Diamondbacks allow 4 homers to drop rubber matchup vs. Nationals, lose wild card tiebreaker
With the loss, the Nationals clinched the season series and are now one game back of the Diamondbacks for the final National League wild card spot.
Watch: The Arizona Diamondbacks' roller coaster: From beating the Dodgers to losing to the Rockies | 9 mins
CJ Abrams and James Wood each homered twice and had three RBIs as the Washington Nationals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-7 on Sunday to take two of three games in their weekend series.
The Nationals clinched the season series against the Diamondbacks, 4-2, with the win and now have the tiebreaker over Arizona in the National League wild-card standings. The surprising Nationals (54-52) moved within a game of Arizona (55-51) for the final National League wild-card spot.
The Diamondbacks led 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning when Wood hit a two-run shot off Kohl Drake that tied the score at 4-4. Three batters later, Abrams connected for a two-run drive off Jonathan Loáisiga that put Washington ahead for good.
The 25-year-old Abrams leads the majors with 82 RBIs. He has 27 home runs this season, breaking the franchise record for shortstops set by Ian Desmond with 25 in 2012. Dylan Crews and Abrams each had three of Washington’s 15 hits.
Down 10-5 going into the ninth inning, the D-backs rattled off two runs to make it 10-7 and had bases loaded with Tyler Locklear up as the go-ahead run with two outs. Nationals closer Clayton Beeter was able to get Locklear to ground out to end the game.
Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo each hit a homer in the loss.
Diamondbacks’ next game
Following the loss, the D-backs start a critical three-game series at the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.
The Pirates (54-52) are one game back of the D-backs in the wild card standings but hold the season series lead over Arizona 2-1.
Merrill Kelly (8-8, 5.12 ERA) is set to take the mound for the D-backs against Pirates righty Mitch Keller (6-7, 4.90).
First pitch from PNC Park is at 3:40 p.m. MST. Listen to the game on 98.7, the Arizona Sports app or online.
Arizona Sports’ Bailey Leasure contributed to this story.
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Comments
16 Comments
That's DBacks baseball.
Why are they surprising? They do aggressive base running (aka Chaos baseball like the 2023 Dbacks). To improve their pitching and make their run for the wild card playoffs, they traded third baseman Curtis Mead to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for rookie left-handed starting pitcher Connelly Early. It seems to me that they are doing what they need to do; whether it will work out for them, we will see in the next few months.
Hazen traded McCarthy for a player that is playing in Double A ball. Hazen traded Alexander for a pitcher who got blasted in the major this season (9.00 ERA) and was sent down to Reno. Hazen signed Santana who was 40-YO and had two hits before getting injured then being DFA.
TL allowed Gallen to pitch which was an automatic loss for the Dbacks.
When Nelson, Soroka and Gallen went on IL, what was Hazen's response? Bring up two AAA pitchers who are not ready for the show.
Like I always say, if there’s a game or series they need to win, better believe they’ll lose. Also, they cannot continue with these two rookies in their rotation. It’s untenable