That one was scary until the final out was recorded. The Washington Nationals had to stave off the fiercest comeback attempt they’ve faced all season tonight, as a Foster Griffin gem was very nearly unraveled by a pesky Brewers lineup in the final frame. But thanks to some timely hitting earlier in the game, and some blue-collar outs recorded by Clayton Beeter in the ninth inning, the Nationals escaped the evening with their second win in as many nights, and gave them an opportunity tomorrow for their first sweep of the season. Let’s get into it.

The Action

This one was a BATTLE over the first four innings between the two left-handed starting pitchers. Foster Griffin and Kyle Harrison traded zeroes on the scoreboard back and forth over the first four innings, with both offenses putting the ball in play often, just not seeing any positive results. The first real threat of the night came in the top of the third inning, as the Nationals were gifted a hit by pitch and a walk to put runners on first and second with two outs, but Brady House would fly out to center, ending the inning.

The first hit of the game for either team came in the top of the fourth on a single by CJ Abrams, who was quickly picked off first base while trying to steal, ending the inning with Jacob Young at the plate.

The scoreless seal was finally broken in the top of the fifth, as the Nats were finally able to put some runners on base early in the inning against Harrison. Jacob Young led off the inning with an opposite-field single, and Nasim Nunez followed with an opposite-field double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Keibert Ruiz was up next and was unable to bring a run home, but then Milwaukee made the very questionable decision to pitch to a red-hot James Wood with first base open, and he made them pay. Wood roped a first-pitch fastball into the left-center gap at 112 miles per hour for a two-run double, giving the Nationals and a cruising Foster Griffin a 2-0 lead.

Cruising might not even do justice to what Foster Griffin was doing tonight in Milwaukee. He was so dominant that the Brewers didn’t have a hit until Joey Ortiz led off the bottom of the sixth with a single. Griffin did proceed to walk the very next batter, prompting some wheels to start turning in the Nationals’ plans, and sure enough, after getting Luis Rengifo to pop out for the first out, Blake Butera was on his way to the mound to bring in Brad Lord to try and finish the inning and close Griffin’s statline at 5.1 scoreless innings. Brad did just that, getting two straight groundouts to Nasim Nunez at second to end the inning with the 2-0 lead intact.

• Foster Griffin: 5.1 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 3 walks, 1 strikeout
• Kyle Harrison: 4.1 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 1 walk, 1 strikeout

The bullpen’s excellence carried over from last night’s scoreless work. Brad Lord got the last two outs of the sixth, and all he did in the seventh was strike out the side in a 1-2-3 inning. Then it was Cionel Perez‘s turn in the bottom of the eighth, and he too was able to retire Milwaukee in order, sending this game to the ninth with the 2-0 lead intact, and with the beginnings of a major statement being written by this Washington pitching staff after the scorn they’ve faced these first few weeks.

Speaking of scorn, Keibert Ruiz has heard his share of it not only this season, but for a while now. While the numbers may be pretty dreadful, he came up huge tonight in the top of the ninth, lining a two-strike curveball into the right field corner with two outs, allowing Nunez to scamper around from first base to score a huge insurance run for the Nats, extending the lead to 3-0.

Things got real hairy in the bottom of the ninth, and that insurance run became massive real quickly. William Contreras was the first batter of the inning against Nats’ closer Clayton Beeter, and he immediately injected some life into this crowd with a solo homer to trim the lead to 3-1. To make matters worse, Beeter struck out Christian Yelich during the next at-bat, but because of a miscommunication and unfortunate carom, the ball scooted far enough away from Keibert Ruiz to allow Yelich to reach not only first, but second base with still nobody out. The next batter, Jake Bauers, very nearly turned the game on its head, but luckily for the Nationals, his fly ball reached only the warning track before it was hauled in for the first out. The next batter would walk, putting the tying run on first base with still only one out, and Sal Frelick coming to the plate. Beeter buckled his seatbelt and picked up a big boy strikeout to put the Nationals an out away from winning the series. The situation got a little bit worse before it got better, as a slider to Garrett Mitchell got away from Drew Millas and allowed the runners to move to second and third. Blake Butera made the decision to put Mitchell on first base to set up the force out, bringing this game down to Beeter versus Joey Ortiz with the game on the line. Ortiz hit a little dribbler out in front of the plate, Beeter ran and grabbed it, and made the throw to first in time to escape trouble and finish off a huge win for the Nationals.

What’s Next?

The Nats will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon and will turn to Zack Littell (0-1, 3.60 ERA) to try and get it. The Brewers will counter with the crafty veteran right-hander, Brandon Woodruff (1-0, 5.91), who has plenty of experience against the Nats in his career. For those who remember back that far, he started the 2019 NL Wild Card game in DC for Milwaukee and dominated. More recently, he got a start last summer in Milwaukee against the Nats and shoved again. The final game of this series will get going at 2:10 tomorrow afternoon.

Down On The Farm

AAA Rochester

• 5-0 win tonight at Lehigh Valley
• Andry Lara: 5 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
• Eddy Yean: 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
• Christian Franklin: 1-4, 1 walk, 1 stolen base
• Robert Hassell III: 0-2, 3 walks
• Dylan Crews: 2-5, double, RBI, stolen base
• Abi Ortiz: 1-5. 2 RBIs
• Andres Chaparro: 1-4, home run (1), RBI
• Trey Lipscomb: 2-3, walk
• Tomorrow: 1:15 game at Lehigh Valley (Riley Cornelio pitching)

AA Harrisburg

• 11-3 loss tonight versus Akron
• Kyle Luckham: 4 innings, 12 hits, 8 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
• Sam Petersen: 1-2, 2 walks
• Caleb Lomavita: 2-4, home run (2), double, 3 RBIs
• Tomorrow: 1:00 game versus Akron (Shinnosuke Ogasawara pitching)

High-A Wilmington

• 8-6 win tonight at Hudson Valley
• Bryan Polanco: 2.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
• Adam Boucher: 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, Save (1)
• Devin Fitz-Gerald: 2-5, double, RBI
• Angel Feliz: 1-5, triple, RBI
• Matt Suggs: 1-1, double
• Ethan Petry: 2-4, RBI, walk, stolen base
• Hunter Hines: 1-5, double, 3 RBIs
• Tomorrow: 2:05 game at Hudson Valley (Josh Randall pitching)

Low-A Fredericksburg

• 8-4 loss tonight at Hill City
• Miguel Sime: 2 innings, 1 hit, 2 runs, 6 walks, 3 strikeouts
• Johan Otanez: 1 inning, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts
• Jared Beck: 3 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
• Luke Dickerson: 1-3, double, RBI
• Jacob Walsh: 1-4, home run (1), RBI
• Jake Moroknek: 1-4, home run (1)
• Tomorrow: 2:00 game at Hill City (Landon Harmon pitching)