Brandon McCarthy held a potent Washington Nationals lineup to just two runs on three hits over seven innings. He finished with four strikeouts on an efficient 87 pitches.
It was the second time this season McCarty completed seven innings. All he had to show for it was a tough-luck, 2-1 loss. Both of the Nationals’ runs were scored on sacrifice fly outs. They were preempted by a stroke of good fortune.
Trea Turner’s high chopper to start the game went for an infield single in part because Logan Forsythe could not clearly get the baseball out of his glove. Bryce Harper’s leadoff ground-rule double in the fourth inning just caught the chalk down the right-field line.
The fleet-footed Turner was standing on third base three pitches after reaching, as a result of two stolen bases. That was of particular frustration for McCarthy.
“I made some really bad mental errors, letting that run score,” he said. “Forgetting Trea Turner was on first and second, and he’s going to steal at will. I didn’t vary up the look whatsoever. Not doing all that I should do to make sure you’re going to hold him.
“There’s a good chance he’s going to go anyways, but I have to do things to increase the odds in our favor. I didn’t do any of those.”
McCarthy otherwise was generally content with the outing. “From that point on I felt like the quality was pretty good,” he said. “I made most of the pitches I needed to make.”
“Curveball is still really spotty, it came on kind of late. All the fastballs for the most part did what I wanted them to do. Command was OK, got in a good rhythm with Yaz early, he did a great job of keeping them off balance.”
On the season he’s 5-3 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. Much like with Hyun-Jin Ryu the night prior, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was encouraged by the outing turned in by his starter.
“I think he’s been very consistent. It seems like every single time he gets out there he has control of the game,” said Roberts of McCarthy. “Like Scherzer, he had his mix working; the breaking ball, cutter, two-seamer below the zone, four-seamer up. He was really good.
“For us, to have him healthy, we got through the blister thing, I think that’s a victory in and of itself.”
