Nats pull out all the stops to overcome five-run deficit and win in 10
The Nationals got lockdown work from five relievers, another blast from Daylen Lile and a key play by the ever-shifting Curtis Mead
CINCINNATI – The five-run deficit after the first inning could have sent the Nationals into survival mode. Just get through this game and move on to Thursday’s series finale.
Inside the dugout, that was the last thing on anybody’s mind.
“I’ve said it plenty of times, and I’m sure everybody’s said it: We have a lot of fight,” Daylen Lile said. “We’re hungry. We know what we’re capable of doing. And we’re confident in each other and have so much belief in each other that stuff like that, we just brush it off. Because it’s like we know we could come back at any moment in the game.”
So when the Nats did find themselves celebrating at the middle of diamond some three hours later, having turned that 5-0 deficit to the Reds in the first inning into an 8-7 victory in the 10th, the feeling perhaps wasn’t what you might think.
They were thrilled to have to done it, yes. But they weren’t surprised that they did do it.
Lile helped make it all possible with his go-ahead, two-run homer in the top of the 10th, his third homer in a little more than 24 hours, all of it done in front of dozens of friends and family members from nearby Louisville. But he didn’t do it alone.
To pull off the Nationals’ biggest come-from-behind win since April 27, 2025 – when they spotted the Mets five quick runs before also coming back to win 8-7 – they needed to pull out all the stops.
