), off Anderson; Robles
(16), off Anderson; Dozier (19), off Anderson; Rendon
(27), off Wilkerson; Soto 2 (28), off Wilkerson; Eaton
(10), off Wilkerson
DP: Milwaukee 1 (Hiura, Arcia, Grandal); Washington 2
(Dozier, Turner, Adams; Rendon, Adams).
MILWAUKEE IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Anderson ................. 2.19 10 10 21 71 4.54
Wilkerson ................. 4.1 8552280 7.31
Jackson ....................... .1 0 0000 55.65
Pérez ............................ 1 2110011 3.00
WASHINGTON IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Fedde .......................... 5 10 4422102 4.31
Grace............................ 2 2000225 6.26
McGowin...................... 2 5440242 10.8
WP: Fedde (4-2); LP: Anderson (5-3).
Inherited runners-scored: Wilkerson 1-1, Jackson 3-0.
HBP: Grace (Grisham). WP: McGowin.
T: 3:24. A: 30,571 (41,313).sure. We talked about this today.
We have six weeks to go and then
some,” Martinez said, meaning
the postseason. “We need him for
the duration. We need Doolittle
to pull this off. And he
understands that.”
But does Martinez understand
it? In the heat of battle, trying to
win every possible game, as he
has every day since he got the job,
will he be able to take the longer
view sometimes?
As the Nats battled from 19-31
to 67-56, they had to ask some key
players to carry more than their
weight. Doolittle was No. 1 on
that list. “We’re competing [for a
playoff spot] because Doo has
been so good,” Martinez said.
That’s true. But when Doolittle
and Scherzer return, the process
of decision-making should be
somewhat different. Managers
need to ask players to evaluate
their own health. And players
should be honest. But that’s not
the end.
The boss must see the whole
picture and use a lifetime of
baseball judgment to
conceptualize beyond “Let’s go
1-0 today,” important though that
bromide is.
There’s a name for that
difficult job: managing.
[email protected]For more from Thomas Boswell, visit
washingtonpost.com/boswell.3.00 ERA. But Martinez kept
pushing, even though the balky
right knee that has bothered the
southpaw for years was barking
again.
The Nats probably will come
out of this Doolittle episode all
right, just as their recent patience
with Max Scherzer probably will
pay off. The Nats, against
Scherzer’s preferences, asked
him to throw a second simulated
game against teammates
Saturday rather than start
immediately in the majors. That
was smart. Now Scherzer
probably will pitch Thursday at
Pittsburgh for only the second
time since July 6.
In the past two months,
Martinez and Rizzo, who’s
involved to some degree in
everything, have learned that
Scherzer’s evaluation of his own
body is not foolproof. And
neither is Doolittle’s. They’re
both bumptious and have been
correct many times in saying,
“Skip, I’m ready to go.” Now, at 35
and 32, they may need more
adult supervision.
Martinez said that, in the
future, his conversations with
Doolittle will have a different
tone. The pitcher may say, “Give
me the ball,” and Davey may say,
“Not today.”
“When [Doolittle] comes back,
he’ll be the closer. But we’ll have
to reevaluate situations to makethey led by three runs or fewer.
That is, except for the thousands
of times when the closer was not
the closer because the manager
decided to be the manager.
Ever since the Nats bolstered
their bullpen, Martinez should
have been looking for every way
to give Doolittle a lighter load
instead of using him eight times
in 14 games. The reasons are
longer than a fungo bat.
Doolittle was on pace to throw
21 percent more pitches than he
ever has in his career — 930 so far
this season compared with 1,020
in 2013, the only full season in his
career when he has stayed off the
IL. For context, would you ask a
starter with an injury history,
such as Stephen Strasburg, to
throw 260 innings when the
most he had ever thrown was
215? You would just be begging
for trouble. That’s what the Nats
now have with Doolittle. Will he
be his usual effective self when he
returns?
Doolittle has also been asked
to get more than three outs six
times this season, a career high.
He has had to throw 20-plus
pitches in a game 18 times; last
year he did that only six times. He
has pitched back-to-back 11 times
(a career high) and also pitched
in both games of a doubleheader.
The Nats were lucky. Doolittle
made it to Aug. 1 intact —
staggering a bit but still with aLeague East-leading Atlanta
Braves. All this winning provides
sugarcoating to make the Nats’
continued bullpen failures — and
Martinez’s handling of the
relievers — a bit less bitter. But
not much.
In baseball, relying on cliches
is the easy way to avoid thinking.
If you don’t trust your own
judgment or don’t want to own
unconventional or unpopular
decisions, then the way to hide is
to depend on rote rules of thumb.
“Doolittle’s the closer. He’s the
closer of this team. We’ve said
that before, and this is based on
conversations with Doo,”
Martinez said after announcing
Doolittle’s IL trip. “If he’s
available, then he’s going to pitch
the ninth inning. He’s always
been in the game when he said he
was available to pitch.”
So the closer is the closer.
(And, by the way, don’t blame the
manager.) If the closer says he
can pitch, that ends the
discussion.
Oh, yeah? Since when? When
did that become the 11th
commandment?
For 50 years, managers usually
have called on their closers whenblew an 11-8 lead by allowing
three gruesome ninth-inning
homers. Martinez took him out
only when the Nats trailed 12-11,
as if changing pitchers were
against some Closer Code.
Fortunately for the Nats, their
hitters took this matter of
bullpen mismanagement under
advisement, blasting a team
record-tying eight home runs in a
16-8 win over Milwaukee on
Sunday, a walloping that nobody
could hash up.
Before the game, vets spread
the word, according to Adam
Eaton, that while everybody was
exhausted from the previous
night, “Who cares? We have to
play. So let’s get after it. Jump on
’em quick.” As in, 13-0 after three
innings. The Nats have some
remarkable collective qualities.
Even more reason not to waste
them.
“Five out of six [on this
homestand], we’ll take it,” said
General Manager Mike Rizzo,
who has assembled a deep,
designed-for-October team that
has won nine of 12 to move into
pole position for the top NL wild
card while remaining just
51 / 2 games behind the Nationalteam’s October chances.
With new arrivals Daniel
Hudson (1.08 ERA in 10 games)
and Hunter Strickland (1.29 in
eight), as well as the useful
Wander Suero, Tanner Rainey
and Fernando Rodney, the Nats
suddenly had short-term bullpen
options and maybe a long-term
plan, too.
But Martinez ignored this.
Three times in nine days, the
Nats led by three runs in the
ninth inning. Any solid pitcher
will have a high save percentage
with such a cushion if previously
used in that role. Hudson,
Strickland and Rodney fit that
description. Yet Martinez picked
Doolittle all three times.
Sometimes the baseball gods
decide to make a point. This time,
they made the point in triplicate.
In those three games, Doolittle
got only six outs while allowing
10 runs on 13 hits, including five
home runs. The Nats lost two of
those three, victories they may
dearly wish they had back come
September. The Nats lost, 15-14,
in 14 innings in the early hours of
Sunday morning after Doolittle
BOSWELL FROM D1
as the game started.
Trea Turner led off with a bloop
single into right field that just fell
in, and he eventually scored on
Matt Adams’s rocket into the
right field seats. The big first
baseman stepped on home plate
to complete his three-run blast
and thumped the chest of Victor
Robles, striding to the plate. Ad-
ams must have passed on the
power to the young center fielder
and the rest of the lineup. Robles
followed with a homer — and the
Nationals were just getting start-
ed.
“It’s not like the team was
trying to do anything differently,”
Robles said. “We came to battle,
and the results were the results.”
[email protected]“My feeling is, as of right now,
he’ll be here,” he said of Fedde.
“We’ll figure out how to work
[him in].”
Fedde escaped a bases-loaded,
two-out jam in the first, and his
teammates removed much of the
stress of his subsequent innings.
The Nationals scored four in the
first, two in the second and broke
the game open with seven in the
third on three-run homers from
Rendon and Brian Dozier and a
solo shot from Soto. Eaton and
Soto homered in the fifth, and
Dozier did again in the eighth to
cap a barrage that began as soonthey would have sent second
baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera to the
mound, first baseman Howie
Kendrick to second, left fielder
Soto to first base and right-hand-
er Joe Ross to left field.
The ultimate cost of the loss
arrived Sunday morning when
the Nationals placed struggling
closer Sean Doolittle on the in-
jured list with right knee tendini-
tis. This overshadowed any hope
inspired by Martinez’s announce-
ment that injured ace Max Scher-
zer was “probable” to make his
long-awaited return Thursday at
the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Doolittle, to this point Marti-
nez’s most trusted bullpen arm,
blew his sixth save Saturday by
allowing four runs on three hom-
ers. The reliever, who hasn’t
pitched a complete season since
2014, leads the majors in games
finished (49) and was on pace for
a career-high 72 appearances.
Saturday pushed his ERA over his
past 10 appearances to 12.00.
The continued struggles raised
serious questions about the
team’s closer role to many except
Martinez.
“When he does come back, he’s
our closer,” the manager said.
Meanwhile, Martinez said he
wasn’t sure who would step into
the role. He might play the
matchups or ride the hot hand.
He emphasized the new, healthy
relievers the team traded for at
the deadline — right-handers
Daniel Hudson and Hunter
Strickland — have shouldered
heavy workloads, and he wants to
protect them. The offense spared
the manager from showing his
hand, at least for a day.
Nationals starter Erick Fedde
looked less than crisp, allowing
four runs over five innings, but it
hardly mattered, for both him
and the team. When Scherzer
returns, the Nationals must de-
cide between Fedde and Ross for
the fifth starter position, but Mar-
tinez dismissed this outing as an
outlier.received at least one home run
from their second through sev-
enth hitters — eight in all, tying a
club record — and bludgeoned
the Brewers despite having every
reason to be lethargic from Satur-
day night’s 14-inning marathon
loss. They had slugged and
slogged through a combined 11
homers, 19 pitchers and 29 runs
in the Brewers’ 15-14 win, which
stretched into the early hours of
Sunday morning. The team itself
seemed surprised at the lack of a
hangover.
“Coming back and jumping on
top of them early, that shows you
what kind of team this really is,”
Martinez said. “They’re relent-
less.”
While it was raining in the
third, Anthony Rendon smacked
a flyball to left and pinwheeled
his bat toward the dugout. He
apparently believed he hit a lazy
popup and tossed the bat out of
frustration. But as the ball carried
out beyond the fence, the home
run recast the move as an unchar-
acteristic and emphatic bat flip.
His jog around the bases looked
quite routine. The next hitter,
Juan Soto, gave Washington
back-to-back homers for the 10th
time this season and the second
time in the game.
“Our depth and the older guys
in here kind of set the tone,” said
right fielder Adam Eaton, who
tripled, homered, walked twice
and scored thrice. “Before the
game, everyone kind of says one
of those things: ‘Hey, we all get it.
You’re all tired, but who cares?
We’re here, let’s get the job done.’
Our veteran leadership is the key.”
The Nationals needed the
blowout. The night before, they
had erased four deficits — 5-0,
8-5, 12-11 and 13-12 — only to run
into one they couldn’t overcome
in the 14th. The defeat taxed the
bullpen and stretched the roster
so far that, if they had tied the
game and brought it to the 15th,NATIONALS FROM D1baseball
BY NATHAN RUIZboston — For the second time in
a sixth inning that seemed as if it
would never end, Baltimore Ori-
oles catcher Chance Sisco knelt in
the dirt in obvious pain. Whatev-
er difficulty he was experiencing
Sunday after taking a foul ball in
the groin was the physical mani-
festation of what the past two
weeks have been like for his team.
In a 13-7 loss at Fenway Park,
Sisco exited during that sixth
inning, when the Orioles lost the
last of what had been a six-run
lead as the Boston Red Sox scored
six times. The defeat left the
Orioles winless as their seven-
game road trip ended; it was their
12th defeat in 13 games, all com-
ing against teams with playoff
hopes: the Red Sox, New York
Yankees and Houston Astros.
“I actually like playing these
teams because they make you
play your best baseball,” first
baseman Chris Davis said. “If you
have a weakness, they expose it,
and you find out what kind of
team you are when you play the
best teams.”
The sixth inning was an un-
wanted lesson. Left-hander Ty
Blach, making his second start
for the Orioles (39-85), took the
mound with a 6-3 lead. He al-
lowed a double to J.D. Martinez,
and after a flyout, he walked Sam
Travis, prompting Manager Bran-
don Hyde to bring in Gabriel
Ynoa. Ynoa faced one batter,
Christian Vázquez, and gave up
an RBI double.
Batting against left-hander
Paul Fry, pinch hitter Mitch Mo-
reland blooped a single to shal-
low left, a ball Hyde said should
have been caught. Shortstop
Jonathan Villar picked up the ball
and flung it toward home with
Travis approaching the plate. He
appeared to make contact with
Sisco and send him to the ground
in pain.
Meanwhile, Davis jumped to
cut off Villar’s throw, but the ball
deflected off his glove and into
foul territory, allowing Vázquez
to score the tying run.
After a strikeout, Fry walked
Mookie Betts on four pitches to
face Rafael Devers, who doubled
off the Green Monster to give
Boston its first lead. The next
batter, Xander Bogaerts, fouled a
full-count pitch into Sisco, who
needed to come out of the game.
Bogaerts then reached on an in-
field single to score another run
and end Fry’s outing.
Shawn Armstrong entered and
induced a groundball from Marti-
nez to Davis, who looked to sec-
ond base to try to retire Bogaerts.
But with no teammate to be
found, he turned back toward
first and got the ball to Arm-
strong too late, bringing in the
sixth Red Sox run of the inning.
The Orioles host the Kansas
City Royals on Monday to start a
six-game homestand.
— Baltimore SunBaltimore’s
road trip
ends with
more pain
Excerpted from
washingtonpost.com/nationals
Doolittle placed on IL
with knee tendinitis
The Washington Nationals
placed closer Sean Doolittle on
the 10-day injured list with right
knee tendinitis Sunday morning,
hours after the left-hander
suffered his sixth blown save of
the season Saturday night
against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Hopefully, it won’t take as
long,” Manager Dave Martinez
said. “When he does come back,
he’s our closer. And I reiterated
that to him. He’s our closer, but
we got to get him right.”
The manager isn’t sure how
he will close games in the
meantime. He might play the
matchups or ride the hot hand,
but it doesn’t sound as if there
will be an audition for a
replacement in the ninth inning.
He emphasized the new healthy
relievers acquired at the
deadline to overhaul the bullpen
— right-handers Daniel Hudson
and Hunter Strickland — have
pitched a lot and he needs to
protect them for the rest of the
season as well.
Martinez noticed the knee
issues after watching video
Saturday and talking to the
medical staff, he said. Martinez
felt like Doolittle couldn’t land
properly on his front side, and
the two talked Sunday morning.
Martinez was concerned
Doolittle might compensate for
the knee and hurt something
else.
“I told him, ‘You’re not letting
anybody down, but we got to get
you right,’ ” Martinez said. “He
wanted to pitch; he wants to
pitch. I said: ‘I want you to pitch,
and I want you to pitch the ninth
inning in close games for us. But
I want to make sure that you’re
healthy, and that’s our big
concern.’ ”
The next step for Doolittle is
rest. The Nationals want him to
keep throwing and keep his arm
in shape, but they’re making it a
priority for him to minimize
stress over the next 10 days.
The 32-year-old, who was on
pace for a career-high
72 appearances, looked fatigued
the past few weeks. In his past 10
appearances, he has a 12.00 ERA.
Martinez underscored
Doolittle’s importance to the
team. “We need him for the
duration,” he said. “We need
Doolittle to pull this off.”
— Sam Fortier
NATIONALS NOTESRED SOX 13,
ORIOLES 7Nationals show no sign of a hangover
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Matt Adams thumped the chest of Victor Robles after hitting a three-run homer in the first inning, and Robles promptly went deep himself.THOMAS BOSWELL
A reminder: Martinez has the final say
NATIONALS ON DECKat Pittsburgh Pirates
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