The All-Star break didn’t hinder the bats of the Washington Nationals as they scored more than three touchdowns’ worth of runs in their first game after the resumption of play on Friday.
The Nationals dismantled the Athletics 23-4 in the opening contest of a three-game set and will look for another offensive explosion on Saturday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
The scoring output equals the second-most in Nationals franchise history, which dates to 1969, when the team was the Montreal Expos. That record came in Washington’s 25-4 walloping of the New York Mets on July 31, 2018.
Washington was loaded with heroes on Friday while piling up 21 hits — including four homers — and going 13-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
The most unlikely star was Andres Chaparro, who entered the contest with seven RBIs. He recorded a career-best eight on Friday while smacking two homers during a 4-for-5 night.
The only players in franchise history with more RBIs in a game are Anthony Rendon (2017) and Mark Reynolds (2018), both of whom had 10.
“Everybody on the team knows how hard I work,” Chaparro said through an interpreter. “Every day I come in and put in the work and try to contribute to the team, and it feels special to get these kinds of results.”
Washington scored in double digits for the 14th time this season. Daylen Lile homered and drove in four runs and Curtis Mead was 4-for-6 with four runs, three RBIs and three doubles as the Nationals halted a three-game losing streak.
“If we stick together and keep playing like this, the second half is going to be special,” Chapparo said.
The A’s have lost 10 straight games and have been outscored 47-6 in their past four contests.
Staggering into the All-Star break was bad enough, but manager Mark Kotsay knew his squad laid an egg on Friday.
“There’s not much to explain; we played very badly at baseball in every sense of the word, and the fans let us know,” Kotsay said, alluding to choruses of boos. “I expect a lot from this group. Let’s see how they respond (Saturday).”
Tyler Soderstrom hit a two-run homer and Shea Langeliers hit a solo shot for the A’s.
Infielder Tommy White, 23, doubled in the eighth inning of his major league debut. He played first base as the club struggles without injured slugger Nick Kurtz (right thumb).
“He’s shown a lot of growth and improvement in his defense,” Kotsay said of White. “This is a runway here with Kurtz on the IL for him to help us win some games.”
Right-hander J.T Ginn (7-6, 3.67 ERA) will start for the Athletics on Saturday and make his bid at slowing the Nationals.
Ginn, 27, lost his two starts immediately before the All-Star break. He endured his worst start of the season against the Chicago White Sox last Sunday when he gave up eight runs and six hits over 4 1/3 innings in a 9-1 A’s loss.
Ginn has never faced the Nationals.
Washington will start right-hander Zack Littell (7-6, 4.90 ERA) in the middle game of the series. He is tied for second in the majors with 23 homers allowed in just 90 innings.
Littell, 30, pitched four innings of relief against the New York Yankees on July 10 in his most recent appearance. He gave up one run and five hits in a 5-3 loss, in which he didn’t take a decision.
Littell will make his 13th start and 20th appearance of the season. He is 0-1 with a 3.94 ERA in 10 career appearances (one start) against the A’s.
–Field Level Media
