Please allow me to speak for all of us Nats fans when I say it wasn’t pretty, but today, I couldn’t care less. The fifty-tons of heavy bricks that’s been resting on our collective shoulders over the past week or two has been lifted, just when it appeared we were in for another disappointment until James Wood‘s 2-run walk-off in the 11th inning halted the 11-game losing streak.
Today’s game featured another early pitchers’ duel between two more unlikely candidates, as both Chase Dollander and Trevor Williams turned in stellar outings on this Thursday afternoon. Similarly to last night’s duel between German Marquez and Mitchell Parker, both teams had opportunities early and often with runners on-base, but the pitching and defense once again did a great job of limiting the damage all day — but you cannot defend against a home run.
The Nationals got off to a frustrating start to the game, call it bad luck, call it shooting themselves in the foot, that part is up to your own interpretation. CJ Abrams led off the bottom of the first by reaching on an error, but was erased on a hit-and-run double play ball when James Wood lined out to right field, allowing the Rockies to double Abrams off of first base. Fast forward to the bottom of the third inning, Jacob Young put a great swing on a 98 mph sinker and shot it the other way for a two-out single but the inning would end three pitches later as he was thrown out trying to steal second base on a gorgeous throw by Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman.
This leads to a point of frustration for Nats fans so far this season. Jacob Young began his career 26 for 26 on successful stolen bases, but this year he’s just 5 for 12. Something has taken a very rough turn for him in what was one of the biggest strengths of his game, and the Nationals could really use him back to his old ways sooner rather than later.
Back to today’s game, after Trevor Williams escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth, James Wood opened the scoring in the bottom of the frame, sending a 110 mph rocket over the center field wall to bring home two runs and give the Nationals the 2-0 advantage.
Unfortunately, this lead would not last long as the Rockies took advantage and put together back-to-back two out RBI hits in the inning, the first coming from a Jordan Beck double followed by a single from Mickey Moniak to tie the game at 2 apiece.
Manager Dave Martinez sent a fatigued Trevor Williams out there for the 6th inning. And the Rockies threatened to jump right back ahead in the top half of the sixth, getting runners to second and third with one out as center fielder Jacob Young held the runner on third with a nice bounce off the wall. Martinez pulled Williams and brought in Cole Henry, who was coming off a very rough appearance on Tuesday night. All Henry did was strike out the next two batters, Sam Hilliard and Orlando Arcia, to preserve the tie score.
Dollander would get some help from James Wood’s second double play of the game, once again thanks to just bad luck, as Michael Toglia snagged a rocket of a line drive off Wood’s bat and touched the first base bag to double off Abrams and prevent any potential scoring opportunities. For the rookie Dollander, this season has come with lots of challenges, but his six-inning performance today gave him back-to-back six inning outings for the first time in his career, and closed the book on the two starters.
- Chase Dollander: 6.0 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, 81 pitches
- Trevor Williams: 5⅓ innings, 8 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 1 walk, 6 strikeouts, 87 pitches
The two bullpens, neither having very good seasons, put on quite the display of pitching today as the teams traded zeroes all the way from the bottom of the fifth inning until the top of the eleventh but I’ve done quite a bit of highlighting the lowlights for the bullpen this week so today I’m going to give them their due appreciation. The Nats got excellent days today from Cole Henry, Jose A. Ferrer, Kyle Finnegan, Zach Brzykcy, and Ryan Loutos. Without these guys we would not be celebrating right now and if we’re going to jump on them when they fail we better lift them up when they come up big like they did today.
The Rockies got an RBI single from Michael Toglia in the top of the eleventh to take the 3-2 lead and in came Seth Halvorsen, their closer, looking for his third save of the series. A Jacob Young sacrifice bunt and a CJ Abrams groundout put him one out away from notching another save in his belt, with James Wood strolling to the plate, and I think everyone was expecting them to intentionally walk him and face Luis Garcia Jr. instead. Well…… thank goodness they didn’t. A 1-0 splitter was smashed to deep center field, and perhaps carried by the hopes and prayers of Nationals players, coaches, and fans alike, it found its way over the wall, giving the young phenom his first career walk-off homer and the team its first win in 13 days.
I’ve already shouted out Wood, Williams, and the bullpen for their roles in today’s win, but credit also should go to CJ Abrams, who found a way on base three times this afternoon. Luis Garcia also had an excellent day at the plate, going 3-4, and as a whole, the Nationals’ top three hitters in the order today, Abrams, Wood, and Garcia, combined to go 7-14 with all four RBIs going obviously to Wood. It’s a good reminder that like it or not, the offense goes as those three go and today they were just enough.
That walk-off marked Wood’s 20th homer of the season, and the game winner was measured at 428 feet with an exit velo of 110.2 mph off his bat. The Rockies closer knew it was gone, but former Nats’ fan, and current Rockies center fielder, Brenton Doyle, has a Gold Glove and was tracking the baseball until he ran out of real estate at the deepest part of Nationals Park as the crowd of 21,850 exhaled collectively and celebrated the end of the team’s longest losing streak since Wood was just 5 years old. At his current 22 years and 275 days of age, Wood is the youngest player in Nats’ history with a multi-homer game that included a walk-off home run.
“We kept saying the whole game, I said, ‘Somehow, someway we’ll win this game. We just gotta have the right moment,’ and what a moment for the kid to come up there, and lift us like that — and really get us out of this funk.”
— Martinez said after the game
Tomorrow starts a brutal West Coast swing for the Nationals, beginning with three against the Dodgers, followed by a three-game set with the Padres, and ending with three in Anaheim against the Angels. Have to imagine it’ll be a happy plane ride tonight after this much-needed victory. I hope you’ll stay up with me tomorrow night, as strange things have happened during the Nats’ last couple of trips to Chavez Ravine, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a couple more wins coming this weekend. Tomorrow night’s first pitch is scheduled for 10:10 PM, Mackenzie Gore (3-6, 2.89 ERA) will face legendary lefty Clayton Kershaw (2-0, 3.25) in what should be a fun one.
Until then, Nats fans, let’s forget about the frustrations of the past two weeks and just celebrate the boys getting one today, and if you all watch the hug Davey Martinez had for James Wood after the game, it’s hard not to feel good.
