Gutsy, two-inning appearance by Finnegan made win possible

Upon reaching the dugout steps following a 1-2-3 top of the ninth, Kyle Finnegan caught Davey Martinez’s eye and told his manager he wanted to return to the mound for the top of the 10th.

To which the Nationals manager replied: “Well, I want to win right here and not send you back out. But if we have to, yeah.”

Much to Martinez’s chagrin, the Nats did not win Friday night’s game in the bottom of the ninth, so he did ultimately have to send his closer back out there for a second inning of work, one day after he’d thrown 28 pitches during a disastrous outing that resulted in three runs crossing the plate.

This time, Finnegan posted a zero, stranding the go-ahead runner at third base and giving his teammates another opportunity to walk-off the Angels. Which is exactly what they did, thanks to Alex Call’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the 10th.

“I’m happy they had trust in me to go back out there and try to strand that leadoff runner on base,” he said.

Martinez has often asked a lot of Finnegan over the years, but this might have been the most he’s ever asked of the Nationals closer. All told, the right-hander threw 47 pitches across three innings in roughly 28 hours.

“He wants the ball. He wants to win,” Martinez said. “When he goes out there, he knows for us he’s the last man standing. When he’s in there, it’s to close games, and he’s grown accustomed to it. He loves doing it. I’ve said this before: Every time we get to the ninth inning or the 10th inning, he’s the guy.”

Finnegan’s second inning of work Friday culminated with one of the biggest head-to-head encounters of the season. With runners on the corners and two out in a tie game, he had to face Anthony Rendon. The former Nats star, returning to D.C. for the first time since the 2019 World Series, already had three hits in the game. Now he had a chance to deliver the winning hit.

Rendon worked the count full, barely checking his swing on a 2-2 fastball at the letters that could have been called strike three but was not. Now, Finnegan had to decide whether to go right back to the well or try to throw Rendon’s timing off with a splitter. He chose to go back to the well and fired a 96 mph fastball just a few inches lower than the previous one.

“I think it was pretty clear I was going to keep throwing him fastballs up and try to get him to chase one,” Finnegan said. “The first two were a little too much out of the zone, so you’ve got to be careful there as you start to bring it back into the zone, to not over-adjust and not throw it over the plate too much. I felt like I did a good job of trusting the plan and not just trying to throw a strike because it was a 3-2 count, but throwing a quality strike, something we could get a swing and miss on.”

Sure enough, Finnegan’s location was precise, and Rendon’s swing was late. He hopped off the mound following his 29th pitch of the night, one of the biggest he’s thrown all season, then got to celebrate with his teammates a few minutes later when Call delivered the walk-off single.

This was clearly Finnegan’s best performance in a while. He had been scored upon in three of his previous five appearances. He had allowed at least one hit in all five during a stretch that saw his ERA jump from 2.32 to 3.64.

He’s already reached the 30-save mark, and he earned the first All-Star selection of his career. But the 32-year-old feels like he still has plenty of unfinished business to attend to over the next seven weeks.

“Complacency’s a killer,” he said. “And if you’re happy with what you’ve done so far this year and you let off, that’s when you can really start getting hurt. It’s been a good year for me here, but I’m focused on finishing strong. I don’t want to look back on the season and say I had a good first half. I want to say I had a good season. That’s kind of what’s inspiring me lately: Just trying to finish strong and build into the offseason.”