Best of the Decade: Zimmermann's season-ending no-hitter

As the Nationals celebrate 10 seasons in Washington, D.C., we reflect on some of the best moments since the franchise moved to the nation's capital. Each Wednesday for the next 10 weeks, check out Nationals Pastime for a remembrance of one of the watershed moments in Nationals history.

The postseason was awaiting the Nationals when Jordan Zimmermann took the mound on the final day of the 2014 season. Washington had clinched the National League East title 13 days prior, but manager Matt Williams still sent his starters out against the Marlins.

"It's the perfect baseball day," Manager Matt Williams said to reporters about the Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park. "Eighty degrees and sunshine and the last day of the season. Lots of moves and some tense moments when it finally came down to it. So all in all, that's probably the perfect baseball day."

At the time that Ian Desmond belted a solo homer to give the Nats a 1-0 lead in the second, nobody paid much attention that Zimmermann had retired the Marlins first six hitters.

By the third inning, Williams started peeling off his veterans to rest for the playoffs later in the week. Denard Span was first to the bench with Anthony Rendon, Adam LaRoche and Bryce Harper following shortly after. When Zimmermann finally allowed his first baserunner on a walk to Justin Bour in the fifth, the Nationals reserves filled the field.

Williams planned on giving his prized right-hander an early day as well, but as the game progressed, he was left with no choice. Zimmermann continued discarding Marlin after Marlin, eventually finishing off the eighth inning with his 10th strikeout and still no hits allowed.

"I thought there was no way this would ever happen," Zimmermann told reporters. "My career numbers are something like one hit per inning, so I figure if I can make it out of the first, the hit's coming in the second."

Just before the final inning of the regular season, Williams made a crucial move, replacing Ryan Zimmerman in left field with athletic rookie Steven Souza Jr.

Zimmermann calmly recorded the first two outs of the final frame leaving Marlins center fielder Christian Yelich, a .285 hitter, standing between baseball immortality.

At that point, Zimmermann's precision was so high that only 23 of his 101 pitches entering the at-bat were balls. And when Yelich ripped a liner into the gap in left-center field, it was just the fifth ball to leave the infield the whole day.

At the crack of the bat, Zimmermann's head spun around.

"Double. No-doubt double," said Zimmermann to reporters of his immediate thought when the ball left Yelich's bat.

Meanwhile, the speedy Souza was racing in pursuit.

"Getting there, I kind of blacked out," he said to reporters.

It seemed as though the blistering laser had already passed Souza when somehow he flew into the picture, fully-extended and leaping through the air to grab the ball and secure Zimmermann's first career no-hitter.

"I knew it was over my head and I knew I was going to have to bust to get there," Souza said on MASN. "I was just hoping to have a prayer of laying out for him. Luckily I got a good jump on it and laid out and held on tight. When you hit the ground, anything can happen. When [my glove] turned, and I hit the ground, anything could have happened. I came down with that second hand like a football catch. That thing wasn't getting out."

Zimmermann's arms raised to the sky in exultation and disbelief as his teammates sprinted from the dugout for the raucous celebration. Finally, an amped up Souza made it back to the infield where he was met by a bear hug from Zimmermann.

"Whatever he wants, I don't care," Zimmermann to reporters when asked about what he would get Souza for the show-stopping catch. "I thought that was a double for sure, and here he comes out of nowhere and makes the play."

Meanwhile, Souza wasn't interested in a kickback.

"Just to make that catch is enough for me," he said.

Zimmermann's first career no-hitter was also the Nationals' first since moving to D.C.

* Miss any of the memorable moments we're highlighting from Nationals history? Here's the list to date:

No. 10: 10-game winning streaks in 2005, 2014
No. 9: Mr. Walk-Off started it all on Father's Day 2006
No. 8: Nationals return to the postseason in 2014
No. 7: Zimmerman's walk-off welcomes Nats to new home