The Nationals won a second straight game in very stressful fashion
It was a special day for DC sports, the Washington Nationals won a series! All joking aside, before this recap, I just wanted to shoutout Alex Ovechkin for breaking the all time NHL goals record. He is the greatest athlete DC has ever seen.
As for these Nationals, it is never easy, but they got the job done today, defeating the Diamondbacks 5-4. This is the first series win for the Nats, and they needed it in a big way. The Nats put together a lot of good at bats today and knocked Corbin Burnes around.
In my keys to the game, I wrote that the Nationals had to make Corbin Burnes work. They did just that today. Nationals hitters were battling all day long and it made the Snakes aces life difficult.
Nobody better exemplifies this approach than Alex Call. He is the definition of a grinder at the plate. Call consistently has good at bats and takes his walks. He is now 6/11 to start the season, continuing his good run last year. Davey Martinez needs to find a way to keep Alex Call’s bat in the lineup. I know they want to get Jacob Young back out there, but Call can’t be the one he is replacing. If Young continues to struggle at the plate, Call could just take his job and move Dylan Crews to center field.
It was not just Call having good at bats though. They were moving runners over and doing the little things well all day. CJ Abrams had two sacrifices on the day, exemplifying that.
The bottom of the order also went off. Call obviously had a big day, but Paul DeJong and Dylan Crews also had two hits. Crews has been showing signs of life at the plate which is very encouraging for the Nats, who have a lot riding on the success of this young outfielder.
The Nats did not hit any homers, but did damage on extra base hits. Paul DeJong hit two doubles and Nathaniel Lowe hit an RBI double in the bottom of the first to set the tone.
Trevor Williams battled his way through five innings, but that left four to the bullpen, which has not been inspiring any confidence. It was not exactly stress free, but the bullpen did their job today,
The first inning was nice and stress free. Lucas Sims, who struggles massively against the Phillies looked very sharp today. He completed 1.1 innings, only allowing one baserunner. However, after he left, Jose A Ferrer put another baserunner on. With runners on second and third with two down on a full count, Ferrer got a massive strikeout, fanning Randal Grichuk to end the seventh.
Things were dicey in the eighth for Jorge Lopez as well. After allowing a base hit to open the inning, he got two outs. However, Alek Thomas hit a triple to make it a 5-4 game. With two outs and the tying runner on third, Lopez came in clutch, getting a groundout and ending the inning.
As is the case in most Kyle Finnegan outings, he was walking the tight rope. Corbin Carroll got a one out double, which made the rest of the inning stress inducing. After a groundout moved him to third with two outs, it became even more stressful. As if the stress couldn’t get any worse, Finnegan went to a full count with Randal Grichuk. He got the groundout, but CJ Abrams throw was wide. However, Nathaniel Lowe just managed to stay on the bag to give the Nats a 5-4 win.
The bullpen did its job, I guess. However, I think this unit might send me to an early grave. There are no shutdown guys in the ‘pen at all. It is full of guys who walk the tight rope.
However, I am happy to get the series win. The Nats are now 3-6 with the Dodgers coming to town. The Dodgers are an intimidating team, but now the Nats are going into the series with confidence. After the Dodgers the schedule really lightens up and hopefully the Nats can go on a run. Let’s enjoy this Curly W and series win!