With two-out rally, Nationals find a way to walk off Reds

It takes a certain kind of mentality to bat second in the big leagues, where the job often is less about producing yourself and more about making sure the big boppers behind you get the best opportunities to produce with runners on base.

That feeling is only magnified when the guy batting second is a rookie with 130 career plate appearances and the guys batting third, fourth and fifth are All-Stars and MVP candidates.

Brian Goodwin has learned this in the last few weeks, a stretch during which the Nationals rookie has found himself in the fortuitous position of batting directly in front of Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy.

"I know being in the two-hole, having Harp and those guys behind me, I know (opposing pitchers) don't want to get to those guys," he said. "So that's what I want to do: Make them have to pitch to those guys."

Which is exactly what Goodwin did in the bottom of the 10th tonight against the Reds. His single to right field may not have looked like anything all that special, but without it the Nationals don't pull off a dramatic 6-5 victory.

It was Goodwin's single to right, off a 1-1 fastball from Cincinnati closer Raisel Iglesias, that kept the inning alive, advanced Trea Turner (who also had singled to right moments earlier) to third base and - most importantly - allowed Harper to step to the plate with a chance to win the game.

Which Harper did. After battling Iglesias to a full count, the young star pounced on a fastball down the middle, drove it over right fielder Scott Schebler's head, off the warning track and then off the wall and then was mobbed by teammates as Turner scored the winning run.

"To win a game like that, with nobody on and two outs, after leaving a number of runners on base," manager Dusty Baker said, "we had a lot of chances. But we kept grinding, kept grinding, and it was good to see Harp come through like that."

The Nationals certainly did have chances all night. They got four solo homers and a sacrifice fly to account for their first five runs. But they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position until the 10th.

Leave it to Harper, though, to deliver the one clutch hit they needed to emerge victorious.

The rally was started by Turner, who hasn't been the consistent offensive force so far this year that he was as a rookie but still poses a significant threat once he reaches base. Turner reached three times tonight, none more important than his two-out single off a 1-2 fastball from Iglesias.

"Put the ball in play, anything can happen," he said of his cue shot into right field. "As you can see, I didn't crush the ball or anything, I just put it in play."

What remained of a crowd of 36,347 might have been anticipating Turner bolting for second base at some point during Goodwin's at-bat. Instead, he let his teammate do the heavy lifting, advancing 180 feet on Goodwin's single to right.

And so up came Harper. One inning earlier, he had taken left-hander Tony Cingrani to the warning track in center on a moonshot that fell harmlessly into Billy Hamilton's glove after the crowd got worked up for a few seconds.

"Definitely wanted to end the game," Harper said of his ninth-inning near-miss. "Didn't want to play extras."

Harper had already hit two walk-off homers this season. When he came up again in the 10th, though, he knew that wasn't necessary. A simple base hit would suffice.

He got it after battling Iglesias to a full count, knowing the Reds reliever didn't want to walk him and load the bases for Zimmerman.

"Trying to get a pitch over the plate and not miss it," he said of his approach. "I thought I had some good at-bats earlier in the game, just missing pitches I could drive. But just trying to grind it out in that at-bat. Get a pitch I could handle and have it win the game."

It's not the first time Harper has done it. And it won't be the last. He relishes these moments. And he has shown on plenty of occasions he knows how to rise to the moment, as so many of the greats do.

"Number one, they want to be in that situation," Baker said. "Number two, they usually make contact in those situations, get a good pitch to hit. You hit to the situation that you're in. So you have to have very high concentration in that situation. You have to continue to breathe so that your heart ... your heart's pounding, but your mind has to be calm in order to control your beating heart.

"That's a situation where you've played that game in your mind a thousand times in the backyard. That's what you live for."