WASHINGTON \u2014 The Nationals\u2019 offensive floor this season will be determined by the talents of CJ Abrams, Daylen Lile and James Wood \u2014 the team\u2019s best hitters. <\/p>\n
Their ceiling, however, will be determined by the development and performance of the hitters around those three. That was apparent in the Nationals\u2019 7-6 loss to the Giants in 12 innings on Saturday at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n
In the final four innings, the Giants intentionally walked Abrams and Wood three times, daring any of the other Washington hitters to beat them. And, for the most part, they couldn\u2019t. <\/p>\n
With the Nationals trailing by one, Jorbit Vivas doubled to open the ninth inning and advanced to third on a Drew Millas flyout. The Giants, afraid of Wood\u2019s bat, walked him to face Curtis Mead. <\/p>\n
Mead hit into a fielder\u2019s choice, and Vivas was thrown out at home. In the ensuing at-bat, Brady House hit a game-tying single into center field. Mead didn\u2019t slide into third and was tagged out to thwart a potential threat.<\/p>\n
The Nationals\u2019 bullpen did its part. Richard Lovelady pitched a scoreless 10th. But, after the Giants walked Abrams, Lile and Nasim Nu\u00f1ez struck out before Vivas grounded out. Cionel Perez pitched a scoreless 11th. But the Nationals again didn\u2019t score.<\/p>\n
The Giants broke through in the 12th on a Matt Chapman single. The Nationals didn\u2019t score in the bottom of the frame. <\/p>\n
Wood opened the game with a first-pitch homer that landed in the visitors\u2019 bullpen. The Giants responded in the top of the second when Drew Gilbert hit a two-out single off Cade Cavalli.<\/p>\n
The Nationals took advantage of a Willy Adames error in the third to score four runs. Wood drove in the first when he was hit by a pitch. Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. hit a two-run single, then Jos\u00e9 Tena added an RBI single and the Nationals led 5-1. <\/p>\n
That provided a cushion for Cavalli. So far this season, there have been two primary themes in Cavalli\u2019s outings: his command and his inefficiency.<\/p>\n
This spring, Cavalli had no trouble with his command. Yet in his starts, especially his previous one, he hasn\u2019t had a strong feel for his pitches. Manager Blake Butera said the coaching staff planned to sit down with Cavalli to assess how to get him back on track.<\/p>\n
Cavalli threw 16 of 20 pitches for strikes in the first inning. But the Giants wore him down, fouling off 22 pitches. He generated only nine whiffs in 44 swings. The Giants also tagged him for two more runs in the third when Casey Schmitt hit an RBI double and Lile bobbled the ball, allowing Chapman to score on the Nationals\u2019 second error of the frame.<\/p>\n
Cavalli allowed seven hits and three runs \u2014 one earned \u2014 over four innings and struck out five. He has completed five innings in only one of five starts. <\/p>\n
Mitchell Parker allowed a game-tying, two-run homer to Heliot Ramos in the sixth. Rafael Devers hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh.<\/p>\n
After the drama of the final innings, Abrams and Lile had chances to come through in the 10th. But Abrams flied out to left field and finished 0-for-6 with a walk. Lile, who finished 2-for-6, struck out looking.<\/p>\n
This article will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Nationals\u2019 offensive floor this season will be determined by the talents of CJ Abrams, Daylen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[152,5,668,4,505,415,669,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-678744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-american-league","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bestof","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-national-league","13":"tag-nationals","14":"tag-topix","15":"tag-washington","16":"tag-washington-nationals","17":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116428532891467979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}