Sunday’s game against the San Francisco Giants was the kind of game the Nationals needed badly to win this season.
Although they had the second-best record in all of baseball, and the second-largest division lead in the National League, seven games over the Miami Marlins, the Nats needed to distinguish themselves from another top team.
So in a game pitting two evenly matched division leaders, in which heroes of big games past had a chance to do it again, the Nats made the plays the Giants didn’t. Against a team that has seemingly had their number in previous close games, the Nats came up big this time.
Nationals at Orioles July 9, 2014
Some scribes may write that Nats’ starter Tanner Roark “outpitched” the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner in a 1-0
Washington victory, but it wasn’t exactly like that. Bumgarner threw an eight-inning two-hitter. Few pitchers lose games like that. Since moving to Washington in 2005, the Nats had never won a game in which they’d mustered only two hits. They won this one.
Others may say that Bumgarner’s “only mistake” was allowing a solo homer to Wilson Ramos in the bottom of the seventh inning. That wouldn’t give either player nearly enough credit. It’s not as if Bumgarner hung a pitch out over the middle of the plate. He placed an 87 mph slider on the lower-outside corner —probably the pitch and location he wanted. Ramos went out and got it, and muscled it over the right field wall. The blast proved to be the difference in the game.
For his part, Roark did what he’s been doing all season: Make quality pitches in big spots. The Nats’ right-hander wasn’t perfect, except when he needed to be. In the top of the third inning, with men on first and third with two out, up to the plate strode Brandon Belt. Nats fans remember the Giants first baseman for his game-winning home run off Roark in the 18th inning of Game 2 of the 2014 National League Division Series. This time, Roark fell behind 2-0, then came back to strike him out looking on a fastball, down and in. Belt was obviously looking for something else.
In the fourth inning, after striking out Eduardo Nunez — something even Stephen Strasburg coudn’t do on Saturday night — Roark gave up a two-out base hit to Joe Panik with Buster Posey on second base. Posey was inexplicably held at third while Ben Revere’s throw sailed wide of home plate. But Roark made the most of his second chance, inducing a harmless groundout to Trea Turner at second. End of threat.
The biggest heroics came in the seventh, this time from Ben Revere. The Giants had men on second and third with two out. Belt came up again, and this time launched a flay ball toward the deepest part of the ballpark. Revere twisted, turned, leaped and finally caught the ball over his shoulder before bumping up against the fence. Shutout saved.
For the first time this season, the Nats played a game with an October feel to it. They came out on top, and in so doing, gained a tiebreaker advantage over the Giants for a home field in the postseason should the teams end up even. If the Nats and Giants do meet again in October, the Nats would do well to draw on what they learned about themselves on Sunday so they can prevail again.
