After all the heartache and close calls, all the early exits, maybe it makes sense that a 20-year-old kid who never had been to the postseason, Juan Soto, would help the Washington Nationals finally advance.
Soto delivered a bases-loaded single against Milwaukee closer Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the eighth inning, thanks in part to an error by rookie outfielder Trent Grisham, and the Nationals came back to beat the Brewers 4-3 in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night.
“We started off horrible, as we all know, and we vowed that we wouldn’t quit,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said, talking about the year as a whole but sounding like he could have meant this particular evening. “I told the boys, ‘I promise you, stay with it, don’t quit, this will turn around.’ And it did. And here we are today.”
The Nationals carry a nine-game winning streak into their best-of-five NL Division Series against the league-best LA Dodgers.
The Nationals, who moved to Washington from Montreal before the 2005 season, had been 0-3 in winner-take-all postseason games — all NLDS Game 5 losses at home, by a grand total of four runs.
The runner-up for 2018 NL Rookie of the Year did more than that. Soto ripped a 96 mph (154 kph) fastball to right, and the ball skipped under Grisham’s glove for an error. That allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate and Soto to get to second, then turn for third.
“Right guy, right spot,” winning pitcher Stephen Strasburg said about Soto.
Eventually, Soto was caught in a rundown to end the inning, but that didn’t matter: He had turned a 3-1 deficit into a lead, and so he clapped his hands, then pounded his chest and high-fived third base coach Bob Henley, before shouting “Let’s go!” and its Spanish equivalent, “Vamonos!”
“The inning was an ugly inning,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “Crazy things happen.”
Grisham, who has appeared in only 51 games in the majors and took over in right after reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich was lost for the season three weeks ago with a broken kneecap, said the ball “came in with a little topspin, took a funny hop.”
His teammates tried to console a tearful Grisham with a series of hugs in the clubhouse afterward.
