I am sure plenty of people were watching college football over the Nats last night. However, if you did not catch this game, you missed out on a crazy contest. The Nats pulled off a wild 8-5 win in 11 innings. We saw the best and the worst of this team in this game. They got the job done and have won 6 of their last 7 games.
For the first 6 innings, the Nationals were in total control. That is largely due to the stellar work by Andrew Alvarez. He has fully established himself as a real piece in this Nats rotation. Since he re-joined the rotation following the deadline, he has a 2.15 ERA and a WHIP under 1.
Alvarez has made it clear that he learned a lot from Foster Griffin this season. After Griffin got traded, Alvarez stepped into his shoes and provided similar performances. He has taken what he learned from Griffin and has used it to become a much better pitcher.
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Even at the beginning of the year, Alvarez did a nice job limiting runs. However, he allowed a lot of base runners and could not go deep into games. Blake Butera only trusted Alvarez to go 4 innings or so. When he got past about 60 pitches, he would hit a wall.
Well, that is not the case anymore. Alvarez has gone at least 6 innings in three of his last four starts. The lefty is also riding a 13 inning scoreless streak. He only has one more start to go this season, but he has truly locked up a rotation spot for 2027. His fastball does not blow anyone away, but his curveball is such a weapon and allows him to rack up the strikeouts.
In the early going it looked like Alvarez was finally going to get the run support he deserves. Despite all of this brilliance, Alvarez is only 2-6 on the season. Of course, this is not his fault, but it is still a noteworthy stat.
The offense had Michael McGreevy on the ropes in the first inning. James Wood led the game off with a single and then Daylen Lile went deep to immediately make it 2-0. Lile hit his 22nd home run of the year. Surprisingly, only two NL outfielders have more RBI’s than Lile, who has 88.
It looked like the offense was going to keep rolling in the first. They put more pressure on McGreevy who had to throw 34 pitches in the first inning. However, they could not get that big hit to blow things open.
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That allowed McGreevy to settle in. While he only lasted 4 innings, he did not allow any more runs. The Nats added on in the 6th inning, but a 3-0 lead is still dicey with this bullpen. It was setting up for a nervy finish and that is exactly what happened.
In the 7th inning, the Nats defense melted down. They made two of their four errors in that inning, which allowed the Cardinals to pull within one. It was a sloppy game on both sides, with a combined six errors.
The defense was not the only thing that Blake Butera was not happy about though. After James Wood did not run out a grounder in the 8th inning, the Nats star got benched. Wood’s effort has been inconsistent at best since coming back from his injury, so Blake Butera decided it was time to make a statement.
Both Butera and Wood handled things well after the game. Butera talked about how much faith he has in Wood and that he wants him to be more than just a slugger. For his part, Wood said he plans on being here for a long time. After the Cade Cavalli extension, that is an exciting thing for Nats fans to hear.
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Whether it is injury related or just poor effort, Wood has not been running hard enough lately. Blake Butera made that known today and I like it. After Jorbit Vivas got benched a couple weeks ago, it seems to have gotten him going. Hopefully it can give Wood a second wind as well.
As we entered the bottom of the 9th, the Nats held on to a one run lead. They had a chance to put this game away early, but they let the Cardinals hang around. Erik Tolman tried to close the show, but he could not get the job done. To be fair to him, he mostly got blooped to death. Regardless, it was another blown save, the team’s 40th of the season.
In the top of the 10th, the red hot Vivas saved the day for the Nats, guiding a ball into left field to score the ghost runner. However, the Nats could not put up another zero. It is harsh, but that is technically another blown save, extending the Nats record. However, Riley Cornelio only allowed that one run and avoided a walk off.
This was a weird game with a lot of bloops finding green grass. The weirdness continued in the 11th inning. After the Nats loaded the bases, they scored a run via catcher’s interference. Then the struggling Jose Tena blew things open with a two-run double.
With the Nats up 8-4, the lead finally seemed safe. However, if you have watched this team at all, you would know not to feel confident. After immediately allowing the ghost runner to score, Riley Cornelio got himself in a mess. He loaded the bases with nobody out in an 8-5 game.
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All Nats fans watching the game were dreading and downright expecting a walk off grand slam. However, Cornelio locked in and got two strikeouts. Then Blake Butera replaced him with Will Dion, who got the final out to secure an 8-5 win.
This game had all the 2026 Nats staples. We got some huge performances from emerging talents, defensive miscues, a bullpen meltdown and a lot of runs. This game represents the best and worst of the Nats. In the end, the boys got the win and avoided a 90 loss season. They will look for the sweep this afternoon in St. Louis.
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