A Gloomy Day in D.C. Sinks Diamondbacks in 5-4 Loss

On a dark and gloomy afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the Washington Nationals 5-4 after they were unable to complete a comeback in the ninth inning with the tying run on base and one out. Their record falls to 5-5.

Corbin Burnes was not his typical self while the offense just couldn't figure out Trevor Williams or much of the Nationals' bullpen. Aside from a couple of triples, the offense was mostly held in check.

It was a rough outing for Burnes and likely made many fans nervous after he struggled badly with his location and command all afternoon long. He need 89 pitches to get through five innings and landed only 55 for strikes. In the early innings, the strike-ball split was eerily close to 50/50.

His cutter just was not working for him Sunday as it was not landing in the strike zone, on the edges of the zone, or inducing the whiffs that one customarily expects when Burnes pitches. Instead, it was consistently missing the zone leading to extended pitch counts and plenty of full counts.

Once runners got on base, Burnes struggled to prevent them from scoring. The Nationals scored runs in each of the first three innings before Burnes was able to prevent runs from scoring in his last two innings.

In total, Burnes went five innings, gave up four runs, seven hits, four walks, and struck out just three. He hit two batters. It was not the Corbin Burnes that baseball watchers have seen for years, or the pitcher that was signed for $210 million.

He induced just eight whiffs, including only five on his signature cutter. Instead, it seemed that Nationals batters were waiting on his pitches and knew what was coming. They fouled off seven cutters, and they put 11 into play. In total, they made contact with 30 of his pitches, which is elevated for a known strikeout artist.

Per Jesse Friedman, Burnes had not allowed 3+ walks in back-to-back starts since August of 2023. That just shows how rare an outing this was for him.

The good news is that Burnes now has five days to work on his craft and his legendary work far outweighs the results of just one game. He's won so many awards and got his contract for a reason, because he is a durable and elite pitcher. After all, he still went five innings on a day that he clearly did not have anything working.

His next projected start is on Saturday, April 12, against his former club in the Milwaukee Brewers, what is expected to be his home debut. Fans will be eager to watch him pitch, and it's nearly a guarantee that Burnes will be far better than he was on Sunday.

Entering the sixth needing to keep the game to just a one-run deficit in order to give the offense a chance, Joe Mantiply struggled with two hits and a run scored in the inning.

Jalen Beeks pitched a great game in the seventh and eighth innings with a walk and four strikeouts, as he's really shown well since signing right before the season. He's been an elite pickup thus far. Beeks has clearly earned his spot to be a dependable arm in the bullpen.

The offense struggled after the first hitter of the game. Corbin Carroll led the first inning off with a triple, which Geraldo Perdomo drove him home with a sacrifice fly. While they cobbled together nine hits, they were unable to link those hits together to put together a big inning like they've done so often.

However, aside from a Jose Herrera solo home run with two outs in the second inning and a Pavin Smith RBI single in the fifth inning that drove home Herrera, the offense was just not there.

It was the Herrera show on offense as he homered, singled, and had an RBI with two runs scored. It was a great outing by him as it was nice to see him experience some success after a tough start to the season. Perhaps, this portends a career year to come for him.

They had a chance in the 7th inning when there were two on and one out while being down two. However, Perdomo grounded out to advance the runners to second and third while pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk had a strikeout to end the threat.

They had another chance in the 8th inning when Josh Naylor singled and stole a base to get to second. Alek Thomas tripled him home but Jake McCarthy pinch hit for Herrera and weakly grounded out to shortstop to end any chance of scoring the tying run.

This was the end of the road trip and the D-backs finished it 3-3 after winning the New York Yankees' series. They now head back to Chase Field for a week-long homestand. They take on the Baltimore Orioles Monday night at 6:40 p.m. with Zac Gallen projected to be on the mound.