For eight innings of yesterday’s finale, it looked like the Nationals offense had run out of juice to mount another comeback.

But that’s why baseball plays nine innings.

After Lane Thomas’ one-out single in the third inning, the Nats sent the minimum to the plate over the next 5 ⅔ innings. The only baserunner over that stretch was Jeimer Candelario, who was hit by a pitch from Peter Lambert in the sixth and then out on a double play ball by Joey Meneses.

The Nats only had five baserunners after eight innings on three hits, a walk and the hit batter.

“The chasing,” manager Davey Martinez lamented after the game on the Nats’ lack of offense. “We gave away too many at-bats because we were chasing all day today. We play a game like we did last night, come back and play at 12 o'clock. I tell these guys that’s part of growing up right now is that you got to grind today. Today's a grind day for some of our young players and veteran guys. It's not gonna be easy. I know it's hot. But you gotta grind.”

Like it or not, baseball's experiment with an automatic runner affected four games of the first weekend of the 60-game 2020 season. And there were varied wrinkles. The first free runner in major league history was given second base in extra innings was the Angels' Shohei Ohtani, who made the last out of the ninth inning against the Athletics on Friday. But it didn't work out well. The Angels' Jared Walsh hit a grounder to Oakland first baseman Matt Olson, but Ohtani had was slow to break...