Nats rally twice in dramatic fashion but lose to Orioles in 12 (updated)

They turned out in large numbers – 34,078 of them, to be precise – to watch the conclusion of this two-game rivalry series, wondering if the Nationals would be able to duplicate their performance from Tuesday night’s opener and emerge with a sweep over the Orioles.

They didn't duplicate the performance. But they did put on a show that thrilled everyone in attendance, twice producing last-ditch rallies to tie the game before ultimately falling 7-6 in 12 innings.

With a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Nats tied the game and sent it to extras. With another furious rally in the bottom of the 11th, they tied the game again and continued the proceedings deeper into the night. 

The magic ended there. The Orioles scored twice off a wild Jordan Weems in the top of the 12th, and the lineup could only score once in the bottom of the inning.

It was a thrilling ending to a highly captivating series between interleague rivals, who offered the large bipartisan crowd plenty of reason to want to see more of these matchups down the road.

"That was awesome," reliever Hunter Harvey said. "We were just talking about it. It sucks that we lost, but that was probably one of the more fun games we'll have this year. We didn't quit. We kept battling back against one of the best teams in the league."

Down 3-1 with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals stormed back to tie the game with a rally that included a little bit of everything.

Eddie Rosario got it started with a solo homer off Craig Kimbrel, cutting the deficit to one run. Back-to-back walks of Trey Lipscomb and Jacob Young put the winning run on base and brought Orioles manager Brandon Hyde out of the dugout to pull his veteran closer in favor of lefty Keegan Akin. That matchup proved not too difficult for Abrams, who singled to right to knock in the tying run and draw the first biggest roar of the night from the crowd. It was the Nats' first hit with a runner in scoring position since the bottom of the second.

"They could've easily said: 'Hey, we're down 3-1.' We don't do that," manager Davey Martinez said. "We keep fighting. And you saw it tonight. That should be a pretty big wakeup call for those guys that we can play with anybody."

With the winning run now 90 feet away, Akin did get Luis García Jr. to ground out to end the ninth and send this one to extras.

Kyle Finnegan had to pitch out of a jam for the first time in nearly a month but did it through a tense 22-pitch top of the 10th that still extended his hitless streak to 11 innings. His teammates, though, couldn't come through with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the inning, extending the game further.

Harvey took over for the top of the 11th and after a quick out had to face Ryan Mountcastle, his longtime best friend and former teammate. They had gone head-to-head once before, in September 2022, and Mountcastle won that battle as well with a clutch homer. This encounter lasted only one pitch, with Mountcastle very much ready for Harvey's splitter and driving it deep to left for the two-run homer that gave Baltimore the lead back.

"I think he got lucky. That's the only thing I can think of," Harvey said with a smirk. "Cause he hit that, and I was like: 'You've got to be kidding me. You're not sitting splitter. There's no way.'"

But the Nats had another rally in them in the bottom of the inning. Ildemaro Vargas' double into the left field corner brought home one run and moved the tying run to third base. Jacob Young followed with a fly ball to medium-deep right field, and with third base coach Ricky Gutierrez right in his ear telling him to go, Rosario scampered home and narrowly beat the throw to the plate to score the tying run.

"When he said go, in this moment, I want to take this to home plate," Rosario said. "I was running as hard as possible. I'll take the run."

With a chance to win it right there, Abrams drove a ball deep to center, but not deep enough. The game proceeded to the 12th.

Having already used up six other relievers, Martinez turned to Weems, who wasn't up to the challenge. He gave up a single to Jorge Mateo that drove in one run, then made a mess of things with a wild throw into center field that allowed Mateo to go all the way to third, then a wild pitch that allowed him to score an insurance run.

"The best you can do is just go right after guys, try to get ahead," Weems said. "I tried my best at that. In hindsight, that play to second, I saw him dead to rights and didn't really have a good grip on the ball. It's probably one of the worst throws I've made."

Did the Nationals have one last rally in them? García did lead off the bottom of the 12th with a run-scoring double to right. But it fizzled from there. They stranded the tying run at second and had to settle for a two-game series split.

"I just sat and praised them," Martinez said. "That's all you can do. They battled all night long. To me, that shows unbelievable character. I mean, we fell short. But they put two on, we come back. They put two on, we come back. That says a lot about this ballclub. It was beautiful. We fell short, but we keep playing like that, we're going to win a lot of baseball games."

The Nats had to manufacture their runs. The Orioles did their damage with the longball off Harvey and Mitchell Parker.

Parker has faced no shortage of challenges in his first month in the majors. A debut start at Dodger Stadium on Jackie Robinson Day. A home outing against the Astros. A road date with the Rangers. And now tonight a showdown with the highest-scoring team in the American League.

Parker wasn’t perfect, but he certainly was good enough to give his team a chance. He kept the Orioles scoreless through three innings, aided in large part by a perfect relay from Jesse Winker to Abrams to Keibert Ruiz on Colton Cowser’s double to deep left, with Ruiz tagging Jordan Westburg at the plate just in the nick of time to end the inning on a high note.

There was no defense that could’ve prevented Baltimore’s two runs off Parker. With two out and nobody on in the fourth, Anthony Santander managed to turn on a down-and-in slider, drive it to left and keep it inside the foul pole for a solo homer. Two innings later, Parker tried another slider to Gunnar Henderson, this one staying over the plate and getting whacked to right field for another solo homer.

So it was Parker served up the first two homers of his big league career, an impressive stretch that had to end eventually.

"These guys are known to hit the ball out of the ballpark," Martinez said. "But I thought he pitched really well. What was it, 5 2/3 innings, 77 pitches? That's a pretty good outing." 

Parker was only doing what the rest of the Nationals pitching staff has been doing all year. The Nats entered the day with only 22 homers surrendered in 35 games, fewest in the majors. Talk about a turnaround: They gave up 245 homers last season, most in the majors.

The Nats, of course, don’t hit many of their own homers, with only 32 of them to date. So they have to try to manufacture their runs. Which is a problem when you don’t take advantage of countless scoring opportunities.

The Nationals had little trouble putting guys on base against Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish. They just had trouble getting those guys home. Nine of their first 17 at-bats tonight, remarkably, came with runners in scoring position. Only one of those at-bats resulted in a hit: Lipscomb’s single up the middle to score Joey Meneses in the bottom of the second.

Otherwise, they simply could not convert, stranding a pair of runners in the first, two more in the second, then one a piece in the third and fourth. And it didn’t get much better once they got into the Orioles bullpen: They never took another at-bat with a man on second or third base through the eighth inning.

"We've got to get the ball in the strike zone," Martinez said. "I thought if we did that earlier, we could've scored a couple more runs. It would've been a different game."

Until the ninth, when the boys finally decided to battle and make this game very interesting. And then the 11th, when they boys continued to battle and make this game even more interesting. And then the 12th, when they battled one last time, hoping it might lead to a wild celebration in the middle of the diamond.

"Incredible. Incredible," Rosario said. "This team, wow. Fighting all day, all game. We got clutch hitters here. It's great to see these guys fighting all night."