WASHINGTON — For 18 seasons, Carlos Beltran has played baseball with a casual grace that sometimes makes a difficult game look effortless. When Beltran was stroking home runs, running the bases or gliding across the outfield to steal away hits, he looked to have a gift that others did not.
Yet other times, it appeared less like elegance than indolence.
One of those was on display Wednesday night, and it may have swung the balance in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.
In the seventh inning, when Beltran pulled up at the last moment and did not slide, dive or otherwise try to catch a Dan Uggla fly ball down the right-field line in foul territory, it kept alive a plate appearance that eventually resulted in a walk, loading the bases.