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ANAHEIM, Calif. – For eight innings, the Nationals did just enough to keep today's series finale against the Angels close, overcoming missed opportunities, missed calls and missed locations to at least put themselves in position to win.
It was, quite frankly, the kind of game they lost too many times over the last week and a half during a Southern California road trip that featured as many one-run losses as wins of any margin (three apiece).
And then when it really mattered, a Nats team wrapping up a miserable month found a way to deliver and head home finally feeling better about itself for the first time in a long time.
With a ninth-inning rally against future Hall of Fame closer Kenley Jansen, then a three-run rally keyed by several youngsters in the 11th and the first three-inning relief appearance of Kyle Finnegan's career, the Nationals pulled off a rousing, 7-4 victory at Angel Stadium that felt as significant as any other during this disappointing season.
"We haven't done as well as we'd like in the wins department this road trip," Finnegan said. "But I feel like we've played pretty good baseball. So to win a game like this - last game of a long road trip away from home, guys away from their families, grind one out in extra innings - I feel like it's good for our morale."
Heroes were aplenty, from Jacob Young (whose RBI single off Jansen tied the game in the ninth) to Daylen Lile, Drew Millas and CJ Abrams (who combined to create the 11th-inning rally off Connor Brogdon) to Finnegan, the exceptionally well rested closer who went above and beyond while recording a career-high nine outs.
Oh, and by the way, this game also saw the Angels intentionally walk James Wood in four consecutive plate appearances, making the 22-year-old budding star the first major leaguer to be intentionally walked four times in a game since peak Barry Bonds in 2004.
"That's pretty cool," Wood said upon learning that bit of information. "If you're getting put in the same sentence as him, that's pretty cool."
Oh, and by the way, this game also saw manager Davey Martinez ejected in the fifth inning after an apparent blown call at the plate that wasn't overturned by replay review despite evidence to suggest it should have gone the Nats' way.
"It sucked that I watched it on television," Martinez said. "But I'm glad we got the job done."
A back-and-forth affair saw the Nationals score the winning runs in the top of the 11th against Brogdon, with a rally that was jumpstarted by Lile's third hit of the game. Millas (making his long-awaited first big league start of the season behind the plate) followed with an RBI double just inside the third base line, scoring automatic runner Brady House. And Abrams followed with a two-run triple just inside the first base line, bringing home Lile and Millas and leaving the visitors' dugout jumping in celebration.
"I was pretty comfortable going into (my at-bat)," Millas said. "I knew he was going to try to use his changeup and the heater up. I kind of got a heater that I like to hit with two strikes, when I back it up, and did something with it."
Finnegan, who had faced all of two batters during this entire nine-game trip to that point, finally got a chance to pitch a situation of real consequence. He immediately got himself into trouble in the ninth with a leadoff walk of Christian Moore, though he bounced back to retire the next two batters. And then he caught the kind of break the Nats seemingly couldn't previously catch when Zach Neto stole second but was called out for narrowly oversliding the bag (the same call that cost Lile earlier in the game).
So the game went to the 10th, at which point the Nationals failed to bring their automatic runner home when Nathaniel Lowe skied a fly ball to right and House grounded into a double play. Finnegan, who threw 12 pitches in the ninth, returned for his second inning of work and needed only seven pitches to get his team back to the dugout.
And when his teammates came through in the top of the 11th, there was nobody warming in the bullpen. For the first time in his career, Finnegan was going to re-take the mound for his third inning of relief. And he quickly retired the side on 11 pitches to complete perhaps the best outing of his life.
"Personally, I kind of feel that way anytime I enter a game: I'm going to throw until you tell me to stop," said Finnegan, who hadn't pitched three innings in any baseball game since he was a Single-A starter in the Athletics' system in 2015. "And today I was able to be super-efficient. I think that played a big role in being able to go three innings. They were open to it; I wanted it."
As a result, the Nationals finally snapped a streak of seven consecutive series lost. They finished their Southern California trip with a 4-5 record, three of those losses coming by one run.
"I give credit to our boys," Martinez said. "They played hard the whole game. Finnegan, he looked like a starter out there today. The boys battled, and they played really hard. I loved the energy, especially late in the game."
The Nats had already managed to tie it up 3-3 in the seventh when they finally caught their first break of the day, with Los Angeles shortstop Kevin Newman losing Abrams’ popup in the sun, allowing Young to score all the way from first base.
But that moment was oh so fleeting. The Angels came right back to re-take the lead in the bottom of the inning when Lile struggled to corral Luis Rengifo’s ball in the right field corner, turning it into a triple. Two batters later, Jose A. Ferrer’s low changeup scooted through Millas’ legs, allowing Rengifo to score without benefit of another hit.
The Nationals did not score their first time through the order against Jack Kochanowicz, stranding one runner in scoring position and having another called out on the bases when Lile stole second but barely overslid the bag, a call overturned on the Angels’ challenge even though replays did not appear to be definitive. (That point of contention would come into play again three innings later.)
They did start putting together quality at-bats their second time through against Kochanowicz, especially during a two-out rally in the top of the fourth that saw Nathaniel Lowe draw a full-count walk, Josh Bell single to right and then House go the other way with an outside pitch to send an RBI double down the right field line.
Then came the wackiest play of the day – maybe the season – with one out in the fifth and the bases loaded. Luis García Jr. ripped a sharp grounder to first, at which point Nolan Schanuel had to decide where to go with it: Throw to the plate, throw to second or step on first? He chose the final option, retiring García, but then fired to the plate in hopes of pulling off a 3-2 double play.
Millas scored ahead of the throw, with catcher Logan O’Hoppe dropping the ball anyway. And that prompted Jacob Young to try to score as well. As both runner and catcher converged at the plate at the same time, Young missed it while trying to elude O’Hoppe’s tag. Plate umpire Mark Ripperger did not initially make a call, so Young dived back to the plate and touched it with his right hand and began to celebrate … until Ripperger then pointed to his thigh to suggest O’Hoppe had tagged him and ruled Young out.
"I knew for sure he didn't touch ... in my feeling, he didn't touch me," Young said. "So I just wanted to touch the plate as fast as possible again. And then to see him call me out is disappointing."
The Nationals challenged the call, and once again replays did not appear to conclusively show Young had been tagged. And once again replay officials in New York ruled against the Nats, prompting Martinez to come out of the dugout and argue with Ripperger, who was required to eject the manager (who is not allowed to argue replay calls).
So after all that, the Nationals led 2-1, believing the score should have been 3-1, Miguel Cairo now left to manage the remainder of a tight ballgame in Martinez’s stead.
"I don't like getting tossed, I really don't," said Martinez, who had been ejected once previously this year. "But when something to me is that obvious, I just couldn't sit there and bite my tongue. If he really touched him, (Ripperger) calls it right away. The fact that he waited until the play was over to make that call, I knew he messed it up. I knew he didn't see it. So I'm going to say something, and obviously I got tossed."
Mitchell Parker, meanwhile, didn’t enjoy a clean first inning – he walked two and surrendered a double in between – but he did manage to limit the damage to one run, which by his standards is something of a win. The left-hander, who has often done himself in before he even has a chance to settle in, found himself down 1-0 but then did find his groove and kept the Angels off the board until the sixth.
The key moments that allowed Parker to do so: A strikeout of Travis d’Arnaud on a 92 mph fastball to strand a pair in the bottom of the first, then a grounder to short off Jo Adell’s bat to strand another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the third.
Parker made it through the fifth at 71 pitches, only one run across the plate, but then he couldn’t finish what he started. The Angels recorded three straight hits to open the sixth, the tying run scoring and Cairo coming out of the dugout to remove his starter and turn to his bullpen. Cole Henry would induce a big double play to put himself in position to escape the jam, but then surrendered an RBI single to Moore that put the Angels back on top, 3-2, all three runs officially charged to Parker.
Thanks to a whole lot of big moments much later in the afternoon, the Nationals were able to brush aside those earlier struggles and leave Southern California with a much-needed win.
"We felt like we'd been in all three series this trip," Young said. "This is the first one we were actually able to pull out. So to be able to go home now and maybe carry some momentum into the homestand and get rolling, would be great."
