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NEW YORK – On a day that saw Daylen Lile suffer a scary-looking knee injury, Nasim Nuñez homer, Jacob Young make one of the craziest circus catches in team history and Jake Irvin author his best start in two months, the Nationals ultimately had to ask the unlikeliest of relievers to close out a one-run victory over an opponent fighting for its playoff life.
Mitchell Parker, demoted to the bullpen after posting the highest ERA among all qualified major league starters, made his relief debut in a high-leverage situation in the bottom of the sixth, wriggled out of it and then kept on pitching until the Nats had eked out a 3-2 win over the reeling Mets at stunned Citi Field. With Young pulling off another defensive gem in the bottom of the ninth for good measure.
With most of the usual bullpen arms – especially closer Jose A. Ferrer – taxed from Saturday’s 11-inning win, interim manager Miguel Cairo instead turned to Parker for the final 3 2/3 innings. The 25-year-old responded with the poise of a seasoned late-inning reliever, retiring 11 of the 13 batters he faced, with zero margin for error.
"It was a different feeling, but it was a cool one," said Parker, who wound up with the longest save in Nationals history. "A different part of the game, the energy's a little higher, a close game, a big ballpark ... it was all awesome."
As a sellout crowd of 42,960 pleaded with the home team to mount a rally, Parker calmly closed it out in the ninth, with Young robbing Francisco Alvarez of a potential game-tying homer at the center field wall for the first out (this after an even wilder catch three innings earlier).
"The circus one is one I don't even think I could try to do again, even if I did try," Young said. "But when you're in a game like this in a playoff environment, you never know when that big play is going to happen."
Thus did the Nationals take two of three this weekend and leave the Mets deadlocked with the Reds for the final Wild Card berth in the National League with six games to go.
"A lot of heart, a lot of really good pitching and unbelievable defense," Cairo said. "We always say pitching and defense wins games. And today it was pitching and defense."
All of this came about two hours after Lile suffered his injury, one that appeared serious at first but appears not to be as bad as initially feared, based on the team’s in-game announcement that the rookie outfielder was removed from the game with a left knee contusion and his own admission afterward he didn't even need X-rays.
"It's definitely a blessing, for sure," the 22-year-old said. "As soon as I made impact, I hit that wall pretty hard. For me to be able to move it and walk around like I did, it's just a blessing."
Lile (the hero of Saturday’s extra-inning win) had played a role in the Nationals’ three-run rally in the top of the second, setting the stage with a leadoff single to left, then scoring all the way from first on Jorge Alfaro’s double off the left field wall when the Mets’ throw to second got away. And he was among the teammates celebrating from the dugout a few minutes later when Nuñez provided another unexpected display of power.
Getting the start at shortstop after CJ Abrams jammed his right shoulder in the 11th inning Saturday evening, Nuñez returned to the big leagues with a bang earlier this month with the first two home runs of his career. This time, he connected off Mets left-hander Sean Manaea and sent the ball soaring to left-center for his third career homer.
Nuñez, who remarkably has hit three times as many homers this month as James Wood, pointed toward the dugout with a wide smile as he circled the bases, having just given the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
The mood was a lot less positive one inning later when Cedric Mullins sent a fly ball toward the left field corner and Lile went charging at full speed in pursuit of it. With barely any space between the foul line and the side wall, he went into a slide, nearly caught the ball and braced for impact. His left knee slammed into the concrete wall that is exposed below the padding at the base of the wall, leaving Lile on the ground in agony as the ball sat next to him and the Mets’ Luis Torrens scored from second base.
With the play still live, Nuñez had to run all the way from his shortstop position to retrieve the ball, as Young sprinted over from center field and waved frantically toward the Nationals dugout that Lile needed medical attention.
"You're thinking the worst running over there," Young said. "You're seeing a guy in pain. You've seen other people go into walls, and awful things happen. At that point, I'm worried about him."
The good news: Lile ultimately was able to get up on his feet and walk off under his own power, turning down a wheelchair that had been brought out to him.
"I knew nothing was that serious," he said. "I was walking normally. Not a lot of thought was going through my head. I just wanted to make sure I was moving around and the knee didn't stiffen up or anything like that."
With that, the Nationals went back to work, hoping Irvin could hold what was now a 3-1 lead. Which he did, with some big help from his defense.
Irvin’s best start in nearly two months – since his July 27 gem in Minnesota – included increased velocity on his fastball, a sharp curveball and a trio of 1-2-3 innings. But the guys behind him in the field certainly did their part to help out, from Josh Bell’s leaping grab of Francisco Lindor’s line drive to first for an unassisted double play to Young’s crazy circus catch of Brett Baty’s deep drive to center.
On that play, Young raced back to the wall and nearly made a leaping catch, only to watch as the ball popped out of his glove just as he hit the wall. But remarkably, it fell directly onto his right foot, and he was able to kick it back into the air and back into his glove. Young’s look of astonishment said it all. And once everyone else in the park was able to watch the replay on the big board, the astonishment was shared by thousands.
"I tried to kick it, I think more instinctively than actually trying to do it," said Young, who grew up playing soccer in Florida. "As a kid ... you just never want the ball to hit the ground. So it was just reaction, and somehow I kicked it right back to me."
Irvin took the mound for the sixth at 78 pitches but could not finish the inning. Lindor got him for a leadoff homer, the league-leading 36th surrendered by the right-hander this season. And with two on and one out, Cairo signaled for Parker out of the bullpen, hoping his newest reliever could get the job done.
Boy, did he get it done.
"Hell, yeah. It's a team game," Irvin said. "At the end of the day, he's coming out here and pitching out of the pen for the first time in his career, and he was awesome. I'm so proud of Mitch and the fight that he showed."
