WASHINGTON – The Nationals had only 30 minutes between games of their doubleheader against the Guardians on Tuesday.
But they took their time in a back-and-forth seventh inning to rally and win Game 1, 10-9, at Nationals Park.
“There’s a lot of fight in this dog,” said starting pitcher Jake Irvin. “I think that this team knows that we are built for bigger and better things.”
The Nats had squandered a four-run lead in the top of the seventh when Jose A. Ferrer and Jorge López allowed six runs. Ferrer yielded five in one-third of an inning.
Washington answered.
“In the past, I think these were games where we would kind of roll over and call it a day,” said Irvin. “But we’ve been showing a lot of fight, a lot of grit and – more than anything – guys are pulling for each other. You can do some really special things when guys are stringing together really good at-bats like we have been.”
The Nationals have emphasized moving the baseball. They batted around to score four runs off two singles, two doubles and two walks in the bottom of the seventh.
“We had really good at-bats,” manager Dave Martinez said. “We put the ball in play once again. The winning hit [was a] ball up the middle. The premise of every conversation I ever have is, ‘Stay on the ball, get the ball up, stay in the middle of the field.’ We're really good when we do that.”
Alex Call began the rally by leading off with a four-pitch walk against Cade Smith. After James Wood struck out, Nathaniel Lowe advanced Call to second on a line-drive single into center field. Keibert Ruiz drove in Call for the Nats’ first run of the inning on a ground-ball single into right, closing the gap to 8-7.
Following a Luis García Jr. strikeout, the Nationals thrived under pressure with two outs and runners on the corners. Dylan Crews tied the game with an RBI double that brought in Lowe.
Cleveland made a call to the ‘pen for Hunter Gaddis to face José Tena, who was playing for the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate this time last season. Tena drove in Ruiz and Crews for the go-ahead runs with a double against his former team.
"We just didn't throw enough strikes, which is so uncharacteristic of Cade and Hunter both,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. “At the end of the day, we're going to roll with our best bullpen guys at the time. I think that was a one-off for both of them, just the strikes; they fell behind. Those are good hitters. That's a good hitting team over there.”
Kyle Finnegan allowed one run in the ninth but finished the game for his 100th career save.
Following the Game 1 win, the Nationals split the doubleheader. Cleveland won Game 2, 9-1. The Nats will look to repeat the success of Game 1 in the 12:05 p.m. ET series finale on Wednesday.
“This year, they believe that they can win. They can. You’ve seen it,” said Martinez. “I’m not going to harp on them. It’s been a couple long days, and we’ve got a chance to win another series tomorrow. We’ve been playing well.”