So much tension had built on either side on Thursday between the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres that the dam was bound to snap. After erasing a two-run deficit during the middle of the game, the Nationals chipped and chipped at the Padres’ major league-leading bullpen, which refused to snap. Through the first 10 innings of the game, the Nationals left 14 runners on base and couldn’t produce a hit with a runner in scoring position in 14 tries. The Nationals had little trouble holding down the Padres major league-worst offense.
That is until a steady Nationals reliever and catcher each faltered in the top of the 12th inning of a marathon 4-3 loss. In his third inning of relief, Craig Stammen gave up a one-out single to Jedd Gyorko. Catcher Jose Lobaton’s errant throw to second base to nab a stealing Gyorko sailed into the outfield, allowing him to take third base. The next batter, former National Xavier Nady, hit a chopping groundball back past Stammen that bounced into center field to score the deciding run.
The 4-hour 14-minute game featured 12 pitchers, 24 hits and only seven runs. The Nationals created a multitude of base runners and opportunities to score and win the game, but the Padres resilient pitching staff didn’t budge. The game descended into absurdity when in the top of the 11th inning Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner, Saturday’s scheduled starter, played left field for only one at-bat before being double switched out of the game.
By the time the game ended, Jordan Zimmermann’s solid start was almost forgotten; he fired six good innings but allowed a two-run double to Yasmani Grandal in the sixth inning. Danny Espinosa and Adam LaRoche, two of the Nationals biggest question marks in the lineup entering the season, each provided solo home runs that turned a two-run deficit into a tie game by the seventh inning. Tyler Clippard inserted drama into the eighth inning but escaped. Rafael Soriano did the same in the ninth but got an assist with an overturned play at second prompted by Manager Matt Williams’s first successful replay challenge.
The game started as a pitching duel between Zimmermann and Eric Stults. Zimmermann used 14 pitches to notch his first six outs. Through his first three innings, the most Zimmermann had to work for an out was against Stults, a seven-pitch strikeout to end the third inning.
For much of Thursday, Zimmermann was almost inhuman. He faced two batters above the minimum through five innings and needed only 63 pitches. But in a decisive moment of the game, Zimmermann faltered. He gave up a leadoff double to Stults, a ball that landed past a racing Bryce Harper in left. After notching two outs, Zimmermann walked Seth Smith and then allowed a two-run double to Grandal, both left-handed batters he couldn’t put away. Zimmermann got the final out of the inning and walked into the dugout with his team trailing, 3-1, despite a strong pitching performance.
The Nationals pulled within a run in the sixth thanks to the continued resurgence of Espinosa. A year ago on this day, Espinosa was hitting .155 with a .197 on-base percentage. After his sixth inning home run, Espinosa was hitting .311 with a .373 on-base percentage.
Batting right-handed, Espinosa worked a 3-1 count against Stults. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, a 77-mph curveball in Espinosa’s wheelhouse, he crushed the ball o left field. The shot left the field on a low line drive and cut the Nationals’ deficit to 3-2. Earlier in the game, Espinosa added his major league-leading sixth bunt hit.
The rest of the Nationals offense, however, couldn’t complete the rally. The batter after Espinosa, Jose Lobaton, chased Stults from the game with a single. Williams sent pinch hitter Kevin Frandsen up to bat and Padres Manager Bud Black brought in right-handed reliever Dale Thayer. Williams stuck with Frandsen, a proven pinch hitter but who provides less power than Tyler Moore or Zach Walters. Frandsen grounded out and Span added another single. But Rendon ended the inning with a groundout.
Adam LaRoche washed away the aftertaste of those stranded base runners. With one out and facing right-handed reliever Nick Vincent, LaRoche smashed a home run into the Nationals bullpen on a 1-2 count. Clippard was warming up, and his head spun around as the ball flew past him. With two swings from Espinosa and LaRoche, the Nationals pulled off another familiar feat with a comeback.
Clippard added a slice of drama in the eighth inning when he allowed a single and walked a batter, and gave up two long flyouts. But Clippard, who has struggled of late, escaped the inning as closer Rafael Soriano warmed up in the bullpen as back-up.
Soriano inserted more uneasiness in the ninth inning when he walked the leadoff batter, Yonder Alonso. Alonso, a first baseman with only 11 career steals, took off against Soriano, who wasn’t paying much attention to him. Alonso slid into second and was ruled safe by umpire Doug Eddings. But Williams emerged from the dugout to talk to Eddings and, while standing next to him, got the signal from the dugout to challenge the play.
On his fifth try, Williams finally won a challenge. The play was overturned because replays showed Alonso’s leg was over the bag, and not on it, when Espinosa tagged him. Despite the odds, Lobaton’s throw was in the only place Espinosa could make a tag. The play was big because Soriano went from having a runner at second with no outs to one out with the bases empty. Soriano walked off the mound unscathed. Black fumed at umpires after the play was overturned and after the third out because earlier in the season umpires told him he took too long to challenge a play.
Then in the bottom of the ninth, Werth singled with one out off right-handed reliever Tim Stauffer and then LaRoche hit a flyout to dead center, perhaps five feet from a two-run walk-off home run. Ian Desmond drew a two-out walk and Harper was intentionally walked to loaded the bases after Stauffer fell behind 3-0. Espinosa, who helped keep the game going with his earlier home run, came up to bat with two outs, the bases loaded and the score tied. But he popped out to the shortstop to end the Nationals’ potentially most fruitful inning on a night when they had trouble finding a big hit.