The closest the Nationals are going to get to meaningful October baseball occurred around 7 p.m. tonight on South Capitol Street, as the sun set behind the first base stands, the temperature inched down toward the 60s, and a sellout crowd of 41,465 watched in nervous anticipation as the most feared hitter in the sport stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and the home team trailing by a run.
"I love that feeling," Juan Soto said in his Zoom session with reporters a short while later. "I love that energy that they bring. It doesn't matter if they cheer for us or cheer for them. I love that. It just reminded me of a playoff race. I love those moments."
And for a split-second, as Soto connected with Austin Davis' high fastball and sent the ball soaring to center field, the ballpark was transformed back to the night of Oct. 1, 2019. Alas, Soto just missed this one. His deep drive to center was caught at the warning track, bringing home the tying run, but leaving this game against the Red Sox undecided heading into the ninth.
At which point Boston decided to seize control of the game back. With authority.
Christian Vázquez's two-out RBI triple just over a leaping Soto's reach at the wall in right-center put the Red Sox back on top. And when Travis Shaw followed with an RBI single off Tanner Rainey, and Enrique Hernández followed that with a two-run homer off Mason Thompson, the chances of a stirring victory by the Nationals to deal their opponents' postseason hopes a serious blow seemed to have vanished into the cool October air.
There would still be one more rally in the bottom of the ninth, because that's what the Nats do. Andrew Stevenson's two-run homer got them back to within two runs. But Boston closer Hansel Robles recorded the final three outs to finish off a 5-3 victory, a pleasing result for the hefty contingent of Red Sox fans in attendance, another agonizing result for the locals as a season of immense disappointment now reaches its final day.
"At the end of the day, I was just sitting back and thinking it's about the walks," manager Davey Martinez said, referring to the five free passes issued by Kyle Finnegan, Rainey and Thompson in the final two innings alone. "Regardless, that's going to bite you in the butt. And it did that. You just can't keep walking guys and expect to get out of it. We've got to get better in that aspect."
Boston (91-70) is now guaranteed of at least playing in a tiebreaker game Monday, now tied with the Yankees for the top wild card spot in the American League, with the Blue Jays (90-71) and Mariners (89-71 heading into tonight's game) right on their tails.
None of it came easy tonight, though.
The eighth inning alone featured more drama than folks around here had experienced in some time. The Nationals (65-96) escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the frame when Rainey struck out Rafael Devers on a 99 mph fastball at the knees. Then they mounted a rally of their own in the bottom of the inning when Ryan Zimmerman (receiving his second standing ovation of the weekend to date) lofted a fly ball to center field and Hunter Renfroe lost it in the twilight. Zimmerman hustled his way to second base as the crowd roared with approval.
Throw in back-to-back walks, and now here was Soto stepping to the plate with the bases loaded. There was no 2019 wild card magic in his bat tonight, but his 393-foot sac fly did tie the game and ultimately set up the dramatic finish.
What did Soto think as he made contact?
"I just thought: 'He's lucky,' " he said, referring to Davis, the reliever. "I mean, I hit it pretty good, just a little bit too high and maybe a little bit up on my barrel. But, yeah, I was praying to keep going, but it didn't."
Soto also revealed a bit of behind-the-scenes drama between him and Davis as the at-bat played out.
"He started talking trash to me, and my mindset just changed to: Kick his ass," the potential National League MVP said of the Red Sox lefty. "That's what I'm going for. ... He just got me mad, and I don't like when they talk trash to me."
All this at the end of a game that also featured one final encouraging start from Josiah Gray.
In the span of only two months, Gray experienced the full gamut of emotions on the mound for the Nationals. He was quite good in his first five starts, posting a 2.89 ERA and 1.107 WHIP and leaving everyone dreaming big about his long-term possibilities. He was quite bad in his next four starts, piling up an 11.42 ERA and 1.962 WHIP and leaving everyone worried there might be a real problem here.
Now, though, Gray heads into the winter on the heels of three straight strong outings in which he produced a 3.12 ERA and 1.096 WHIP, capped by the best of them all this afternoon against the best opponent he faced, a lineup facing a must-win game.
"I kind of hit a point where I was like, I'm going out there with not the right confidence that I've always had," he said. "Just restoring that, restoring the mental strength, was really, really important to me to sort of build myself back up to where I'm here. I'm going to be the big man on that mound. I'm going to go and get guys out."
Gray really made only two mistakes today, one of which burned him and one that did not. Kyle Schwarber, who never got to be his teammate here, drilled a first-inning fastball deep to right, but not high enough to clear the wall in right-center and had to settle for a long double. Three innings later, Devers did make Gray pay for a fastball over the plate, launching it over the out-of-town scoreboard for his 36th homer of the season and a 1-0 Red Sox lead.
Gray buckled down after that, though, and finished with one of his most important sequences of the year. Facing the top of the Boston lineup a third time in the top of the sixth, he struck out Schwarber with an 0-2 fastball. He battled Xander Bogaerts through an eight-pitch plate appearance that ended with a walk. And then he got Devers to fly out weakly to right field to end the inning, end his outing and end his season on a high note.
"That was really important," Gray said. "The last few outings, the sixth inning is where I ran into a bit of tough luck."
Unfortunately, as was too often the case the last two months, Gray also ended his start without being in position to earn the win, this time due to a lack of run support.
The Nationals did nothing at the plate in five innings versus Tanner Houck. Literally nothing. The right-hander, returning to start four days after throwing 41 pitches in relief, faced 15 batters and retired all 15. Only one of them (Jordy Mercer) so much as got the ball out of the infield.
But given his recent workload and lack of regular starter's schedule, Houck was never going to be given the opportunity to finish what he started. So Boston manager Alex Cora pinch-hit for him in the top of the sixth and entrusted the rest of the game to his bullpen.
The perfect game bid wound end with two outs in the sixth, courtesy a familiar face making a surprise return to the field: Gerardo Parra. Activated off the injured list earlier today, the popular veteran stepped to the plate to the strains of "Baby Shark" once again and delivered an opposite-field single to left to become the Nationals' first baserunner of the game.
The Nats wouldn't advance Parra any farther, but they would load the bases in the seventh on Josh Bell's infield single, a walk drawn by Keibert Ruiz and an infield single by Stevenson after reliever Ryan Brasier couldn't handle Schwarber's flip at first base as Stevenson was barreling down the line.
So it came down to Mercer to come through with the bases loaded. He found himself in the same situation Friday night and struck out. And though Martinez probably would've preferred to send a pinch-hitter up there for him, in this case he couldn't because Luis GarcÃa is dealing with a sore ribcage and the Nationals have no other backup infielders.
So when Mercer struck out looking at a 2-2 fastball at the knees, the rally was killed. But when he let plate umpire Phil Cuzzi have it over the borderline call, he was ejected, leaving the Nationals scrambling. With no other true infielders healthy, they had to move Lane Thomas from center field to second base, shifting Stevenson to center field, Bell to left field and inserting Zimmerman at first base.
It was a highly unconventional defensive alignment. But, hey, in Game 161 of this season, haven't we come to expect these things?
"I wish I could've run out there in that moment," said Martinez, who continues to wear a cast on his surgically repaired left ankle. "I really wanted to, and I just couldn't. (Tim Bogar) tried to get out there, but obviously he got thrown out. I don't know what he said, or what happened to get Phil Cuzzi riled up to throw him out. But he's got to understand that we're short. We needed him to stay in the game."