On Werth's streak, Revere's catch and Glover's odd win

ATLANTA - Some more thoughts and reactions from Friday night's wild 7-6 Nationals win at Turner Field ...

* It was never going to be the kind of streak that drew national headlines or would be recalled by people at the drop of the hat years from now, so Jayson Werth didn't put more stock in it than it deserved. Still, the end of the veteran's streak of consecutive games reaching base had a slight bittersweet tinge to it.

Werth went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, bringing the streak to a halt at 46 games. It was the longest such streak in Nationals club history and matched Rusty Staub for the longest streak in Expos/Nationals franchise history.

"I'm telling you, the more important thing is that we won the game," Werth insisted. "That's the problem with streaks sometimes. They tend to get bigger than the game. People start to talk about it. I'm just glad we can get back to baseball now."

Werth did admit to doing some recent research to learn the all-time records for reaching base. He knew he had no shot at catching Ted Williams' remarkable run of 84 in 1949, though he was starting to have visions of George Van Haltren's National League record of 60 games set in 1893.

Though he never reached base Friday night, Werth did play a role in the Nationals' win. With the go-ahead run on base and one out in the top of the ninth, manager Dusty Baker had catcher Pedro Severino (pinch-running for Wilson Ramos) take off from first base to try to avoid a double play. A swing-and-a-miss from Werth would've likely gotten Severino thrown out, but the 37-year-old did his job by getting the bat on the ball, and his grounder to third moved Severino into position to score the game-winner moments later on Clint Robinson's RBI single.

"I knew he was running, and that was the goal," Werth said. "That's the problem with streaks. They start to become bigger than the game. I didn't want that to happen. I didn't really think it was that big a deal. The goal is to win the game. And that definitely helped. I didn't get on base, didn't keep the streak alive, but I did something to help my team win. And now as we get down the stretch here, we've got something pretty cool we can accomplish. I don't want any individual stuff taking away from that."

* Ben Revere's remarkable catch in the fourth inning lost some of its significance given the way the game's storyline changed late, but the clubhouse still was buzzing about it afterward.

Revere robbed Freddie Freeman of a home run with a perfectly timed leap at the fence in right-center. He held onto the ball despite banging into the wall and then twisting himself around as he landed back on the field. And he did all this after covering 116 feet in the outfield, reaching a maximum speed of 19.7 mph.

"Unbelievable," said Tanner Roark, whose reaction from the pitcher's mound mirrored that sentiment. "One of the greatest catches I've ever seen."

"That was the best catch I've ever seen live on a baseball field," said Robinson, who watched from first base. "That I've been a part of and I've seen. I mean, you watch the ones with Mike Trout on TV and whatever. But that's as good of a catch as you'll ever see."

Revere, who has made several highlight-reel catches this season and plenty more earlier in his career, wasn't ready to declare this one among his very best.

"It may be up there," he said. "I've got to sit down and think about it. I had some really good ones in the minor leagues, too. ... I made some pretty good ones at some crappy stadiums."

* The Nationals want to find out if Koda Glover is ready to handle some pressure situations in the big leagues, but they weren't quite intending to find out the way they did last night.

With regular setup man Shawn Kelley and Oliver Perez (the only left-hander in the bullpen) unavailable due to overuse, Baker had to cobble together the eighth inning in unconventional fashion. He began with Matt Belisle but pulled the veteran after three batters, with two on and one out.

In came Glover, making only his fourth career appearance in the big leagues. The flamethrower got the ground ball he needed from Jeff Francoeur, but third baseman Anthony Rendon threw the ball away.

Now Glover had to face Freeman, perhaps the most consistently successful opposing hitter the Nationals face every season. The rookie tried to get a 98-mph fastball past him, but Freeman was ready for it and drove it to deep left-center for the game-tying double.

"Honestly, that was the pitch we wanted to go with," Glover said. "It was a good pitch, but he's a good hitter. These guys get paid to hit. Hat's off to him. He made a good swing on it, put it in play, and it was a big hit."

Though the game was now tied, Glover managed to keep it that way, bouncing back from the Freeman double to record two more outs and escape the inning. That impressed his manager.

"The thing about it is, when you give it up, you've got to forget about that and bear down and get the next hitter," Baker said. "Because you can't do anything about what's already happened. That was very mature of him. You know he's not scared. This guy's a warrior. He's brave."

Glover's reward for all that: his first career win, albeit in unconventional fashion.

"Yeah, that's definitely not the way you want to get it," he said. "But I'll take it any way I can get it."