Photo by LGF for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals won this game by a final score of 13-12 but how they got there sounds like a whole lot of fiction, but it is all true. The team mounted two come-from-behind charges in this game.
When the Nats dug themselves into a 5-run hole and clawed back to tie it just to fall back to a 4-run hole, it felt like deja vu all over again. This time was different. The team would never give up in this one. There were four hits in this game that drove in big runs.
The game was tied with a 5-run fifth inning courtesy of Kyle Schwarber who smashed an oppo 3-run home run. Then the Nats fell behind again to a 9-5 deficit and then took the lead for the first time with a 6-run sixth inning on a 2-run single by Trea Turner followed shortly afterwards on an oppo grand slam by Josh Bell to go up for the first time in the game by a score of 11-9.
But then the Nats had a blown save in the eighth inning to fall behind 12-11. It was an Alex Avila sacrifice bunt to move two runners up so Starlin Castro could hit the game winning single in the 9th inning for the final scoring at 13-12 that was officially made a win after Paolo Espino recorded his first save.
All of that was true, and it took many clutch hits and walks to get to that point in this dramatic game. It also took some really bad pitching performances like Erick Fedde‘s abbreviated 4.0 inning start in which he gave up 5 earnies. Kyle McGowin in just 2/3 of an inning managed to give up 4 runs on a grand slam that put the Nats in that 9-5 deficit. Wander Suero did his part and Sam Clay had a great first inning of work, but he was asked to pitch a second inning and it got away from him and he was charged with 1 run as Justin Miller got him out of the inning without further damage. Austin Voth who pitched two innings yesterday and just had nothing in the tank today was charged with 2 runs in 1/3 of an inning, and it was Tanner Rainey who gave up the lead and was collared with the blown save — but then vultured the win.
In the past 11 days, Schwarber now has 10 home runs and 19 RBIs. Now he looks like Nostradamus when he seemed like he was out of touch with his optimism as the Nats had improved from 9 games under .500 to 8 games under and a far cry from sniffing .500 this year. The Nats were looking like sellers at that point, and the difference a week and a half makes.
“Stay with us, stay with us. … I mean, I got a lot of belief in this team,” Schwarber said back then. “There’s been a lot of adversity thrown at the team. To start the year, guys were on the COVID list. There have been some injuries here, left and right. … I always feel like we’re in games. I never feel like we’re out of reach.”
What has happened with the Nats since then has made them the hottest team in baseball with a 9-1 record in those ten games. This win was one of the greatest in the Nationals’ history. You can debate the five or so other great ones like the Dan Uggla game against Atlanta or the Kurt Suzuki game against the Mets in 2019 or even the May 24th game of 2019.
The team is now just one game under .500 and could be in sole possession of second place if the score in the Mets vs. Braves game holds up.
After the game, it was tropical shirt dress-up day on the “Happy Flight” to Miami for a four game series this weekend.
Today was a good day #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/6YgXMC66Tk
— Kyle Schwarber (@kschwarb12) June 23, 2021
The Nats swept this two-game series against the Phillies that had the most dramatic pitcher “foreign substance” frisking we have seen plus managerial arguments and this morning there were tough words from general manager Mike Rizzo who called Phillies manager Joe Girardi a “con artist” and while we expected some more shenannigans in today’s game, all of the drama was in the craziness of the game. The Phillies had two blown saves, a dropped pop-up that was ruled an RBI single for Victor Robles, and some managerial decisions that had you scratching your head.
In the end, the box score was loaded with lots of offense that jacked up many ERAs today in this Nationals win that took 4 hours and 19 minutes to play to the end in front of a crowd of under 18,000 fans, many who booed their home team Phillies at several points in this game.
