September 10, 2023 – Dodgers 7, Nats 3

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202309100.shtml

 

Time: 3:06

Attendance: 27,546

 

The good news for the day was that the weather wasn’t as bad as it might have been. While Friday’s game had a late-inning rain delay of 1:34 and Saturday’s “afternoon” game (scheduled 4:05 start) began 4:10 late and went into extra innings to boot, today’s mid-game delay lasted a mere 58 minutes.

 

There was very little good news baseball-wise. Struggling Nats starting pitcher (almost a redundant phrase) Trevor Williams gave up two runs in the top of the first inning, meaning that the home team started from behind in every game of this just-completed 9-game home stand. Things only went downhill from there, as the Dodgers scored twice more in the top of the second. The Nats did show some signs of life in the bottom of the fourth, when they loaded the bases on three singles and rookie catcher Drew Millas plated two of them with another hit.

 

The rain started shortly thereafter. Williams proceeded to load the bases with one out in the top of the fifth, on two walks sandwiched around a single. By that point, Williams was over 100 pitches and Davey had seen enough, bringing in Mason Thompson as the rain got harder. Shortly after Thompson allowed another base hit, it was pouring, and the umpires stopped the game. We waited things out at one of the picnic tables, under cover. When the action resumed, Thompson allowed another inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly.

 

Former Nationals reliever Wander Suero, just called back up from Oklahoma City, came in to pitch for LA in the bottom of the fifth, and wound up being the winning pitcher, since Dodgers opener Ryan Yarbrough didn’t return after the rain and therefore didn’t pitch the necessary five inning to get credit for the win himself. At that point, three hours after the game started, we decided to call it a day, at least in part because the forecasts called for even more rain in the next hour or two. (It turns out they were wrong.)

 

Nationals reliever Joe La Sorsa, who’s spend the season bouncing back and forth between the majors and various minor league stops, does deserve credit for coming in after Thompson and dialing up 3.2 scoreless innings, saving considerable wear and tear on the rest of Washington’s overworked bullpen.

 

Metro was uneventful in both directions. We picked up subs again, and arrived early enough at the park for one of us (not me) to participate in Signature Sunday.