The night had been billed as an event, a showdown between Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, but all that had been scrubbed away by the eighth inning Monday at Nationals Park. Baseball is not an event sport. It’s a sport that asks questions of managers.
When the game is on the line with the bases loaded, and you have three left-handed relievers available with a lefty coming to bat, and it’s your most trusted set-up reliever on the mound — what do you do?
As a rally mounted and Tyler Clippard teetered on the mound, the Washington Nationals’ bullpen remained dormant and Matt Williams kept the faith. So, take your pick whether Williams’s inaction or Clippard’s ineffectiveness — or some combination of both — led to the Nationals’ 4-2, gut-punch loss Monday night to the Los Angeles Angels.
The Nationals carried a 1-0 lead into the eighth inning, carried by Tanner Roark’s 62/ 3 scoreless innings and Drew Storen’s clutch retiring of Trout, the player taken 15 spots after the Nationals selected Storen in the 2009 draft. Clippard allowed four runs, all of them unearned, as Williams let him face left-handed pinch hitter Raul Ibanez with the bases loaded despite an arsenal of lefties at his disposal.
The meandering, compelling game had been dictated mostly by the players not named Harper (who finished 0 for 3 with a walk) and Trout (2 for 5). The Nationals took advantage of Garrett Richards’s stunning spasm of wildness for their only run, which came in the fourth.
Williams handed the lead to Clippard, who for the past four years has been the most durable, and one of the most reliable, relievers in baseball. This season, though, he has faltered frequently. He failed again Monday, but after another steady contributor in a recent slump betrayed him.
Clippard started the eighth by inducing a slow roller up the middle from Albert Pujols. Shortstop Ian Desmond, a Gold Glove finalist the past two seasons, ranged to his left and booted it, his league-high eighth error.
Clippard allowed Pujols a stealth steal of second as he struck out Ian Stewart. Howie Kendrick reached an infield single to Desmond, who nearly deked Pujols at third base. Brennan Boesch popped out, bringing Clippard one out from escape.
He couldn’t. Erick Aybar lashed a single through the right side, which scored the tying run and kept two runners on base. As Clippard pitched to Chris Iannetta, the bullpen remained dormant. Clippard walked him to load the bases.
Angels Manager Mike Scioscia summoned 41-year-old Raul Ibanez, an ancient left-handed hitter who had torched the Nationals his entire career, particularly Clippard. Ibanez had smacked three hits, including two homers, off Clippard in nine at-bats.
Williams seemingly had three available left-handed relievers, two of which had nominal history against Ibanez. He had gone 3 for 10 against Jerry Blevins and 2 for 11 against Ross Detwiler. Xavier Cedeno was just up from Class AAA Syracuse.
Williams stuck with Clippard. Ibanez drilled an 0-1 change-up to the left-center field gap, clearing the bases. For good measure, Desmond’s throw sailed wide and allowed Ibanez to scoot to third, giving the shortstop nine errors in 20 games.
Finally, Williams pulled Clippard, who may be in line for a role switch with Storen. In 11 appearances, Clippard has blown two leads and let three ties turn into deficits.
Before the meltdown in the eighth inning, the Nationals and Angels had engaged in a gem, with something added from almost every player aside from the two names highest on the marquee.
In Trout’s first at-bat, Roark dispatched of both the hype and the game’s best player. He jumped ahead in the count, 0-2. On the 2-2 pitch, Roark fired a 93-mph sinker that started outside the plate and zoomed back over the outside edge. Trout froze, and home plate umpire Jordan Baker rang him up for strike three.
In Harper’s first at-bat, Richards returned the favor. Harper worked a seven pitch at-bat, but Richards fired a 3-2, 98-mph fastball above the letters. Harper couldn’t resist, and he couldn’t catch up to it, either.
Richards retired the first nine Nationals in order, but then lost track of the strike zone in the fourth. Richards fired two pitches to the backstop against Denard Span, the second bouncing back into his glove on one hop. He walked Harper on five pitches, too, and then grazed Jayson Werth’s helmet to load the bases. Werth glowered at Richards as he walked to first base, causing Pujols to stand between them.
The Nationals had loaded the bases with no outs, and the opposing pitcher had unraveled to a frightening degree. They still barely capitalized. Adam LaRoche broke his bat on a 1-0 fastball, not even waiting for Richards to throw him a strike. Werth, moments after Richards nearly beaned him, slid hard at shortstop Aybar to prevent a double play, and Span scored the game’s first run.
As Werth hopped to his feet, Aybar shot a flinty glance in his direction. Werth jogged briskly off the field without looking toward Aybar.
The Nationals then let Richards wrangle loose. Anthony Rendon tapped a pitch toward first base, and Pujols snared the ball with his bare hand and fired to the plate in one motion. Iannetta’s tag just beat Harper’s nifty slide home. Desmond bounced to second to end the threat.
Rendon redeemed himself in the top of the fifth, which ended with a diving, backhand stab of a groundball Pujols smoked down the third base line. He hopped to his feet and side-armed a missile across the diamond.
The Nationals continued to support Roark until he came out of the game to a deserved standing ovation. The showdown between Harper and Trout had fizzled, and it seemed the Nationals would take the more important result. And then Clippard imploded, and Williams watched.