With spotlight on Crews and Soto, Judge steals the show (updated)

They came to see Dylan Crews do something big in his major league debut. They left having seen a pedestrian night from the Nationals’ top prospect, three big blasts from the Yankees’ potent lineup and three soul-crushing catches at the wall that spoiled any chance of a victory on one of the most anticipated nights in recent franchise history.

Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each homered, and though Aaron Judge did not, the majors’ leading home run hitter did rob two potential bombs at the wall in center to dazzle a bipartisan crowd of 32,812 and steal the show during a 5-2 New York win on a night that belonged neither to Crews nor Juan Soto.

Crews, the Nats’ first-round pick in last summer’s draft, went 0-for-3 with a walk, a strikeout, a flyout and a groundout in his first career game. It was a rather uneventful night for the 22-year-old, whose biggest moment may have been a fourth-inning throw from right field that just missed nailing Anthony Volpe at the plate.

"First off, playing against the Yankees, and playing against Judge and Soto for the first time, it was a pretty surreal moment going out there," he said. "And obviously playing with my new team I'm playing on now, the Nationals, it's a great feeling. I'm just going to come out tomorrow and do it all over again."

Batting second behind CJ Abrams and in front of James Wood, Crews came up to bat with runners on base only once; he struck out with two on and one out in the sixth, unable to connect with a 3-2 fastball from Nestor Cortes.

"They're great pitchers up there that are going to get you once in a while," he said. "I think overall, I saw the ball great today. And my approach was where I wanted it to be."

The extra juice in the ballpark was evident all afternoon and into the evening, and only some of it had to do with Crews’ debut. The arrival of the vaunted Yankees, and especially the return of Soto to Nationals Park, was enough to make this a big Monday night on South Capitol Street, no matter who was in the home team’s lineup.

The crowd roared for Crews when his name was announced the first time. And it roared for Soto when he stepped to the plate in the top of the first, the 25-year-old former World Series hero stepping out of the box to doff his helmet and thank the fans.

The Yankees, by the way, already led 1-0 by the time Soto dug in, Gleyber Torres having opened the proceedings with a leadoff homer off Mitchell Parker. Parker, facing the most daunting top four hitters he’s likely ever going to encounter in his life, would show some nerves of steel by getting Judge to ground into a double play in the first, then one inning later getting Torres to ground out with the bases loaded (a scenario that occurred only after the rookie left-hander botched a routine play for his latest fielding gaffe).

"It's been an issue that I'm going to be looking forward to working on again and again," Parker said of his fourth error in only 11 big league fielding chances. "Just clear the mind when you're out on the mound, and deal with it the next day. Figure it out, and hope not to do it the next time."

All things being equal, Parker held his own tonight. He gave up another run in the fourth on a leadoff double by Volpe and two subsequent flyouts. But that’s all he allowed. The trouble: He needed 83 pitches to complete four innings, and with the heart of the New York order due up in the fifth, manager Davey Martinez decided not to press his luck and instead turned to his bullpen.

"It sucks not being able to go out there for more, to carry a couple more innings out there," Parker said. "But like we've been trying to do all year: Limit the damage against a very good team."

(Martinez did not hold his typical postgame press conference. According to a club spokesman, he was not feeling well.)

Tanner Rainey impressed by retiring Soto (who finished 0-for-4 with a walk), Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on a grand total of four pitches, but the right-hander wasn’t nearly so fortunate when he returned for the sixth. Wells led off with a homer to right, and Volpe followed with a single to center that included an error by Jacob Young, then stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly.

That left the Nationals in a 4-0 hole, which honestly didn’t feel fair given how well they hit the ball against Cortes. They drove four separate balls at least 375 feet in the first four innings alone, yet had only one hit (an Andrés Chaparro double) to show for it.

That’s because the Yankees outfield made three highlight-reel plays to rob Nats of extra bases. Alex Verdugo slammed into the left field wall while snagging Keibert Ruiz’s deep drive in the second, going down to the ground in a heap but ultimately remaining in the game. Judge leaped to catch José Tena’s 408-foot drive to straightaway center, a ball that appeared inches from leaving the park. And Judge outdid himself in the bottom of the fourth.

Chaparro, who had already doubled to right-center, now crushed a pitch to left-center, one that everyone in the park seemed to believe was gone. Except Judge tracked it down, jumped and pulled the 389-foot shot back from the top of the wall, then fired all the way back to first base to get a stunned Wood and complete an all-time double play.

"I thought we had a chance. It hung up there just enough," Judge said. "I was trying to go out there and make a play. (Verdugo) set the tone there by basically running through another wall. As a teammate, you have to go out there and match that energy."

"Very, very surprised," Chaparro said of the robbery, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "Because I thought it was going to be a home run. And as soon as he caught it, I was like: 'Wow, that was a good catch.'"

Juan Yepez finally decided to take matters into his own hands and sent a ball soaring 432 feet over the left field bullpen for a seventh-inning home run nobody could haul back in. And Young, of all people, also homered in the eighth off reliever Mark Leiter Jr. But that was far too late to make enough difference, aside from keeping the Nats from being shut out on a night that began with so much promise but still ended with some genuine appreciation of the moment from the newest big leaguer.

"I think it finally settled in," Crews said. "Going out there for the first time, it was a pretty surreal moment. But I felt like a kid, just going out there and playing every day. That's how I treat it. It's a pretty awesome feeling."