Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Sometimes you come to the ballpark and see something you have never seen before. What a ninth inning for the Washington Nationals in a squeaker win at a final score of 2-1. In baseball, you do not win many games when you only score two runs, and tonight those two runs held up.
Paolo Espino went 5.0 innings of one run baseball, and had a career high seven strikeouts in this one as he handed the ball to a Nats’ bullpen who shutout the Mets over the final four innings of the game. Andres Machado, Sam Clay, Kyle McGowin, and Kyle Finnegan threw a combined one-hitter in their four innings of work.
It was a nail-biter though when Finnegan issued a lead-off walk to begin the ninth inning, and he got stellar defense behind him as the 21 year old, Luis Garcia, stepped up and made the play of the game behind him to “bowl a strike” as manager Dave Martinez called it to get the force-out at second base and the key first out before Garcia turned a nifty doubleplay to end the game.
The Nats offense was not great but they were great enough on this night to get the two runs needed to win the game.
Luis García made this *unbelievable* play with the game on the line.
(He’s only 21.)#NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/DGW1TIMKtK
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 28, 2021
