Kyle Finnegan’s rare hiccup helps Phillies to a 4-3 win in 10 innings

19/05/2024

PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Finnegan had been so good for so long. He was responsible for the Washington Nationals’ sterling 18-1 record when leading after eight innings. He hadn’t allowed an earned run since his second appearance of the season. His splitter was nasty, giving Washington’s bullpen a cushion that most MLB teams would salivate over.

But sometimes, a hitter is simply sitting heater. That’s what Kody Clemens was doing for the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. With two outs in the ninth inning, he sent a Finnegan fastball that came in at 98 mph into the Citizens Bank Park stands in right-center field at 106.6 mph. The solo shot ignited the crowd and sent the game to extra innings. If possible, it got louder in the 10th when Bryce Harper hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring automatic runner Johan Rojas and giving the Phillies a 4-3 win.

Finnegan said he felt good Saturday night — even better than in some of the outings that had gone his way. He just wanted the pitch to Clemens to be a little higher.

“We played a great game. We deserved to win. It’s my job to go in there and continue what we had already accomplished and get three outs,” Finnegan said. “It hurts. I’m motivated to get back out there as soon as possible.”

A rare rough night by Kyle Finnegan proved costly.

Finnegan aside, it was a familiar tale. On yet another night when excellent pitching seemed to extricate the Nationals (20-24) from their offensive doldrums, Washington came up just short against the best team in baseball (33-14) and suffered its fourth straight loss.

The Nationals have a 2.65 ERA in May, fifth best in baseball. They have scored just 3.53 runs per game, fifth worst in MLB.

“We’ve just got to bounce back,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “We hit the ball better today. We had 12 hits, but we’ve got to capitalize early and don’t make it so close.”

It was another good night for a Washington starter. MacKenzie Gore, the strikeout-churning left-hander that he is, walked into Philadelphia as one of the unluckiest pitchers in baseball. Yes, hitters whiffed often against him. Yes, they didn’t hit him very hard. And yet, when they put the ball in play, it fell in more often than it did for almost any other pitcher in baseball.

That made it all the more odd how distinct — yet familiarly impressive — he was Saturday. He didn’t feel he had his best stuff, but Gore gripped the ball on a humid evening and ripped strikes. Nothing new. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning. Impressive but not out of the realm of possibility. He did it all while facing 16 batters before his first strikeout. Wait, what?

Opponents had hit .396 on balls in play off Gore, the second-highest mark among pitchers who have thrown at least 30 innings. On Saturday, they went 3 for 16 (.188) on such balls. He pitched into the seventh inning, having allowed just one run on two hits — two singles, Harper’s steal of third and a double play grounder tagging him for a run in the fourth — before a solo shot by Bryson Stott tied the score at 2 and ended his night after 6⅓ innings. He finished with three strikeouts.

“It’s been a tough stretch, but [we] can’t panic,” Gore said. “It is frustrating right now. But there were a lot of good things tonight. We’ve just got to flush it.”

MacKenzie Gore pitched into the seventh inning Saturday night.

Offensively, it appeared Washington might finally string together a quality evening. The Nationals led off the game with three straight singles; the last of which, by Joey Meneses, scored CJ Abrams. A few more of the Nationals’ early opportunities led to nothing — back-to-back singles in the third inning, a leadoff double in the fourth — before aggressive base running on a hit-and-run in the fifth scored Jacob Young from first base on another Abrams single to tag Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez with his second run.

The top of Washington’s order was phenomenal, but the damage was limited outside of Abrams and Ildemaro Vargas (career-high .854 OPS), who had three hits apiece. The two of them nearly combined for another opportunity in the eighth, but Harper’s diving catch at first base robbed Abrams; that stung all the more when Vargas doubled before Meneses struck out — the second of three times Meneses made the final out of an inning. All three times, a runner was in scoring position.

“He got a ball up his first at-bat and smoked it. After that, he started chasing — chasing everything down,” Martinez said. “Look, he drives in runs for us. But today he just chased a little bit.”

Washington evaded damage in the eighth, when Robert Garcia and Hunter Harvey extricated themselves from a sticky situation with two on and one out against the middle of the Phillies’ order. The Nationals then took the lead in the ninth on Jesse Winker’s RBI single. But a rare faulty effort by Finnegan and no hits in the 10th sunk them.

“Just [can’t] let it get to us,” Abrams said. “Don’t get down on ourselves. We’re doing good. Just got to keep grinding.”

“They’re a good team, and we’re right there with them every game,” Finnegan said. “It shows that we can play with anybody in our division and anyone in our league. We’re going to try and go out and prove that tomorrow.”