Nationals top Phillies, avoid elimination (updated)

The Nationals took the field tonight knowing it could be the last time they do so this season for an officially meaningful game. Though they've privately conceded they aren't going to the playoffs for some time now, there was a chance they could actually be eliminated tonight, if they lost to the Phillies and the Reds beat the Brewers.

Cincinnati did its part. But the Nationals did theirs, beating the Phillies 5-1 and surviving for at least one more day.

Behind five effective (if elongated) innings from Aníbal Sánchez, some manufactured runs, some bad Philly defense and strong relief work from Wander Suero, Kyle Finnegan, Will Harris and Daniel Hudson, the Nats won their second straight. At 21-32, they're six games behind the 28-27 Reds, current holders of the National League's eighth and final postseason slot, with seven games to play.

The Phillies are right in the thick of the wild card race themselves, and they were hoping to boost their case against a Nationals club they were a perfect 6-0 against entering this series. Bryce Harper and Co. instead slogged their way through a frustrating night that saw manager Joe Girardi and center fielder Roman Quinn both ejected arguing balls and strikes.

"I think the two teams that we have (Phillies and Mets) the remainder of the week are in a better spot than we are," utilityman Brock Holt said. "Just the thought of playing spoiler can kind of motivate you. Obviously, we all know what's going on. But it motivates you a little bit more."

It was not, however, a perfect evening for the home team, which saw Carter Kieboom depart after getting hit by a fastball on his left hand. The rookie third baseman appeared to be in serious pain as he walked off the field alongside a trainer, though manager Davey Martinez said afterward that X-rays were negative and Kieboom is day-to-day with a bone contusion.

It's been a strange year for Sánchez, and you can add tonight's outing to the list, even though it proved to be one of his most successful to date. The peripheral stats - four walks, four hits, one balk, 105 pitches in five innings - wouldn't suggest it, but the veteran right-hander emerged from all that allowing only one run to cross the plate.

And that one run came via an all-time brain freeze by Sánchez. With runners on the corners and two out in the fifth, Sánchez prepared to throw a 3-2 pitch to Bryce Harper. Instead, he turned and went to make a pickoff attempt to first base. The only problem: Asdrúbal Cabrera wasn't holding the runner on. Sánchez had to abort the throw, at which point he was called for the balk and the lead runner was waved home from third.

Sánchez, of course, wound up striking out Harper on the next pitch, making the pickoff attempt completely unnecessary in the end. He walked off the mound and cursed loudly at himself, his shutout bid having ended in bizarre (and totally self-inflicted) fashion.

"You think you've done everything in baseball, but not like that," the 15-year veteran said. "I don't know what's going on. Just one quick reaction. I know Cabby gave me the sign like 'I'm going to be behind the runner.' And then just a quick reaction and I didn't even throw the ball. I don't know. It's like that. That's part of baseball. That's when you start laughing at some stuff like that. Thank God that we were winning."

That really was Sánchez's only bad mistake of the game. And he more than made up for it by achieving something he hadn't done in two years: Teaming up with Kurt Suzuki to throw out an opposing basestealer.

After a brutal two-year stretch that saw opponents go a perfect 25-for-25 against the Sánchez-Suzuki battery, they finally threw someone out. It was Alec Bohm, who tried to swipe second with two outs in the top of the first. And unlike the 25 others who previously tried over the last two years, Bohm was thrown out.

Then, as if they just wanted to prove to everyone it wasn't a fluke, Sánchez and Suzuki caught Jean Segura trying to steal second in the top of the second. Progress, at last, in a longstanding problem area.

"I know by the scouting report everything they know about me when I've got a runner on first," Sánchez said. "But today I tried to hold the ball the more I could. I put in on my mind today: OK, hold the ball. Count to three. Count to five. Count to two. Back to five. Throw over. All that kind of counts I put in my mind, we were really good today at holding the runners on first."

It felt all the more significant when the Phillies botched their attempt to cut down the Nationals' running game, capping a two-run bottom of the first. Andrew Stevenson, bumped up to the leadoff spot, doubled into the left field corner to get the rally started. After Juan Soto drew a one-out walk, Cabrera singled up the middle to drive in the game's first run.

A few moments later, Holt (who reached on a fielder's choice) took off for second and watched as Andrew Knapp's throw sailed into center field. Soto scampered home from third on the error, and the Nationals had a 2-0 lead.

They would add three more runs later on, the first scoring on Luis García's dribbler in front of the plate that officially traveled 2 feet in the air with a launch angle of -71 degrees, the other two coming around on Holt's hit-and-run single in the seventh that ended with a throwing error.

And so the Nationals emerged victorious to open this final homestand. They are hanging on by a thread, but they are mathematically alive for at least one more day.

"For us, it's just about competing every day, going 1-0 every day," Martinez said. "As you could see tonight - testament to these guys - they go out and they played baseball. They played hard. They never feel like they're out of it, which I love. They're going to go out there and try to win every game they possibly can."