WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the vast kaleidoscope of ways in which 102-loss teams lose games, a blown save overseen by two pre-arbitration relievers with an average age of 29 should cause the least existential angst.
That doesn't make it any more fun to watch.
Bulk pitcher/shadow starter Sean Burke had fired his best bullets to close out the sixth, striking out Luis García with a curveball on his 80th pitch of the night to strand a pair. And with the Sox watching the right-hander's workload since his return, Will Venable looked for a smooth transition with Steven Wilson against the bottom of the order with the White Sox leading 4-2.
Instead, Nasim Nuñez slashed a fastball to right for a one-out single, ahead of No. 9 hitter Jacob Young. Suffering through an awful offensive season and somehow leading the league in times caught stealing, Young entered the day with a single homer in 358 plate appearances. But at the end of a seven-pitch battle, he got back-to-back sweepers in the same spot, and lifted the second one out to right for a game-tying two-run homer. Venable pivoted by bringing out Brandon Eisert for a slate of Nationals lefties, only to see the second pitch he threw -- 88 mph center-cut in the upper third of the zone -- whacked out to left-center for a go-ahead solo shot from James Wood.
"Hard to keep them in the ballpark right now," said Will Venable, whose team has allowed nine homers in two days." We have to find a way to limit their damage. We have to do a better job tomorrow, come out and keep them in the ballpark."
Young's homer marked the end of the period of the game where anyone or any surface was free from rainfall. Diamond Dry became a more frequent presence on the infield than Sox baserunners, and every attempt to slide seemed Loony Tunes-inspired. Case in point, Chase Meidroth thought he led off the eighth with a hustle double to the right-center gap, only for a replay review to conclude he popped off the second base bag, where he probably would have scored on Colson Montgomery's two-out single.
Cam Booser allowing an RBI single to Wood in the bottom half of the inning briefly made the replay review a less haunting 'what if?' scenario. But the Nationals brought out José Ferrer for another crack at the ninth. A pair of solid singles from Edgar Quero and Lenyn Sosa put the tying runs aboard, and Ferrer mishandling yet another comebacker, this time from Derek Hill. That kept the game alive for Chase Meidroth with the tying run at third, but he couldn't check up on a high heater, ending a long, wet evening.
DID YOU KNOW that Nationals starter Jake Irvin leads all of MLB with 38 home runs allowed this season? That's the most any starter has allowed since ... well, Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito both gave up over 40 in 2023. But Irvin was tied with Zack Littell at 36 going into Saturday, even going into the fourth inning, all the way up until he tried to put an 0-2 four-seamer under Montgomery's hands.
Perhaps in a pre-torpedo bat world, Irvin's heater finds it home, and Montgomery's initial reaction on contact didn't match someone who felt they found the sweet spot [Post-script: Montgomery said he knew he got it. His reaction to a fly out would be less ambiguous]. Nevertheless, it was a towering blast that left his bat at over 104 mph and would have been a homer in all 30 ballparks per Statcast, and cashed in a Kyle Teel leadoff single to build an early 2-0 lead. Three batters and a Miguel Vargas walk later, Brooks Baldwin doubled the advantage, taking out a Truist Field-styled golf swing to hook a curveball off the right field foul pole.
"I've seen it for a couple of years now, so, I mean, I know the kind of person he is and the kind of player he can be, so I'm happy to see him putting everything together and putting consistent games together," Burke said of Montgomery.
Burke did not record what is known as a shutdown inning in response. A sharp drive to left off the bat of Josh Bell clanged off Baldwin's glove (first ruled an error, then was changed to a double), right before Daylen Lile took a first-pitch changeup down the pipe, but detonated a 97 mph heater right after it to cut the Sox lead in half by the end of the fourth. But Burke had a lot more 97s after that one, and for the most part they were a great option.
"He came back better," Teel said of Burke. "We leaned on the curveball early and flipped the changeup in later as the game went on. Didn't want to be predictable. I think he did a good job being able to throw both of them for strikes and that fastball at the top of the zone was always good too."
He struck out a season-high 10 even while restricted to 4⅓ innings of work, flummoxing a lefty-heavy Nationals attack by working vertically with his four-seamer and curveball, racking up a ludicrous 31 called strikes and/or whiffs on 80 pitches. It's an encouraging performance to savor ahead of the offseason, even if the Sox bullpen seems dead set on demonstrating the value of bulk innings.
"I want to keep building off that," Burke said. "Mentally I'm a little bit more drained than I am physically right now, which I think is a good sign that the body held up well throughout the whole year. So going to the next year, it's like, I've been through this for the first time. So hopefully by the end of the year next year, I'm feeling just as fresh."
Bullet points:
*The start of this game was delayed 40 minutes due to rain, which then pelted all involved for the final three innings. The game was paused in the eighth so that Mike Vasil would have some hope of not slipping.
*Vargas made a nice sprinting, over-the-shoulder catch on a Luis García foul pop to the third base side. It's possible it looked cooler because Vargas lost his hat in the chase and went careening into the protective netting.
*Len Kasper announced on the broadcast that outfielder Michael A. Taylor is retiring at the end of the season. He reached the 10-year milestone for service time earlier in 2025. A former Gold Glove winner and a member of the 2019 World Series champion Nationals, he received a nice ovation from fans in Washington this weekend.
