Nats rally, then lose on familiar controversial call in ninth (updated)

HOUSTON – That tonight's game, with the Nationals back at Minute Maid Park for the first time since the 2019 World Series, would end the way it did defied all common sense and logic. How could the baseball gods concoct such a scenario – a potential obstruction call on a bang-bang play at first base – with a game between these two teams in this ballpark, and have that call yet again go against Davey Martinez's club? Was this some kind of cruel cosmic joke?

It was not. It was all too real, and it cost the Nats in a way none of the previous similar plays that have befallen them did. This one ended the game. This one gave the Astros a 5-4 walk-off victory moments after the visitors had staged a dramatic, three-run rally to tie the game in the top of the ninth.

And this one left Martinez as steamed as he's ever been at the end of a loss.

"I'm over this play!" the sixth-year manager bellowed as he held up a just-printed piece of paper showing a still frame of Houston's Jake Meyers clearly running in fair territory toward first base as catcher Keibert Ruiz prepared to make a throw from the plate that would hit Meyers' helmet and Michael Chavis' glove right as he arrived at the bag. "Seriously, they need to fix the rule. If this is what the umpires see, as he's running down the line? I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. Fix it! We lost the game, and (plate umpire Jeremy Riggs) had nothing to say about it, because he can't make the right call. Brutal! Brutal!"

In the exact location where Trea Turner infamously was called for obstruction in Game 6 of the World Series, leading to Martinez's ejection, Meyers was not called for it tonight. As the ball squirted away from Chavis, José Abreu waltzed home with the winning run as the crowd of 39,796 rejoiced, fireworks exploded overhead and Martinez stormed out of the dugout to accost Riggs.

What explanation did Riggs give him?

"Nothing," Martinez said. "He said he saw (Meyers) running down the line. So I said: 'We lost the game because you made the wrong call.'"

Chavis sought help from first base umpire Brian Knight, who explained only the plate umpire can make an obstruction call because it took place in front of the bag. Reporters weren't able to arrange for a pool report with crew chief Todd Tichenor (who was at second base tonight) in the aftermath of a wild finish. That particular play, which is deemed a judgment call, is not reviewable.

How this game reached this critical juncture is a whole story in itself.

For eight innings tonight – really, for 17 innings since they arrived in town – the Nationals did nothing of consequence at the plate, unable to deliver meaningful hits against an overwhelming Astros pitching staff.

Somehow, though, they still found themselves with a chance when they stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth, trailing by three runs. The ensuing rally wasn’t exactly conventional. It began with a wild throw by Alex Bregman on Joey Meneses’ grounder to third. Corey Dickerson, pinch-hitting for Stone Garrett, then ripped an RBI double to right-center to bring home the inning’s first run.

Two batters later, with Dickerson now on third, Ryan Pressly fielded Ildemaro Vargas’ comebacker and attempted what should’ve been a routine throw to the plate, only to misfire to allow another run to score. Dominic Smith then delivered the game-tying hit, a triple to right-center that left the crowd booing with lust.

"I think it's been the storyline of what we've been as a ballclub all year," Smith said. "Just never giving up, always fighting. We take a lot of pride in competing every night. That's something that we do."

But with a chance to take the lead, the Nationals couldn’t get the go-ahead run home from third, with Luis García and Abrams each grounding out to first to send this one to the bottom of the ninth.

Thrust into the game on short notice following his teammates' surprise rally, Hunter Harvey immediately got into trouble. Kyle Tucker led off with a single to center. Abreu then beat out a softly hit grounder to the left side of the infield, putting the winning run in scoring position. Harvey would strike out Yainer Diaz with a 100 mph fastball, but he would then allow Tucker to steal third base uncontested and put himself 90 feet away with only one out.

After a four-pitch walk of Corey Julks loaded the bases, Martinez opted to deploy the rare, five-man infield, hoping to pull off a miracle double play. Which the Nationals very nearly did.

Harvey got Meyers to hit a grounder to short. CJ Abrams fired to the plate for the second out of the inning, and Ruiz immediately set himself up to throw to first for a potential 6-2-3 double play that would've sent the game to extra innings. Ruiz's throw did tail a bit back toward Meyers, who was clearly running in fair territory instead of the designed runner's lane in foul territory. The throw, Meyers' helmet and Chavis' glove all converged in one place right as Meyers was about to step on the bag, then ricocheted to the side as the winning run scored.

"I saw him running a little bit close on the grass, but I'm not going to make excuses," Ruiz said. "I've got to make a better throw. I feel really bad because we lost that really good game."

"I think Keibert did a great job," countered Chavis, who had just taken over at first base after pinch-running for Smith following the game-tying triple. "I think he did it pretty much textbook. He received the throw, took a step to create a lane and made a good throw. As the ball's coming toward me, I just see it's getting kind of close to (Meyers). I'm not looking at the line. I'm just looking at how the play's unfolding. And I saw as he got close to my body, I tried to go up and around him, and I just made contact with his face. And once I hit him, the ball hit him in the head."

Martinez stormed out of the dugout to argue for obstruction, just as he did in the World Series in this same building. Just as he has several other times in the 3 1/2 years since when similar plays have taken place. In every instance, the call has gone against the Nationals.

"I want to talk about how proud I am of the boys playing the way they played," Martinez said, still steaming after the game. "They came back. They played their butts off to come back, to get back in the game. They do everything right. I'm proud of the boys, how they played. ... I can't do nothing about those umpires, I really can't. Like I said, they need to take a look at that and understand that (Riggs) screwed that play up. That's all I'm going to say about it. I'm done with it. If they're not going to fix it, then we move on, and that's it."

All of this came at the end of another night in which the Nationals did very little at the plate. The challenge against Astros left-hander Framber Valdez, whose sinker is one of the best pitches in baseball and produces a ton of ground balls, wasn’t an easy one. But neither did the Nats give themselves many opportunities to do damage against Valdez, who cruised through seven innings on 95 pitches, allowing one run.

The lack of run support made a victim out of Josiah Gray, who gave up four runs but arguably pitched better than he has in a while, completing seven innings and keeping the ball in the strike zone.

Gray entered this game with a 3.00 ERA (sixth-best in the National League) despite a 1.403 WHIP (32nd out of 41 qualified starters in the NL). How had he managed to pull off that trick? By significantly lowering his home run rate (1.0 per nine innings, down from 2.3 last season) and by buckling down when in a jam. Opponents were batting a scant .145 off Gray with runners in scoring position, not one of their 11 hits going for extra bases.

Wouldn’t you know the Astros would completely flip the script tonight?

Gray got into a quick jam in the bottom of the first when he drilled Jose Altuve with an inside fastball, let him steal second and then take third on an infield single by Tucker. Up stepped Abreu for the kind of situation Gray has thrived in so far this year. The veteran first baseman won the battle, driving a two-run double to left for the first extra-base hit off the young right-hander with runners in scoring position in 2023.

Three innings later, Abreu was front-and-center again, this time taking Gray deep on a seemingly well-placed slider. The ball still carried over the famed train track high above the left field wall. And when Diaz followed with a moonshot of his own, this one a bit more toward left-center, the Astros had back-to-back homers and a 4-0 lead.

All of that, of course, was troublesome (and uncharacteristic) for Gray. But in some ways, he actually pitched better than he has in other recent starts when he didn’t give up as many runs. Gray did not walk a batter for the first time this year, the first time since Aug. 10, 2022 at Wrigley Field. He maintained a low pitch count. And because of that, he was able to complete seven innings for the first time since May 16 in Miami.

"I'm definitely looking at the process, and the results are the results," Gray said. "I'm never going to get too bent out of shape about the results anymore. I'm sticking true to what I do, and my process. And the next one will be a lot better."