After brutally difficult month, Taylor finally gets his moments

As 25,700 fans roared in the stands, as Juan Soto scampered across the plate and as a stream of Nationals came bursting out of the dugout and made a beeline for him, Michael A. Taylor simply stood on second base.

He gazed out toward center field, where his double off the wall had just given the Nationals a 2-1, walk-off win over the Padres and rather than jump for joy took a breath and seemed to be contemplating the whole situation more than celebrating it.

The moment lasted only a second or two before those teammates reached him, Bryce Harper and Wilmer Difo leading the pack, and started smacking him as only ballplayers can smack a guy following a game-winning hit. But that moment said more about what the hit meant for Taylor than any dogpile or Gatorade shower ever could.

"Like a weight was being lifted off," the 27-year-old center fielder said. "It's been a rough stretch for me. I took a deep breath. I've been waiting to have something turn for me."

Taylor isn't afraid to acknowledge his struggles. And they have been significant. When he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, one out and young Soto on second base representing the winning run, Taylor's season batting average stood at .185. He was batting .127 in May, having struck out a staggering 27 times in 63 at-bats.

To that point in this game, Taylor was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a desperation bunt attempt that still produced an out.

Ah, but there was that throw from center field to the plate in the top of the sixth, the throw that had the entire park (and the online baseball community) buzzing and had ensured the Nationals were still tied with the Padres in the bottom of the ninth instead of trailing by a run.

Throughout his struggles at the plate this season, Taylor has remained an elite center fielder. And with one brilliant throw tonight, he proved it's still possible to help your team win a game even when your swing is a mess. His perfect throw to nail Jose Pirela at the plate - after a replay review overturned the initial safe call - was every bit as important to the final score as his hit three innings later.

"That was impressive," Soto said.

"Pretty impressive," starter Jeremy Hellickson concurred.

"Incredible," manager Davey Martinez said, elevating the play to a higher level.

The particulars support Martinez's superlative. According to Statcast, Taylor threw the ball 285 feet on the fly to Pedro Severino. The radar gun reading: 98.8 mph.

"For a second there," Martinez said, "I thought: 'Well, if we need someone to pitch, it might be Michael.'"

The play, once it was finally ruled an inning-ending out, energized the ballpark. And perhaps it helped Taylor remove at least some of the weight off his shoulders, knowing he had done something important for the overall cause, even if it wasn't with his bat.

"I want to go out there and do whatever I can to help the team, almost more so when you're struggling at the plate," he said. "I'm just looking to do anything I can - at the plate, on the bases - to do something positive for the team. It doesn't raise my average or anything like that, but it definitely feels good."

Who knows if Taylor stepped to the plate in the ninth with any renewed confidence as a byproduct of his earlier throw, but he did put together one of his better at-bats in a while. With the 19-year-old Soto having already displayed remarkable patience in drawing his third four-pitch walk of the night, then advancing to second when third baseman Cory Spangenberg couldn't handle Difo's sharp grounder, Taylor dug in to face Matt Strahm and took the first two pitches for balls.

Strahm's 2-0 fastball was below the knees, but plate umpire Eric Cooper called in a strike. Taylor then swung and missed at a fastball up and in, leaving himself in a 2-2 count. He popped the next pitch into foul territory down the first base line, then breathed a sigh of relief when the Padres couldn't corral it.

"It was not a great pitch to hit," he said. "I put it in play, and I was praying that it would get down and give me a second chance. So once that fell, just kind of went back into the box trying to continue with my approach and where I was at."

Taylor laid off another 2-2 fastball that was inside to run the count full. Then Strahm tried to fool him with a changeup, only to watch as Taylor hammered the pitch to straightaway center field. Travis Jankowski made a fruitless, leaping attempt to haul it in as the ball clanked off the wall near the 401-foot sign and rolled harmlessly away.

"I felt like I hit it well," Taylor said. "He was going back on it pretty good. I don't know, I wasn't confident it was going to go out, but there wasn't much I could do at that point."

All Taylor could do at that point was keep running til he reached second base, then take that deep breath as his teammates came storming after him, thrilled to finally have an opportunity to congratulate one of the most popular players on the roster after a brutally difficult month.

"It was huge, not just for Michael but for our team," Martinez said. "So happy for him."

"You save a run in the field, and hit the game winner?" Hellickson said. "Can't have a better game than that."