https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202406090.shtml
Time: 2:38
Attendance: 34,282
Start Time Weather: 76° F, Wind 14mph from Left to Right,
Cloudy, No Precipitation.
It’s not every day that a pitcher making his major-league
debut faces an opponent who has only one previous MLB start to his credit, but
that’s what happened at Nats Park on Sunday. Atlanta’s Hurston Waldrep, their
2023 first-round draft pick who was just called up from the minors, had the
early advantage over Washington’s DJ Herz, whose only previous start in the
majors had come five days earlier. Waldrep was in total command for the first
three innings, facing the minimum nine batters as the Nats swung early and often
but unsuccessfully. The two runners who reached base, on a walk and an error,
were quickly erased on a caught-stealing and a double play, respectively.
Herz had a quick top of the 1st, but struggled in the 2nd,
coughing up two singles, two walks, and a pair of wild pitches to give the
visitors a 2-0 lead. By the end of the 3rd, he had thrown more than twice as
many pitches as his Atlanta counterpart.
Waldrep’s dominance would vanish an inning later. With two
outs, Luis García Jr. singled Lane Thomas in from third, and Keibert Ruiz hit a
3-run dinger on the next pitch for a 4-2 Nats lead. Washington than reloaded
the bases (walk-single-walk), prompting the Braves to bring in lefty specialist
Aaron Bummer (insert joke here) to face CJ Abrams. The Washington shortstop quickly
foiled the strategy by pulling Bummer’s first offering down the right field
line to clear the bases. Thomas followed by going down on strikes, but the
damage was done.
The Nats plated another run in the 5th for an 8-2 lead,
after which both offenses took a few innings off. Jacob Weems made things
interesting in the top of the 9th by serving up a 3-run homer to Jarred
Kelenic, which did give Kyle Finnegan the opportunity to notch his 18th save of
the season. (Jacob Barnes, who relieved Herz with one out in the 5th, was
credited with the win.)
Much to my surprise (at least), the Nats announced around
1:00 that the start of the game would be delayed due to expected inclement weather,
although my usual source of weather info indicated a mere 7% chance of precipitation
when I checked around 9:30. They did in fact put the tarp on a bit later, and
we experienced maybe 10-15 minutes of rain, much of which the strong wind blew
across the upper concourse. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, and the game got
underway at 2:10.
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