Nationals catcher hits first walk-off home run
What looked like a lost cause was anything but as Wilson Ramos’ fly ball soared through the night sky.
The 23-year-old catcher took a few steps, tossed his bat and simply smiled after his three-run blast — his first career walk-off home run — gave the Nationals an incredible 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariner on Tuesday night at Nationals Park.
Ramos’ teammates poured out of the dugout for a wild celebration at home plate. Back in the home clubhouse, reliever Collin Balester, starting pitcher Livan Hernandez and teammates John Lannan and Ryan Mattheus raced around the room before bounding down the stairs and out the tunnel to join their teammates on the field.
| Nats notes |
| » Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman extended his hit streak to 10 games with a single in the fourth inning. That is Zimmerman’s 10th career double-digit hit streak, but his first since a 16-gamer from July 27 to Aug. 13, 2009. |
| » The win was the largest ninth-inning-or-later comeback for the Nats since the team returned to the District in 2005. |
| » Washington left fielder Laynce Nix left the game after the seventh inning with a sore right achilles tendon. He is listed as day-to-day and won’t play Wednesday, manager Jim Riggleman said. Jerry Hairston took over for him in left. |
| » Prior to the ninth inning the Nats’ bottom six batters were 0-for-17 and only one – Ian Desmond on a hit-by-pitch – reached base. In the ninth that group went 4-for-4 with a home run and 5 RBI |
“We’re jumping up like we’re five-years-old and won a tee-ball game and are about to go get a sno-cone after,” said Balester, who teamed with Mattheus and Todd Coffey for five scoreless relief innings to make Ramos’ heroics possible. “It’s fun. It brings it down and shows you what this is about. It’s a kid’s game.”
The Nats (36-37) trailed 5-1 entering the ninth inning and had done nothing against Seattle starter Doug Fister, whose team had played flawless defense behind him. When Ryan Zimmerman ground into a double play against closer Brandon League in the bottom of the ninth even that meager rally appeared to have fizzled. Jayson Werth was on third base with two outs and the deficit still four.
But they had caught a break to even be in that position. Left fielder Carlos Pequero, third baseman Adam Kennedy and second baseman Dustin Ackley had all made sparkling plays in the field for the Mariners throughout the game to stifle potential Nats rallies it. But an error by first baseman Justin Smoak in the ninth allowed Werth to reach base. Roger Bernadina then drew a walk before Zimmerman’s double play.
“You couldn’t be real positive because [Fister] was shutting us down so good and I thought a huge play in the game was [Zimmerman] hit the heck out of the ball [in the sixth inning] and Ackley made a great play to turn it into a double play. That looked like it had the makings of a rally and once that happened [Fister] got right back into his groove and shut us down a couple more innings.”
But down to the last out, Jerry Hairston singled home Werth to make it 5-2. Then came another break when Michael Morse’s smash struck League in the leg. Morse reached base on an infield hit and League had to leave the game. Reliever David Pauley came into a situation he hadn’t expected and gave up another RBI single to Danny Espinosa. That brought up Ramos, who had never faced Pauley. But he was told the reliever’s best pitch was a change-up to right-handed batters. After two fastballs he finally got one.
“I hit that ball pretty good. After I hit that ball I knew it was in the stands,” Ramos said. “I was very excited because it was my first walk-off homer. When I saw my teammates waiting for me at home plate I was very, very excited.”
Fister had gone eight innings with just three hits allowed and one earned run. Four different Mariners recorded at least two hits, including their top three batters in the lineup. Hernandez, meanwhile, could not match his brilliant performance last Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals, a complete-game shutout. That effort was already nothing but a memory by the end of the first inning vs. Seattle, which had four singles in that frame and scored twice. The Mariners used that small ball approach to score single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Only two of their 13 hits were for extra bases. Hernandez saw his ERA rise to 3.97 after allowing four earned runs on 10 hits with a walk and two strikeouts. But at the end of the night he didn’t care at all.
