Rendon's slam lifts Nats a step closer to Braves (updated)

He stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, two outs and a ballgame between the division's top two clubs tied in the bottom of the sixth. The crowd, which had been fairly docile all night, only stood to urge the batter on once he got to a 2-0 count and the scoreboard began pleading with everyone to "Get On Your Feet!"

Once they rose, they didn't sit down again until Anthony Rendon had crushed the ball 412 feet to left field, circled the bases, danced through a line of teammates in the dugout and accepted a curtain call.

In a summer full of big moments by Rendon, this was by far the biggest. His grand slam gave the Nationals a lead they would not relinquish, and this 6-3 victory over the Braves brought them to within 4 1/2 games of the National League East leaders and set the tone for this critical three-game series that concludes right as Wednesday's 4 p.m. trade deadline arrives.

"Psh, that's the Tony I know," teammate Juan Soto said. "When I saw the ball, I was like: 'It's gone. We're getting back.' "

The 125th home run of Rendon's career produced the 500th RBI of his career once he crossed the plate as the fourth run on the play. It gave the All-Star third baseman 23 homers and 80 RBIs for the season, to go along with 30 doubles, a 1.022 OPS and a to-be-revealed couple of percentage points added to the 4.2 WAR he already has amassed two-thirds of the way through his fantastic campaign.

Is Rendon pricing himself out of the Nationals' market in his walk year? Maybe so, but right now they're more concerned with the fact he's helping them chase down the Braves for the division title with his standout performance in 2019.

"It's really not just this season. It's every year," manager Davey Martinez said. "Even when I was on the other side, just watching him play, you don't see a whole lot of emotion from him. He just makes everything look rather easy."

Rendon had help tonight making this win possible. Patrick Corbin went toe-to-toe with Dallas Keuchel and outpitched his fellow lefty even though each ultimately was charged with two earned runs. Soto drove in an early run and robbed a couple more later with a great catch in deep left field. And the well-rested bullpen trio of Wander Suero, Fernando Rodney and Sean Doolittle finished things off with only minimal drama (a ninth-inning homer off Doolittle).

But it was Rendon who stole the show with his sixth-inning grand slam off Chad Sobotka, forced into action out of the Atlanta bullpen after the Nationals chased Keuchel.

Yan Gomes got the rally started with the third of his career-high four walks, and Adrián Sanchez extended it with a pinch-hit single that ended Keuchel's night. After Sobotka struck out Trea Turner, Adam Eaton drew another walk to load the bases and bring Rendon to the plate for the biggest at-bat of the night.

Some might feel the weight of that moment, in the thick of a pennant race, and succumb to it. Rendon shrugs it off as just another at-bat in a season full of them.

"I think I'm able to keep it even keel," he said. "I have a good understanding that baseball is not the most important thing in the world. But at the same time, you want to get a hit. I'm competitive, and I don't want to get out. But it's not the end of the world."

Rendon may not have felt the pressure of the moment, but Sobotka sure looked like he did. The right fell behind with a pair of balls out of the zone, and then as the crowd stood and roared, he threw a fastball on the inner-third of the plate. That's the wrong place to throw a 2-0 fastball to this particular hitter.

Rendon turned on the pitch, using his lightning-quick hands to get inside the ball and drive it deep to left and into the night.

"His hands are so quick," Martinez said. "He puts himself in a position to hit every pitch. And when he's like that 2-0 ... you've got bases loaded, you don't want to walk him. He got a pitch to hit, and he hit it far, loud and it was clutch."

Rendon's blast put Corbin in line to win a matchup of the top two lefties on last winter's free agent market.

The Nationals put pressure on Keuchel from the get-go, with six of their first 10 batters reaching base. They came out of that with only two runs, though, getting an RBI single from Soto and an RBI double from Turner.

Keuchel kept pitching his way out of major damage, though if nothing else the Nationals kept his pitch count up. And that would come into play later.

Corbin, meanwhile, mowed through the Braves lineup for the better part of five innings, done in only by his defense, which contributed to a fourth-inning run. When he completed the fifth, though, Corbin was in control, using a devastating slider to induce a whopping 18 swings and misses and producing five of his seven strikeouts.

"I thought I just threw better sliders today than last time I faced them," he said. "I was really short with them, wasn't myself on that pitch (10 days ago in Atlanta). So I thought today if I could throw some better ones, I could get some swings."

The lefty got into another jam in the sixth, though, again aiding by less-than-perfect defense. And when Adam Duvall belted a drive to deep left field with runners on the corners and one out, the Nationals thought for a split second they suddenly trailed 4-2.

But then Soto casually drifted back to the wall, just as Martinez and Bob Henley have taught him to, and when he had drifted as far as he could go, he leaped up and snatched the ball out of the air for perhaps his best defensive play in two big league seasons.

Freddie Freeman coasted home from third on the sacrifice fly, but Soto's highlight-reel play brought the crowd to its feet and at least kept the game tied at 2.

"That feels amazing," the 20-year-old said. "That feels really good. That's like hitting a homer for me."

It wouldn't stay tied for long. For that, the Nationals can thank the man more and more people around baseball are finally recognizing as one of the very best players in the game, one who is putting together his best all-around season at the best possible time.

"I really feel the same," Rendon said. "I don't feel that much better, I don't feel that much worse. I still try to keep my plan simple, and I guess still be the boring person that I am. I guess it's finally coming together."