WASHINGTON – The downpour that caused a one-hour-seven-minute rain delay Tuesday night was so severe that the Washington Nationals not only warned fans about the inclement weather, but also instructed them to seek shelter at the stadium.
By the time the skies had emptied and field readied for play, a storm of a different sort befell Shane Bieber, who lost the zone in unimaginable fashion, walking six of the nine batters he faced during a four-run first he couldn’t escape. That left the Toronto Blue Jays to both muck their way through an 8-6 thumping on the mound, after using six relievers the previous night, and at the plate, where George Springer’s three-run homer in the eighth wasn’t enough to undo the early damage.
Combined with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leaving after 3½ innings with right hamstring tightness and the inevitable questions Bieber’s outings raise about his trade value ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline, it made for a mostly miserable day at Nationals Park.
“To follow up what was maybe my best start as a Blue Jay with what was definitely my worst, nobody’s more frustrated than me,” said Bieber, who struggled with grip issues due to sweat amid the humidity. “I let the guys down tonight and so I’m going to wear that one wholeheartedly.”
Even the Canada-US Friendship Day promotion, complete with a special ticket that provided holders with a cap featuring Nationals script over a Maple Leaf along with a Montreal Expos logo on the side, didn’t help much as a rowdy section of fans among the crowd of 20,775 repeatedly chanted U-S-A and Blue Jays Suck, among less polite things.
Kazuma Okamoto’s 24th homer of the season, a solo shot in the fifth that tied Eric Hinske’s Blue Jays rookie record, was among the few highlights until Springer’s drive in the eighth off Gus Varland, the older brother of closer Louis, made it 8-6. But the Nationals and their shaky bullpen held from there.
But the Nationals (55-53), one game back of the final wild-card spot in the National League, and their shaky bullpen held from there, dropping the Blue Jays to 49-59, even as they remained 5.5 games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League.
Manager John Schneider said Guerrero tweaked the hamstring beating out an infield single in the third and “he wanted to stay in, but it was my call just to be careful with him and not have anything worse happen.”
Guerrero “checked out pretty good” after the game and Schneider didn’t rule out that he’d be in the lineup for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale, although with an off-day Thursday, resting him with an eye to Friday might make more sense.
Either way, nothing carried more immediate wider implications than Bieber’s bizarre outing, as he set a new career high in walks in the shortest outing of his career.
Of his 42 pitches, only 15 went for strikes while only three balls were put in play against him, a weak Luis Garcia Jr. chopper to first for one out, a C.J. Abrams roller to the 3-4 hole that he beat out to the bag and a Nasim Nunez sacrifice fly to right.
The other three runs crossed on bases-loaded walks, Bieber simply unable to get in the box.
“I was falling behind hitters, not executing pitches even when they were in the zone, coming out of my delivery trying to throw strikes,” said Bieber. “When you lose the zone, then the zone shrinks on you, too, and you don’t get those borderline calls and things kind of snowball. And that’s what happened.”
What teams shopping for pitching make of the outing will largely depend on how they weigh the way he fared facing the most productive offence in the majors versus the consecutive strong outings that preceded Tuesday. Scouts for five teams were in attendance so there’s some degree of interest in him and others, and whether they can write this off as an outlier or view it as a red flag will be in the eye of the beholder.
While Bieber wasn’t ready to simply dismiss Tuesday as a bad night – “I would hate to discredit how big of an outing that could have been, big of a game that could’ve been for us,” he said – he noted that he felt strong physically and was “definitely determined going into my next one.”
That’s slated for Aug. 3 at Houston, just after the deadline passes, making it one of several uncertainties to loom over the club.
“It was unique tonight, I guess, but I just need to find a way to get through that inning and adjust from there,” said Bieber. “I’m certain if I get out of that first inning and limit the damage, then I’m able to actually provide some innings and provide some value for my start, whether I give up runs or not. That’s what I’m most frustrated with.”
The Blue Jays managed to cover 7.1 innings he left behind with only four relievers, with Brendon Little delivering 2.1 perfect innings with four strikeouts, and C.J. Van Eyk logging 3.1 innings. Mason Fluharty gave up a two-run homer to Garcia in the fourth that extended Washington’s lead to 6-2 after the Blue Jays scratched out runs in the third and fourth, while Van Eyk gave up a solo shot to Dylan Crews later in the fourth and another run in the fifth.
“We knew we had CJ for length and we were just trying to get through certain parts of the order,” said Schneider. “Little did an outstanding job coming in there in the first inning. Best he’s been in a long, long time, so hopefully he can build off of that. Just trying navigate certain spots in the order and then you know when CJ gets in, you’re going to use some pitches there and you knew you had to score. He did his part, the offence did its part getting back into the game and just ran out of outs.”
