Diamondbacks Blown Out by Nationals 17-2

Riley Smith got jumped from the minute this game started. Trea Turner blasted a hanging slider 20 rows deep into the left field bleachers to give the Nats a 1-0 lead. With one out he then proceeded to load the bases, issuing a walk to Juan Soto, a single to Kyle Schwarber, and another walk to Starling Castro. Josh Bell made him pay, hitting a double into the right field corner to plate two more runs. Yan Gomes followed with a double to the left centerfield gap to plate another two and Washington had a 5-0 lead, still with just one out. Number 9 hitter Victor Robles wanted in on the fun and with two outs double home Gomes for the 6^th and final run of the inning. You don’t really need to read past here as the game was effectively over, but if you wish to suffer along with me having to write this up, do continue.

Smith gave up another run in the 2nd on a Kyle Schwarber homerun aand in the 3rd gave up a triple and a double for one more. In his 3 innings of “work” Smith spotted the Nationals an 8-0 lead. He gave up 7 extra base hits, including two homers, 4 doubles and a triple.

Meanwhile Max Scherzer did what Max Scherzer does, shutting down the D-backs for 5 scoreless innings. He didn’t allow a hit until the 4th, a Josh Rojas single. He struck out 7, and then got the rest of the night off.

Caleb Smith relieved , delivering a scoreless 4th, but then gave up 3 runs in the 5th, making the score 11-0 Washington to that point.

The D-Backs finally got on the board in the 6th with a lone run off Will Harris thanks to a Pavin Smith double and a couple of ground outs. Washington plated another run in the 7th with Kevin Ginkel on the mound, but he was the victim of some bad defense by Josh Rojas who muffed a double play chance. J.B. Bukauskas surrendered two more runs in the 8th on 4 singles as his BABIP against and ERA continued to soar.

David Peralta pitched the top of the 9th. Prior to Torey Lovullo becoming manager the Diamondbacks had used a position player to pitch 5 times in franchise history. Since Torey took over in 2017, position players have toed the rubber SEVENTEEN TIMES. This was not one of those fun, feel good times where the hitters fail to do anything. Peralta allowed a 4 hits and a three run homer, as Washington ran the score up to 17-1. Just to add insult to injury, with two outs Josh VanMeter committed an error on a routine ground to 3rd to extend the inning further. Peralta hit Schwarber with a pitch, and Kyle mocked Peralta as he double over in fake pain. It was kinda funny. ha ha.

The Dbacks got a run in the bottom of the 9th when Andrew Young double home David Peralta to make the final score 17-2

The worst losses at Chase Field in franchise history were a 19-2 loss to the Dodgers on September 2nd, 2002 , and a 21-5 loss to Houston on October 2nd, 2015. So tonight’s beat down is on the “leaderboard”

I can’t imagine there have been many WPA charts to completely and utterly flatline by the top of the 5th, but here you go:

Fangraphs Box

Mel Gibson: Riley Smith. -.435 WPA

Joe Pesci: David Peralta +.025

Roll Call

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They will give it another try tomorrow when Seth Frankoff faces off against Joe Ross at 5:10 Arizona Time