Time: 3:51
Attendance: 25,385
The drive down and back was easy, the pre-game taco platters
were good, and the weather was pleasant in the shade, although quite hot
otherwise. The game provided plenty of drama, but an ultimately unsatisfying
result against the visitors from Florida.
Washington starter Erick Fedde’s pitch efficiency varied
from inning to inning, but he kept the Nats in the game for six innings, giving
up a run in the third in an inning that could have been much worse, and then a
solo homer by Luke Williams (his first of the year) in the fifth.
In the meantime, the home team’s “offense” had runners on
base in each of the first four innings, three of which ended on double plays. Miami
starter Pablo López set the Nats down 1-2-3 in the next two innings. By the end
of the sixth, Washington was not only scoreless, but hitless as well.
The López magic vanished in a hurry after the seventh-inning
stretch – Josh Bell double, Nelson Cruz single, Luís Garcia double. Three
batters later, when it looked like the tying run might be stranded on third base,
Ehire Adrianza sent a fly ball to center that was more than deep enough to
score the slow-footed Cruz. One inning later, Bell powered a no-doubt-about-it
homer to left that gave Washington a 4-3 lead.
Closer Tanner Rainey retired the first two batters in the
top of the ninth, and twice came within a single strike of nailing down the
win. The first time, he wound up walking Avisail Garcia, missing with three
straight sliders after getting ahead 1-2. Jesús Sánchez then hit one out to
right on a misplaced 2-2 fastball, putting Miami back in the lead.
The Nats did tie things back up in the bottom of the ninth,
on a two-out Víctor Robles single following a hit batter, a walk, and a force
play at second. Unfortunately, the visitors kicked off the tenth inning with
four straight singles off the normally-reliable Carl Edwards Jr., and the Nats
were unable to conjure up a final rally.
