Shane Smith took a perfect game into the sixth inning, Brooks Baldwin homered and drove in three, and the Chicago White Sox limited the Washington Nationals to one hit in a 8-0 rout in the season finale for both last-place teams<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON — Shane Smith took a perfect game into the sixth inning, Brooks Baldwin homered and drove in three, and the Chicago White Sox limited the Washington Nationals to one hit in a 8-0 rout on Sunday in the season finale for both last-place teams.<\/p>\n
Miguel Vargas and Dominic Fletcher also homered for the White Sox, who concluded their first season under Will Venable at 60-102. It was a 19-game improvement after the franchise went 41-121 in 2024 to set the modern record for single-season losses.<\/p>\n
Washington closed at 66-96, a decline of five games after going 71-91 the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
The Nationals finished last in the NL East for the fifth time in six years. Interim manager Miguel Cairo was 29-43 after taking over for Dave Martinez, who was fired July 6<\/a> with Washington at 37-53.<\/p>\n Smith (7-8) retired the first 16 batters he faced before Brady House singled. The right-hander struck out eight in six innings.<\/p>\n Vargas hit a two-run homer<\/a> off Washington starter Brad Lord (5-10) in the first inning. Baldwin hit a solo shot<\/a> and Fletcher had a two-run homer<\/a> in the fourth.<\/p>\n Lord allowed five runs in four innings.<\/p>\n Baldwin added a two-run double off Shinnosuke Ogasawara in the fifth.<\/p>\n Former National Michael A. Taylor, who announced his retirement before the game<\/a>, received applause<\/a> before each plate appearance and had an RBI groundout in the eighth in his final at-bat.<\/p>\n Before the first pitch, the Nationals emptied the dugout and bullpen and doffed their caps toward broadcaster Bob Carpenter, who is retiring after 20 years as the team\u2019s television play-by-play voice.<\/p>\n Washington OF James Wood struck out three times to finish with 221 for the season, the third most in a season behind Mark Reynolds (223 in 2009) and Adam Dunn (222 in 2012).<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s season attendance of 1,916,768 was a 1% decrease from last year\u2019s total.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n