The Washington Nationals won an absolute thriller on the road to split the series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the end, the team that made the most mistakes lost — and that was the Pirates. Foster Griffin had another gem going but hit the wall in the 5th inning and departed in the 6th inning in a 4-4 tie. But the Nats never gave up, and the leads went back and forth until the Nats prevailed in extra innings with Orlando Ribalta earning his first career save.

As TalkNats tells you daily, they once again have scored 5-runs or more 14 times of their 19 games, and that is the most in MLB. The Nationals have the most road wins in MLB (8) and a .615 road winning percentage. That 8-5 road record is their best road start since 2017 (10-3, .769). The team also has three different pitchers this season with saves that includes Ribalta, Clayton Beeter (2), and Gus Varland (2).

Most of the series, the Pirates had been lucky with their contact. Today, they had a .467 BABIP, and at one point in the mid-game it was .571. The Nats managed 10 hits but got a huge boost from four Pirates errors and some terrible defensive decisions. And there were head-scratching managerial decisions by the Pirates, like why wouldn’t you walk Wood in the 10th inning with two outs, runner on second base, first base open, and Curtis Mead due to bat next?

Some struggling players like Drew Millas and Joey Wiemer came through today. Millas was 2-2, and Wiemer a big double in a pinch-hitting spot.

We have to keep an eye on Jacob Young who stayed in the game after taking a 96 mph fastball off of his wrist and also clipped one of his fingers. In personnel news, Richard Lovelady is back with the team. We don’t know the corresponding move to take a player off the roster to make room for Lovelady who was on the Nats’ staff in Spring Training, until he was DFA’d on March 10, and picked up by the Mets.

The Nats will fly back shortly to Dulles Airport ahead of a 3-game series this weekend against the San Francisco Giants.