Cubs rally late to win Game 3, leave Nats facing elimination

CHICAGO - The margin between success and failure in the postseason is razor-thin. A batter can hit a frozen rope but hit it right at somebody. Another can barely bloop a ball into shallow left-center field and watch it fall between three defenders and drive home the winning run.

The Nationals experienced it all today during an agonizing 2-1 loss to the Cubs in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. They had a couple of chances to score early, but watched as Chicago's outfielders tracked down well-struck drives to the gap. Then they lost it on a lazy little doink-shot into the Bermuda Triangle.

Anthony Rizzo's two-out hit off Oliver Pérez in the bottom of the eighth - a ball that somehow found green grass in between Trea Turner, Jayson Werth and Michael A. Taylor - was the difference-maker, the excuse-me hit that now leaves the Nationals trailing the series two games to one and needing to win two elimination games now to save their season.

A game that saw Max Scherzer, on a hamstring that was less than 100 percent healthy, carry a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and a game that saw the Cubs commit four errors by the sixth inning, somehow did not result in a win for the Nationals.

The difference was the agonizing bottom of the eighth.

Right-hander Brandon Kintzler started things off by walking Tommy La Stella on five pitches. Jon Jay then bunted the runner into scoring position. Kintzler struck out Kris Bryant, and that's when Dusty Baker brought in Pérez to face Rizzo in the decisive matchup of the game.

Perez did his job - he induced weak contact - but Rizzo's little looper fell in between Turner, Werth and Taylor, who could only watch helplessly as the Cubs took their first lead of the game.

Wade Davis then pitched the ninth to finish it off and leave the Nationals' season in the hands of No. 4 starter Tanner Roark on Tuesday.

The first five innings of this one might as well have been a carbon copy of Game 1 at Nationals Park. The Nats lineup managed only two hits against the Cubs starter, unable to convert what few scoring opportunities they had. Meanwhile, the Nats ace was mowing down the Chicago lineup, which couldn't so much as manage one hit.

Just change the names this time, from Stephen Strasburg to Scherzer, from Kyle Hendricks to José Quintana. Everything else looked exactly the same.

Whatever concerns there were about Scherzer's hamstring were quickly eased when he cruised through the first inning on 13 pitches, showing off all four of his pitches and reaching 96 mph with his fastball. He wound up retiring the first nine batters he faced before plunking Jon Jay with a 1-2 fastball to open the fourth. A misplayed 4-6-3 double play prolonged the inning, but Scherzer escaped the jam when Turner made a jump-throw to first to get Ben Zobrist.

Scherzer walked a batter in the fifth and got out of it with a pair of strikeouts. He walked another batter in the sixth and got out of it with a double play, pumping his fist as he hopped off the mound.

It was only moments earlier when the Nationals finally struck against the Cubs pitching staff, with a major assist from the guy in left field. Kyle Schwarber was in the lineup today because Joe Maddon wanted his left-handed power bat against Scherzer, but everyone knows the big lug is a liability in the field. And it proved true when Schwarber dropped Daniel Murphy's tailing fly ball down the line, then bobbled it again for a two-error play that let Murphy advance all the way to third base.

As the crowd booed, Maddon walked to the mound to pull Quintana, bringing in right-hander Pedro Strop to face Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman made him pay for it, drilling a double to the gap in right-center, giving the Nationals a 1-0 lead and silencing the crowd.

Now, though, came the dicey part of this game. Scherzer had not allowed a hit, but his pitch count was rising and he had said he was good for 100 on this afternoon. When the bottom of the seventh began, he was sitting on 90, without having allowed a hit. Sammy Solís and Kintzler were warming in the 'pen. Scherzer retook the mound.

He got Willson Contreras to whiff at a 95 mph fastball, but he could not get Zobrist. The veteran utilityman drove the ball the other way for an opposite-field double, the Cubs' first hit of the day. And with his pitch count at 98, Scherzer was pulled.

Baker, though, had a choice: Bring in Kintzler to face the dangerous Schwarber, or bring in Solís to force Maddon to pinch-hit with Albert Almora Jr. Baker chose Solís, a move that did not end up working. Almora sent a single to left, bringing Zobrist home with the game-tying run as the ballpark started shaking. Jason Heyward's subsequent single left two men on with one out and brought Baker back from the dugout to summon Kintzler.

Kintzler is the guy the Nationals usually bring in to induce a double play. Which is exactly what he did. Just not in anything close to conventional fashion. Addison Russell's line drive to right-center was snagged by Taylor, catching the Cubs completely by surprise. Taylor threw to Murphy at second base, who then from his knees threw to Zimmerman at first base, just in time to nab the confounded Heyward for a bizarre 8-4-3 double play.

That left the game tied after seven innings. And it set the stage for a dramatic finish in a series that has been dramatic from the moment it began.