Nats finally convert late, rally to beat Mets (updated)

All weekend, over the course of five games in four days, the Nationals battled their way back against the Mets. Three times they trailed, once by a whopping nine runs, and rallied to tie late, only to ultimately lose in the end.

But today, in their final matchup of the season, the Nats finally finished the job.

Down a run in the bottom of the ninth but owning at least some confidence in their ability to rally against the New York bullpen, the Nationals stormed back to win, 4-3, getting a game-tying single from Andrew Stevenson and then the game-winning single from Carter Kieboom to set off a much-needed celebration at the middle of the diamond.

"It's pretty hard to describe, honestly," Kieboom said during a postgame Zoom session with reporters. "To swing the bats the way we did all week and to come up short, and then to finally pull one out there at the end, it's awesome."

After an agonizing afternoon that saw them go 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position for eight innings, the Nats got two clutch hits in succession in the bottom of the ninth. With two on and one out, Stevenson (already part of two previous late-inning highlights earlier this weekend) ripped a single to right, bringing Alcides Escobar home from second (a late review confirmed he touched the plate) with the tying run.

Then, with Stevenson running on the pitch, Kieboom sent a grounder up the middle and past both of the Mets' middle infielders, allowing Josh Bell to score the winning run and bring the entire dugout out onto the field to celebrate.

"It was hit, and I was like: I've got to beat this ball to second," said Stevenson, who had the entire play develop right in front of him. "Can't give them a play for the force (out) right there. So right there, I'm just putting my head down and hoping to stay out of the double play."

Kieboom's grounder had an exit velocity of just 70.7 mph. But he couldn't have placed it any better, especially with both infielders moving to cover the base with Stevenson running on the pitch.

"Best-case scenario, you hit a home run, or you hit one deep into the outfield," he said. "You try to stay away from the corners, and you try to stay to the middle of the field. And once I saw it get past Diaz, I knew the chances were in my favor at that point."

All of this at the end of a game when the Nationals kept finding ways to squander opportunities.

Juan Soto's RBI groundout in the first and Lane Thomas' RBI single in the fourth brought home their only runs, Thomas' hit the team's only one of the game with a runner in scoring position. Otherwise, they simply could not convert, making 12 outs with runners on second or third (or both) in the first five innings alone.

They had another golden opportunity to convert in the bottom of the eighth with runners on the corners and two out. And when Thomas scorched a liner 103.4 mph up the middle, the crowd thought the game was about to be tied. But Javier Báez managed to knock the ball down and throw from his knees to get Thomas by an eyelash to prevent the tying run from scoring.

Fortunately, the payday would finally come one inning later.

"These guys have been playing hard," manager Davey Martinez said. "I know their effort has been there, day in and day out. It's good to see us come back and get a victory."

It's too late for Patrick Corbin for salvage this season. That ship has long since sailed. But there is time for him to begin the process of rediscovering his lost form and at least head into the winter feeling a little better about his chances in 2022 and beyond. With that in mind, Martinez decided to have an old friend work with him this afternoon: Alex Avila.

Avila, back on the active roster this week following a two-month stint on the injured list for dual calf strains and later a positive COVID-19 test, started his first game behind the plate since June 27. The hope: Given his familiarity with Corbin from a previous joint stop in Arizona and the first half of this season, the veteran catcher might be able to help guide the struggling lefty through a better outing.

And in some respects, that's exactly what happened. Corbin was far from great. He continued to have trouble missing bats and did allow 11 hits in total. But he kept the ball on the ground for the most part, he got ahead in the count and didn't rack up a heavy pitch count. And when he returned to the mound for the sixth inning, he had allowed only two runs.

"I thought early on I made some pitches, they got some hits that fell in that weren't necessarily hit that hard," Corbin said. "But I felt like I was able to pitch out of a couple jams, which was good."

It took no time for that to change when Pete Alonso blasted Corbin's second pitch of the inning, a slider above the knees, into the left field bullpen for a leadoff homer that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead. But his day wasn't over just yet.

With his bullpen exhausted - and quite frankly with nothing to lose at this point - Martinez sent Corbin back to the mound for the top of the seventh and hoped for the best. It got dicey, with a pair of Mets reaching and then a long, nine-pitch showdown with Michael Conforto resulting in a drive to deep left-center, but Yadiel Hernandez tracked it down to end the inning and allow Corbin to leave on a high note.

"I was trying to throw some good pitches that he kept fouling off," the lefty said of the last of his four encounters with Conforto today. "And knowing that's your last hitter, you're trying to be aggressive there to a point and locate. He put up a battle. I tried to make the best pitches I could there. I think it just got in on him enough where he couldn't drive it to left-center as well as he could, and Yadi ran it down."

It required a whopping 114 pitches, but Corbin made it through seven innings, allowing three runs. And so he was credited with his 10th quality start of the season. He had 24 of them in 2019, so this pales in comparison. But at this time on this day, it's exactly what the left-hander and the Nationals needed.

Even more so when two innings later, they delivered the final clutch hit they waited all weekend to deliver and finally get a chance to celebrate.

"The other day when we were down nine and came back and tied it up, that's pretty impressive even though it didn't finish the way we wanted to," Corbin said. "But it's good to see. A lot of guys here, they're having an opportunity to go out and compete, and they compete to the final out. Obviously, this is something that you love to see."