Nats rally twice, pull out all stops to beat Phillies 13-12 (updated)

In order to pull off their ninth win in 10 games, the Nationals needed another Kyle Schwarber three-run homer to highlight a five-run top of the fifth, a Josh Bell grand slam to cap a six-run top of the sixth, a two-run single by Starlin Castro in the top of the ninth to re-take a lead that had just been lost and then the first save conversion of Paolo Espino's career (with some help from a bleeding Jordy Mercer at second base).

And it all worked out. Somehow. Some way. Adding another memorable chapter to a remarkable June turnaround for this club.

Castro's line drive single over a leaping Brad Miller's head at second base scored Bell and Josh Harrison to complete a stirring rally in the top of the ninth, and Espino (the seventh man to enter from Davey Martinez's depleted bullpen during a 4-hour, 19-minute marathon) recorded the final three outs against the heart of the Phillies lineup to wrap up a 13-12 victory at Citizens Bank Park that was as bonkers as that sounds.

"There's no way to sum it up," Martinez said during a postgame Zoom session with reporters in which the fourth-year manager got emotional more than once. "We kept battling back. We were down five, we battled back. They came back, we battled back. They took the lead, and at the end of the day we went 1-0."

The wildest game of the season saw the Nationals score 11 runs in the fifth and sixth, yet still need one more rally to win in the ninth after Austin Voth and Tanner Rainey combined to allow the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the eighth.

No problem, because Castro calmly lined his single with one out in the top of the ninth to bring home Bell and Harrison and re-take the lead.

"We all (deal) with difficult times," said Castro, who entered the day with a career-worst .613 OPS and also had to leave the team for two days last week to attend to a family situation. "I just try to keep my head up and continue to grind it out, continue to play hard, continue to get better every day and try to help the most I can to help my team win."

"He's been around, and he understands," Martinez said of the 31-year-old infielder. "I talk to him every day. At the end of the day, he's going to have his 175 hits. I've said that all along. He's going to hit his .270-.280, drive in 70-80 runs. Take it one at-bat at a time, and today was a perfect example. We needed a clutch hit, and he stayed on the ball and came through with a beautiful line drive to right-center field."

All of that put the Nationals back on top. But with closer Brad Hand unavailable after pitching four of the last five days, someone still needed to pitch the bottom of the ninth. And that someone was Espino. The journeyman right-hander, who last week earned the first win of his winding career as the fill-in starter for an injured Max Scherzer, recorded the necessary three outs - capped by Mercer snagging a line drive moments after he had taken a bad-hop grounder off his face, leaving his mouth bleeding - to earn the first save of his career.

"I guess I kind of knew, if it was tied or a save situation, I knew about it," Espino said. "But in my head, I wasn't really thinking: 'Oh man, a save situation!' I just went out there and tried to do the same thing I've been doing: Go out there and get outs and help the team win."

So it was that the Nats swept this two-game series in Philadelphia and moved into sole possession of second place in the National League East for the moment, 3 1/2-games behind the Mets, having now won nine of their last 10. The path to get to that point was long and winding, with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns.

The afternoon began in frustrating fashion, with the Nationals unable to touch Vince Velasquez (10 straight retired) and Erick Fedde unable to sustain his recent run of dominance. The right-hander entered with a streak of 20 scoreless innings, and though he posted a zero in the bottom of the first he wouldn't post another.

Travis Jankowski tagged Fedde for a three-run homer in the bottom of the second, turning on an 0-2 cutter and sending it flying into the right field stands. Bryce Harper then added a solo shot in the third, his fourth career homer in 14 career at-bats against his former Las Vegas High School teammate.

By the time he surrendered an RBI single to Velasquez in the fourth, Fedde's day was nearly complete. He was pulled after allowing five runs in four innings on 74 pitches, a disappointing step back for the player who has been the most pleasant development of the season to date.

Not that Fedde's start was on anybody's mind by the time this game ended hours later. There was far too much else to dissect, lament and celebrate.

Down 5-0 entering the fifth, the Nationals decided to wake up and make this one interesting. Very interesting. Back-to-back RBI hits by Castro and Victor Robles (a pair of hitters who desperately need more of those) got them on the board and forced Joe Girardi to go to his bullpen.

In came Archie Bradley to face Schwarber with two on and one out. And out went the baseball, launched by Schwarber to the opposite field for a three-run homer, remarkably his 10th in 12 games. Two weeks ago, the big slugger was sitting in single digits. Today, the best leadoff hitter in the majors has 19 on the season, third-most in the National League and equal to Trea Turner, Juan Soto and Robles' combined total.

"He's well on his way to doing some really special things with this uniform on," Bell said. "Hopefully it continues. It's been a lot of fun to watch, for sure."

Schwarber's blast turned a 5-0 deficit into a 5-5 tie. But then Kyle McGowin turned it back into a 9-5 deficit with a disaster of a bottom of the fifth. Despite retiring the first two batters he faced, the righty failed to retire the next four, capped by Andrew McCutchen's pinch-hit grand slam to left.

Ah, but the Nationals had a grand slam in them, as well. And they didn't wait long to produce it.

Taking advantage of four walks issued by Phillies relievers in the top of the sixth, they trimmed the deficit to 9-7 on Turner's two-run single to right-center. And when Bell finished off his brilliant, seven-pitch at-bat against David Hale by driving a fastball the other way for a bat-flipping grand slam, the Nats somehow held an 11-9 lead in the first game in major league history to include a three-run homer and a grand slam by each team.

"That was a first, for sure," Bell said of his defiant bat flip. "I've got a lot of pine tar on my bat. I had to flip it around and then flip it. That wasn't orchestrated or thought about, by any means."

Orchestrated or natural, the moment was the biggest of the season for the big first baseman, who is slowly beginning to make his mark for this team after a difficult opening stretch.

"That was big," Martinez said, turning emotional again. "To me, that was the moment right now where I told myself: That made him a National right there. That really made him a National."