Garrett's breakthrough night leads Nats to victory (updated)

DENVER – Stone Garrett didn’t make the Nationals’ Opening Day roster, not so much because of his performance this spring but because Alex Call outplayed him to earn the fourth outfielder’s job.

Garrett didn’t get a chance to play his first several days after getting called up from Triple-A Rochester to start the week, not so much because of his chances of success, but because others were ahead of him on the depth chart.

Davey Martinez may have to rethink those plans after tonight’s game. How could the Nats manager sit Garrett after a 4-for-5, five-RBI explosion to lead his team to a too-close-for-comfort, 7-6 victory over the Rockies?

"I'm going to have to stay awake for a little while on this one," Martinez said with a laugh. "It's hard to sit the guy down, you know? We'll see. I'm going to look at everything again tonight."

In one of the unlikelier offensive performances in recent club history, Garrett seized his opportunity to start tonight, delivering a three-run homer, a pair of doubles and a single that gave him nine total bases. The 27-year-old slugger, cut loose by the Diamondbacks in November and quickly scooped up by the Nationals, was almost single-handedly responsible for his team’s offense en route to its second straight win at Coors Field.

"The biggest part for me is knowing if I go up to the plate with a good approach and wait for my pitch, wait for the pitch location that I want and put a good swing on it," he said, "good things will happen."

The Nats did get contributions from others. Trevor Williams turned in a strong start, allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings. Alex Call had two more hits out of the leadoff spot. CJ Abrams drew two walks. Victor Robles doubled and put down a perfect safety squeeze for what proved to be a critical tack-on run late. Relievers Hunter Harvey, Mason Thompson and Kyle Finnegan combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings before Carl Edwards Jr. was needed to clean up a ninth-inning mess created by left-hander Anthony Banda.

Edwards nearly blew it, allowing the Rockies' fourth run of the inning to score and allowing the winning run to reach scoring position before he struck out Kris Bryant to end it and earn an unexpected save.

"Every time when I gave up a hit, I was walking around the mound and giving the hand gestures, like: Calm down, calm down," Edwards said. "I looked over at the guys in the dugout also and said: I'm fine, I'm fine. It's the first time I've had this adrenaline in a long time. My body had to get used to it. But my mental part felt like I had been there before."

The bottom of the ninth nearly turned disastrous, but it couldn't overshadow the earlier exploits of Garrett, who was a triple shy of the cycle in only his 29th career major league game played.

That Garrett was in tonight’s lineup wasn’t a huge surprise. It made sense for him to get a shot against a lefty. That he was batting second, however, did raise some eyebrows when Martinez’s batting order was unveiled four hours before first pitch.

As Martinez explained it, Garrett was a good matchup against Rockies starter Austin Gomber. And recognizing he might want to pinch-hit with a righty later in the game, he didn’t want to bunch Garrett up with other potential pinch-hit candidates down in the order.

Whatever the rationale, Garrett made sure to reward his manager for the assignment. He hammered a double to the gap in left-center in the top of the first, and that only set the stage for what was to come later.

Garrett has always had power potential, blasting a combined 53 homers at Double-A and Triple-A in 2021-22, then hitting four more in 84 big league plate appearances with the Diamondbacks late last season. The knock on him, though, has been his struggle to hit breaking balls, which has led to a high strikeout rate.

Consider what Garrett did tonight, then, an exceptionally encouraging sign. His third-inning homer, a 432-foot shot to right-center, came on a curveball from Gomber (albeit a hanging one). His fifth-inning single came on a changeup down in the zone. And his seventh-inning double came on a slider from right-hander Connor Seabold.

Put those together, and Garrett was responsible for four of the Nationals’ first eight hits tonight and five of their six RBIs.

"When he gets the ball in the zone and doesn't chase, he hits the ball hard," Martinez said. "And you saw that tonight."

Garrett had two shots at hitting for the cycle, needing a triple to complete that remarkable feat. Having never done it before at any level, he admitted it was on his mind when he stepped to the plate in the seventh and the ninth. Alas, his double to left didn't allow for him to go for it, and his subsequent strikeout quashed the dream for good.

"I knew if I put one out there, just keep running," he said. "But obviously, that double down the left field line, I would've been hosed. But it was definitely in the back of my mind."

Williams made sure all the runs Garrett supplied held up. The right-hander wasn’t flashy, but he was plenty effective in preventing the Rockies from stringing anything together and threatening to produce a big inning.

Williams surrendered all of two singles through his first four innings, needing only 52 pitches to do it. He finally gave up a run in the fifth on Brian Serven’s two-out RBI double to left, but he closed out that inning and gave himself a chance to return for the sixth.

Martinez’s leash was short. Not wanting his starter to face too many Colorado hitters a third time, he pulled Williams after a leadoff bloop double by Yonathan Daza and a flyout to center by Kris Bryant. Harvey did allow an inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly, but two runs in 5 1/3 innings at Coors Field was more than enough to earn Williams his first win of the season.

"I think overall we did a good job," he said. "There's a lot of outfield out there, a lot of infield. Putting the ball in play is good here. We have tremendous outfielders here who can make plays. Overall, I think it was a great team win for us."