Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
This game lived up to the expectations of dueling aces on the mound, and it was Max Scherzer who bested Zack Wheeler for the Curly W in a 2-1 game, and Scherzer’s 180th career win. Both pitchers went into the 8th inning of this game which is something you rarely see. The game winning RBI game from a Juan Soto solo oppo bomb. Out of the bullpen with four outs to get to seal the victory, Daniel Hudson and Brad Hand finished the game off in the bullpen.
This was one of the best chess matches that manager Dave Martinez mastered. But the team was helped out by a major running TOOTBLAN by pinch-runner Travis Jankowski who was on second base with no outs and tagged out unassisted by catcher Alex Avila who ran him down between third and second base.
1. #DontRunOnYan🚷
2. #DontStandBetweenSecondAndThirdOnAvila#NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/5ElCQaT5sC
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 5, 2021
Also, Martinez became the winningest manager in Washington Nationals history tonight with 225 wins as he passed the great Davey Johnson. He received a beer shower after the game.
The Nats first run was scored by Trea Turner on a bloop double by Josh Bell which proved it isn’t how hard you hit it — but where you hit it. The ball had an exit velo of 69 mph off of Bell’s bat and traveled only 220 feet.
For Scherzer, his final line was 7 2/3 innings of 1-run baseball with 5 hits, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts. He ratcheted up his season’s strikeout total to 104, and 2,888 for his career.
“He was phenomenal tonight ,” Martinez said of his ace. “All of his pitches were electric.”
The moral of this game is the Phillies did not execute on the “little things” and the Nats made almost all of the plays including a great running catch in the gap by Victor Robles, and everything in between until the lead-off double in the 9th inning off of Hudson at the wall over Soto’s glove that turned into the Jankowski play a few minutes later. You could say Jankowski picked-up Soto there.
