Nats overcome early homers, rally to tie, but lose in ninth

PHOENIX - After two wholly unexpected innings at Chase Field tonight, the notion of Dusty Baker facing a tough pitching decision for the bottom of the ninth seemed nothing more than wishful thinking. The Nationals trailed the Diamondbacks by five runs, all five scoring against Max Scherzer, three of them via a historic spurt in the bottom of the first.

What were the odds the Nationals manager would need to decide whether or not to use his closer at the end of the night?

Well, actually that unlikely scenario played out three hours later in what had become a tie game thanks to Scherzer righting his briefly wayward ship and the Nats lineup chipping away at the Diamondbacks pitching staff throughout the evening.

And so when the bottom of the ninth arrived, Baker had the following decision to make: use his pseudo-closer, Sean Doolittle, in a tie game on the road, or use someone else to try to force extra innings and hopefully create a save situation for Doolittle.

Baker's decision: entrust the bottom of the ninth to Enny Romero, saving Doolittle for later. Except later never came. Romero served up a leadoff triple to A.J. Pollock, then could not complete a miraculous escape act and handed the Nationals a disheartening 6-5 loss to the Diamondbacks.

"We just came up short," Baker said. "It's a great game to watch and participate in. We just came up short in the end."

When Scherzer lasted only five innings, the Nationals faced a stiff challenge trying to piece together the rest of the game with relievers. For three innings, they pulled it off, with Joe Blanton, Matt Grace and Ryan Madson all posting zeros.

When the Nats couldn't produce the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, they now needed somebody to survive the gauntlet that is the heart of Arizona's lineup: Pollock, Jake Lamb, Paul Goldschmidt. They turned to Romero, the 26-year-old with the electric arm but erratic results.

"If we had taken the lead in the ninth, we were going to turn it over to Doolittle," Baker explained. "And then we were going to hit for Enny (in the top of the 10th); he was the fourth hitter. That's why I saved back (top pinch-hitter Adam) Lind. We were down to our last two guys. When you're playing a comeback, you burn through your players. Things were working as planned, except Drury beat us."

Brandon Drury's bases-loaded single through the right side of a drawn-in infield did ultimately beat the Nationals, but before that could happen Romero gave up the leadoff triple to Pollock on a 100 mph fastball.

"I tried to elevate a pitch to hopefully get a swing and miss," Romero said via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "But it stayed down the middle, and he took a good swing at it and hit a triple."

With no other choice at this point, the Nationals intentionally walked both Lamb and Goldschmidt to load the bases for Gregor Blanco. Romero got him to loft a shallow fly ball to left for the first out, but he couldn't get the desperation double play grounder he needed out of Drury.

"He took a great swing, I'll give him credit for that," Romero said. "He kept his hands inside, and he was able to ... even though it was a ground ball, he was able to stay inside of it and get a base hit. My whole intention was to try to go inside, but I just give him credit for that. It was a good at-bat."

That this even proved to be a tight ballgame late was surprising given how the ballgame began: in shocking fashion.

Scherzer took the mound in a comfortable ballpark - he had a 2.40 ERA here as a visitor after beginning his career with the Diamondbacks - a league-best 2.01 ERA and every reason to believe he would deliver another quality start.

Ten pitches later, Scherzer paced around the mound in a state of shock, having just surrendered home runs to Arizona's first three batters of the night. They came in rapid fire, with David Peralta going deep to right, Pollock going deep to left and Lamb going deep to right to become only the third team in major league history to open a game with three consecutive homers.

"They were hunting everything," Scherzer said. "They watched how I've pitched. They came out and got me."

Scherzer had never allowed three straight homers at any point in a game in his career; the Nationals had never allowed it at any point in a game in club history.

It took him 37 pitches (with another run scoring on two singles and a walk) to get out of the first inning, and then it took a shaky second inning that featured back-to-back doubles by Pollock and Lamb, but eventually Scherzer settled down and salvaged something from this start. The ace wound up retiring 11 of the last 13 batters he faced, striking out the side in the fifth to end his night on a high note.

"I don't think I've ever seen a game starting off with three homers," Baker said. "I'm sure Max hadn't seen it, either. But he settled down, kept us in the ballgame, and gave us a chance to come back."

Sure enough, the Nationals slowly began to chip away at their five-run deficit. They got one run back in the fourth on doubles by Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy (who snapped an 0-for-12 slump in the process). They got two runs back in the fifth thanks in part to the first of Matt Wieters' two doubles on the night and Ryan Raburn's two-out RBI single. They got one more back in the sixth on Wilmer Difo's two-out RBI single to right. And then they tied it in the eighth when Difo delivered a run-scoring ground ball.

If only they had been able to manage one more run, the run that would have given them the lead and then allowed Baker to turn to his best reliever to close things out.

"Our offense, look, that's what they're capable of," Scherzer said. "They're capable of going out there and producing runs against good pitching. That's why I love the way we competed today from a team aspect. That's why, as much as this one stings, there's a lot of good to take from it, as well."