Put the first Curly W in the books. The Washington Nationals earned their first win of the season thanks to some late-inning heroics during Saturday afternoon’s 7-6 win against the Cincinnati Reds. The Nats got major contributions from a number of the young building blocks with Trey Lipscomb making his MLB debut, Cj Abrams stealing three bases, drawing three walks, and scoring three runs, or better yet Keibert Ruiz’s clutch game-tying home run off the foul pole in the eighth inning.
In the later half of last season, the overwhelming theme for this young core was the “Scrappy Nats.” If there is one thing that is a given with this group is that no matter who is out on the diamond – this team is going to play hard and compete until the end.
Last season they were sixth in 9th inning comeback wins And that is exactly what we saw again this afternoon. In the bottom half of the eighth, Reds Opening Day hero Nick Martini (who hit two home runs yesterday) came through again pinch-hitting a double and driving in a pair of runs giving the Reds a 6-4 lead.
With the Reds now leading 6-4, looking to close the game out, former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz could not find the zone. Having already rallied to tie the game twice in the previous two innings, the Nats did it again. Abrams led off the inning with his third walk leading to his third steal, then scoring on a Jesse Winker (2-for-4) RBI single. Joey Meneses (2-for-4) hit another single shortly after. With one out Joey Gallo drew a four-pitch walk loading the bases for Ruiz. Out of all the theatrics, Ruiz was barely grazed on the arm to tie the game.
The younger guys did their things to get them to this point for the Nats, it was time for the vets to step up when they needed it the most. Eddie Rosario’s sacrifice fly topped off the three-run rally in the ninth giving a 7-6 lead. In the bottom half of the ninth, Kyle Finnegan closed the door securing the Nats first win of the season.
“That’s a good one for us,” manager Dave Martinez said. “We battled back and we hung in there. I know one thing about this team — we’re going to fight for 27 outs and it showed today.”
Patrick Corbin got the start for the Nationals, he only threw 69 pitches over 4.1 innings in a decent outing that was backed up by a plethora of defensive web gems. He struck out just two, walked one, and gave up seven hits. Corbin also gave up a pair of home runs, one of which was from former Washington National and teammate Jeimer Candelario (1-for-3) who evened the game 1-1. The other was offered up from Luke Maile giving the Reds a 3-2 lead in the fifth.
On the other side for the Reds, the hard-throwing right-hander did not manage to make it through five innings either. Greene finished his outing pitching across 4.2 innings on 100 pitches (59 strikes) while striking out seven, walking four, and surrendering five hits on two earned runs. Towards the later half of his start with a rising pitching count, he struggled to find the strike zone. This was all during the top of the fifth when walked both CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas, then proceeded to a Jesse Winker base hit and sacrifice fly.
He was a very tough customer for the Nats today with the inability to get the bat on the ball. They combined to go 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position vs. Greene, five of those outs via strikeout.
Trey Lipscomb made his MLB debut getting the start at third with the recent call-up due to losing Nick Senzel to a broken thumb. Being the last guy cut from the big league roster after batting .400 during the spring, Lipscomb was ready for this moment today. If it was going to be two days or a few months, everyone knew that his time was on the horizon.
The 2022 third-round pick notched his first-career base hit in his first-career professional at-bat scorching a liner off Candelarios’ reaching glove and deflecting into left field. Moments later without any hesitation, he stole second base and (per Nats PR) became the first player in Nationals history (2005-present) to record a base hit and a stolen base in an MLB debut. The only other player in franchise history to do that? We’d have go to back to the Montreal days with the Expos’ Delino Deshields (!) who did the same in 1990.
“I loved watching him out there,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He made some really good plays at third base, he’s got a cannon over there. It’s awesome watching him move around and throw the baseball. And he had good at-bats. He hung in there and got his first base hit. He played really well for his first game.”
The rubber match of this three-game series will conclude tomorrow afternoon first pitch at 1:40EST at Great American Ball Park. Jake Irvin (0-0) will get the start for the Nats and Nick Martinez (0-0) will start for the Reds.
