https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202405080.shtml
Time: 3:35
Attendance: 34,078
Seats: Section 208, Row H, seats 22-23 (club level, under
the underhang to guard against possible rain)
The second and final game of the 2024 Beltway Series was
exciting, competitive, (mostly) well-played, and unexpectedly long. I exited the
Shady Grove Metro station parking lot at exactly midnight, well past my usual bedtime.
At least the weather was great – 84 at game time.
The Nats generated plenty of deep counts and traffic on the
bases against Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish, which forced him out of the game
after 5 innings and 90 pitches. With all that, they only managed to produce a
single run, on a two-out RBI single by Trey Lipscomb in the bottom of the 2nd.
This would be the home team’s only lead of the night. Mitchell
Parker came up with a solid effort, recording 17 outs on an efficient 77
pitches. He was, however, touched for solo homers by Anthony Santander in the
4th and Gunnar Henderson leading off the 6th. He was aided by some strong
defense, most notably on a two-out 2nd-inning Winker-to-Abrams-to Ruiz relay
that cut down Jordan Westburg attempting to score on Colton Cowser’s double and
quickly silenced the visiting fans’ “moo” cheers for Cowser.
Baltimore tacked on an insurance run in the 7th and carried
their 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th. At that point, they brought in struggling
closer Craig Kimbrel, who had already blown 3 saves this year. He quickly
recorded the first two outs, bringing the numerous visiting fans to their feet.
But with the Nats down to their final out, Eddie Rosario launched one out of
the park, and Kimbrel walked the next two batters. Keegan Akin replaced
Kimbrel, but Abrams promptly singled to tie the score.
Neither team scored in the first extra frame, unable even to
advance the initial “zombie runner” past second base. Things started to look
bleak again for the Nats when former Oriole Hunter Harvey gave up a two-run
blast to Ryan Mountcastle in the top of the 11th. Once again the Nats rallied, tying
things up when Rosario barely beat the throw home on a Jacob Young fly ball to right,
but were unable to push the winning run across.
Washington finally fell apart in the 12th, as a pair of errors and a wild pitch allowed the O’s to tally their final two runs. Luis García Jr. led off the bottom of the inning with a double to cut the deficit in half, but the next three batters went down meekly to finally end the affair.
