Nats get power, execution and a tense save to earn third straight win (updated)

SAN FRANCISCO – The 2024 Nationals aren’t constructed to win games with power. More often than not, they’re going to need to manufacture runs when presented with the opportunity.

Of course, nobody said they can’t do both on the same night, and emerge victorious because of it.

Thanks to an early blast from CJ Abrams, some patented small ball late and then a major escape act from Kyle Finnegan in the ninth, the Nats pulled off a 5-3 win over the Giants tonight at Oracle Park, taking the first two games of this series and securing their first three-game winning streak of the young season.

"I just think that's kind of the way we're built," said rookie center fielder Jacob Young, who became the third member of the team already this year to steal three bases in a game. "We have a bunch of guys who can do a lot of different things. ... We have a lot of ways we can hurt you."

Abrams’ two-run homer in the third – a 423-foot missile to deep right-center that nearly cleared the bleachers to reach McCovey Cove – gave the Nationals an early lead and served as a hearty welcome back for the young shortstop, who missed the previous three games with a bone bruise on his left pinky finger.

"I don't know how far it went," Abrams said. "But it felt good."

Abrams’ two-out RBI single in the fifth – with Young scoring after swiping his third base of the night – extended that lead and served as another example of this team’s ability to use its speed advantage over most opponents.

And then, after San Francisco came back to tie the game in the sixth, Trey Lipscomb’s sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh and Jesse Winker and Riley Adams’ opposite-field doubles in the top of the ninth served as a reminder of the importance of quality at-bats late in close ballgames.

"We're just trying to play the game the right way," manager Davey Martinez said. "We're going to do things probably a little different, but that's just our identity. We're going to run. We're going to bunt. We're going to create havoc. And we're going hit home runs, as we did tonight and as we did yesterday."

Put it all together, and the Nats had themselves another quality win to open this nine-game West Coast trip. Albeit one that could have come at a cost, with multiple players suffering injuries along the way.

Hunter Harvey had to depart the game with two outs in the eighth after taking a 95-mph line drive off the base of his left palm. The right-hander appeared to be in serious pain as he paced around and crouched down, probably furious as well after suffering yet another freak injury in a career plagued by them.

Joey Gallo and Winker each appeared to suffer injuries late as well, with Gallo getting hit by a pitch on his left wrist and Winker limping after scoring on Adams’ hit in the eighth. Winker did return to play left field in the bottom of the ninth. Gallo, who was the DH tonight, never had his spot in the lineup come up again.

Somehow, all three appear to have avoided serious injury. X-rays on both Harvey and Gallo's hands were negative, and Martinez described Winker's injury merely as a case of "road rash."

"We dodged some bullets," Martinez said.

Finnegan, who had to finish the eighth in place of Harvey, returned for the ninth and immediately got himself into a bases-loaded jam. Somehow, he got out of it, thanks to a roller back to the mound and then a 6-4-3 double play to end the game and secure a wild save.

"It's scary; you never want to see that," Finnegan said of Harvey's injury. "It's hard to tell from our angle what happened, where he got hit. You're thinking about him, but also I realized it was probably going to be me (replacing him). It's a weird situation. You're thinking about your buddy, your teammate. But also, you've got a job to do."

In choosing a replacement for the recently injured Josiah Gray, the Nationals opted to give higher-ranked prospect Jackson Rutledge more time to get into his routine at Triple-A Rochester and instead summoned Joan Adon. The 25-year-old right-hander may not have the upside, but he’s got 27 big league starts on his resume and has already learned how to be ready at a moment’s notice for an emergency assignment.

Adon was far from perfect when he took the mound tonight. He didn’t enjoy one clean inning of work. He needed 72 pitches to complete four innings. He walked three. But he stayed poised despite traffic on the bases and limited the Giants to one run.

That one run was made possible by a one-out walk Adon issued to Thairo Estrada in the bottom of the second. When Mike Yastrzemski followed with a single to left-center, Estrada advanced to third. And that put him in position to score on Patrick Bailey’s sacrifice fly.

That’s all Adon would allow, though. San Francisco never managed more than two baserunners in an inning. And nobody recorded an extra-base hit off him.

Not wanting to press his luck, Martinez pulled Adon after four innings, even though the Nationals held a 3-1 lead. Whether he qualified for the win or not, it was a satisfactory pitching performance under the circumstances.

"I'm very pleased," Adon said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "Especially since we have a few wins already, just to continue that little winning streak, I'm very excited and happy about it."

In the end, Adon wouldn’t have figured into the decision anyway after the Giants rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth off Jordan Weems, a rally made possible by a particularly poor display of baseball fundamentals. With two outs and runners on first and second, Lane Thomas scooped up Nick Ahmed’s single to right and made an ill-advised decision to throw to the plate. That throw sailed well up the third base line and scooted past catcher Riley Adams. All the way into the dugout, because Weems was backing up the other side of the field for reasons unclear.

Two runs would score on the gaffe, two runs that tied the game and left it undecided into the latter innings, with plenty more drama still to come.

"You're in hostile territory. It's a little more adrenaline, the bases loaded," Finnegan said. "Those are the kind of situations you pretend to do in your back yard when you're a kid. You can't let the moment get away from you. You've got to have fun with it and compete. We're here to compete."