After Hudson blows lead, Rendon saves the day (updated)

By Mark Zuckerman

Nationals

August 30, 2019, 6:48pm

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They danced with the devil all night, failing to capitalize against the National League's worst team despite countless opportunities. They were sloppy in the field. They got only five innings out of their starter, then watched their bullpen blow a late lead.

Even when they retook the lead late, they still couldn't hold onto it.

Until their best player - perhaps even a legitimate NL MVP candidate - saved the day just in time to avoid total disaster.

After watching Daniel Hudson blow a save in the top of the ninth, the Nationals stormed back to win in the bottom of the inning when Anthony Rendon ripped a two-run single to left off Marlins closer Ryne Stanek, bringing home the two runs required to pull off a wild 7-6 victory that was oh-so-close to ending in misery for the home team.

The Nationals did everything in their power to lose tonight's series opener against the Marlins. Somehow they didn't.

"Nobody said it's going to be easy, as we all know," manager Davey Martinez said. "But this team has character. They're resilient. They stay in the fight, day in and day out. And that's all you can ask them to do."

They certainly tested the theory tonight. Handed a one-run lead in the top of the ninth, Hudson immediately gave it back via a leadoff single and then a two-run homer to Starlin Castro that left the home team in a 6-5 deficit.

But then the lineup bailed the bullpen out in the bottom of the ninth. Pinch-hitter Howie Kendrick led off with a single to right-center, then took second when Trea Turner drew a walk. Gerardo Parra drew groans from the crowd when he popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt, but Stanek bailed him out with a high pitch off catcher Jorge Alfaro's mitt. Ruled a passed ball, the pitch gave Rendon a chance with two runners in scoring position.

"I think it gives me a little bit more leeway," Rendon said of the passed ball. "Because I can hit a popup in the outfield and it will still get the tying run home. But I still tried to stay within myself. I knew if I tried to get too big right there, then maybe I wouldn't have stayed through that ball. I would have rolled it over and then ground out."

Stanek's 2-1 pitch to Rendon - a slider down and away - was designed to induce a rollover ground ball to the left side. Somehow, Rendon managed to pull the ball and still get some air under it, lining a single to left that brought Kendrick home from third and Turner home from second, setting off a mad celebration on the field.

"I'm lucky he's on my team," Hudson said. "He's pretty much a complete hitter. ... It's been fun to watch him the last month. He's been on a tear and just doing MVP things."

That's not an exaggeration. At the end of this 3-for-4 night, Rendon now leads the NL with a .333 batting average. He's second to Christian Yelich with a .412 on-base percentage. He's second to Freddie Freeman with 107 RBIs. He's third to Yelich and Cody Bellinger with a 1.031 OPS.

Maybe that's why the crowd of 26,201 was chanting "MVP! MVP!" as Rendon was interviewed on the field moments after he won the game.

"He's been phenomenal," Martinez said. "I say it all the time, but for me he's a candidate for the MVP. He is. He's carried us in big moments all year long."

All of this came after Hunter Strickland and Roenis ElÃas combined to let Miami tie the game during an unsightly top of the seventh, only to watch as Juan Soto picked up his teammates with a clutch, two-out RBI double in the bottom of the seventh, scoring pinch-runner Max Scherzer - yes, pinch-runner Max Scherzer - from second to give the Nationals the lead again.

Adam Eaton (held out from starting due to a bruised right knee but able to pinch-hit) and Rendon each drew a walk to bring Soto to the plate with two on and two out. Marlins manager Don Mattingly countered with lefty Jarlin Garcia, against whom Soto was 0-for-5 in his career. Martinez countered with ... Scherzer, sent out to second base to pinch-run for Eaton, an ominous sign of Eaton's health.

"He was like Roger Rabbit behind me, ready to go," Martinez said of Scherzer. "Eaton's sore. He got a big walk for us, but when he jogged to second base he just didn't look right. And like I said before, you don't want something else to get hurt. So Max was ready."

Garcia got ahead in the count 1-2, but Soto then pounced on a slider up in the zone and drove it to right field, the ball clanging off the wall. Scherzer, upper back strain and all, sprinted around the bases to score the go-ahead run as the crowd roared with approval.

Fernando Rodney retired the side in the eighth, but Hudson could not finish it off in the ninth, necessitating one final rally in the bottom of the inning.

The evening already had an ominous tone only two batters in, when newfound Nats killer Ramirez blasted a 433-foot home run off AnÃbal SÃ¡nchez to give the Marlins a quick 1-0 lead. The Nationals would take the lead right back in the bottom of the inning and extend it to 3-1 in the second, but it was clear from the outset this would not be a cakewalk.

With SÃ¡nchez taking an usually long time between pitches and the Marlins fouling off 27 of his 94 offerings, the Nationals defense wasn't exactly kept on its toes all night. Whether that's an excuse or not, it might explain in part their sloppy play in the field.

Officially, the Nats committed two errors: a bad flip from Turner to AsdrÃºbal Cabrera on what should've been a simple 6-4-3 double play, then a dropped throw by SÃ¡nchez while covering first on a grounder to Matt Adams.

Unofficially, they made several more mistakes, including a misplay by Parra of a deep fly ball to right that became a ground rule double and eventually set the stage for Miami to score its second run of the game.

"A little sloppy, I'm not going to lie to you," Martinez said of his team's defensive play all night.

SÃ¡nchez's high pitch count cost him a chance at a second consecutive long start. He reached the ninth inning one week ago at Wrigley Field. Tonight, he was pulled after only five, his team leading 3-2 but the pressure now on the bullpen to hold that lead over four innings of work.

Wander Suero got things going in the right direction when he retired the side on 10 pitches, inducing three ground balls, in the top of the sixth. The Nationals then tacked on an insurance run via back-to-back doubles by Rendon and Soto, handing Strickland a 4-2 lead for the seventh.

That's when the evening's sloppy proceedings finally caught up with the home team. Strickland, making his return from paternity leave, served up three straight singles plus a walk, and though he rebounded to record a strikeout, Martinez decided not to press his luck any longer and summon ElÃas from the bullpen.

ElÃas, making his highly anticipated return from a hamstring strain suffered in his Nationals debut four weeks ago, was handed a bases-loaded jam and was being asked to retire a left-handed batter, against whom he struggled for four months with the Mariners. And sure enough, the lefty walked Isan DÃaz on five pitches, forcing in the tying run.

ElÃas bounced back to induce an inning-ending double play out of the right-handed Lewis Brinson, but the damage was done. The game was tied in the seventh, and a Nationals club that never looked fully invested in this contest now needed to dig deep in an attempt to pull off a victory.

"Let's just say we won a tough game," Martinez said. "Come back tomorrow and do it again."