Abrams Leads the 9th Inning Comeback

Walters is the place to be this Saturday. The DC defenders play at 3pm at Audi Field, and the Nats host the Mariners at 4, plus the World Cup is on all day. Walters is located across the street from Nationals Park, just off South Capital Street. Here's the O2. Fastball line drive left field base hit. This is head of the corner. Giants will take the lead. Least scores easily. Ball gets by Lyley picks up on the warning track. Eldritch will turn and hold it second. The local product from Vienna, Virginia, just stuck it to the team that he grew up rooting for, and the Giants have the lead to to one. Their first lead of the night. Here's the set for win. He delivers. Swain a crowd ball up the middle, base hit right center field. Garcia scores. Tain is the time run. He will score the throw to the plate is not in time. CJ Abrams delivers. And the nationals have scored two times here at the night. It's now a three three game here in San Francisco. Abrams, RBI's 50 and 51. A huge clutch hit here on the top of the ninth. One to the count with two outs. And here's the pitch. Swain a line drive. It's a big hit in the right center field. Abrams round a third. He will score. The Nationals lead. Dalyl and Lyle delivers. It's four three Nationals. They're going crazy in the first base side dugout. What a rally here in the ninth inning. Abrams ties in with the two run singles, steals second and Lyle brings him in to put the Nationals in front. And welcome to Natschette. I'm Al Goldie, host of the Al Goldie podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals inside our Mark Zuckerman of Natschernal.com. He is at Oracle Park in San Francisco. I tell you, the city of Washington, D.C. is giving the city of San Francisco a lot of angst when it comes to sports right now. We over the weekend had San Francisco 49ers receiver, Brandon I Yukon Instagram begging to play for the Washington commanders. And we late night on Monday night had a tremendous win for the Washington Nationals at the San Francisco Giants, a four three win at the Giants late night on Monday night in game one of a three game series. This was a game in which the Natsch overcame a three one ninth inning deficit by scoring three runs in the top of the ninth. The 2026 Nats entered Monday, O and 29 in regular season games in which the team trailed after eight innings that record now won and 29. What a win for the Nats. Their overall record now at 34 and 33, 22 and 13 on the road versus 12 and 20 at home. Good to have you with us. This installment of Natschette brought to us by Table to Matt, which you can count on for all of your nutrition and personal training needs table to Matt offers virtual and in person nutrition services and personal training to the DMV area. You can email table to Matt directly through the website at table to Matt dot com. That's the word table. The number two MAT dot com. You could call table to Matt at 240, 388, 2206. If you stayed up late to watch this game on Monday night, you were rewarded. Mark, what a win for the Nats. Maybe their best win of the season. Yeah, I think so. All things considered because of the way that they had to go about doing it. And you mentioned that stat being 0 for 29, when trailing after eight innings, I mentioned that to Miles Michaelis afterwards. He said this was the first time that you guys had pulled off a ninth inning rally to win. And he said he honestly was surprised by that because he's felt like they've been in a position to do that a lot. I'm surprised that's our first one. He told me that because I feel like we've been real scrappy late in the game, keeping the game closed and getting right there with the last of that. Very often, the boys have battled and put runners in scoring position in the ninth inning and come close to pulling it off, but just had not actually done it. So for them to finally pull that off in this case and hang on to win in the bottom of the ninth, I think this was a really significant win for them. Snatching a victory from the clause of defeat because they had done very little offensively all night against Logan Webb in them when they finally got a chance to face somebody else out of the Giants bullpen that put it all together. And we'll get into it. But right now, is there anybody you would rather have at the plate with the game on the line than CJ Abrams? It felt inevitable once he was up with the chance to tie the game. Just a phenomenal job by him as well as all the other guys who contributed to that rally. He has been so clutch for sure. I mean, I think the only thing that might keep this from being the Nance best win of the season is that the Giants are not a good team and the Nance have had a number of wins over the good teams. But I mean, whatever, this was a tremendous win for the Nance. This was such an inspiring win. And this is the kind of win that if you're a fan of a team and you see your team author, you're like, it kind of feels like things are rolling in our way this season. Like more and more as we watch this team this season, it just feels like things are going the Nance way this season in a manner that we have not seen previously in terms of the life of this podcast. It felt like there was a dark cloud over this franchise, 2021 through 2025. It feels like the cloud has been lifted this season. Just a lot of good things are happening with this franchise right now. And you know, you talk about this Nance offense. I mean, was the overall body of work for the offense in this game outstanding? No, but the offense ended up coming through. The offense ended up striking again. The Nance as we record this in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 9th, number one in MLB and run scored at 356. Then that's in this game. Just one run over the first eight innings, but then three runs in the top of the ninth. Then that's for the game had eight hits, which were a double and seven singles. Drew No Walks went three for four with runners in scoring position. Look, then that struggled against the giant starting picture Logan Webb. He allowed one run in eight innings, seven strikeouts. No walks, but then the Nance got to Giant's reliever, Keaton win and then some win ended up meaning loss for the Giants in this game. Three runs in two thirds of an inning. It was remarkable how much the Nance struggled against Webb and then the extent to which the Nance got to win in that three run nine. I asked Deylan Lyle what was the feeling when Webb was finally out of the game. And he smiled and said, "Is this a side of relief?" A side of the leaf is pretty good for us. You don't get him out of the game, but I mean, he did a great job today. We've seen a time again over the years. There is nothing that perks up and opposing Doug out more than the removal of a dominant pitcher, particularly a starting pitcher. And I know the stakes weren't anywhere close to the same thing, but it kind of reminded me of Jordan Zimmerman getting pulled for Drew Storren in Game Two of the 2014 NLDS obviously against the Giants. Way more important game than this one could ever be considered, but that's how good Webb was. He was getting out on one pitch. I think it was at 1.5 out of seven outs the Nance made over a stretch of this game against Webb came on the first pitch of at-bats. They weren't putting up a fight at all against him. And as soon as he comes out of the game and anybody else is on the mound, it's like they all perked up again, and said, "Okay, here's our shot. Let's do this thing." So credit to them for sticking with it and credit to them for then finally putting together the kind of quality at-bats that they just had not been able to do all night. And the man who had the hit of the game was CJ Abrams. He is an at-starting shortstop in number four batter, two for four with a two-run single, another single, and a stolen base did commit a fielding year, but Abrams in that Nance three-run ninth, a one-out two-run single up the middle to tie the game at three, and the add-as-deal of second base. Here is your CJ Abrams slash line with runners in scoring position. Now this is something. Batting average, 381. On base percentage, 447, slugging percentage, 667, his OPS with runners in scoring position, is 1,114. He is number two in MLB, in RBI, if you care about such things, 51. But man, has this guy delivered time and time again? You said it, there's nobody on the net, so you won up in a big spot more than Abrams right now, and he delivered once again. And that was the feeling in the dugout too. They were so excited to see him be the one to step up to the plate there. And after, you know, unless give credit, Luis Garcia gets the rally started, with a double-curders me, gets hit by a pitch, and so now you've got the time runs on. Now to me, the key moment in all this. Even before this happens at the start of the bat, I'm thinking to myself, if you're Tony Vitelow, would you consider walking Abrams? Given everything we just know, and what you just said about his performance in those spots, would you walk him to load the bases and bring up Dylan Cruz who had had a terrible night at the plate? I think that was a valid question to ask. Then it certainly became a valid question after the past ball that moved both runners into scoring position and put Abrams in a 2-0 count. I assumed it was a given at that point, that they were gonna hold up four fingers, give CJ first base, and take their chances with Dylan Cruz, and then maybe Dylan Lyle after him. Instead, they pitched to him right away, next pitch, 2-0, Abrams, base hit, tie game. Good on him for coming through, of course. And as we said, like he is the guy, you want those spots, but given all that, I could not believe that the Giants actually pitched him. He's hitting at a level that commands being intentionally walked at this point. But if you look at that, so have been intentionally walked here, James Wood seven CJ Abrams two Dalyne li one. That too for Abrams has got to start taking up because to your point, the guy is a madman right now with runners in scoring position. And you know, once you get beyond him, it would the load lightens in terms of, you know, how worried you are about Nads batter. So yeah, you would think those intentional walks are going to pick up. It was a rough night for Dylan Cruz, although we did have an interesting defensive play. We'll get to that. The other big hit though in that inning, Dalyl. He is an at starting left, fielder and number six batter one for four with an RBI single, Lyle in that three run 9th to two on RBI single to center field on a one to pitch to put the nads up for three. And you asked Nads manager Blake Buterra about that Lyle hit during his post game session with you guys. Well, he knew there's a guy on second base runner's corn position, but two outs he knew he just needed to get a ball at least into play. He didn't want to strike out there and not an easy pitch on which to connect. And yet Lyle found a way to connect on that pitch. If you go look at it on the strike zone plot, it's nowhere close to the strikes on its way outside. But Lyle laughed about it and he said in that spot, he's just looking for something up in the zone. I mean, that's a guy who throws a splitter who has a lot run on it. And, uh, you know, I was just trying to look for something up and so I happened to be so far outside, but I was just glad I was able to play my bat on it and just put it in play. He knew that win through a pitch that moves well off the plate like that. So he's just looking for it up in the zone and then he sees a moving wave. And he's like, let me just get the bat on the ball there with a runner in scoring position and he made good enough contact to get the ball into the outfield and bring him in. I know it's been a little more inconsistent for Lyle. He certainly has not done so far this year what we saw from him the second half of last year, but he does still have a knack for them in some big spots. And this was a huge one. You know, the Abrams hit doesn't mean anything if they don't ultimately win the game. And so that's why Lyle's of course is incredibly important and credit to CJA rooms for getting himself in a scoring position with the stolen base. I mean, he did it all to set that up and then Lyle did what he needed to do to get him in. This is sports broadcaster Ben Rabie and a long time listener to the Nance Chan podcast a while back. I was in the market for a personal trainers and my ears perked up last season when I heard an ad from show sponsor table to Matt proving the power of advertising I reached out and eventually began a training program with Chad and boy am I ever glad I did Chad will work with you to devise a personal program the communication the flexible scheduling and the set up at his home gym are all great. I legitimately bounced around trainers and gym programs for years and I've never had a more productive and enjoyable experience than working with Chad. Do what I did visit him online at table to Matt dot com that's table the number two and Matt MAT table to Matt dot com reach out to Chad here the terrific workout programs he can build for you plus like you he's a huge Nance fan. Web checks the runner pitch to Garcia swing and a ground ball right side through the right field of base it would around third on his way to the plate up with the ball is lead thought of the plate is offline would score stumbling through the bag and landing face down on the grass past home plate he's okay Garcia to second base on the throw and a clutch two out RBI single for Luis Garcia Jr. after the single and steel set it up for James Wood and the nationals are on the board first here tonight in the top of the sixth inning with two out it's the nationals one of the giants nothing. He was in between sliding and standing up so he did the in between reach down and touch home and slide after he got to home hey that's one way to do it and count as a run James Wood he was in that starting right fielder and number one batter one for four with a single and a stolen base but he in the Nats one run six really put on a show would in that Nats one run six the two out full count single into center field with a game best exit velocity of a hundred 14.3 miles per hour per stand cast he then stole second base and he then scored on a Luis Garcia Jr. two out RBI single through the right side of the in field to put the Nats up one nothing and how about how would actually scored he scored via reaching down to touch home plate before tumbling down that's unique not many guys do that not many guys can do that but he with his extreme length was able to pull that off that was one wild trip around the basis for James wood let's start with the fact that I as mentioned how many quick outs the team was making against web first two batters that hitting two pitches two out so wood comes up and if nothing else you're saying just at least work the count make the guy work a little bit well he did he got a six pitch up that he then singles he then steal second and if you noticed on that stolen base he goes ahead first the helmet flies off it bounces off the ground hits him on the lip and he comes up kind of woozy a little bit like checking to make sure that he's not bleeding from his mouth so he's already a little bit dinged up at that point and then on the Garcia single he's racing around third coming to the plate it looks like there's going to be a close play at the plate and I don't know what prompted him to do what he did but he reaches down and with his fingertips make sure he catches the plate just as he's going to tumble over and do another face plant onto the ground not even close to the prettiest 360 feet you're ever going to see around the bases but boy it was effective and at that point they desperately needed that because that was the extent of their output against Logan Web for eight innings. Yeah that was impressive what James wood did there we mentioned Luis Garcia he is then at starting DH and number two batter two for four had the double also had that RBI single the that's top four players in terms of OPS in terms of like qualified that's players in OPS for this regular season James wood number one nine thirty C.J. Abrams number two nine fifteen Luis Garcia number three seven thirty six daylin lile number four seven sixteen so all four of those guys coming through in this game by the way if you watch this game homets of that's players were flying off like crazy throughout this game I don't understand this phenomenon why this team can't get these guys helmets that actually fit but like over and over again helmets were flying everywhere maybe it was some of the the wind factor at Oracle Park on Monday night but that was something now I mentioned Dylan Cruz so it was a rough game for him at the plate he is in at starting center field or number five batter over four with the rest right clouds but how about the defensive moment that stood out for Cruz in this game bottom of the fourth run run first one out the game is scoreless now the pitch swing at a fly ball left center field this is deep back goes loud back goes Cruz on the warning track both there they collide and Cruz caught them all up there second is Lee has to re-touch and head back to first and will Cruz makes a leaping backhanded catch on the warning track in left center field and colliding with left field or daylin lile this on an opposite field fly out by Bryce Eldridge but an impressive catch by Cruz but that was a scary moment that's not the kind of thing that should ever happen to outfielders colliding like that you're the wall but that obviously is what happened very fortunate that that wasn't a total disaster both in terms of them colliding in somebody getting hurt and of the ball falling down instead he ends up being caught and they still make contact and survive it I don't want to say except that I think they've played together enough that that shouldn't be an issue communication wise I know Jacob Young primarily plays center field not doing Cruz but Cruz and lile have played together before yeah it's allowed crowd and it was a long way to get to that ball for both of them but my god that could have been absolute disaster and more ways than one thankfully it wasn't yeah and you know I think that is a reminder two of like the good fortune with the nats this tremendous injury luck for position players not a single position player has been on an interlist throughout the season a moment like that that could result an injury doesn't result an injury we've seen some elements pop up for nats players James wood with the knee Luis Garcia had his element a few games back nobody ends up on an injured list there is like you know some magic fairy dust that has been sprinkled on this nats team for so much of this season here it's so nice to see that crowd revs it up farland to the belt no balls two strikes he kicks and he deals swinging to miss he struck him out the nationals win four to three for the first time this season the nationals rally from a deficit after eight innings they have been oh and 29 entering the ninth inning trailing they now have one in that column with a dramatic three run come back big hits for Abrams and Lyle and the nationals steel game one in San Francisco Gus Farland able to nail it down striking out eldritch stranding the tying run 90 feet away what a victory for the nationals so the nats pitching in this four three win at the Giants late night on Monday night this was another opener game the nats used an opener was relief pitcher Richard love lady toss the scoreless spot of the first despite giving up two singles and then starting pitcher miles michaelis came into the game as the nads bulk man he tossed four and two third scoreless inning so you look at what love lady and michaelis combined to do five and two third shutout innings terrific michaelis near through April eor a of eight point two three since the start of may eor a of four point zero one i know his most recent outings coming into this game had that exactly been stellar but the overall body of work from michaelis since the start of may so much better than what we had from this guy over march and april so love love lady and Michaelis come through. The Nats used three pictures beyond love lady and Michaelis in this game. And the results were rather mixed. So Mitchell Parker came into the game four miles Michaelis. Parker allowed one run in one inning and was lucky that that final line was not worse. Parker faced eight batters, got just three outs. He gave up five singles came into the game in the bottom of the six with the bases empty two outs and the Nats up one nothing. And Parker gave up a single to each of the first three batters he faced to tie the game at one. Clayton Beater allowed two runs in one in a third innings. He came into the game in the bottom of the seventh with runners at the corners two outs and the game tied at one got a big out got the Giants clean up batter will he had done this to fly out to center field or Dylan Cruz to end the seventh. But beta then unraveled in the bottom of the eighth allowed two runs gave up a lead off infield single by Jung who Lee on a chopper off to the left of home plate on an O2 pitch. Lee initially was called out but the Giants manager Tony Vitelos successfully challenged the play. Beta then committed a throwing error on a pick off attempt. Beta then gave up an opposite field RBI double by Bryce Eldridge to left field on an O2 pitch for a two one Giants lead. Beta then issued a hit by pitch of Matt Chapman then came back to back sacrifice points by the Giants including a one out first pitch RBI sack fund by Jonah Cox for a three one Giants lead. But the Giants never got that big out to begin his outing but then had a hard time in the eighth inning but Gus Vorland successfully pulled off the save scoreless spot of the ninth with two swinging strikeouts despite issuing a lead off walk and despite giving up a two out single things got tense in the ninth but Vorland came through so far from a clean game for the Nance Bowl pen but the Nance got the win. What do you think of butara pulling Miles Michael is from Mitchell Parker in the spot in which butara did that. I did not like it at all for a variety of reasons so let's go through this and let's be honest if not for the ninth inning rally this is going to be the story of the game I think. You have Miles Michael is cruising to that point and you go to Mitchell Parker who we have seen now enough times brought into high leverage spots and has not been able to deliver more often than not in those spots. The problem with this is this clearly looked like a pre planned thing. You knew that the Giants had a couple of lefties coming up there and you said okay we're going to Mitchell Parker no matter what and to me you let Miles Michael start that inning he got two outs his pitch count is nothing it's 54 after four and two thirds innings. Why not at least give him a shot to get at least the first lefty out to give him a home run okay you know I understand it looks bad. But taking out an effective starter who has not been overworked at all in this spot and who by the way had shut out the Giants last time he faced him he's now got eight and two thirds scoreless innings against the Giants this season and doing that for a guy who yes he's left handed but we've seen this is not the role for Mitchell Parker. He is at best going to be a long man lefty out of the bullpen who you maybe give a clean inning to and know he's going to pitch several innings that he's the guy you bring in when the starter is not doing well in this case Michael is was in great shape no reason he couldn't have continued. I feel like this has happened now a few too many times where it's just clear that they go into it and saying this is what we're going to do and they don't let the game situation change the way they approach it and I really don't love that aspect of this. So I might be on an island on this. I didn't have so much a problem with Michael is being pulled because you do have to be really careful with him and it can go quickly and the idea of course is to get him out before he struggles. I think the issue is this it's Mitchell Parker. It's not that Michael is was pulled it's the picture for whom Michael is was pulled. I don't know why they keep trusting Mitchell Parker in these high leverage slash pseudo high leverage spots. I just don't think he's earned that at this point for a while he was doing okay and we talked about that. But that while now was a while ago and the recent work just has not been very good and his overall numbers for this season are not very good is he already is 534 and he just to me looks more and more like you know a mop up guy as opposed to a high leverage guy. So if you're going to pull Michael is I do think that there's justification for doing that but pulling for somebody else. I don't know why it has to be Mitchell Parker. Those next two lefties coming up with two outs there. I thought that was the time to go to Mitchell left you to get us out of that and he didn't go his way tonight. This coaching staff or at least this manager seems to have a higher opinion of Mitchell Parker than the rest of us and I don't know if it was that initial work from Parker that sticking with butera or what. But his recent work does not justify the role that he's being entrusted in these days. Yeah, no, I'm with you 100% on that. If you have another quality left handed reliever, I don't mind making that move. You've gotten what you can on a Michaelist and you're saying, okay, we know the history here. There's a good chance he's not going to be able to keep that up. If you have another lefty, that's the issue right now. Once you use Richard Lovelady as your opener and it worked out he had finally put a couple guys on base yet again in that spot. But once you've used him, Parker is the only other lefty you have in your bull pet now because PJ pull and still a triple A. I think it's still several more days until he's eligible to come back. And her Alvarez is in the rotation. There is no other lefty. So if you're going to pull Michaelist at that spot and not go to Parker, then it's going to end up being a right hander. Well, that doesn't make sense to bring in a righty to face a couple lefties. So given what the options were in that moment, Michaelist to me is a better option than Parker. The way things are going, I don't know if this is going to happen or not, but the way things are going right now to me. As soon as Poole and his eligible to come back and he had to be down for 15 days and I think we're somewhere around 11 or 12 right now. As soon as he's eligible, I'm swapping Poole and for Parker. I don't know that Parker right now is holding down a role that you really need. I think it's way more valuable right now to have two true match up lefty relievers than have one of those and then one pseudo long man who you then have to use in high leveraged spots. I think we've seen Mitchell Parker enough to understand what he is at this point. I think PJ Poole and is a more valuable member of this bullpen at this moment than Mitchell Parker would be. What about this too? Do you have to go lefty versus lefty? If you have a righty who's good against lefties, do you have to be so rigid with the lefty lefty thing? The guy I'm thinking of is Brad Lord. Brad Lord this season has been good against both righties and lefties. Brad Lord even with all of his success has pitched in just three more games than Mitchell Parker has pitched. Now I know that's a little skewed because Lord tends to work in bulk outings, but I don't know why it's like unthinkable to bring in a Brad Lord in a spot like that. He's been good against both righties and lefties. I think somebody like that should be thought of. I don't know that it always has to be this lefty versus lefty thing so much. If you have a guy who's a righty who does well against lefties as Lord is doing this season. Yeah, I get that and certainly you get to the end of the game and they're letting you beater and varlan face left handed hitters with the game on the line. It's not like you can't do that. That's fine. Lord had not pitched in Saturday so you can make the case for that as well. I was joking with someone as this game was playing out and saying it sometimes feels like they're managing these games from pitching standpoint like you would a spring training game. It's who needs work today and they're all going to get into the game and it doesn't even matter what the game situation is. I'm exaggerating about that somewhat but there's a little bit of truth to it that it was kind of like going into it. They said, okay, love ladies are opener. Michael is the bulk guy and then Parker's going to come in after him to face lefties and there wasn't a lot of leeway to let the game situations change any of that. It's still I think probably at this point 67 games in probably Blake but he's the biggest area of concern. Now I say that as if he's the one making that call entirely on his own and I think there's more to it than that. I think there are pre-game meetings with the coaching staff and the front office where a lot of things are mapped out about how they want the game to go and I think he's he may be on board with it himself anyways but I don't think that's a one person decision. I think that's a collective decision that's being made by people across multiple levels of the organization that this is how they want to handle these kind of situations and I think sometimes you have to let the game situation dictate how you're going to do it. It doesn't have to be pre planned. It's okay to have a feel for the moment and who makes the most sense in that moment given how the game is playing out. It's okay to reevaluate who's in what role and again with Parker. I just don't know why he still is in this high leverage role when his performance is just don't seem to justify it. This would be the big knit to pick with the process but overall I mean, how do you not love what's happening 34 and 33 the run differential at plus five a big win at the Giants late night on Monday night. This is looking like another really nice road trip for the Nats will see what happens over the final two games of this three game series at the Giants but the Nats so far three and one on this six game road trip out West game two at the Giants late night on Tuesday night a 945 first pitch Andrew Alvarez will be the Nats starting picture this installment of Nats chat brought to us by table to Matt which you can count on for all of your nutrition and personal training needs table to Matt offers virtual and in person nutrition services and personal training to the DMV area you can email table to Matt directly through the website at www.courtes.com/courtes.com. at table to mat.com. That's the word table, the number two, M-A-T dot com. All nationals radio highlights on that chat courtesy of 1067 The Fan for Mark Circleman, Al Malgoldi. We thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the Nats Chat podcast. Here's the pitch. Swing and a miss. Set a breaking ball. With a chance of let's go to Strasbourg. Let's go Strasbourg before the pitch. Listen to this. Nationals part crowd. Two outs. Top of the seven. No balls. Two strikes. The line. The kick and the pitch. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Swing and a low. Unbelievable. That may be all for tonight. And they are swooning their new hero here in DC. There's a new mayor in town day. He won the election in one night. Fortteen strikeouts. Wow. As advertised, better than that. They want a curtain call. Almost a lot of people are going to break. Unbelievable. Seven thing stretch. Our store. Nationals. Four. Pirates too.