Nats Lose Again, 6-1
The Cards scored all six runs against the ‘pen to hand the Nats their second straight loss, 6-1.
After two scoreless innings from Anibal Sanchez and one from Sean Doolittle, St. Louis went to town on Tanner Rainey in the 4th with four runs on four hits and a walk in the space of just seven batters as the Cards erased the Nats first (and only) run to take a 4-1 lead.
After Trevor Rosenthal, Kyle Barraclough, and Matt Grace settled things down with a scoreless inning apiece, Ronald Pena broke the string with two runs allowed on two hits and two walks to put the game on ice for St. Louis.
It was a light afternoon for the watchlisters. None were in the starting the lineup and just three came off the bench:
• Jake Noll took over 1B from Matt Adams and went 0-for-1 with a walk.
• Luis Garcia was the second 2B and got his first hit of the spring while going 1-for-2.
• Jose “Orange” Marmolejos pinch-hit for DH Howie Kendrick but went hitless for the fourth time in four games with an 0-for-2 afternoon.
Washington remains in West Palm Beach this afternoon to play Houston. The game can be seen and heard on MLB.tv and MLB Audio (Astros feed for both).
I agree with Sao that this is just farm guys pitching like they still need to be down on the farm.
Certainly no one so far has ‘broken out. Then again, the ‘Childish Bambino’ didn’t break out in spring training last year either.
Soto wasn’t an NRI, wasn’t even in the MLB camp. I don’t know whether he even got a cameo in a split-squad B game. I do remember folks posting a few amazed comments from the back fields, though.
And maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like the Yankee nickname for him. I’d rather go with Magic Juan, or something else. Besides, he’s an old man of 20 now.
Soto homered in a major league game as a guy over from the minor league side. Set some tongues wagging at the time.
A true greybeard 🙂