A dominant performance from the opposition, paired with a bad start from Luis Atilano, buried the Nationals in Thursday night’s 7-1 loss.
The Padres’ Mat Latos was virtually untouchable. At one point he retired 11 Nationals hitters in a row. This was a far cry from the offensive juggernaut it appeared San Diego was facing the previous two nights.
In the Nationals’ first two wins against the Padres in the series they crushed one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. But when they faced Latos, the bats fell quiet.
“He [Latos] was really good, he’s had a real good year,” Manager Jim Riggleman said. “All-Star consideration type starting pitcher. He was tough.”
The only times in the ballgame where it looked like the Nationals had some life, things were quickly quashed. In the seventh, Nyjer Morgan grounded out with the bases loaded. In the eighth, they put a run up on the board but it could have been more as Josh Willingham grounded into a double play that ended any momentum the team was building up.
“Just didn’t happen today,” Morgan said. “Just one of those games where we were hitting balls right at guys plus that kid just pitched good too.”
But tonight, pointing to a lack of clutch hitting would not recognize just how much Latos dominated the Washington hitters. In seven innings, Latos gave up just five hits and no runs while striking out eight and walking just two.
Luis Atilano gave a performance that was less than encouraging. He gave up four runs in five and a third innings of work. Two of those runs came off the long ball as Atilano gave up solo home runs to Chris Denorifa and, surprisingly, Latos.
“Their starter was really good today and Luis was not at the top of his game,” Riggleman said.
The homerun by Latos was the first of his career. Atilano seemed to think that the pitcher would be an easy out and this lead to his mistake.
“I thought I could get him out quick,” Atilano said. “Came with fastball down the middle and he hit it hard.”
There was not much support from the bullpen either, as they gave up a combined three earned runs. Miguel Batista and Doug Slaten also fell victim to the homerun bug as they each gave up home runs to Chase Headley and Jerry Hairston Jr. respectively.
After looking so strong on the offensive end the previous two games it is not much of a surprise that the true face of the Padres’ pitching abilities were put on display. But the Nationals took the series, which was one of the few positives to reach for after a tough loss.
“Everyone in here is mad that we didn’t win tonight, we wanted to sweep the series,” Ian Desmond said. “We know we can play good enough baseball to beat those guys.”
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
