Washington pulls it out.


D.C. fans go wild when their team takes the lead in the eighth.

What do you do when you’ve ignored starting pitching in the off-season and suddenly find yourself in a wild card game?

You start totting out your bullpen.

And what do you do when you’ve been deploying this same move all season long and your bullpen arms are dead tired?

You lose.

The fact that Milwaukee made it as far as it did without much in the way of a rotation is pretty remarkable. But they were able to do that because their offense and defense are top notch. 

The fact that Milwaukee made it as far as they did when the best player in the National League, Christian Yelich, goes down in the beginning of September, yet they reeled off a twenty-game stretch where they went 18-2 was beyond remarkable.

A team can overcome injuries if it has depth. It’s hard to get too far without a strong rotation. 

Baseball 101. And there is an entire fan base in Washington D.C. that is happy for that. The Nationals franchise had a huge dark cloud of playoff futility hanging over it. Four times they had gone to post-season. Four times they lost their first round. It was lining up for a fifth time.

Down 3-1 with two outs in the eight inning, the monkey finally climbed off they back of the Nationals, allowing them to rally for three runs and erase a whole lot of pain.

It all started with a hit batter and a walk from a bullpen arm that was being pushed too far.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Charlie Morton (16-6, 3.05) vs. Sean Manaea (4-0, 1.21)
Game time: 7:09 on ESPN.