Despite harrowing moment, Doolittle notches 14th save

MILWAUKEE - Sean Doolittle threw the pitch - a thigh-high, 97 mph fastball - and saw Manny Piña make good contact. But he didn't spin around to watch the play. Instead, the Nationals closer's eyes remained fixated on the Brewers batter, even after contact, trying to gauge whether he had just recorded the game's final out ... or a served up a walk-off homer.

"In the dome, a lot of times everything sounds loud, so it's tough to really get a read on how good he got it," Doolittle said. "So I was staring to watch his body language, and he couldn't tell either, I don't think. He was kind of skipping down the line, trying to will it to get out. He was pretty far down. I was like: 'How long is this ball going to stay in the air?' Because he was still holding his bat, like, almost to first base. That was a long five or six seconds."

Long not only for Doolittle but for everyone inside Miller Park, whether in uniform or in the stands, and anyone watching on TV back home. Piña's drive to deep right-center with two outs in the bottom of the ninth was a hold-your-breath kind of moment. Everyone - well, except for Doolittle - fixated on Michael A. Taylor as he tracked back to the wall, attempting to make the catch.

Taylor's reaction off the bat, though, suggested he knew the ball was going to stay in the park. True?

"When he hit it, I thought it was, for sure," the center fielder said. "Then it just kept carrying. The ball's been carrying pretty good here. And with the way the wall is in that corner, I thought it might get a little bit dicey. But it stayed in."

Yes, it did. Taylor reached the warning track, and perhaps a step or two in front of the wall was able to jump up and make the catch that secured the Nationals' 3-2 victory over the Brewers on Saturday night.

It was a dramatic conclusion to a dramatic game, one that saw Max Scherzer pulled after five innings with a bruised left calf that prevented him from running, one that saw the Nats storm back to tie and then take the lead in the top of the eighth on Taylor's homer, Wilmer Difo's bunt single and Trea Turner's RBI double, and one that saw the back end of the bullpen post three more zeroes.

Though that last zero was a little shakier than the first two (when Ryan Madson and Brandon KIntzler each retired the side).

Doolittle had blown away Milwaukee's first two batters, inducing Ryan Braun to popup to first and then striking out Jesús Aguilar. But when Hernán Pérez singled to left with two outs, Piña stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter with a chance to win the game on one swing. He nearly did, and Doolittle would've given the batter all the credit had he pulled it off.

"Without having gone back to look back at the pitch, I was happy with the sequence that we were executing there," the closer said. "I was happy with where I was putting those pitches. And we had gone in the whole at-bat. We were trying to go away there and flip the script on him."

Piña got hold of Doolittle's sixth straight fastball of the at-bat, though, and that left everyone in a state of flux for moment.

"A little worried, just because the ball flies well in this stadium," Turner said. "But I thought it was going to stay in. Part of me thought it was going to stay in, part of me thought it was going to sneak out. But once I looked at Mikey and saw him running not so hard towards the ball, I thought we had a chance for it. And, thankfully, it stayed in there."

When it was over, once Taylor made the catch just in front of the Nationals bullpen, Doolittle finally looked back and was able to smile, having converted his 14th consecutive save opportunity since joining the club in July.

"The ball came out of my hand good," he said. "I felt good about the pitch I made, and I was controlling that at-bat. I felt like I was in the driver's seat. That would've been a tough one to swallow, not just for me but for this team, the way we battled back tonight. The guys in the bullpen made sure it stayed in there."