Kyle Finnegan can't hold the line, handing the Nats another series loss

Washington Post

16 hours ago

MILWAUKEE — During a month filled with tumult on the field and in the front office, more misery came calling for the Washington Nationals on Saturday. The latest round was courtesy of the Milwaukee Brewers, who got Caleb Durbin's RBI single in the ninth inning against Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan to hand Washington a 6-5 loss at American Family Field.
With his Nationals holding a 5-3 lead, Finnegan was seeking his 19th save. The right-hander instead yielded a single to Jackson Chourio on his first pitch before issuing a four-pitch walk to Christian Yelich. Andrew Vaughn followed with a tying double before he scored on Durbin's one-out liner to right.
Another disheartening defeat ensured the Nationals (38-57), who dropped their third in a row and their seventh in eight games, will drop their third consecutive series heading into the all-star break. And Saturday's collapse overshadowed a breakout performance from rookie third baseman Brady House, who belted the first two home runs of his career.
'It's tough right now, but we're going to bounce back,' said House, who went 3 for 4 with three RBI. 'I feel like we're playing good ball right now, and I know we're going to bounce back. We're going to show up tomorrow and do what we can to produce.'
Finnegan threw just 10 pitches while blowing his sixth save. House's two-run blast off reliever Abner Uribe had given Washington a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning. The Nationals added an insurance run in the ninth when CJ Abrams lifted a sacrifice fly that let Riley Adams score from third.
That rally erased an unraveling in the fourth, when the Brewers (55-40) scored three times for a 3-2 lead. Miscues by the Nationals in that inning included starting pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara hitting leadoff hitter Sal Frelick with a pitch and left fielder James Wood misplaying a flyball off the bat of Chourio. The resulting double brought Frelick home and sent William Contreras to third. Two batters later, Vaughn doubled to bring home two runs and put Milwaukee ahead.
Ogasawara completed the inning without further damage before being lifted in favor of Brad Lord, who kept Milwaukee at bay for 2⅓ perfect innings.
The Nationals couldn't muster much timely hitting. In the sixth, they loaded the bases on Josh Bell's walk and consecutive two-out singles by Luis García Jr. and House. But Daylen Lile ended the threat when he narrowly missed beating out a slow roller that reliever Nick Mears collected and threw to first.
'You've got to keep your head up, got to go back tomorrow and do it again,' interim manager Miguel Cairo said. 'We've got one more game tomorrow here. You can tell the energy, the good at-bats. We played the game hard, and that's what you can expect from them. Sometimes it goes like that.'
Cairo is managing his second series since taking over for predecessor and confidant Dave Martinez. Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo were dismissed last Sunday after the Boston Red Sox swept a three-game series at Nationals Park.
That day also featured the big league debut of Ogasawara, who allowed seven hits and four runs in 2⅔ innings. The Nationals' starting rotation was so depleted that they had few options other than to hand the ball to an untested 27-year-old signed out of Japan in the offseason. Injuries to the pitching staff combined with budgetary constraints had led to Rizzo acquiring Ogasawara for two years and $3.5 million. He replaced Trevor Williams in the rotation because of an injury to the right-hander's elbow that will require season-ending surgery.
The early returns were positive for Ogasawara on Saturday, when he faced the minimum over the first three innings. A highlight was inducing a 6-4-3 double play in the second after the Nationals had taken a 1-0 lead in the top half courtesy of Lile's homer.
Lile's blast, the rookie's second in the majors, came on a 3-2 fastball from Brandon Woodruff in the right-hander's first start at home in nearly two years. Woodruff missed last season while recovering from shoulder surgery; he made his season debut last Sunday in a 3-1 win at the Miami Marlins.
In the fourth, House belted a Woodruff sweeper to left for the first homer of his career, extending the Nationals' lead to 2-0. But the good feelings proved painfully fleeting after Finnegan could not preserve the win.
'[Finnegan] attacked the strike zone,' Cairo said. 'The first hit, Chourio, was just a bounce, a lucky base hit. We didn't have no luck today.'