The Washington Nationals returned home for the first time in two weeks for an interleague series against the Minnesota Twins. The Nats went on to blow out the Twins 12-3 in Monday’s contest, but Minnesota returned the favor with a 10-0 shutout victory on Tuesday, followed by a 3-2 win on Wednesday afternoon for the series victory.
Since taking 2/3 against the Blue Jays earlier in the month, Washington has now lost their last four series and fall to 21-27 on the season, with one of the key issues being hitting, especially with runners in scoring position (aside from Monday’s game).
The first game against the Twins sure seemed like the Nationals would finally win a series again, as they put up 12 runs to end their five-game losing skid and extend Minnesota’s losing skid to seven.
Six different players, including Eddie Rosario, Jesse Winker, Joey Meneses, Luis Garcia Jr., Keibert Ruiz, and Jacob Young, all had multiple hits. Amazingly, Washington was also 5-for-7 with RISP, as they were previously 5-for-43 with RISP in their previous five games.
In terms of batting and baserunning, Rosario and Garcia each had two hits and three RBIs, while Young finished with two RBIs, and Winker, Ruiz, Young, and Joey Gallo all scored two runs each.
Pitching-wise, Mitchell Parker had another strong performance on the mound with seven strikeouts through six innings for his third win of the year, as he has yet to allow more than three runs in his seven major league starts.
However, Tuesday night’s game had a similar blowout result, but for the other team. Even worse, the Nats were unable to score a single run and managed only three hits. Minnesota, who had scored 12 runs during its seven-game losing skid, nearly reached that total in this game.
Patrick Corbin (1-5) had another abysmal performance, giving up nine hits and eight earned runs on 106 pitches in six innings, which marked the 11th time he surrendered seven or more runs since 2020. With Corbin’s 2024 ERA now at 6.29, it’s only a matter of time before Washington makes a move with the left-hander, especially in the final year of his contract he signed prior to 2019.
Finally, Wednesday afternoon’s contest to decide the series was anything but a blowout, but a relatively close one, as the Nationals trailed 2-0 early on, but showed signs of life at times before losing yet another series.
Washington had seven total hits as Ruiz hit a sacrifice groundout to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, while Meneses launched a leadoff home run to left to cut it to 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth.
Garcia then managed to hit a single, while Nasim Nunez replaced him on base and reached second, but with two outs, Ruiz grounded out to second for the loss, with the Nats failing once again with RISP.
Despite the defeat, Jake Irvin looked solid on the mound as he struck out six Twins batters through 6.1 innings. However, the loss dropped Irvin to 2-5 on the season.
Next up, Washington remains home for another interleague three-game series against the Seattle Mariners this weekend.
