Stephen Strasburg struck out 11 batters, walked two and allowed two earned runs on five hits in seven strong innings. His performance lifted the Washington Nationals to victory over NL East rivals, the Atlanta Braves. Although, the Nationals’ woeful bullpen almost gave it again.
Strasburg mowed down the Braves through seven innings and held a 5-2 lead when he walked off the mound for the night after 103 pitches. Unfortunately, for the Nationals that meant going to their bullpen for the eighth inning.
The Nationals currently have the worst bullpen ERA in MLB history since 1950. They entered Tuesday’s game at Atlanta sporting a 7.12 ERA. So, despite Strasburg holding a 5-2 lead, there was angst from Nationals’ faithful when Kyle Barraclough took the mound to start the eighth.
That angst was justified. Barraclough yielded a one-out double to Josh Donaldson. Two batters later, Austin Riley hit a two-run home run to cut the deficit to one at 5-4. Barraclough then walked Brian McCann. Fortunately, he managed to strikeout Ozzie Albies to get out of the inning.
Sean Doolittle came through in the ninth and collected his 10th save striking out the side in the process. But, the rocky eighth is glaring.
That rocky eighth by Barraclough pushed the Nationals’ ERA in the eighth inning this season to 8.84.
Since May 20 in a span of nine games, the Nationals have allowed 19 runs in the eighth inning alone — 15 earned. And it’s been an array of culprits, as Washington has comb through searching hard for a setup man.
It’s an issue that has haunted the Nationals’ season all year. They’re the main reason Max Scherzer has two wins in 12 starts. They’re the reason they have 11 blown saves. And the main reason Washington is 23-32 on the year and 9.5 games back in the NL East.
The eighth inning has been the bottom line to their undoing. Even when there’s a dominant performance from Strasburg, there is a dark cloud that continues to hover.
