Nationals Lose Eighth Straight Road Game in 3-2 Loss to San Diego

After a tough three-game series against the evil Los Angeles Dodgers, the Nationals were looking for an easier time tonight in San Diego. But the road-losing streak continues.

The Padres started the scoring in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Manny Machado doubled to right field. Ty France followed with a base on balls. Jackson Merrill then singled to right, scoring Machado. 1-0 Padres.

San Diego got a couple more in the bottom of the third. Fernando Tatis singled to right and was advanced to second base on a fielder’s choice grounder from Jake Cronenworth. Tatis was later ruled safe at second. Manny Machado then hit a single to left field scoring Tatis. With two outs, Jackson Merrill singled to center sending Machado home. 3-0 Padres.

The Nationals finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth. With two outs, Abimelec Ortiz singled to left field. Dylan Crews followed with his 11th home run to left field. 3-2 San Diego.

But that’s all the Nats could muster. Another tough loss on the road.

Jake Irvin had a decent start this afternoon for the Nationals. Irvin threw 5 2/3 innings giving up the 3 runs on 8 hits while striking out 3 batters.

Nick Pivetta had a good start for the Padres. He threw 5 innings of shutout baseball, giving up only 2 hits.

Like it says in the headline, this was the Nationals eighth straight road loss. Washington’s record falls to 67 and 79 while the Padres are sitting at 76 and 68 and a half-game out of the final wild card spot in the National League. Tomorrow’s game starts at 5:40 ET.

Dave’s Dime…Today’s Hot Topics…

Here’s a few topics of discussion for us true baseball fans to ponder:

1.The Los Angeles Angels were purchased last week by Stan Kroenke for $4 billion. Kroenke also owns the Los Angeles Rams. His Kroenke Sports and Entertainment holding company also controls the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. That $4 billion sale price beat the previous MLB record of $3.9 billion paid for the San Diego Padres earlier this year.

This can only be looked at as a good thing. The previous owner Arte Moreno had purchased the team in 2003, a year after the Angels’ only World Series winning season. The Angels had a great deal of success those first few years after Moreno bought the team. They won the AL West five times in six years between 2004 and 2009 and reached 3 million in attendance from 2003 to 2019. But the Angels have not made the playoffs since 2010 and are on track for their 11th consecutive losing season. Sounds like Moreno lost interest. It’ll be interesting to see if this affects the Angels in a positive way.

I personally cashed in a Mega Millions ticket today that paid me $28. Take that, Stan Kroenke.

2.There’s a big debate this year in the race for the National League MVP. Shohei Ohtani had the early lead but has been dealing with some injuries and just trying to stay off the injured list. And then we have the late season surge by the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Ohtani is currently sitting with 30 home runs, 80 RBIs, 139 hits, and a .279 batting average. He hasn’t pitched since July 3rd, but he had a fantastic record before that date, with 8 wins and 2 losses with an ERA of 1.79. He’s not scheduled to pitch again this season.

Crow-Armstrong is having a great year with a .281 batting average and 41 home runs, 97 RBIs, and 157 hits. His 41 home runs trail only the 43 dingers hit by Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. Armstrong also has 35 stolen bases and is only 5 away from the historic 40/40 club, which has only six members at this time: Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodrigues, Alfonso Soriano (with the Nationals in 2006), Ronald Acuna Jr., and Shohei Ohtani.

It’ll be interesting to see if being a legend means more to the voters than being a rising star.

3.We also have the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez on track to win the coveted Triple Crown. Alvarez is currently batting .314, with 38 home runs and 95 RBIs in the American League. He’s leading in batting average as of today and tied for the league lead in home runs and RBIs. The last Triple Crown winner was the great Miguel Cabrera from the Detroit Tigers back in 2012.

I once had a Miguel Cabrera t-shirt. The Tigers are my third favorite team, after the Nationals and the Rockies.

4.The Chicago White Sox turnaround. The White Sox currently lead the AL Central after suffering from three consecutive 100-loss seasons. That’s quite a turnaround. Chicago is three games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians. How the White Sox went about improving their team is quite interesting. It has to do with bat-speed training and angle drills and pitching machines and the air-pull technique. And it worked! Maybe a Washinton Nationals coach or two should give it a look.

I actually saw the White Sox at Rate Field in Chicago last year. But I didn’t go back this year. Just my luck!

5.And then there’s the infamous “Hat-Gate”. This happened last Friday. It turns out rookie St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Hancel Rincon was on the mound getting ready his debut performance. Turns out Rincon was wearing his cap a little off-center. Home-plate umpire Doug Eddings didn’t like the gangsta look and called time out so he could explain to the rookie the correct way to wear a baseball cap. St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol came out of the dugout to support his young pitcher and was promptly tossed from the game. The umpire had to later apologize for the incident. Over-reacting not allowed. Then at the beginning of Saturday’s game, all the members of the Cardinals wore their hats askew in solidarity.

A few pitchers over the years have worn crooked hats without incident. But I guess this umpire was having a rough day and wanted to take it out on someone. Maybe he was pulled over for speeding while on his way to the stadium. Ricon was obviously upset about the situation and lasted only 1/3 of an inning giving up three runs on three hits.

And here I was worrying about the price of gas. I have to get my priorities in order.