Washington Nationals’ record-setting, 24-8 loss San Diego Padres one to brush off and move on from...

Washington’s 16-run loss last night, “was the largest margin of defeat in team history (2005 – present),” as the Nationals wrote in their post game notes, “topping the 15-run loss to the Cincinnati Reds on April 5, 2013 at Cincinnati (15-0).” The series opener with the San Diego Padres in the nation’s capital ended with the visitors up 24-8.

“The 24 runs allowed were the most in a game in Nationals’ history, passing the 18 runs allowed twice: July 5, 2006 vs. Florida and Aug. 3, 2019 at Arizona… Additionally, the 24 runs allowed were tied for the most surrendered in a game in D.C. history (other: Sept. 27 1940 at BOS; L, 24-4).”

“Today was just a rough day all the way around,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters at the end of long day for everyone in the Nationals’ clubhouse, which started with a real bad development that saw Starlin Castro placed on administrative leave by MLB, following new allegations of domestic violence against the infielder.

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“It was one of those days where, you know what, I’m going to sit back tonight, go home and shake this one off and come back ready to play tomorrow. We came back off a break, things didn’t go our way, walked a lot of guys, behind a lot of hitters, the positive is we scored a bunch of runs. We got [Patrick] Corbin tomorrow on the mound, let’s come back tomorrow, he gives us six or seven innings, score the same amount of runs, and come out with a victory tomorrow.”

The Nationals scored eight runs on twelve hits, four of them by Juan Soto, who homered twice in the loss, hitting bombs to right field in the bottom of the first and sixth innings.

But the Padres scored 24 runs on 22 hits, five of them home runs, and went 12 for 23 with runners in scoring position, taking nine walks total from Nationals’ pitchers on the night.

Martinez said it’s just one for the club to put behind them so they can move on to the second of three with the Padres in D.C. It started with a rough, 1 ¹⁄₃-inning outing by starter Erick Fedde, who didn’t last long, but managed to give up three hits, four walks, and six earned runs while he was on the mound, three of them in the second, after the right-hander allowed three in the first and Juan Soto hit a three-run home run to tie it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the inning.

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“I want to brush it off,” Martinez said.

“Look, we came out — they came out and scored three and we’re down 3-0, we come back and score three, and then they come back and score seven. I mean, you know, and it’s tough. You feel like you’re back in the game, at that point it’s — for us it’s 0-0, Fedde gets us through another inning or two and we score more runs, things change, but when a game goes on like that, and all of a sudden you can’t get any outs, and you gave up seven runs in the second inning, it’s tough, you know, and you’re just scratching and clawing at that point just to stay alive and try to see if we have another run. But when you’re down like that it’s tough to come back.

“So, like I said, I thought we swung the bat well, we’ll come back tomorrow and go 1-0 tomorrow.”

It wasn’t just Fedde who struggled of course, considering 18 runs scored after he left the mound.

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Andres Machado gave up three runs. Paolo Espino too. Sam Clay gave up a solo home run. Wander Suero allowed six runs, three earned. Ryne Harper — actually, he came out of it all unscathed somehow, striking out three in 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless. Jefry Rodríguez gave up six hits and five earned runs in the final two innings.

“Tonight was just one — like I said, nobody really threw strikes, everybody was behind. A lot of balls were left up. When you have a team like the Padres and you look at their lineup, and those guys swinging the bat, when you’re 2-0, 3-1, you’re going to get hit and you saw that tonight. So, we got to throw the ball over the plate, we got to get early strikes, get ahead of hitters, and put them away. It sounds simple, I know it’s not that simple, but we can do it, I know we can do it. The walks today, you look back and I think we had like 10 walks, I stopped counting after so many, but it was a lot, and we can’t give free passes like that.”

As mentioned above, it was just nine walks total, but we had to check the box score for the game, because we stopped counting too...