Abrams & Crews Homer in Tampa Win

For the sixth season in a row, Walters is the official bar of the Nats Chat podcast, located across the street from the ballpark, just off South Capital Street. And see more delivers swing in a high fly ball right field, sending Mason back to the warning track to the wall and he's watching it sail out of here. Come goodbye! For the second straight game, CJ Abrams has let off the second inning with a whole run. It's number 16, RBI number 56 on the season. And the nationals come right back and tie this game here in the second inning. Bang, zoom goes CJ Abrams, it's the nationals one and the raise one. Now Pits want on it. Why the deep left center field? This one way back and this one is gone. Goodbye. Oh, I'm running for Dylan Cruz, the deepest part of Trump account of field to the left of that center field. Bang, zoom goes Dylan Cruz with a Titanic shot, estimated at 442 feet, a big insurance run for the nationals off the bat of Dylan Cruz. And it's now the nationals for the raise two. Peter Comsett, runners lead first and second. Here comes breaking ball sliders in there. Strike free call, a really w of the books. And the nationals win a thriller at the drop. Clayton, Peter walks the tight rope of the ninth inning but gets it done and earns his fifth save of the year. And the nationals have taken the middle game of this three game interlinked series. As they are on the field, a celebratory and tropical field, a final score with a curly w in the books, the nationals for the Tampa Bay, raise three. And welcome to that chat. I'm Al Goldie, host of the Al Goldie podcast, Washington, nationals insider, Mark Sturker, mid of natural.com is all for this installment of the podcast, but I'm joined by the creator owner and executive producer of the podcast Tim showvers. You might say the Jacob Young of this podcast, Tim showvers, the Washington nationals day on Saturday, won a game at the team with the best home record in MLB. And this was a one run win at a team that has been really good in one run games of four three win at the Tampa Bay raise on Saturday in game two of a three game series ending the Nats two game losing streak. The Nats in MLB's 2026 regular season now are 40 and 37, including 24 and 15 on the road, one of the best road records in the majors. The raise now are 42 and 31, including 25 and 10 at home, the best home record in the majors in the raise now are 10 and eight in one run games. The Nats now are 11 and 10 in one run games. Terrific win for the Nats on Saturday, this installment of Nats chat brought to us by Steve Solomon's candidacy from Montgomery County Council at large, visit vote Steve Solomon.com Tim and I work with Steve for years. He cares a lot about Montgomery County Maryland and check out my conversation with Steve Solomon on my podcast, the Algoldy podcast episode 1,345. So the Nats last regular season did not get to 40 wins until July 21st Saturday was June 20th. So the Nats have gotten to 40 wins more than a month sooner than the team did last regular season a lot to get to with this game, including a frightening scene for center field or Jacob Young, although there is good news, but Tim what a nice win for the Nats on Saturday. Very impressive victory out so much is going against the nationals. Kekavali gets lifted in the third inning. You don't know if he's doing what the food poisoning or whatnot looks like the food poisoning could affect two different games, the Friday game and the Saturday game. They have an injury to a crucial position late in the game. Jacob Young makes this fantastic catch it and next thing you know Brad Lord is inserted into the batting lineup because the Nats had to lose their DH in all the lineup renewing that came from that. The Nats made a lot of outs on the bases again in this one. They had a bunch that did not go their way in the ninth inning. That was an interesting strategy by Blake Puterra with that one against them and so many little things were going not their way Clayton Beater starts out in a real jam. I mean things got tight immediately in the ninth inning once he fell behind three oh in the spite all of that they emerge with a four three victory. Yeah, this was a wild game. If you watched it, you certainly were entertained and at the end, you were satisfied with the outcome as an ad's get the win at the raise and have a chance to win this series depending on what happens in the rubber match on Sunday afternoon so that Jacob Young play. He comes said Victor Mesa swings and drives home the air to deep left center field. Jacob Young back leaves makes the catch slams into the wall and he's hurt. He flipped the ball to Lyle and now we'll get it back in. Young shaken up after making a leaping backhanded catch and hitting the wall. He's holding his right side ribs. Maybe had the win knocked out of him. Trainor Dale Gilbert is on the run for the National's dugout. Trailed by the manager Blake Puterra to check on Jacob Young was still down up against the wall with Dale and Lyle there and now coming over as well as Dylan Cruz. Jacob Young has made it such a habit of making spectacular catches on which he crashes into the outfield wall and such a scenario happened again in this game. So Young was an ad starting center fielder and number seven batter went over three bottom of the eight with Chandler Simpson on first space went out and then adds up three to Young made a spectacular leaping backhanded catch as he crashed into the outfield wall in left center field for a first pitch line out by Victor Mesa, Jr. Now we have seen Young make this kind of catch before and emerge on skate. That unfortunately was not the case in this situation. He got hurt if not injured. We'll see. Although like I said, there is good news. We'll get to that momentarily. Young was arriving in pain on the ground, but and this is the kicker to this whole thing and this in a lot of ways was the highlight of the whole thing even more than the actual catch. Young in incredible fashion fought through the pain to flip the baseball to left field or Dale and Lyle while laying on the warning track, keeping Chandler Simpson from advancing to first space and Tim I don't know about you, but that visual of Jacob Young, arriving in pain on the warning track, but fighting through what he was going through to get the ball to Dale and Lyle. That to me is one of the visuals of this net season. That was such an inspirational snapshot in terms of the 2026 Washington nationals. Now, Young was able to walk off the field on his own, but you know, he did not look well actually pleaded to stay in the game, which is insane. Thankfully, he did get taken out of the game and manager Blake butera during his post game session with reporters said that Young is day to day revealed good news regarding the status of Jacob Young. We got some good news that it should be day to day. We'll see how he's done. Now we'll see, you know, whether a young plays on Sunday and it's a little murky. What exactly Young suffered in crashing into the wall butera during his post game session with reporters talked about Young's side, but if you watch a slow motion of the play, you know, it looks like maybe a wrist or a hand might have gotten hurt from Young, his head hit the wall and his next snap. So you know, you wonder or you worry about a concussion, although it sounds like that did not happen. So we'll see about the status of Young moving forward, but what a play and what a flip. And that to me is the takeaway as much as anything Tim, the flip on the warning track. The flip was incredible. High IQ play. The kind of play as to why the nets have 40 wins already through this point in the season. Well, before game 80 on the season, just such a heads up play to get that in a crucial play late inning. How he emerged so far as Blake, butera says he's doing fine. I don't get it. Based upon what I saw that catch looks so hard. It looks so painful the way he ran to the wall. The key indicator though is going to be the lineup on Sunday lineup on Monday and really the lineup on Tuesday, because the amount of days that he sits out, that's going to compound upon itself there. But Jacob Young, I mean, he has come close to win a couple of gold gloves. His name is back in the mixed this season. And you know, we've known for a while how great a defender he is, but against a really good team and a high profile series baseball found out on Saturday. Yeah, Jacob Young was like Bruce Willis is John McClain in the diehard movies, you know, like against all odds, finding a way to get that baseball to Dalyne Lyle, just a tremendous play by Jacob Young, cannot say enough good things about his defense, his athleticism, his toughness. I mean, is there a tougher player on the Washington nationals than Jacob Young. So we'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that whatever he suffered wasn't too serious. I will say this, given the wonderful injury luck for the next this season in terms of position players, I actually would not be surprised if Young is an injured and doesn't go on the 10 day injured list and ends up being okay. That's the kind of season that's are having in terms of injury luck with position players, not a single Nats position player has gone on an injured list as we are nearing the numerical midpoint of the regular season just has been such a great season for the Nats from that standpoint. The baseball gods are smiling down on the Nats this season in terms of injury luck with position players, but again, we'll see where Jacob Young now what about what butara did in terms of how he made up for Young coming out of the game. Butera interestingly brought the designated hitter for the Nats in this game. James would into the game to play right field shifted right field or Dylan Cruz to center field. So the Nats lost the D H in what was a close game four outs left a one run lead. The Nats lost the D H didn't end up harming the Nats. So a Jorpite Beboss pinch hit for reliever Brad Lord who likely was coming out of the game anyway in the ensuing half inning. But what you think about butera doing that well out of few fronts one. I think it exposes a bit of a roster flaw and that is that there really isn't a fifth outfielder option here because Vivas and Tena really are not outfielders here. So that was something that jumped out to me. I thought given the hand in which Blake Bebaterra was dealt. I think he made the right decision and moving one into the outfield and not being a D H. The negative was that Brad Lord was going to have to hit for himself in the ninth inning. But he had already pitched enough where is unlikely he would pitch the ninth inning. He has not pitched for innings yet this season. I think if Lord had one fewer inning on the mound, it would have been a bit of a harder decision. But all right, you move one out of the D H in the outfield Vivas pinch hits and he did get on base and almost scored. So it worked out on that front. So I think we tear made the right move. But again, as I said, I think that they should be thinking about that the infielders need to be someone who could also be versatile in the outfield. Yeah, that is a roster flaw. We have talked about that. I think in this case though, but Tara did the right thing not only because the decision worked out, but because of where you were in the game. If you did go to extras, there's a decent chance. If not good chance, you're going a reliever per inning. So if you had to keep pinch hitting for relievers to whatever extent they were coming up to hit in that D H spot, you probably could have gotten away with that. But it's not ideal. That's for sure. Well, it's funny how baseball works out thrust into the game in terms of playing defense. And what happens the next raise batter and is opening a ball right to wood for the third out in that bottom of the eighth. And then yeah, Vivas in that Nets one run ninth had a one out single and then got tanked out at home on an attempt at a squeeze play with Cape Bear Ruiz batting. But Tara, I'm assuming this came from but Tara had to have come from but Tara was a squeeze play had Cape Bear Ruiz bunting. And I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm going to say this. I did not want Cape Bear Ruiz bunting. The guy's hitting for power for the first time in his career really let him swing away. But Tara really likes a squeeze play. We know that, you know, who are we to argue with the process of the Nets, which is, you know, that process has been outstanding so far. This season, but Tara loves a squeeze play. But man, I was saying to myself, and I was laughing at myself as I was saying this because it sounded so ridiculous given his overall track record. Yeah, Cape Bear Ruiz, who now has a 484 slugging percentage. I was like, let the guy swing away. Don't have Cape Bear Ruiz bunting that spot. The play almost worked. I will concede that was a great play that was made by the race third baseman, junior Caminero. But yeah, I wanted our guy Cape Bear Ruiz swing it away. Am I crazy for thinking that? No, I totally get where you're coming from there. The race were ready for that. Caminero made a great play, but they were also set up for it that a bat had taken for a while. Ruiz had tipped his hand and he was looking for a bunch. So absolutely no surprise there. I agree. I would have swung away with it. There are other guys in which I would try to make that play with and execute a squeeze bun with not Cape Bear Ruiz. And that missed opportunity could have been very costly. The night then in five twos a lot different than four to but Clayton Beater walked the tightrope there in the bottom of the ninth. But I didn't think be Tara handled that one well. Hello Montgomery County Maryland listeners of Natschat. This is for you. I'm Steve Solomon candidate from Montgomery County Council at large. You may remember me from my 20 years on local radio as Sully at the team 980 where I worked with Natschat zone, Algoldy Marksurkerman and Tim Shovers. I myself am a podcaster now as well. I'm asking for your vote from Montgomery County Council at large. For the last 10 years, I've gotten much more involved in local issues in Montgomery County. I'm an active member of my civic association, the county civic federation. I volunteer at nonprofits. I serve on the board of directors of the Montgomery County sports hall of fame, the sports advisory committee and the library board. Montgomery County is a great place to live. We've got incredible parks, libraries, restaurants, businesses and most of all, people. That's why I'm running because I think we can do better. I'm working on my own business. That scored Dylan Cruz from third of the nationals lead by the score of two to one. So this was a strange game for the Nads offensively four runs on ten hits, which were two home runs, two doubles and six singles. The run total was me. The hit total was good. Ten and you had four extra bass hits. But the Nads drew no walks for a second consecutive game. The Nads have yet to draw a walk in this series. We are in the last installment of the podcast talked about how good the Razor at preventing walks at not issuing walks. And also the Nads went just one for 11 with runners in scoring position. But the Nads did hit the two homers and they came from Dylan Cruz and CJ Abrams. Wonderful to see that Dylan Cruz as an at starting right fielder and number five batter two for four with a solo homer and a single human. That's one run ninth had a lead off homer that ended up being quite the important homer. A lead off homer to left center field for a four to Nads lead. Despite having been down in the count at 1.02 a really good piece of hitting by Cruz and the homer was super impressive a projected four hundred 42 feet per stat cast. Dylan Cruz with his fourth home run over his last 13 games. Are you feeling better about Dylan Cruz? I am feeling better about Dylan Cruz. We all should be feeling better about Dylan Cruz. Dylan Cruz is making a player to a night that's leading towards a lot of victory so far for the Nads. I think the last week has been his best week thus far. See like every single day he's been impactful and along with being a few games over 500 out. I think Nads fans should take a lot of joy. The cautious joy, but joy that he is not floundering at the moment doing well defensively as well has excelled on the base paths as well. His OPS for this regular season at the major league level now starts with a six. I am happy to say his OPS was in the fives for the longest time now is above 600 at 602 and then CJ Abrams homering again Abrams as an at starting shortstop in number four batter. One for four with a solo homer Abrams in the Nads to run second lead off former to right field on a one to pitch to tie the game at one as Abrams continues to have such a good season. He's now at 16 home runs a second on the Nads to James Woods 20 Abrams slash line now 283 batting average 366 on base percentage 520 slugging percentage good for an 886 OPS. So Cruz and Abrams homered not seem new Nyes had a multi hit game. He was an at starting second baseman and number eight batter two for four with an RBI double and a single Nunez in the Nads to run second a one out full count. RBI double to left field to put the Nads up to one Nunez as we have discussed has been a lot better as a batter lately is overall numbers are not good. We understand that we've talked about bad but here's the truth. Nunez in the month of June has been one of the Nads best batters. Here is the not seem new Nyes slash line for this month of June. You ready for this batting average 386 on base percentage 438 slugging percentage 523. Yes. Not seem new Nyes offensive force in this month of June. He makes a player to every game just like I said with Cruz lately it seems that all season did not seem you. Yes steps up right away they got two runs one of which comes off the bat of CJA rooms the other was an RBI double by not seem new Nyes. Nunez has really inserted himself to make things difficult for Paul to bony as to what to do with him long term. How do you fit in because he is just too good to avoid playing in the lineup every day. Yeah. I mean the conversation now is becoming is not seem new Nyes the Nads second baseman moving forward. I think a lot of us had viewed him as a stop gap measure maybe not maybe he is in fact a legitimate piece moving forward. And I mentioned James would he was an at starting D H and number one batter one for five with a double wood in the Nats one run 5th and opposite field double off the warning track in left field on a one to pitch. So Kate Cavali was supposed to be the Nats starting picture in game one of this series the five to loss at the raise on variety night. was scratch from that start due to food poisoning. He wasn't at starting pitcher in this four three win at the raise on Saturday, but he lasted for just two and two thirds innings. And what's tricky is, okay, how much of this was the food poisoning versus how much of this was just Cavali who we know can be pitch inefficient and he was highly pitch inefficient in this outing. He allowed two runs on six hits, three walks and a strikeout. The six hits were a double and five singles. He threw a ton of pitches. He oversmear two and two thirds innings through sixty eight pitches, thirty nine strikes versus twenty nine balls. He in a nineteen pitch bottom of the first to let a run on three singles and a sack fly. He tossed a scoreless bottom of the second despite sandwiching two two out walks around a two out double. He in that inning through twenty eight pitches. He in the bottom of the third, a let a run on two one out single sandwiched around a one out walk. So like I said, how much of this was the food poison in versus how much of this was just Cavali doing as he can do tough to say I would imagine he was not at a hundred percent for this start, but he did make the start and it did not go well. Kick of all he did not pitch that well on Saturday. The food poisoning you wonder how much that affected the outing as you talked about. And then that's looks like they were in a real tough spot when he was pulled early in Mitchell Parker takes over in the third inning and it's like shouldn't Mitchell Parker be in triple a not on the Mount here and Tampa Bay and this one, you know, we just sort of reflexively and by default have called cake of all the A's all season. We briefly called foster Griffin that during his really hot stretch the TGIF stretch, if you will. But I was thinking later in the game that the Nets Ace was on the mound on Saturday, just his name was Brad Lord. Yeah, you might not be wrong. I mean, I think an interesting conversation is which pitcher has been the Nets best pitcher this season and you basically have two choices. Foster Griffin or Brad Lord. Now I would go with foster Griffin. He has thrown many more innings than Brad Lord has thrown 84 innings versus 51. But if you want to say Brad Lord, there is a case for Brad Lord. I don't think it's crazy to say Brad Lord and you know, it's funny how things work out because in game one of this series PJ Poole and Miles Michaelis in many ways saved the Nets bullpen of Cavali being a late scratch. And this game, the bullpen in many ways saved the Nets with Kade Cavali not lasting long in the game. Cavali sets now the pitch. Sweet, a ground ball towards short. Abrams has it. He flips to do yes through the back. Off at his throw to first and time a double play. Not an easy one turn started by Abrams to his right, getting it to Nunez with a fall away rocket through the first to end the inning. A six, four, three, double play. Considering what it was, bases loaded. Nobody out. You probably take that as a win. Three Nets relievers combined to allow one run in six into third innings with nine strike outs. Mitchell Parker was good. Let me repeat that. He tossed two and a third scoreless innings. He threw a lot of strikes, 32 pitches, 24 strikes, just eight balls. Brad Lord, as Tim indicated there, was good again. Three scoreless innings with five strike outs versus no walks. He gave up two hits, each of which was a single issue to hit by pitch. He threw 36 pitches, 28 strikes versus just eight balls. Brad Lord continues to be so good. His numbers now for this regular season, 23 games, 51 innings, ERA of 2.29, a whip of exactly one. Just, it's been so reliable. I've talked about how I want to see him used is not just a long man, but a high leverage guy. In this game, he was used as both, which is perfect. Three scoreless innings and would end up being a one run win. The adventures of Clayton Beatr, man, that was some ninth inning. Beatr won run in one inning, but he recorded two strike outs and got the save. In the bottom of the ninth, a lot of run in issuing a lead off walk and then giving up an RBI single. And that's where clinging to this one run lead in the ninth inning, Blake butterra called for a two out intentional walk of junior Caminero. I totally agreed with that, but that did put the winning run on the base paths that gave the raise runners on first and second with two outs and Beatr generated a cold strike out to end the game. That was close, a little too close for comfort, but Beatr ended up coming through. Oh, man, that inning, that was like a slow, painful start to the end of their death by papercut. It felt like Beatr falls behind three oh, so right away, you know, things are in trouble. That four to lead felt really tight right away three stolen bases against beater and we use that inning. Tampa was open season for them, a little bit of a track meet there. So that was a bad indication, but beater just worked his way around it, got the big strike out, kept the ball mostly out of play to strand the runner there. And it's wins like today as to why the Nats are going to be in contention for as long as they're in from this one, because as I said, there are so many reasons to falter and to let the lead slip away and Clayton Beater having a real jam on his hands of the ninth inning would be at the top of the list. And he escaped out of it. I will say this about Clayton Beater and I know that it isn't always pretty, but he does something that so few pitchers on the staff, especially relief pitchers do. And that is generate strikeouts and that is so valuable. Beaters strikeouts for nine innings now is at 10.07 and here you had him in that bottom of the ninth multiple runners on base. You need strikeouts in a situation like that. You don't need balls in play, even if they result in outs, you need strikeouts. You need swing and miss stuff. And he has that and two memep strikeouts in that bottom of the ninth inning to turn what could have been a disastrous outing for him. What could have been a halacious loss for the Nats into a wonderful one run win. So nice work there by Beater. And yeah, I mean, again, just to go back to Brad Lorde and I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears worth mentioning. If you go by wins above replacement, baseball reference and you look at Nats pitchers, Foster Griffin is number one at 1.9 Brad Lorde is number two at 1.5. And this is entering Saturday. So you know, those that were number for Lorde may be going up by a 10th of a win above replacement. We'll see the calculations usually come out the following day early in the morning. But Lorde has been awesome. He has been someone who, you know, you look at and I've thought about this too. Okay. So we know James Wood and CJ Abrams are easily the top two most deserving Nats to make the National League All-Store team. It would be very surprising if a third NAT made the N.O. All-Store team. But if I said to you, who is the third most deserving NAT to make the All-Store team this year? I think you could argue Brad Lorde. I really do. And I'm not saying he's going to make it or even necessarily should make it, but I'm just saying who is the third most deserving Nats. It's player to make the 2026 National League All-Store team. You know, Foster Griffin would be in contention for that. If you had a few batters who would be in contention for that, like Curtis Meade is doing really well some other guys too. But Brad Lorde. I think Brad Lorde would be a part of that conversation. Now, you're reading my mind. I was thinking of the same thing Ray to talk about it that there is a real path for Brad Lorde being an All-Store this year. It basically most is going to come down to if Dave Roberts is a fan of Brad Lorde or NAT, where I really think he's got his best chances in the final days. There's just so much movement, right, and a lot of replacement players on the roster. And I think when you get into those final few days, I think that's the sweet spot for Lorde. If he is available to get that last second invite. So I wouldn't be surprised if Saturday or Sunday, while the Nats are facing the Yankees to close out the first half. If Brad Lorde got a last second invite there, he certainly deserves it. He is indicative of a modern day All-Star in that his role didn't really exist. Many years ago, or 30 years ago on a pitching staff, this is very new age. I think it would be a nice feather in the cap to the new regime with Paul Taboni and Blake Patera. If Brad Lorde went from someone who was a worthy piece in the Microsoft era, but now an All-Star in year one, that would say a lot about this 2026 season. We don't assume anything with who makes the All-Store team, but it certainly seems more likely than not that the Nats have at least two All-Stores this year, right? James Wood and C.J. Abrams. And I know the voting results for would have been underwhelming, but I don't know how much that matters because Wood has been so good that if he's not voted into the game, he will be selected for the game. Him not being selected for the game would be a crime. And I just would be really shocked if that happened. But yeah, man, if the Nats in this season number one of a restarted rebuild got a third All-Star. Had three players on the National League All-Star team, that would be wild. I would love to see that. I don't know how likely that is, but just the fact that we can talk like that is pretty cool Brad Lord doing such a nice job. And the Nats off a rough start to the series with a chance to win the series. Game three Sunday afternoon at 140 Andrew Alvarez will be the Nats starting pitcher. And then after that game comes a four game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Nassau-Dals Park Monday through Thursday. And then after that comes a six game road trip for the Nats of three games set at the Baltimore Orioles next weekend followed by a three game series at the Boston Red Sox June 29th through July 1st and then comes the Nats next scheduled off day on Thursday July 2nd. So we'll see man, but I tell you a win at the raise on Sunday afternoon a series win at Tampa Bay. How great would that be given how good the raise or this season and how much the Nats in so many ways aspire to be the raise from a process standpoint. There would be a lot of symbolism in the Nats winning this series if they in fact do that. Yeah, there's a lot to be on the line for Sunday in that if they win, they get win number 41 well before game number 81. So they'd go into the first half with a winning record. It's game 78 on Sunday. They're right neck and neck with the Phillies for second place. So, you know, if someone sleeps the series between the two teams or someone wins the series of wins three out of four, that will be your second place team a few days from now in the National League East. And this also would be a nice measuring stick for the nationals. All right, you went up against one of the best teams of the American League. I mean, the Tampa Bay raise are probably the second best team in the whole AL behind the New York Yankees. And if they were to go down there and win two of three, especially when Cavali gets sick the first day and then only makes it to the third inning the second day and you're still able to win a series with a lot of other circumstances are out of that. That'd be a very nice thing getting on the airplane back to play the Phillies. Jacob Young, the catch and the flip and the flip may well have been more impressive than the catch. Let that sink in. What a moment by Jacob Young, one of the moments of this net season. This installment of Natschat brought to us by Steve Solomon's Canada C for Montgomery County Council at large visit vote Steve Solomon dot com. And Tim and I work with Steve for years. He cares a lot about Montgomery County Maryland. Check out my chat with Steve on my podcast, the Algoldee podcast episode 1,345 old nationals radio highlights on Natschat courtesy of what oh six seven of the fan. Natschat is on the radio Sunday morning 9 to 10 on ESPN Richmond, which is 106.1 FM. And the Ritzman Virginia area in Sunday morning 9 to 10 on ESPN radio 94.1 in the Virginia Beach area for Tim showvers. I'm Algoldee. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the Natschat podcast. Now to set the O2 runner goes at first and a swing at a fly ball right field on the chase is crews a long way to go can he get there into a slide he makes a spectacular catch sliding along the foul line. It's a catch in fair territory. Crew saves the day that would have scored two runs on a fly ball down the right field line. He went a country mile for a sliding catch to end the inning.