Resilient Nats just keep climbing
Rallying again after blowing a lead Tuesday, the Nationals reached another new high point in this unexpected summer of meaningful baseball
As Lane Thomas and Bobby Witt Jr. crossed the plate with the tying runs in the top of the seventh, many in the particularly boisterous crowd of 25,053 surely braced themselves for another game lost by the Nationals bullpen.
In the home dugout, they were only bracing for the inevitable rally that was surely to follow from the best lineup in baseball.
“This team is so resilient,” manager Blake Butera said. “Obviously, we’re frustrated for the pitcher when we give up the lead there. But there is a sense of confidence with our group. We feel like we’re in it, no matter what.”
So when the Nats responded to the Royals’ two-run top of the seventh with a three-run bottom of the seventh en route to a 6-4 win, it didn’t catch anyone by surprise. It just felt appropriate.
“Never a doubt that we’re ever out of it,” Foster Griffin said.
The Nationals’ fourth consecutive victory, the one that propelled them to four games over the .500 mark, the one that clinched their ninth win in their last 11 series, the one that leaves them in sole possession of a wild-card berth for the first time this season, was once again made possible by a relentless lineup that keeps finding a way to overcome the obstacles created by its pitching staff.
