Nats can't close out Cubs in nine, but still sweep in 11 (updated)

CHICAGO - The first two games of a highly anticipated weekend series were lopsided affairs, the Nationals clearly outshining the Cubs on their home turf.

Today's finale? This was the ballgame everyone anticipated all along: a taut, well-played, evenly matched showdown between two National League postseason contenders.

And when it finally ended some 4 1/2 hours later and 40,518 filed out into the streets of Wrigleyville, it was the Nationals who were celebrating in the middle of the diamond, having just pulled off a most impressive three-game sweep against a team that had only lost one other home series all year.

Despite blowing a late, three-run lead, the Nationals hung around long enough to emerge with a 7-5 victory in 11 innings, getting clutch hits from Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon and then two gutsy innings of relief from Daniel Hudson to escape Wrigley Field with three straight wins that left the clubhouse simultaneously jubilant, exhausted and emotional.

"They're very resilient," Davey Martinez said in one of several postgame moments in which the second-year manager nearly teared up. "I'm telling you, I've said this all along: They're not going to quit. That's who they are."

There is something about this incarnation of this franchise, something even previous versions that ran away with division titles did not possess. They are flawed, to be sure, but they also are exceptionally talented and extremely tenacious.

"We just never give up," Rendon said. "We continue to battle, we continue to play all nine innings, all 10 innings, all 11 innings. Whatever it may be, we just continue to grind."

How else to explain a turnaround that has now spanned one-half of a baseball season? Since reaching their low point of 19-31 on May 23, the Nationals have gone 56-24. That's not only the best record in the majors during that span, it's the best 80-game stretch in club history, better than anything the four division winners ever pulled off.

"It's been a lot of fun," Martinez said. "And I credit these guys for sticking with it, cause they could've easily gone south when things were going bad. But they didn't. It's a testament to the veterans, to the coaching staff, myself, (general manager Mike Rizzo), just constantly staying positive and bringing energy every day with these guys. They bring energy every day. We're on a great run and it's been fun. But we've got a day off, and we know Tuesday we've got to come back and do it again."

Down but not out after giving up the lead in the eighth and squandering another scoring opportunity in the ninth, the Nats retook the lead in the top of the 11th, the rally ignited by Kendrick's leadoff single off Tyler Chatwood. Turner's double to the right-center gap might've been enough to score most runners from first, but third base coach Bob Henley didn't take any chances with Kendrick (who has dealt with hamstring issues for months).

No problem, because Kendrick would score moments later on Chatwood's wild pitch. Rendon then tacked on a key insurance run with a single to left, giving the Nationals bullpen some extra cushion on a day when the offense needed to help out the rest of the team out.

"I said at the beginning of the year when you asked us that question: Our pitchers are going to pick us up a lot of times, in games when we score no runs or maybe one run," Rendon said. "But it's our job as hitters, as position players, to pick up our pitchers as well. It's not necessarily one-sided. Our defense has to pick up our pitching, and our pitching has to pick up our offense."

Hudson, who had thrown 19 pitches to close out Saturday's win and then 10 pitches to retire the side in the bottom of the 10th today, returned to the mound for the bottom of the 11th and retired the side to close out only the Nats' third win in nine extra-inning games this season.

"I told him: 'Hey, just give me what you got,'" Martinez said. "'If you're at a point where you don't have enough, then you're done.'"

"Once he said that, I figured I was probably going back no matter what," Hudson said. "So just kind of locked it back in and got ready to go back out."

Tied 2-2 entering the seventh, the Nationals took the lead thanks to clutch two-out hits from Juan Soto and Asdrúbal Cabrera. Soto's single, in which he battled lefty Kyle Ryan through a seven-pitch at-bat and busted down the line to beat Javier Báez's pinpoint throw after a diving stop, put the Nats on top and had to be admired by anyone who witnessed it.

"I just tried to fight," Soto said. "I got mad after the umpire made a call, like two balls inside. I said: 'Well, I gotta swing at those pitches now.' I just tried to put the ball in play and run as hard as I can to first base."

Cabrera's subsequent two-run single to right tacked on a pair of insurance runs and gave the Nationals bullpen a 5-2 lead.

That wasn't enough on this day. Hunter Strickland served up a moonshot, two-out homer just inside the right field foul pole in the bottom of the seventh. Fernando Rodney then issued a two-out walk to Báez and left a 2-0 fastball up and out over the plate to Kyle Schwarber, who blasted it into the left field bleachers to tie the game again and leave the crowd delirious.

With a chance to retake the lead in the top of the ninth against Craig Kimbrel, the Nationals got a leadoff walk from Turner but then saw Victor Robles pop up a bunt on the first pitch he saw. That proved critical moments later when Rendon singled up the middle, allowing Turner only to advance to second instead of potentially scoring had Robles been able to move him up.

Even so, the Nats still had a chance to get to Kimbrel with the heart of their lineup. But Soto's 108.7 mph laser to center was hit directly at Jason Heyward for the second out. And Cabrera, after fouling off a couple tough fastballs, couldn't pull the trigger on a 3-2 curveball, leaving the game tied heading to the bottom of the ninth, and ultimately to extras.

The Nationals didn't score early, but they did score first again. After both Stephen Strasburg and Cole Hamels each put up three straight zeros, Rendon broke the deadlock with a towering blast to left field. His 421-foot homer, off an 0-2 fastball, cleared the bleachers and landed on Waveland Avenue, a most impressive way for Rendon to notch his 29th home run and 103rd RBI of the season.

The Nationals had opportunities to do more damage against Hamels. They just couldn't do enough to scratch out another run until the sixth. And even then, it felt like they should've scored more than one run.

A double by Soto and a single by Cabrera left runners on the corners and knocked Hamels from the game. David Phelps entered to face Kurt Suzuki, and though the Nationals catcher got one run home, he did so at the expense of two outs via a 6-4-3 double play.

All of that put added pressure on Strasburg to pitch with little margin for error. The right-hander wasn't at his absolute best, but he did come through with some big pitches when he really needed them.

The Cubs got on the board in the bottom of the fifth, when Addison Russell got just enough of a Strasburg changeup to send the ball flying into the basket that hovers over the left field wall. One inning later, they tied the game but couldn't take the lead.

Strasburg appeared to be teetering when he allowed an RBI single to Kris Bryant, leaving the game knotted 2-2 with two on, nobody out and his pitch count surpassing triple digits. That's when he delivered his best sequence of the afternoon. He got ahead of Báez with curveballs and then finished him off with a changeup. He got Schwarber to fly out weakly to left. And then he got Jonathan Lucroy to whiff at a 2-2 curveball on his 113rd pitch of the afternoon, keeping the game tied and earning praise from teammates and coaches when he returned to the dugout.

"Just take it one pitch at a time," Strasburg said. "There's still a lot of ballgame left. I try and do that throughout the game. Sometimes they're gonna score. Sometimes they're not. But I just try to go out there and make good pitches."

This game was now in the hands of both bullpens, the outcome very much undetermined.

And though the Nationals bullpen was far from at its best, the Nationals lineup made up for it with one of its most impressive performances of an already remarkable season.

"They feel like they're never out of any game," Martinez said. "And that's the attitude we have. I can tell you now, the attitude I instill is: 'This game is not over until the last out. Keep playing hard. Anything can happen.' "