Nats come through in the end to topple Orioles again

If Tuesday night’s blowout over the Orioles was a rare cakewalk win for the Nationals, this one felt all along like a walk across a lengthy tightrope, with no net visible down below.

Even after scoring three quick runs in the bottom of the first, the Nats found themselves in a tight contest, their bullpen unable to protect a two-run lead, the game ultimately decided in the eighth and ninth innings.

It’s the kind of pressure situation that has haunted this team too often during its rebuild. But all that experience may be starting to pay off. Even after blowing their slim lead tonight, the Nationals still felt like they were going to emerge victorious.

“We’ve hung in there with some really good teams, some teams that are supposed to be postseason teams,” closer Kyle Finnegan said. “We’ve proven to ourselves and to other people we can play with anybody. I think it’s big for the young guys to recognize that if we focus on what we can control, when we look up at the end of the game, we’ll be in it.”

The Nats were more than just in it tonight. They were indeed victorious, securing a 4-3 win over Baltimore thanks to Luis García Jr.’s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth and another good-enough top of the ninth from Finnegan, who closed out his ninth save in as many opportunities.

They’ve now won four of five, including two straight over the Orioles, with a chance to sweep the interleague rivalry matchup Thursday evening and move to within a game of the .500 mark.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” manager Davey Martinez said. “They’re totally engaged, which is awesome. We lost some games earlier that we should’ve won. But they put that aside, and they’re playing hard every single day.”

After getting a typical five solid innings from Trevor Williams, the Nationals understood they needed to get 12 outs from their bullpen to close this one out. And because their lineup was completely shut down after a three-run explosion in the bottom of the first, the margin for error was slim.

Jackson Rutledge got the job done in his first pseudo-high-leverage assignment, tossing a scoreless sixth. But Jose A. Ferrer, tasked with facing the lefty-heavy top of the Baltimore lineup in the seventh, retired only one of four batters and departed with the bases loaded.

Enter Jorge López, the former Orioles closer trying to right his wayward ship here in D.C. López did retire both batters he faced in the seventh, but each came via fly ball, the first of which was deep enough to score a run. And when López returned for the eighth, he immediately got himself in trouble with a leadoff triple from Jordan Westburg. Two batters later, another sacrifice fly brought home the tying run and forced the sleepy offense to reawaken.

It did, just enough, to retake the lead. Alex Call, pinch-hitting for Nasim Nuñez, led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to center, moved to second on a walk drawn by James Wood and moved to third on a grounder by Nathaniel Lowe, who busted down the line to make sure Baltimore didn’t turn the double play.

“I always preach about doing the little things,” Martinez said. “We don’t win that game without Nate running hard to first base. They turn a double play right there if he doesn’t.”

To the plate stepped García, given the rare opportunity to come through in a big spot against a left-hander. And while the end result against Gregory Soto wasn’t a hit, it was just what the doctor ordered under the circumstances: a fly ball to center, plenty deep to score Call and give the Nats the lead back.

“My approach changes a little bit, lefty on lefty,” García said, via interpreter Kenny Diaz. “I try to see the ball up and stay to the left side of the field. Thankfully, I was able to see that ball up and drive the run in.”

Finnegan then took the mound for the ninth, and though he once again put the tying runner in scoring position, he delivered when he most needed to, striking out Tyler O’Neill with a 97 mph fastball and then getting Heston Kjerstad to pop up and end a highly compelling ballgame that seemed destined to come down to the wire all along.

“You could sense early that was going to be a tight, low-scoring game,” Finnegan said. “Both teams were pitching well. I was locked in from pretty early on.”

We’ll find out in the next few days, once CJ Abrams returns from a hip injury, whether Wood will continue to bat leadoff or move back into the No. 2 position. He’s certainly making a case to remain in the top spot, though, given his ability to provide instant offense without help from anyone else.

The 22-year-old was up to his old tricks again tonight, blasting Tomoyuki Sugano’s fifth pitch of the game deep to right-center for his eighth homer of the season (tied for the league lead) and an immediate 1-0 lead. The 431-foot shot left Wood’s bat at an astounding 116.3 mph, the hardest-hit home run by any Nationals player in this ballpark since such things began getting tracked in 2015.

“I can’t really explain it,” Wood said when asked about making that kind of perfect contact with a baseball. “It just feels good being able to get it on the barrel.”

And as was the case during Tuesday’s lopsided win, the Nats weren’t done. They extended the lead to 3-0 by the end of the first thanks to another big blast, this one courtesy of Josh Bell. The veteran DH is just 5 for his last 40, but three of those five have been home runs, including this two-run shot into the second deck down the right field line.

But unlike the previous night, the Nationals didn’t sustain that early offense against the Baltimore starter. Sugano cruised through his next six innings, allowing only two more baserunners the rest of his outing.

“He settled down pretty good,” Martinez said. “His split was good. His offspeed was good. His cutter was better toward the latter part of the game.”

So it was up to Williams to make those three quick runs hold up as long as he could. The veteran righty walked the tightrope more than once, but he managed to stay upright for five innings. Despite six hits (all singles) and a walk, he limited the damage to one run, which came via Adley Rutschman’s third-inning, two-out single to right.

Williams did this despite a fastball that never reached 90 mph and a pitch count that exceeded that number in only five frames. He used his sharp-breaking sweeper to record five strikeouts, and then he used his guile to end his night on a high note.

After a leadoff single and stolen base by Cedric Mullins in the fifth, Williams got a mound visit from Martinez. Jackson Rutledge was ready in the bullpen, just waiting for his manager’s signal. The signal didn’t come, though. After a lengthy conversation, Martinez returned to the dugout solo, with Williams remaining on the mound. He proceeded to get out of the jam with back-to-back fly balls to center from the Orioles’ No. 3 and No. 4 batters, ending his night at 99 pitches.

“Whenever you see Davey, it’s usually (because) he’s taking the ball out of your hand,” Williams said. “But we were able to have the conversation, and thankfully he trusted me in that spot. I’m glad that he did.”