The Nationals' "eat face" mentality

By Josh Land

Nationals

June 20, 2013, 6:45am

Comments

"You've got to show up tomorrow ready to eat somebody's face." Three straight losses and a frustrating start to the season led Jayson Werth to speak with this intensity, and everyone took notice. Immediately after the words left Werth's mouth, the term "eat face" had taken on a life of its own within the Nationals.

Well, apparently I'll be #EatingFace today.
— Ian Desmond (@IanDesmond20) June 19, 2013

Eat face! #zombieMode
— Bryce Harper (@Bharper3407) June 19, 2013

Jayson Werth says that he's ready to get back at it, and eat someones face tomorrow #zombieMode
— Julie Alexandria (@JulieAlexandria) June 19, 2013

After all of the talk before Game 3 of their series in Philadelphia, it was time to take the "eat face" mentality to the field (figuratively speaking, of course). Gio Gonzalez tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts, but the Nationals still came out a slow start offensively. Who better to get it started then the creator of "eat face" himself? Werth had two, two-out RBIs late in the ballgame to tie it up and force the game in to extra innings. In the 11th inning, Ian Desmond hit his first career grand slam to lead the Nats to a 6-2 win. In his postgame interview, Julie Alexandria asked Desmond: "How did that first-career-grand-slam-face taste?" "It tasted pretty good to be honest," he replied. Will "eat face" be the driving force behind a turnaround to the Nats' season? Let's find out!