*Photo from the Washington Times*
Needing a big hit, the unlikely hero stepped up once again. Ildemaro Vargas drove in a run, Joey Meneses had the game winning hit, and the Washington Nationals rallied to defeat the Oakland Athletics with a 7-5 victory in 10 innings on Thursday afternoon in Washington.
After winning on Wednesday to tie the 3 game series, the Nationals delivered their second straight win on Thursday, taking the interleague series win. A big reason why has been Meneses. His walk off home run continued a torrid stretch since he was called up after the trade deadline. He has a .354 batting average with 7 home runs and 15 RBI's, adding 6 doubles in 25 games, the best mark by a Nationals rookie since Anthony Rendon in 2013.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Meneses that "His damage is really staying in the middle of the field, going the other way. He’s crushing balls like that, especially with two strikes. I’m going to take that into consideration if I’m a young hitter and say, ‘Man, I’ve got to stay on the ball,’ and learn."
Meneses got the scoring started in the first inning with an RBI single, making it 1-0 Nationals. In the 5th inning, Shea Langeliers hit the game tying solo home run to make it 1-1. In the 7th, two RBI singles from Tony Kemp and Sean Murphy made it 3-1 Oakland, before a fielders choice from Nelson Cruz scored Meneses to make it a 3-2 game.
When the 8th inning came around, Vargas tied the game with an RBI single to make it a 3-3 tie. Langeliers hit a two run double in the 10th, putting Oakland ahead 5-3. Keibert Ruiz hit an RBI double in the bottom half to make it 5-4, before Meneses called game with a walk off 3 run home run.
Martinez said of the Meneses walk off that "He chased a ball out of the zone. But I said, ‘If he gets the ball down in the zone, where he can hit it, he’ll hit it hard.' Sure enough, he hit and he stayed on the ball. That’s what I love about him, is he uses the whole field when he goes to hit."
It was Paolo Espino who started for the Nationals, allowing one run on 5 hits, striking out 6 hitters in 5 innings pitched. Hunter Harvey got the win thanks to him pitching in the 10th inning. Victor Arano, Jake McGee, Carl Edwards Jr, Erasmo Ramirez, and Kyle Finnegan also pitched for the Nationals.
For the A's, Ken Waldichuk made his MLB debut as the starter. Waldichuk allowed one run on 5 hits and 4 walks, striking out 6 hitters over 4 2/3 innings pitched. Joel Payamps was charged with one run in two innings pitched. Sam Moll pitched one inning, and AJ Puk followed that up with 1 1/3 innings. Norge Ruiz got the loss by giving up the walk off homer.
Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said that "We’re going to continue to preach early outs and getting ahead of hitters and being able to finish. And that’s been a little bit of our nemesis this year, being able to finish, and it caught up to us again."
Up next, the Nationals travel to face the New York Mets on Friday night, with Josiah Gray getting the start. The A's travel to square off with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, where JP Sears is expected to get the start.
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