After suffering a devastating loss on Sunday in Chicago by virtue of a walk-off grand slam, the Washington Nationals suffered another gut-wrenching loss on Monday in St. Louis, as Paul DeJong hammered a walk-off home run off Koda Glover to sink the Nats 7-6.Ā The Nationals are now seven games back in the race for the National League East.
What a game. What an ending. #Walkoff pic.twitter.com/nng5hPzaPu
— MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2018
Washington held a 4-2 lead going into the eighth but the Cardinals hung four runs in the frame, as Gyorko hit a lead-off home run off Jim Miller. Then Matt Carpenter capped the scoring with a three-run shot off Sammy Solis to give the Cardinals a 6-4 advantage. However, all hope was not lost for the Nats, as they rallied with Daniel Murphy cutting the deficit to 6-5 in the ninth with an RBI-single that scored Anthony Rendon. The next batter, Matt Wieters, tied the game at 6-6 with a RBI-single to right that score Juan Soto.
Washington had runners on second and third after a throwing error by Adolis Garcia with one out. But, they failed to move any runners as Wilmer Difo grounded out to short and Adam Eaton struck out looking to end the rally.
Glover entered the game for his third appearance of the season since returning to the team from the DL. Facing his first batter, he served up a sinker on a 3-1 count to DeJong who sent it over the left field wall for the walk-off winner.
Koda Glover on the homer: "He definitely got my ass."
This, I think, says it all.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) August 14, 2018
The Nationals have now dropped three of their last four and back-to-back heart-sinking walk-off losses. The loss drops them to 60-59 on the season and with every loss is another opportunity wasted to climb the daunting hole they’ve dug themselves throughout the season. Time is running out while the Nationals continue to fall back in the standings.
