WASHINGTON — Across households in the tri-state area Tuesday night, John Sterling was likely being quoted — at least by fans who did not opt for profanities.
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 late, was enough to sink the Yankees in a 4-2 loss to the Nationals on a frustrating night at Nationals Park.
The Yankees (79-54) had a chance to jump right back into the game in the eighth inning, trailing 4-0, when they loaded the bases with no outs for Aaron Judge.
But the red-hot slugger drilled a 3-1 pitch into the ground, hitting into 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 DJ LeMahieu flew out to foul territory and Gleyber Torres flew out just shy of the warning track to end it.
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.
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.
Gallo later stole second, but nobody covered the bag on the play as Trevino’s throw sailed into center field, with Gallo moving up to third to cap off an ugly sequence.
The Nationals took a 1-0 lead off Cole in the second inning when Jose Tena singled, Dylan Crews doubled off the base off the left-field wall (for his first career hit) and Gallo followed by grounding to second.
In the fourth, Andres Chaparro and Tena went back-to-back off Cole for the first and second home runs of their career, respectively.
Chaparro, the ex-Yankees prospect, was robbed of a two-run homer Monday night by Aaron Judge’s spectacular leaping grab at the center-field wall.
But he left no doubt against Cole, jumping on a 96 mph fastball at the top of the zone and crushing it into the left-field seats.
Tena followed by blasting the very next pitch — a 96 mph fastball on the inner-third — 405 feet to right-center field to make it a 3-0 Nationals lead.
Cole struck out seven on the night but after he needed 91 pitches to record 15 outs, Aaron Boone went to the bullpen.
Corbin, meanwhile, stifled the Yankees’ bats. He allowed just two hits — a two-out double by Judge in the first inning and a harmless single by Giancarlo Stanton in the fourth — and walked two while striking out six.