Washington Nationals snap 8-game slide, avoid 5-game sweep with 9-3 win in finale with Philadelphia Phillies...

(TAY-troh) Round 2:

Called up to make his MLB debut last week against the then-red-hot Atlanta Braves, 26-year-old righty Jackson Tetreault gave up nine hits, three of them homers, and seven runs, all of them earned, in four innings in which he threw 91 pitches. He took it all in stride, though it’s obviously not the result he was hoping for in his first big league start.

“Obviously not the result I was looking for, but I’m not going to shy away,” Tetreault said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after his debut.

“I’m eager to get back out there and throw again. Just happy to get the first one under my belt. An awesome experience.”

The final results weren’t what he or the Nationals wanted, but his manager, Davey Martinez, said he was watching the pitcher on the mound, and saw positive things.

“I’m just watching his poise, his mechanics, what he’s going to do, and for the most part he stayed — like I said, he was a little amped up, but he stayed pretty poised, and I told him at the end, ‘Your first outing, let’s build off of that and get you ready for your next one,” he told reporters.

Given a second opportunity today, the righty got off to a strong start, with four scoreless in which he gave up just four hits and a walk, throwing 55 pitches, after he threw 91 in four in his MLB debut last week.

J.T. Realmuto singled with one out in the Phillies’ fourth, and Odubel Herrera hit a fly to the track in left-center where the ball went into and out of Lane Thomas’s glove, for an E:7.

Alec Bohm stepped with runners on second and third with one out, and brought in the first run for the Phillies with a groundout, 4-1, and 4-2 on a two-out RBI single to center field by Bryson Stott.

Back out on the mound in the fifth, with a 6-2 lead, Tetreault gave up a leadoff single by Kyle Schwarber and a two-out walk to Nick Castellanos, then Keibert Ruiz and Josh Bell tried for another back-pick at first base, but a throwing error by Ruiz allowed Schwarber to score, 6-3, before the starter got out of the inning at 71 pitches overall.

A nine-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth left Tetreault at 80 total, and he came back out for the seventh and took a comebacker off his left ankle on a leadoff single by Matt Vierling, but stayed in, after getting a visit from the trainer, and completed a scoreless, 11-pitch frame.

Jackson Tetreault’s Line: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 Ks, 91 P, 57 S, 10/5 GO/FO.

Eflin in D.C.:

Zach Eflin was (0-3) in four starts in May, with a 5.79 ERA, 3.39 FIP, five walks, 24 Ks, and a .275/.306/.451 line against in 23 ¹⁄₃ IP in that stretch, but coming into this afternoon’s five-game series finale, the righty was unbeaten in three June outings in which he put up a far better 2.50 ERA, a slightly worse 4.80 FIP, four walks, 12 strikeouts, and a .206/.260/.368 line for opposing hitters in 18 IP.

Eflin tossed a scoreless first on 14 pitches this afternoon, but Luis García lined a 1-1 change to center in the first at-bat of the second, and scored on a Maikel Franco single to left that put the Nationals up 1-0 early in the series finale in D.C. Yadiel Hernández doubled to right, sending Franco around to third, and two outs later, Juan Soto drove both runners in with a three-run shot which traveled 428 feet, into the first row of the upper deck in right, 4-0.

Eflin didn’t come back out for the bottom of the third (right knee tightness, apparently)...

Zach Eflin’s Line: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 Ks, 1 HR, 38 P, 28 S, 3/1 GO/FO.

Bullpen Action:

Andrew Bellatti took over for the Phillies with the Nationals up 4-0 in the third, and retired the Nats in order in the bottom of the inning.

Yadiel Hernández and Lane Thomas hit back-to-back, one-out singles off Bellatti in the fourth, with Hernández alertly and aggressively taking third on Thomas’s hit, and César Hernández followed with an RBI double to right field, just out of reach of a leaping Nick Castellanos, 5-2.

Juan Soto popped out for out No. 2, with a new pitcher, Corey Knebel, taking over, and an IBB to Josh Bell loaded the bases before Nelson Cruz took an unintentional free pass, 6-2.

It was 6-3 in the Nationals favor after 4 1/2, when Luis García singled to start the bottom of the inning, and Maikel Franco followed with a 410-foot, two-run shot to left field which put the Nationals up 8-3. Franco’s 6th of 2022.

García and singled to start the Nats’ half of the seventh, with Nick Nelson, who took over on the mound in the fifth, still out on the mound, and Maikel Franco walked to move García up, before he scored on an opposite field single by Yadiel Hernández, 9-3.

Carl Edwards, Jr. struck out two in a 1-2-3 eighth.

Cory Abbott got the top of the ninth for the Nationals and retired the side in order to end it.

Final Score: 9-3 Nationals

Happy Father’s Day:

Nationals now 24-46