*Photo from Bleacher Report*
It wasn't looking good at first, but the Washington Nationals finally got the playoff monkey off their backs. Stephen Strasburg pitched excellent in relief, Juan Soto had a huge go ahead hit, and the Nationals came back from a 3-0 deficit to stun the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3. Manager Dave Martinez said that ''We started off horrible, as we all know, and we vowed that we wouldn't quit, I told the boys, I promise you, stay with it, don't quit, this will turn around.' And it did. And here we are today.''
Starter Max Scherzer began the game by walking Trent Grisham, and then promptly gave up a two run line drive homer to Yasmani Grandal to give Milwaukee an early 2-0 lead. In the second, Eric Thames hit a solo homer to right center field to make it 3-0 Brewers. In the third, Trea Turner gave the Nats a jolt when he blasted a solo homer into the Brewers bullpen to make it 3-1. It stayed that way until the 8th inning, when Josh Hader entered. After Hader struck out Victor Robles, he hit pinch hitter Michael A Taylor in the wrist, and after he got the second out, gave up a bloop single to pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman, and walked Anthony Rendon. Soto then shot a single into right field, which at least would've tied the game, but the ball got by Grisham, which was able to score Rendon from first base and give the Nats a 4-3 lead. Daniel Hudson then needed just 11 pitches to finish the Brewers in the 9th to secure the win.
Scherzer went 5 innings for Washington, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. Strasburg got the win, pitching 3 dominant relief innings, which took away the chance for Strasburg to start game one of the NLDS. The Nats carry a 9 game winning streak into the matchup with the Dodgers, and ''Beat LA! Beat LA!'' chants were heard in the crowd. The Nats had been 0-3 in winner take all playoff games, until the wild card game. Of course, this alone won't erase the sting of several painful NLDS losses, but it's a start. Zimmerman said that ''We've been here a bunch of times. Never kind of broke through, finally caught a break tonight."
Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff pitched 4 innings, giving up just the one home run from Turner. Hader, who had 37 saves this year, took the loss after pitching the 8th. When Hader hit Taylor, the ball also hit the bat, so the Brewers challenged the play on the grounds that it hit Taylor's bat before his hand. The call on the field of a hit by pitch was upheld because there was insufficient evidence to overturn. Hader said that ''Definitely looked like it got the bat, but it also got his hand.'' Manager Craig Counsell said that ''The inning was an ugly inning, crazy things happen." Grisham said of his misplay that ''It's going to sting."
The Nats get to move on to play the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers, starting on Thursday, while all Milwaukee gets is lamentation.
Comments
Post a Comment