Nats stuck in losing streak, but encouraged by near-historic ninth

They came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth at the end of a miserable night during a miserable week during which it has felt like they've been fighting an uphill battle every step of the way. Three quick outs and the Nationals' fourth straight defeat would be in the books, a second straight lopsided loss to the Orioles.

It didn't quite happen like that, though. The end result - a fourth straight loss - may have been the same, but the manner in which it happened, with the Nationals rallying to score five runs in the bottom of the ninth and bringing the winning run to the plate before falling 10-8, left a different kind of taste in everyone's mouths afterward.

Perhaps that last-ditch rally could actually mean something in the bigger picture.

"I look at it in the big picture, because our guys were focused and concentrating. They were fighting," manager Dusty Baker said. "That's what this game is all about. It's about never giving up if you've got a chance, and we had a chance to win that game. ... In my mind, (the Orioles) escaped and they got away. They won the game, but for the (fans) that left, that just shows you that this team is never out of a game."

The overwhelming portion of the sellout crowd of 39,100 that did leave early couldn't be blamed entirely for that. Tanner Roark dug the Nationals into a 4-0 hole in the first inning, then Blake Treinen gave up a five-spot in the eighth that left the home club trailing 10-3 heading into the ninth.

But what should have been an academic final frame turned into something far more interesting. Danny Espinosa led off with an infield single. Clint Robinson added a single of his own. After Trea Turner struck out (snapping the rookie's 8-for-8 streak over two nights), Jayson Werth drew a walk to load the bases for Daniel Murphy.

Murphy connected off reliever Parker Bridwell for a grand slam, the first of his career, and suddenly it was 10-7 and Orioles manager Buck Showalter was summoning closer Zach Britton from the bullpen.

"Good at-bats in front of me," said Murphy, who now has 24 homers and 95 RBIs through 126 team games. "Espi gets on, J-Dub works a great at-bat, Clint comes off the bench (and) hits a bullet. And I got a pitch in the middle of the plate. Fortunately, I didn't miss it."

Despite all that, the Nationals still faced a major, uphill climb. They still trailed by three, with only two outs to go and a pitcher on the mound who had not surrendered an earned run since April 30, a streak of 43 consecutive scoreless appearances that represented the longest such streak in the live ball era.

Yet there was Bryce Harper producing an opposite-field single off Britton. And there was Anthony Rendon drilling an RBI double to right-center, making it a 10-8 game and bringing Wilson Ramos to the plate, representing the tying run.

Britton got Ramos to hit a comebacker, but then the reliever made a regrettable decision: Instead of taking the easy out at first base, he tried to catch Rendon straying off second base even though that run didn't matter. Everyone wound up safe, and Ryan Zimmerman stepped to the plate implausibly representing the winning run in an inning that began with the home club trailing by seven.

How remarkable would this have been? Well, had they pulled off the seemingly impossible, the Nationals would have become only the eighth team since 1957 to come back from seven runs down in the ninth inning, according to research by the Wall Street Journal.

Alas, it didn't happen. Zimmerman took an aggressive approach against Britton and hacked at a first-pitch sinker that was up in the zone. The ball left his bat at 99 mph, but it was grounded directly at second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who started the 4-6-3 double play that ended this game in a snap.

"I hit it well," Zimmerman said. "That's the kind of pitch you want from him. He doesn't give you too many pitches to hit well, or at least he hasn't this year, really to anyone. I got a ball up and put a good swing on it. Unfortunately, I kind of hit it right at Schoopie. But hey, if I got that pitch again, I'd do the same thing. I'd swing first pitch. It's just unfortunate."

It goes in the books as a loss, no different than it would have gone in the books had the final score been 10-3 instead.

And yet, for some this did feel different. It felt like an encouraging sign of better things yet to come.

"These guys showed a lot of mental strength tonight," Baker said. "Because they could have just rolled over and just wrote the game off, but they didn't. We were a hit away from walking away with that game, and that would have been probably one of the greatest comebacks of all-time. I talk to them all the time about the old comeback, and that was almost the old comeback. So we'll get there."