Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Well, you can’t win ’em all. But, you probably could have won this one. After an exciting four-game sweep of the Giants, the Dodgers showed up flat on Monday night against the hapless Nationals, only scoring one run. Meanwhile the Nats took advantage of some weird hops and lackluster defense to put four runs up in the pivotal fifth inning. The Washington pen held on for a 4-1 victory, thus ending in one fell swoop Tony Gonsolin‘s perfect season and the Dodgers’ eight-game winning streak.
Trayce continues to swing a hot bat
Things started off promisingly in this one. Starter Tony Gonsolin was dealing, and the Dodgers got on the board first. In the bottom of the third, Trayce Thompson broke a scoreless tie with a solo shot down the left field line. Thompson jumped on a curveball from Nats starter Paolo Espino and deposited the pitch two rows deep in the seats left of the Dodgers’ bullpen. It was 1-0 and it seemed like everything was going according to script.
Gonsolin’s one not-so good inning
Thing were going well, that is, until the top of the fifth inning. After holding the Nats hitless through the first four frames, things went south on Tony Gonsolin in a hurry. On the second pitch of the inning, left fielder Yadiel Hernandez bashed a solo shot to left centerfield to tie up the game. After getting the next two hitters out, Gonsolin gave up three straight singles to the Nats for a second run in the inning.
It was the last of these that stung a little bit. Second baseman Cesar Hernandez lofted a fly ball to left that looked very catchable, but it seemed like Trayce Thompson was dogging it a bit on the play. He let the ball fall in for a single, and that run scored easily from second.
Now instead of being back in the dugout, Gonsolin had to face the Man of the Hour Juan Soto. And to be honest, Gonsolin didn’t do badly in the matchup. He got the Childish Bambino to pound a ball into the ground a couple of feet beyond the plate. Then, it took the mother of all bad hops. It bounded high in the air over the head of first baseman Freddie Freeman and landed in the outfield grass, fair by a cat’s whisker. And, since there were two outs, the runners both easily scampered home on what turned out to be a two-run triple. It was 4-1 Nats, and there it would stay for the rest of the night.
Gonsolin would last one more inning, but left the game on the losing end of the score. His record drops to 11-1 and his ERA has increased to 2.26.
Dodgers miss scoring chances
Not that the Dodgers didn’t have their shots at getting back in this thing. They had the bases loaded in the 5th. Nothing. They had a man on in the 6th and 7th. Nothing. They had two on in the 8th. Nothing. They had a leadoff hit in the 9th. And nothing once again. In all, it was pretty weak tea indeed, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Thrown in there were way too many strikeouts, eight total, including two from Mookie Betts in key situations. It was, um, not good.
White vs Gray on Tuesday
You gotta just shrug and flush this one quickly. The series with the Nats continues on Tuesday evening with a “colorful” pitching match-up featuring two products of the Dodger farm system. Mitch White is back on the mound for the hometown team, and former prospect Josiah Gray gets the ball for the Nats. Dodger fans will recall that it was Gray and catching prospect Keibert Ruiz that were the Nats’ haul in the Scherzer/Turner deal last summer.
It’s good to see Gray getting the ball regularly for the Nats, but he’s probably not quite ready for a “true” rotation spot quite yet, so should probably look at this season for the hapless Nats as a trial by fire. His ERA is respectable, though. 4.04 over 17 starts. That bodes well for his future. We’ll see what it means for his present on Tuesday.
Cans of Corn…
- The biggest fear I have about Tony Gonsolin is that great first half was just an illusion, and that he’ll revert to some sort of mediocre version of himself the second half. Hope I’m not right.
- For about twelve seconds today, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball, leading the Yanks by percentage points. No more.
- Reyes Moronta had horrible control in his inning, hitting one batter and walking two others. It’s a minor miracle that he got out of the inning without giving up a run because he couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with any of his pitches.
- The Dodgers will look at Patrick Corbin on Wednesday. He very well could be the “David Price” of a deal to get Soto. In other words, a hefty contract that the other team wants to dump on somebody else as a condition for getting the superstar. We’ll see…
- Chris Taylor was doing sprints in the outfield before the game. Looked pretty good; seemed like he was going full throttle.
