ST. PETERSBURG — The Nationals spent their first 15 innings inside Tropicana Field this weekend trying, fruitlessly, to come up with one big hit.
The Nationals used a six-run seventh to knock off Tampa Bay and end their four-game losing streak. It was the second-most runs Washington has scored in an inning this season. The hits tied a single-inning season high; the club collected seven hits in a seven-run third inning as part of an 8-1 triumph over the Marlins on June 14.
“Everybody was ready to hit, ready to hit the fastball right there,” said catcher Keibert Ruiz, who had the fifth and final run-scoring hit of the inning, a line-drive single to left.
The Nationals were on every type of fastball they saw from Rays right-hander Shawn Armstrong, who retired just one of the eight batters he faced. They got two hits off of his four-seamer, including Ruiz’s capper. Three hits came off of the sinker, including Jesse Winker’s opposite-field RBI single.
But perhaps the two biggest blows of the inning were delivered on cutters: CJ Abrams’ double off the the top of the left-field wall nearly gave him his second home run of the game. Instead, he settled for the first RBI of the frame. Five batters later, Harold Ramírez stung a cutter into the right-center field gap for a two-run triple that truly blew the game open.
Ramírez, who was released by the Rays earlier this month after two-plus seasons with the team and made his Nats debut earlier this week, celebrated with a vigorous shimmy at third base.
“I feel like we’re a fastball-hitting team, and I think the pitcher was obviously throwing that pitch consistently,” Luis García Jr. said via team translator Octavio Martinez. “I think, as a team, we were being very good about being selective in the zone and making good at-bats. I think that’s what led to those runs being scored.”
The big inning unleashed what had to be some pent-up frustration for Washington, which went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position during Friday’s 3-1 loss, and were 0-for-6 through Saturday’s first six frames.
Although Abrams opened the game with his fifth career leadoff dinger, the offense didn’t take advantage of multiple chances to tack on against Rays starter Aaron Civale.
So, in true Nats fashion, they broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning by forcing the issue.
That’s when García, on third base with two outs, took a huge secondary lead and sped for the plate once he saw a 1-2 curveball from Civale bounce in the dirt. Although catcher Ben Rortvedt was able to deaden the pitch somewhat with his chest protector and keep the ball within mere feet of the plate, García’s aggressiveness paid off; he slid head-first into home ahead of a scrambling Rortvedt.
“This team is full of energy. We play with a lot of energy,” García said. “… That’s how we’re made, and we’re very aggressive as well.”
The Nationals are arguably the most aggressive team in the Majors, for better and for worse. They entered Saturday with the third-most steals in the league (110) as well as the most times caught stealing (40). They also had made 32 outs on the bases; only the Cubs and Reds have made more.
But that is this team’s identity.
“We’ve got to create havoc,” manager Dave Martinez said.
García’s fleet feet turned out to be a footnote after the seventh-inning outburst, but all of it supported starting pitcher Jake Irvin, who allowed only one run on one hit over six innings.
It was the seventh in the right-hander’s past eight starts that he has permitted two or fewer earned runs over at least six innings. During that span, dating back to May 22, Irvin’s 2.09 ERA ranks eighth in MLB among qualified starters.
And yet, even this afternoon saw Irvin fall victim to some bad luck. What should have been an easy foul popout to retire the Rays’ Brandon Lowe in the bottom of the first inning turned into a foul after the ball got stuck atop one of Tropicana Field’s catwalks.
What did Irvin think in the moment?
“I’m giving up a homer,” he said after the game.
Sure enough, Irvin’s next pitch, a 95 mph four-seamer, ended up in the seats in right-center field. He just didn’t give up anything else.
“He’s been great. He really has,” Martinez said.
