'Play like your hair is on fire': Crews determined to finish rookie season strong

WASHINGTON -- When Dylan Crews looks at the Nationals' schedule in mid-September, he sees plenty of baseball left to be played. The 23-year-old outfielder has a team goal for the remainder of his rookie season.

“We want to play hard-nosed baseball every day and come out here, take risks and play like your hair is on fire,” Crews said. “We want to keep that going and finish strong.”

Crews has had pivotal at-bats in the Nationals' first two games of the series against the Pirates. On Friday, he belted the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning to lift Washington to a 6-5 victory.

The following day, Crews broke up Bubba Chandler’s perfect game in the sixth inning with a first-pitch, leadoff single in Washington’s 5-1 loss at Nationals Park.

Crews had struck out swinging at a trio of fastballs his first at-bat against Chandler, whose four-seamer averaged 99.2 mph on the day. Crews knew what to look for in his next trip to the plate. He sliced a fastball into left field at 108.7 mph.

"He's throwing 101 miles an hour, and [I'm] trying to stay on the fastball as much as possible,” Crews said. “He blew me up with three heaters my first at-bat, so obviously, I was trying to stay on the heater. I got it down where I wanted to and just was able to put a good swing on it. He was living up, up-and-out-of-the-zone for a while. So I was just trying to get it down, really, right there."

Crews boldly advanced to second base on Brady House’s 346-foot flyout to right fielder Bryan Reynolds.

“I think in those situations, you’ve just got to take risks a little bit,” Crews said. “Plus, I was playing there, too. I knew how bad the sun was, and he was kind of going back a little bit as well. You’ve just got to trust your instincts, too, at the end of the day.”

When Robert Hassell III sent a grounder into left field, Crews dashed home. The Pirates did not have a play at the plate.

“It kind of just falls into the way we’re trying to play right now, playing aggressive baseball, trying to just make something happen right there,” Crews said. “It’s crazy how much one hit or one good at-bat can turn something over. My job as a leadoff is to get on-base and get into scoring position as soon as possible. Luckily, I was able to tag up on a fly ball and Hassell was able to score me. It’s just about trying to pass it on to the next guy in those situations.”

The Nationals held a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning when relievers Cole Henry and PJ Poulin ran into trouble. With two outs and the bases loaded, Andrew McCutchen sent a line drive off Poulin a Statcast-projected 279 feet into right field. The ball dropped ahead of Crews, and the Pirates' first two runs of the game scored.

Crews noted that the shadows from a 4:05 p.m. ET start time impacted visibility, but he didn’t use that as an excuse.

“It’s a tough one; it really is,” Crews said. “I think I definitely could have had a shot at it, for sure. But it’s one of those ones, too, where if it gets by me, a lot of runs score. It’s just one of those tricky ones. We talk about being aggressive and all that, too, but with the aggressiveness, you’ve got to be smart as well. I pulled up, and it is what it is. I just feel like, at the end of the day, I could have had a chance at it.”

Crews, who missed 71 games this season with a left oblique strain, is targeting a strong end of his first full Major League campaign. He has hit safely in five of his past seven games, including one double, two homers, six RBIs, four runs scored and one walk.

“I keep saying it, but if we want to get to where we want to get to, we’ve got to finish September strong and we’ve got to win one-run ball games,” Crews said on Friday. “That defines a championship team right there.”