The Washington Nationals walk-off win yesterday got many people talking about some of those exciting and improbable wins of 2019 and that feeling of déjà vu. Dave Jageler from the Nats’ radio booth said, “Shades of 2019 rallies here in 2024.” On Friday night, Joey Meneses was in a spot where he could have been the walk-off hero. While it didn’t happen then, he got a do-over on Saturday and took care of some RISP business in the 10th inning of a tie game.
Baseball redemption is an amazing thing and Meneses said he was happy for another chance. He went oppo and shopping in the gap for the game winning walk-off hit. Credited with a single since the speedy Nasim Nunez scored before Meneses reached second base, it was a huge game for a player who was hitting a Mendozian .182 before this game, then went 3-5 and ratcheted his batting average all the way up to .217.
The Nats started the game with a CJ Abrams home run, and later Riley Adams would add a sacrifice fly. With the Nats trailing 4-2, it was Jesse Winker who hit a 2-run single to collar the Astros with a blown save. Then Meneses quickly put the exclamation point on the game with his walk-off hit. The game was started by Trevor Williams who held the Astros offense to just one run. He was in line for the win until the Nats bullpen sputtered. Like good teams do, they pick up their teammates — and the offense in Scrappy Nats fashion — did that on Saturday. But the win also took some great defense and Lane Thomas gunned down Jose Altuve at the plate on a would-be sac fly that was thwarted by a perfect Thomas throw.
The Nats rotation will continue without Josiah Gray until he is ready to return from his forearm muscular strain. Back to a 5-man rotation with Mitchell Parker added and he gets the start today in this season finale with the Houston Astros. Here’s what we think the schedule could look like going forward:
- Sunday: Mitchell Parker vs. Houston
- Monday: Day-off April 22
- Tuesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Dodgers
- Wednesday: Jake Irvin vs. Dodgers
- Thursday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Dodgers
- Friday: Trevor Williams vs. Miami
- Saturday: Parker vs. Miami
- Sunday: Corbin vs. Miami
- Monday: Irvin vs. Miami
- Tuesday: Gore vs. Texas
- Wednesday: Williams vs. Texas
- Thursday: Parker vs. Texas
- Friday: Corbin vs. Toronto
- Saturday: Irvin vs. Toronto
- Sunday: Gore vs. Toronto
- Monday: Day-off May 6
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has four Nats now with +0.8 WAR with Abrams, Winker, Williams and Hunter Harvey. MacKenzie Gore is at +0.7 WAR followed by Jake Irvin at +0.5. In total, 18 players are at positive WAR.
“It was definitely magic. We played a lot of games like that in 2019. I’ll reiterate that the boys don’t quit. They play hard until the last out. That’s my thing to play hard for 27 outs. You never know what’s going to happen.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.09 and tied for 27th in MLB. Obviously sample sizes are miniscule at this point. Still a lot of work for the Nationals to improve in the rankings.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Josiah Gray 14.04
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 8.06
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.60
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.13
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.91
Houston Astros vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, the Nats will be on Channel 178, and the opposing team online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.
Game 21:
The 2019 Nationals lost on 4/22 against the Rockies and moved their record to 10-11 on that date. Box Score / Standings
The 1924 Senators lost on 5/8 against the Boston Red Sox resulting in a Senators’ record of 9-12 on that date. Box Score / Standings
