SEATTLE – The weirdest game of the Nationals’ 2023 season included four pitch clock violations, plus one that was overturned after the umpires huddled up. It included players and coaches from both benches coming onto the field to break up an argument over an accusation Jeimer Candelario was signaling pitch locations while leading off second base.
It included CJ Abrams departing with an injury after getting hit by a pitch on the right elbow. It included several jaw-dropping plays by Luis García, including one that nearly saved the day in the seventh … until umpires overturned their original call upon review and awarded the Mariners the go-ahead run.
It included Keibert Ruiz blasting a game-tying homer in the eighth, the young catcher finally rewarded for the loud contact he’s been making for several weeks. It included a no-doubles defense by the Nats that actually played a ball into a double.
And it ultimately included two desperately needed clutch hits from Lane Thomas and García to propel the Nationals to an exhausting 7-4 11-inning victory.
"They fought," manager Davey Martinez said. "This team is relentless. They don't give up. They stay focused. They stay in the game. And we come out victorious in the end, which was awesome."
After all the madness that took place in the preceding 3-plus hours, the top two members of the lineup stayed calm and delivered when it mattered most. Thomas' two-out two-run double off former National reliever Trevor Gott broke a 4-4 deadlock. García's subsequent single up the middle added a big insurance run and left some in the crowd of 22,671 storming off spewing expletives at the home team.
"They have a really good bullpen," Thomas said. "I'm just proud of our guys for hanging in there and taking some good at-bats off some really good pitchers."
And when Jordan Weems recorded the final three outs in his second inning of relief, everyone on the visitors' side could finally breathe a sigh of relief at the end of a wild ballgame that included a bunch of late escape acts.
"Obviously, it matters to win. But I think we're just getting comfortable in those situations," Thomas said. "I feel like we've been in them quite a bit, so it just feels good to pull one out."
Hunter Harvey escaped a bottom-of-the-ninth jam by the skin of his teeth. After allowing a one-out double to Eugenio Suárez – it only became a double because Stone Garrett was playing in a no-doubles defensive alignment in deep left field and couldn't charge in to make the catch of the sinking liner, the ball scooting past him for a two-base hit anyway – Harvey still forced extra innings by striking out Dylan Moore and getting Kolten Wong to pop out to short.
But the Nats couldn't so much as advance their automatic runner to third in the top of the 10th, leaving them to hope Weems could post a zero in the bottom of the inning to keep the game going. He somehow did just that despite loading the bases with nobody out in part because he was called for coming set before the batter was ready at the plate with a 3-0 count for an automatic walk that led to pitching coach Jim Hickey getting ejected by plate umpire Brennan Miller.
"Definitely the biggest moment I've been in, for sure," said Weems, who emerged with his first career win. "I just kept taking deep breaths, stepping off and just kept telling myself: Trust your stuff. Trust your stuff. It doesn't have to be wipeout stuff. Just throw strikes. And I even struggled with that, because there was a lot of adrenaline running out there."
All of that came long after the third-inning incident, which occurred as Joey Meneses’ drive to left was caught at the warning track for the third out. Candelario, who was leading off second base at the time, stuck out his left arm well before the pitch was thrown, and Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh seemed convinced that meant he was signaling to Meneses where he was setting up behind the plate. Candelario took offense to the accusation – which isn’t illegal, for what it’s worth – and jawed back at Raleigh as players and coaches from both sides came onto the field to break it up.
"No shot. It's too obvious," Candelario insisted when asked if he was signaling to Meneses. "It's too obvious, me doing that. How am I going to do the signs like that? I'm not that guy."
Candelario said he made the gesture he did because he was pointing toward second base, leaning back to make sure he wouldn't get picked off before then rocking back the other direction to get a good jump toward third as the pitch was being delivered.
"I'm trying to go a little back until the pitcher goes home," he said. "After that, I do my secondary lead. Being in scoring position, I want to be able to score."
Martinez had perhaps the best response to the Mariners' accusation.
"They thought we were stealing signs from second base. That's kind of foolish," the manager said. "A lot of times, we don't even get our own signs."
As was the case in Monday’s series opener, the Nationals immediately jumped out to a 1-0 lead. They didn’t do it with a solo homer this time, but rather an errant pickoff throw that took the Mariners so long to retrieve, Candelario managed to score all the way from first base on the play.
"I was ready to go; he's got a quick move to first," Candelario said. "I just told myself keep going hard, and hopefully you can be safe at second. It worked good."
But as was also the case Monday night, the Nationals immediately gave that lead back. And in this case, gave up another run on top of it. Teoscar Hernández’s two-run blast to right off Jake Irvin energized the crowd and left Irvin and Co. staring at an early deficit.
That deficit grew to 3-1 in the fourth, when a deep-positioned Corey Dickerson didn’t get to Raleigh’s one-out single to left in time to prevent Ty France from going first-to-third on the play. That put France in position to score on Suárez’s subsequent sacrifice fly.
All things considered, Irvin was solid in his third start back from a 10-day break earlier this month. The rookie pitched into the sixth inning, kept his pitch count under 100, walked two, struck out four and gave his team a chance to win, even if he didn’t depart with a chance to earn the win himself.
Neither was Irvin in position to take the loss, though, after his teammates rallied to tie the game in the seventh. They did so without benefit of a hit, getting hit by a pitch, drawing two walks and then a sacrifice fly from García.
That sequence, though, may have come at a serious cost: Abrams had to depart the game at the end of the inning. Martinez said his elbow, which was hit by two pitches this week, was especially sore. He was getting treatment after the game, and he'll be evaluated in the morning.
Ildemaro Vargas replaced Abrams at shortstop for the bottom of the seventh, and wouldn’t you know it, the ball quickly found him. With runners on first and third and nobody out, Vargas fielded Wong’s chopper and flipped to García for what he must have assumed would be a routine 6-4-3 double play that would concede the go-ahead run. Instead, García fired the ball across his body to the plate, where Ruiz tagged a sliding Jarred Kelenic, who was called out on a spectacular 6-4-2 double play.
"I anticipated it," García said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez, of the unconventional play. "I was thinking ahead of that, if the play was correct, I would probably do that as well, go home. Once the ground ball was hit to Vargas, I saw the runner take a jab-step back, hold up a little bit, and I knew there was a possibility. As soon as Vargas threw the ball to me, I reacted, and I thought we had a really good chance."
They thought they pulled it off. Except the Mariners asked for a replay review, which overturned the call because Kelenic’s hand did touch the plate a split-second before Ruiz got him, giving Seattle the lead after all.
Ruiz would get his revenge a few minutes later, his homer tying the game again in the eighth and setting up a wild finish to a wacky ballgame.
"He really has been hitting the ball hard," Martinez said. "Twice a game, he's squaring balls up, and really doesn't get anything for it. Tonight was beautiful."