When you have an elite offense, you are truly never out of a game. Nationals fans, including myself, are learning that this season. Even when the offense has nothing to offer early in the game, they have the ability to turn it on at any moment. That is exactly what they did in a crazy 7th inning rally this afternoon.
For the first six innings, the offense and the atmosphere was lifeless. It was a nice Nationals Park crowd, but the Padres took the fans out of the game. Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado
and Fernando Tatis Jr. all homered off of Foster Griffin. The Tatis homer was his first of the season, and he celebrated like a major monkey was taken off his back.
Besides the solo homers, Foster Griffin was solid. He gave the Nats 5 clean innings to keep them in the game. However, getting a rally going against Michael King felt like a tall task. Besides a Drew Millas solo homer, the Nats had nothing to offer against the right hander. It looked a lot like last year, with a steady flow of ground outs.
Through six innings, King was absolutely cruising, but everything changed in an instant. CJ Abrams started things off with an innocent seeming base hit. Then Jose Tena struck what appeared to be a double play ball. However, Tatis made a bad throw to second base and everyone was safe.
This really seemed to rattle King because he totally lost the zone. He walked the light hitting Jorbit Vivas and then hit Dylan Crews with a pitch to make it a one run game. There were still no outs, and King’s day was done. The craziness continued though. Drew Millas hit what appeared to be a force out to tie the game, but Xander Bogaerts missed the bag at second base and everyone was safe again.
It was very close and the Padres challenged it, but the call on the field was upheld. Former Nats pitcher and current Padres manager Craig Stammen was still not happy, and got himself tossed. It was his first career ejection as a player or manager.
The Nats kept pouring it on from there. Curtis Mead came in to pinch hit and calmly took a walk to get another run in. A couple batters later, Luis Garcia drove in two more with a base hit. However, my favorite run scoring play from the inning came when Daylen Lile beat out what seemed to be a tailormade double play.
Lile’s hustle says a lot about him as a player and the Nats culture. The Nats left fielder has been struggling lately and easily could have not gone 100% down the line. However, he immediately put his head down and went into a full on sprint. He just barely beat the throw and a run came in to score.
Having that extra run made me feel a little more comfortable when Gus Varland totally lost the strike zone in the next inning. Varland got two quick outs before totally melting down. He allowed a run on a double to Machado and then threw 8 straight balls to close out his outing. Clayton Beeter came in and saved the day, but that was a tense situation.
Curtis Mead made things a bit less tense when he blew the game wide open in the top of the 9th. Jacob Young had gotten a bad jump on a squeeze play and got thrown out at home for the second out. Mead picked up his teammate by drilling a double down the line to score two runs and make it 9-4.
As I wrote about today, Mead has been absolutely outstanding for this team. He did not even start this game, but still made a big impact. Mead got that RBI walk in his first at bat and then got a clutch double to ice the game.
Clayton Beeter pitched in front of a raucous Nationals Park crowd that included a large tarps off section. The crowd was chanting and cheering the whole inning. Beeter put up a zero and got the Curly W. The fans were loving every moment of it, and the Nats got over .500 again.
I wanted to shout out Brad Lord as well, who was an unsung hero in this game. His two scoreless innings helped the Nats stay in the game. He is such a weapon out of the bullpen, and I think he deserves to be put in even higher leverage spots. I love how he goes after hitters.
This was a game where they could have easily rolled over. However, they did not do that and that shows something about the character of this group. Even when it looks grim, the Nats offense can strike at any moment. Now, the Nats have a chance to go for yet another series win to finish out May tomorrow.
