How poetic was that ending for the Nationals to win this Beltway Series game on a 2-RBI walk-off single by the ex-Orioles catcher Matt Wieters?
This was a signature win. Mark this one down. To recap, this is how the final inning unfolded: Jayson Werth worked an 11 pitch at-bat to lead-off the 9th inning with an oppo boppo home run to cut the deficit to 6-5. Bryce Harper followed with an oppo double. Ryan Zimmerman had the opportunity to walk it off, but he hit a slow comebacker to the pitcher for the 1st out, and Bryce Harper wisely stayed home at 2nd base. Daniel Murphy worked the count to 3-1 and then was intentionally walked. Anthony Rendon in a 0-2 count stroked a hard single up the middle, and Bob Henley actually made the right move to hold Harper at 3rd base to load the bases for Matt Wieters to set the stage for a dramatic walk-off.
Wieters pulled a center-cut pitch over the first base bag for a hard hit that almost struck Anthony Rendon at 1st base. Harper scored easily followed by Daniel Murphy for the triumphant 7-6 walk-off winner!
Who else but Matt Albers for the W as he pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning. Michael Taylor had a 2-run home run in the 8th inning to cut the deficit to 6-4 from 6-2.
There were plenty of poor Nats at-bats tonight, but we don’t want to write about the negatives. On a strange note as even noted by Dusty Baker that Stephen Strasburg did not pitch as poorly as the boxscore might seem as he gave up 5 runs over 6 innings.
The Nats didn’t even need 27 outs as they got it done with 25 outs today!
“Boy, that was great,” Dusty Baker said in the post-game with a big smile.
“Wieters taking down his old team was pretty cool,” Stephen Strasburg said.
