Turner's pair of homers give Nationals dramatic 5-4 victory

Trea Turner was supposed to inject speed and energy to the top of the Nationals lineup. Who knew he'd inject a whole lot of power as well?

Turner blasted two home runs in the game's final three innings tonight, including a walk-off homer to straightaway center field that gave the Nationals a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Phillies and added another chapter to the rookie's sterling season.

Turner, who hit a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the seventh, needed to work harder to his second. He fouled off five consecutive two-strike pitches from Phillies reliever Frank Herrmann before crushing the ninth pitch of the at-bat to center field, setting off a mad celebration at the plate.

Turner's eighth homer in 233 major league plate appearances this season helped the Nationals reduce their magic number to clinch the National League East title to 14. It also turned an eighth-inning bullpen meltdown into a footnote.

Dusty Baker has said more than once in recent weeks he hopes Koda Glover can be for the Nationals what Francisco Rodriguez was for the Angels during their World Series run in 2002: a late-season call-up who takes over set-up duties despite his lack of experience.

Baker gave Glover a chance to pitch the eighth inning instead of veteran Shawn Kelley on Tuesday night, and it worked, with Glover earning the victory in relief. So when the opportunity presented itself again tonight, Baker summoned the rookie from the 'pen, with his team up three runs.

Glover, though, immediately got himself into trouble. He hit Aaron Altherr with a pitch to open the inning, then walked Andres Blanco. And when Cameron Rupp crushed a 2-0, 97-mph sinker over the left field bullpen, this game suddenly was tied and the Glover Set-up Man Experiment was perhaps being put on hold for now.

The Nationals had put themselves in position to complete a 4-1 victory after seven innings, thanks to a gutty performance by Tanner Roark and big hits by Bryce Harper and Turner.

Roark burst out of the gates throwing smoke; he struck out four of the first six batters he faced, all on two-seam fastballs. But then the right-hander found himself in a battle, unable to put away the Phillies batters with as much ease the second time through the order.

His toughest stretch came in the top of the fourth, when the Phillies strung together three hits to bring home a run. Roark escaped without further damage, but his pitch count stood at 70 after that frame ended, leaving him to face an uphill battle the rest of the night.

Roark went as far as he could, navigating his way through the sixth inning before he was pulled with 107 pitches on his stat line. The game was tied at the time, but his teammates made sure it didn't stay that way for long.

The Nationals scored the tying run back in the bottom of the fourth, via Anthony Rendon's RBI double off the center field wall. Two innings later, it was Harper who drove home Daniel Murphy with an RBI single to right.

Then for good measure, Turner sent a laser of a two-run homer down the left field line in the bottom of the seventh, extending the lead to 4-1. Who knew he would hit an even more important one a couple innings later?