The Nationals were behind 7-5 in the 8th inning. Dusty Baker called on Jayson Werth to pinch-hit against ex-teammate Felipe Rivero, and Werth delivered a booming two-run HR over the centerfield wall to tie the game at 7-7. PNC Park had plenty of cheers from the Nats fans who stayed in Pittsburgh an extra day after watching the Nationals clinch the NL East crown last night.
After the Werth home run, the Nats then added on 3 more runs to move ahead 10-7. In an emotional game on the heels of the tragic news of the passing of Jose Fernandez the Nats had an incident after a fake play on Bryce Harper who was set for a stand-up triple, but for some inexplicable reason Jung-ho Kang faked a catch on a ball that wasn’t even thrown into him which caused Harper to go into an awkward slide that injured his thumb. Dusty Baker went with the umpire after checking on Harper to say something to Pittsburgh’s manager Clint Hurdle.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Bryce Harper was replaced by Chris Heisey. A.J. Cole took out some revenge and threw behind Kang. The benches cleared and Cole and Sean Rodriguez were thrown out of the game.
Kang in the bottom of the 7th inning hit a two-run HR off of Koda Glover in a 3-0 count to make the score 7-5 in favor of the Pirates.
With this Nats victory, they are now at 91 wins! This was also the longest 9 inning game in Nationals history at 4 hours 1 minute with a combined 45 players used.
Dusty says Bryce Harper's thumb is sore. Day-to-day for now, x-rays tomorrow. Nats say it's not in the area the thumb was hurt in the past
— Dan Kolko (@masnKolko) September 25, 2016
