Nationals’ bullpen fails to shut the door in 4-2 loss to Yankees

When the Nationals opt for the platoon advantage, they get burned. When they throw arguably their best reliever, Clayton Beeter, on the mound, they still can’t win.

There are not many levers left for manager Blake Butera to pull with the bullpen. He just needs the guys he puts on the mound to record outs.

Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Yankees was another gut-wrenching one for the Nationals, who entered the eighth with a 2-0 lead but, like 27 other times this season, couldn’t sustain it. Right-hander Orlando Ribalta entered and got Austin Wells to pop out.

After that, things quickly unraveled for the Nationals, who dropped to 48-48.

Ribalta allowed a solo homer to Ryan McMahon on a 2-2 count. He walked Ben Rice on six pitches before he was replaced by Beeter to face left-hander Trent Grisham.

Beeter entered Saturday having held lefties to a .595 OPS. But, on a 1-1 count, Grisham got all of a fastball at the top of the zone for a go-ahead, two-run bomb to right field that elicited a rapturous response from the Yankees fans in attendance.

But the Yankees, the only team in the majors with more homers than the Nationals, weren’t done. Veteran Paul Goldschmidt hit a solo homer for the fourth run of the inning. Beeter then allowed a line-drive double before being replaced by lefty Matt Krook, who recorded the final two outs.

By the end of the four-run eighth inning, the air had been sucked out of Nationals Park. It was a deflating loss for the club in a season filled with tremendous highs and agonizing lows.

There’s no reliable option in the bullpen for Butera in close games. He threw his two best right-handers out there Saturday and saw a lead turn into a deficit over the course of an inning.

Granted, the organization hasn’t invested much in the bullpen. The arms the Nationals are relying on are waiver claims and pitchers throwing in high-leverage spots for the first time in their careers, which isn’t uncommon for a team in the infacy of its rebuild. In the eighth inning or later, Nationals pitchers are sporting a 6.47 ERA, the worst mark in baseball.

But the hitting has provided optimism for a fanbase that has known nothing but despair over the past five seasons.

The offense didn’t have a huge day, but it gave the team a chance to win.

All-Star James Wood attacked the first pitch of the game for his 27th homer of the season, his ninth leadoff home run. First baseman Curtis Mead added a solo shot to left-center field. In a role reversal of Friday’s game, it was the Nationals who hit the early solo shots to grab hold of the game.

Nationals opener PJ Poulin and right-hander Miles Mikolas combined to throw 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

But the result was the same as Washington suffered its second consecutive disappointing loss.