ST. PETERSBURG – With the expected starting pitcher sick and out of action Friday night, Nationals right-hander Miles Mikolas changed his routine.
“Anything I can do to help this club win,’’ Mikolas said. “My body was clocked in at five days [since his last start]. I was ready to go.’’
On Friday night, Mikolas’ task was to eat innings while working in a bulk role behind an opener. The result wasn’t favorable in a 5-2 defeat against the Rays at Tropicana Field, but manager Blake Butera appreciated the effort.
“Miles has been awesome for us lately,’’ Butera said. “Even though it was last-minute, Miles was like, ‘I’ll be ready to go. Let’s do it.’ He goes a day earlier than he’s supposed to. A ton of credit for him to step up there and go in a spot where we were in trouble.
“It sets us up. Miles is willing to do whatever it takes to help us win. Him being able to get through the rest of that game and save the bullpen for these next two days, it’s enormous.’’
Cade Cavalli, the scheduled starter, was sidelined with food poisoning. Butera said that Cavalli was feeling better and should start on Saturday afternoon against Tampa Bay.
The Nationals used PJ Poulin as the opener for two scoreless innings. Mikolas entered with a 2-0 advantage – provided by solo home runs from CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. – but he faced immediate adversity in the third inning.
With one out, Mikolas walked ninth-place batter Hunter Feduccia, then Yandy Díaz singled. In a 1-1 count, Mikolas threw a changeup that Jonathan Aranda punched for an opposite-field three-run homer that clanked off the lower left-field foul pole.
“You can sneak one down the line here,’’ Mikolas said. “And he kind of snuck one down the line.’’
“It wasn’t a bad pitch,’’ Butera said. “Just an unfortunate outcome.’’
Overall, Mikolas went six innings, allowing nine hits and five runs, including Jonny DeLuca’s eighth-inning solo homer that made it 5-2. Mikolas is now 0-5 in his career against the Rays with a 6.98 ERA.
After falling behind, 3-2, the Nationals did little offensively, getting just two harmless singles after Aranda’s game-altering homer. In the eighth, the Nationals had runners on first and third with one out. Jacob Young looked to steal second base, but Rays left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger snuffed it out on the break and picked him off with Aranda throwing to second for the easy out.
“We trust [Young],’’ Butera said. “Cleavinger just made a good pickoff move.’’
Butera attributed the Nationals’ lack of offense to an effective Rays bullpen, which features an array of speeds and arm angles. Abrams and García provided some early power, and James Wood nearly had a third-inning homer of his own, but DeLuca dove against the wall in right-center field for a spectacular out.
Other than that, the Nationals were pretty silent.
“It’s really hard to get a ton of hits in an inning to score a bunch of runs,’’ Butera said. “We also know the Rays do a really good job throwing a ton of strikes. That’s their motto and they attack hitters. They threw some really good arms at us tonight and we struggled to get anything going. We just had trouble stringing anything together.’’