It was a short stay out of last place for the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n
Just two days out of last place in the National League Central division, after spending 69 days at the bottom, the Reds retreated back to the cellar Saturday night in Nationals Park.<\/p>\n
The Washington Nationals bombarded the Reds, 8-2, on Saturday, Aug. 8, while the Pittsburgh Pirates ripped the New York Mets, 9-0, to reclaim fourth place.<\/p>\n
The Reds are 16-26 in games decided by five or more runs.<\/p>\n
The Nationals wear a street directory map of downtown District of Columbia on their light blue City Connect jerseys, but the Reds haven\u2019t been able to find their way around Nationals Park.<\/p>\n
They took a four-game winning streak into Washington, but have lost two straight.<\/p>\n
It was a rough evening for Reds starter Chase Burns. The National were in attack mode against Burns, swinging early in the count, and he was charged with five runs and six hits for his 5\u2153 innings.<\/p>\n
As a result, Burns absorbed the loss and his record dipped to 13-2 and his string of winning 12 straight decisions ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took some really good swings, they\u2019re good hitters, and there were some positives,\u201d Burns told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s a game of inches.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were some seeing-eye hits and bleeders, but there were some solid contact made by the free-swinging Nationals. And there were a couple of defensive lapses.<\/p>\n
The Nats lead MLB in home runs, but didn\u2019t hit one Saturday. Instead, they sprayed 10 hits, six singles and four doubles.<\/p>\n
And they were 6 for 7 with runners in scoring position. The Reds were 0 for 3 and had only five hits, four singles and a Eugenio Suarez home run.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati\u2019s only runs came on a two-run home run Suarez as the Reds continue to live but mostly die via home runs.<\/p>\n
The Nats took a 2-0 lead in the third on a leadoff single by Jose Tena, a one-out double by CJ Abrams and a two-run single by Abileymec Ortiz.<\/p>\n
Washington lefthander Andrew Alvarez baffled the Reds for five innings and retired 11 straight. With one out in the sixth, Sal Stewart nubbed a slow roller up the third base line that hit the third base bag for an infield hit.<\/p>\n
That was only the second hit off Alvarez and he had thrown only 73 pitches.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a77fb596da2c.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Reds’ Eugenio Suarez hits a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Nick Wass – FR67404 AP<\/p>\n
Amazingly, Nats manager Blake Butera decided that was enough for Alvarez and he brought in Max Kranick.<\/p>\n
And Suarez tied it, 2-2, with a home run that crash landed in the Reds bullpen in left field.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlvarez had a little bit of funk in his delivery,\u201d Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters. \u201cThey got him out of there with 70-some (73) pitches and it looked like we were going to take advantage of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hopped right back into it with the home run (Suarez) and the hope is that Chase has a nice good inning to get us through six to keep it a tie game and then we\u2019d go to our bullpen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t happen and Francona ended up pulling Burns in the middle of the sixth as a safety and precautionary reason.<\/p>\n
And that 2-2 tie only lasted long enough for Washington to come in and pick up their bats.<\/p>\n
It began ominously.<\/p>\n
Umpire Erich Bacchus called Dylan Crews out on strikes. Crews challenged and it was a ball, outside by an inch.<\/p>\n
Crew then doubled. Daylen Lile singled him home for 3-2 lead, but the Nats didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
Keibert Ruiz doubled on a ball center fielder Dane Myers misjudged. With two outs Burns walked Nasi Nunez on a full count and Burns\u2019 night was over.<\/p>\n
Sam Moll replaced Burns and pinch-hitter Andrew Chaparro pulled one inside the third base bag, a ball Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes usually stops.<\/p>\n
But it went through for a two-run double and Jacob Young singled him hiom to complete the four-run inning and a 6-2 Nationals lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turned out to be a long inning,\u201d said Francona of the four-run, five-hit Washington eruption. And he had to go get Burns after his 92nd pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe couldn\u2019t get through it and I got uncomfortable. . .that\u2019s my biggest concern for him. At the end of his outing, he might try to reach back for more when he\u2019s near 100 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat for me is where it starts to get a little iffy,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s more to it than just the sixth inning of today\u2019s game. That\u2019s a responsibility I take very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newly-acquired Reds pitcher Ron Marinaccio made his debut and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, but gave up two runs in the eighth, including a run-scoring single to CJ Abrams.<\/p>\n
That gave Abrams 89 RBIs, the most in MLB, increasing his lead over Sal Stewart by two.<\/p>\n
The Reds did have a couple of chances when the game was still tight.<\/p>\n
They had two on with two outs in he second, but Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes grounded out.<\/p>\n
They had two on with two outs in the seventh but Elly De La Cruz struck out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a77fb58f4205.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona, left, pulls pitcher Chase Burns, right, during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Nick Wass – FR67404 AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a short stay out of last place for the Cincinnati Reds. Just two days out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":["post-773844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-baseball","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-mlb","tag-reds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117063663485396341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773844","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=773844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}