Relentless Nats storm back to walk off Mets again

It’s never been a question of effort. No matter how many games under .500 they were the last three seasons, the Nationals always showed an ability to get themselves back in games that felt lost. They always seemed to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, giving their perpetually optimistic manager reason to be “proud of the boys for battling.”

At some point, though, those moral victories had to turn into actual victories. Battling back wasn’t going to be good enough forever. The Nats needed to prove they could get over the hump and finish the job.

So when they found a way to do it this weekend, not just once but twice against a division rival that happened to dominate them a year ago, there was a different feeling of satisfaction inside the home clubhouse on South Capitol Street.

“We’ve always been able to fight,” catcher Riley Adams said. “We’ve always been able to scratch and claw like that. We have great guys in the clubhouse, and everyone’s pulling for each other in these moments. It’s cool to see it pay off.”

Oh, did it pay off this weekend. Two days after storming back in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Mets in Friday’s series opener, the Nationals did it again this afternoon. In even more impressive fashion. Down six runs in the seventh inning, they stormed back to tie and ultimately beat the National League East leaders, 8-7, in dramatic, walk-off fashion.

“I think it’s just a collective group that understands what it needs to do to finish games,” said manager Davey Martinez, whose team went 2-11 against the Mets last season but is now 2-1 against them to begin this season. “We talked about that last year. Some of those one-run games, two-run games, there’s going to come a point in time where we learn how to win those games. I think you’re starting to see that now.”

Friday’s 5-4 walk-off win was a wild, back-and-forth affair. This one began one-sided in the Mets’ direction after the visitors scored five runs in the top of the first against Mitchell Parker and ultimately extended their lead to 7-1.

That’s when the whole script flipped. Once they got starter Tylor Megill out of the game, the Nats took it to New York’s bullpen, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh and then two more in the bottom of the ninth.

“Megill was on his game today. He did a great job,” right fielder Alex Call said. “But once he was out of the game, we took advantage.”

Yes, they did. When the bottom of the seventh began, the Nationals trailed 7-1, with Megill having to that point surrendered only one hit (Dylan Crews’ second-inning homer) and one walk (Call’s third-inning free pass). But then Luis García Jr. led off the seventh with a bloop double that appeared to get lost in the sun, and suddenly they had life.

Josh Bell brought home García with a single up the middle, giving the veteran DH 13 RBIs on the season despite only 13 hits. And he would come in to score a little while later on Call’s RBI single to center.

That brought to the plate Adams, the seldom-used catcher starting in place of Keibert Ruiz for only the fourth time in 28 games this season. With two on and two out, the smart strategy might well have been to give Adams the take sign with a 3-1 count and hope he could load the bases for CJ Abrams. But when José Buttó gave him a 95-mph fastball over the plate, Adams was compelled to swing. And when he sent the ball soaring over the right-center field wall for his first homer and first three RBIs of the season, the least-used player on the roster had just brought his team back to within one run.

“Personally, I never try to take a big swing,” Adams said. “I’ve never had success trying to hit a ball hard. I think sometimes I catch myself pressing a little too much, getting too tense. I just had to try to relax and ease up a little bit. In my opinion, try not to do too much. I have confidence that if I’m able to get the barrel to the ball, good things are going to happen. That’s all I was trying to do there.”

After stranding the bases loaded in the eighth, the Nationals gave themselves one more chance in the ninth. With Ryne Stanek (who pitched the ninth Friday) once again on the mound instead of closer Edwin Díaz (who got the save in Saturday’s 2-0 Mets win), Call got the final rally going with a leadoff double down the right field line.

Abrams delivered the game-tying hit with a sharp single past a drawn-in infield. And after James Wood walked, García stepped to the plate with two on and one out. He sent a chopper toward first, saw Pete Alonso in position to make the routine play and just tried to hustle down the line to make the play close. Then Alonso flipped the ball too high to a late-covering Stanek, who could only deflect the ball into foul territory before colliding with García, as Abrams sprinted around from second to score the game-winning run and set off a wild celebration.

“I was running down the line, the first thing I thought about was keeping my head down and running as hard as I can to get to the bag,” García said, via interpreter Kenny Diaz. “And then when I finally looked up and noticed the pitcher was where he was, and jumped up and the ball went past him, I just felt the excitement.”

Why did the Nats still have a chance in the bottom of the ninth? Because their beleaguered bullpen churned out four scoreless innings in relief of Parker to keep the Mets from extending their lead. Lucas Sims, Colin Poche, Jackson Rutledge and Jorge López collectively put five runners on base, but none of them scored, leaving this game very much winnable in the end.

Given what transpired today, it’s hard to believe Parker entered with not only a 1.39 ERA but a 1.6 bWAR that ranked No. 1 among all major league pitchers. Those numbers both took a hit in this game, and it took no time for that to be the case.

Parker’s nightmare top of the first began with an infield single by Francisco Lindor, then turned worse with back-to-back walks of Juan Soto and Alonso that loaded the bases with nobody out. Mark Vientos’ sacrifice fly brought home a run before Parker issued another walk to Starling Marte and then another sacrifice fly to Brandon Nimmo.

Back-to-back, two-out RBI singles completed the five-run rally, one of those runs scoring because Crews’ throw to third skipped away and into the camera well for an error. And by the time Parker trudged off the mound, he had allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits (all singles) and four walks, all while throwing a whopping 43 pitches.

Parker’s issue seemed pretty clear: He was consistently missing above the strike zone, plus occasionally up and in to right-handed hitters. Whatever was causing it, he could not solve the problem in the moment, and it cost him.

“The first inning, I was just battling myself,” Parker said. “I got ahead a little bit and couldn’t get out of it. It could’ve gone one of two ways. I’m glad I was able to finish out five innings and keep us in as much of a game as possible after that first inning.”

To his credit, Parker did find a way to make it through five innings, with two more runs scoring. In the kind of start only Patrick Corbin could appreciate, the left-hander wound up with 96 pitches over five frames, allowing seven runs (six earned), walking five and failing to strike out a batter. In the process, his ERA skyrocketed from 1.39 to 2.65.

As ugly as Parker’s outing was, the ugliest moment of the game came in shallow right-center field, where García and Call suffered a cringeworthy collision in pursuit of Vientos’ second-inning popup. With García charging back and Call charging in, the latter took out the former’s legs, both players falling to the ground in a heap, García somehow holding onto the ball in his glove as he lay face-down and motionless for several seconds.

“I don’t know how Luis caught it. He made a great catch,” Call said. “I called it at the end, just 'cause I was going to attempt to get it. I didn’t see him, just because I had my eye on the ball. And luckily, instincts take over. Outfielders go low, infielders go high. So at least we didn’t get a head-on collision.”

By the time Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard made it out there to check on them, both players were at least moving again. And remarkably, both were able to get to their feet, walk off the shock of the collision and remain in the game.

And wouldn’t you know both players would play a role in the Nats’ late charge to get back into the game?

“In the moment, I kind of felt it a little bit. Took some time to get past it,” García said. “I’m kind of feeling it right now, but we’ll be all right.”