WASHINGTON _ In some ways, the final weekend of the 2017 season is a low-stakes affair for both the Pirates and the Washington Nationals. The Pirates have no postseason position to preserve; the Nationals have little to gain, outside of learning which relievers to rely on next month and how postseason-ready Bryce Harper, who sat out Thursday's series opener, will be after a long injury.
Then again, any chance for the Pirates to get another look at their young talent, particularly the promising but underperforming Tyler Glasnow, is not an opportunity to waste. Glasnow got a chance to eat some innings in the midst of the Pirates' 5-4 loss to the Nationals at Nationals Park, a game in which Josh Bell tied the Pirates' record for home runs by a rookie.
Glasnow's previous appearances on the mound this month have been carefully calculated: After struggling in his own starts, he piggybacked off an outing from Steven Brault last week.
This time was different. In the third inning, starter Ivan Nova was at bat, squaring to bunt, and took a pitch to a finger in his right hand. He immediately jogged down the third-base line, writhing in pain, and left the game; his season over. In 31 starts this season, Nova (11-14) had a 4.14 ERA and 129 strikeouts over a career-high 187 innings.
Even if Glasnow was scheduled to come out of the bullpen Thursday, he couldn't have expected to take the mound in the third. Perhaps being thrown into the mix was a good thing; while the right-hander still struggled with his control, comparatively speaking, he showed improvement after his other rocky September stints. In 32/3 innings, he allowed two hits and one run and struck out two. He also had a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. One hit, an infield single to Victor Robles, was erased when Robles was caught stealing; the initial safe call was overturned on a Pirates' challenge.
For Glasnow, the issue, once again, proved to be unforced errors. Glasnow walked five batters, including three in the sixth inning, before he was pulled in favor of Edgar Santana, and had a wild pitch. Santana, who is also jockeying for a spot on the major league roster in 2018, struck out Robles, stranding three on the bases.
The Pirates and Nationals were locked at 2-2 for much of the game. Nova allowed a run in a messy first inning and threw 34 pitches before leaving the game in the bottom of the third, when the Pirates got two runs off Nationals starter Edwin Jackson. Christopher Bostick got his first RBI on a double to left-center field, scoring Max Moroff. Starling Marte singled to score Bostick and extend his hitting streak to nine games.
The Nationals offense blew things open in the seventh inning. Reliever Dovydas Neverauskas, who is being evaluated this month for a possible late-inning role next season, walked Anthony Rendon and gave up a triple to Alejandro De Aza. He recorded just one out and allowed two runs.
After the third inning, no Pirates reached base until the ninth. Then came Bell, who had struck out three times before facing closer Sean Doolittle. Doolittle, a critical piece of the Nationals' refurbished bullpen, gave up a single to Andrew McCutchen, which Bell followed with his 26th home run of the season to go with 89 RBIs. Bell tied Jason Bay in 2004 for most home runs in a season by a Pirates rookie.
But that would not prove to be enough. In the bottom of the ninth, Daniel Hudson gave up consecutive singles to hitters in the heart of the Nationals' order. With runners at the corners and no outs, De Aza played hero, walking off the game with an RBI single that scored Anthony Rendon.
