Bats Go Cold, Washington Nationals Drop July 4 Game vs Pittsburgh
· Yahoo Sports
The Washington Nationals kicked off the July 4 slate with the winning streak grinding to a halt after the Pittsburgh Pirates dominated en route to a 7-1 finish early on Saturday afternoon.
Washington has now lost five of their last six games on July 4 and moves to 46-44 overall this season following Saturday's loss.
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The Nationals turned to Carson Palmquist as the opener, who struggled after allowing four earned runs on 37 pitches in one inning. Zack Littell would step in where he allowed one earned run and four hits across six innings before Riley Cornelio closed the game, allowing two earned runs and three hits across the final two innings. Each pitcher also tossed three strikeouts in the loss.
Pittsburgh's first run came in the top of the first inning after Palmquist gave up a leadoff single before runners on the corners set up a double steal with two outs to open the scoring.
Yet the Nationals answered right back as James Wood followed up Pittsburgh's run with his seventh leadoff home run of the season after a 428 foot blast into right field tied the game in the bottom of the inning. That would be the closest Washington would get the rest of the way.
After allowing the first three batters to reach base without an out, Zack Littell replaced Palmquist on the mound in the second inning before an infield single then consecutive singles opened the game to a 5-1 deficit.
The first of three double plays came in the fourth with Daylen Lile sitting on third, ending a chance for the Nationals to cut into the lead. The next inning, a wild pitch pushed Nasim Nunez from second to third, but Luis Garcia Jr. couldn't drive him home after a grounder ended the frame.
Another double play derailed momentum in the sixth inning, but the Nationals would threaten again with runners on the corners in the bottom of the seventh inning. Yet with two outs, it once again turned into nothing after an Andres Chaparro strikeout ended the inning.
With Cornelio replacing Littell to open the eighth inning, the Pirates added their last two runs to cement the 7-1 finish at Nationals Park as the Nationals didn't get a base runner on over the final two innings.
The Nationals, now 18-26 at home so far this season, will look to take the rubber match on Sunday with first pitch set for 1:35 PM.
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