WASHINGTON — Across households in the tri-state area Tuesday night, John Sterling was likely being quoted — at least by fans who held out on profanities before the sixth inning.
That’s baseball, Suzyn.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who entered Tuesday having allowed just three runs and no home runs over his last four starts (spanning 23 innings), got tagged for three runs on two homers across five innings.
Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin, who came into the night with the highest ERA (5.73) of any qualified starter in the majors, tossed six shutout innings for the first time this year.
The combination, plus some ugly defense and missed opportunities offensively late, was enough to sink the Yankees in a 4-2 loss to the Nationals on a frustrating night at Nationals Park.
“Just a couple miscues, couple errors,” Aaron Judge said. “Can’t do that if you expect to win ball games. We had a chance there at the end, a couple chances the last two innings to come back and win it and sneak that one out, but couldn’t come away with it.”
Trailing 4-0 in the eighth inning, the Yankees (79-54) loaded the bases with no outs for Judge.
But the red-hot slugger proved to be human, drilling a 3-1 pitch into the ground for a double play that the Nationals (60-73) gladly traded for a run before Giancarlo Stanton grounded out to spoil the threat.
Then in the ninth, the Yankees scratched across one run as Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled and came around to score before they put runners on first and second with one out.
But against righty closer Kyle Finnegan, DJ LeMahieu flied out into foul territory and Gleyber Torres flied out just shy of the warning track to end it as the Yankees went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Asked if he considered pinch-hitting for LeMahieu (with Oswaldo Cabrera on the bench), manager Aaron Boone said he did not because Finnegan has “been a killer against lefties.”
The reliever came into the night holding lefties to a .186 average and .636 OPS (compared to .257 and .732 against righties).
A night after playing terrific defense, the Yankees got sloppy with three errors in the sixth inning that allowed the Nationals to turn a 3-0 lead into 4-0 — a run that loomed large late.
With one out, Dylan Crews hit a dribbler in front of the plate that Jose Trevino fielded and threw off-target to first base, allowing Crews to reach on a single and take second on the error.
Crews then stole third base, despite Trevino’s throw beating him there as Chisholm could not get the tag down properly, which set him up to score on ex-Yankee Joey Gallo’s ground ball to first base that LeMahieu bobbled twice allowing all runners to be safe.
“On a night when we’re not scoring a bunch of runs, we gotta make sure we’re tighter than that,” Boone said.
Gallo later stole second, but nobody covered the bag on the play as Trevino’s throw sailed into center field — Boone said Anthony Volpe and Torres both thought the other was covering – with Gallo moving up to third to cap a brutal sequence.
“Stuff happens like that,” Trevino said. “Miscommunication.”
The Nationals led 1-0 in the fourth inning when ex-Yankees prospect Andres Chaparro and Jose Tena went back-to-back off Cole on consecutive 96 mph fastballs for what were the first and second home runs of their careers.
“I thought we [were] convicted to both pitches and executed both of them pretty well,” said Cole, who struck out seven across five innings in his shortest start since July 6. “But they were the wrong pitch, and they put great swings on them.”
Corbin, meanwhile, stifled the Yankees.
He allowed just two hits — a two-out double by Judge in the first inning and a harmless single by Stanton in the fourth — and walked two while striking out six.
“He really worked that cutter to both sides of the plate well,” Judge said. “Worked it down and in, in off the plate a little bit. Was able to get ahead in the count and keep the pressure on us as hitters. Anytime they’re consistently 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, it’s going to make it tough. He just did a good job attacking us and attacking the zone.”
