Erick Fedde and Yan Gomes give the Nationals a winning combination against the Mets
Nationals #Nationals
To celebrate their fifth straight win, the Washington Nationals jumped over the dugout rail, some hands raised in the air, and headed to smother Yan Gomes near first base. Just moments before, Gomes had roped a liner down the left field line, good for a walk-off single — and a 1-0 final score — on a Friday night that, until the ninth, wouldn’t bend for any hitter. The Nationals changed that with a leadoff walk for Juan Soto, a full-count single for Ryan Zimmerman while Soto took off for second, then Gomes’s decisive swing, connecting with a 99-mph fastball from New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz, that inched Washington up the National League East standings.
They are now six games behind the first-place Mets. They have three more chances to shave that gap this weekend. The Nationals (31-35) were led by Erick Fedde, their hottest starter, and scratched across a run when it mattered most.
In the Mets, the Nationals have a test and opportunity this weekend
By logging seven frames on 100 pitches, Fedde ran a scoreless-innings streak to 20, going back to May 11. He held the Mets to two hits, their total for the game. Fedde missed close to a month after testing positive for the coronavirus despite being vaccinated. But he rediscovered his groove without a hitch and has been an illustration of the Nationals’ recent success: an unlikely key for a staff that has carried its weight, and then some, while Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Daniel Hudson and Will Harris are sidelined with injuries.
For 5⅓ innings, Fedde traded zeros with Mets starter Joey Lucchesi. For the next 1⅔, Fedde did so with Miguel Castro out of New York’s bullpen. The Nationals struck out in four of their first five at-bats. They stranded the bases loaded in the third — a familiar lapse — when Trea Turner grounded into a rally-killing double play. Then Gomes bounced into a double play to end the fourth. Zimmerman did so to end the sixth.
The Nationals had four hits and nothing to show for it. But the Mets had just the two, because Fedde worked around some early command issues, finding a rhythm with his sinker and a sharp curve. He walked Pete Alonso on four pitches to begin the second. He then walked Mason Williams to begin the third. In the past, those walks turned into spiked pitch counts and damage on the scoreboard. This year, though, or at least in the past month, Fedde has calmed his outings instead of folding under the pressure. And this time, his catcher helped in a lot of ways.
After Williams walked in the third, Lucchesi couldn’t put down a pair of bunt attempts. So Williams tried to steal second, and Gomes threw a rope to the bag, making it so Turner’s glove didn’t move before applying the tag. Two innings later, Luis Guillorme punched a leadoff single and took off running against Fedde and Gomes. But Gomes threw him out from his knees, with Josh Harrison swinging his glove to brush Guillorme a beat ahead of his foot reaching the base.
Thirty-four players have attempted to steal on Gomes this year. He has retired 14 of them, tied for the best rate of his career. But in the seventh, after Zimmerman left the go-ahead run in scoring position, Fedde had to handle a leadoff base runner on his own.
Fedde put Dominic Smith on first with a walk. Lefty Sam Clay warmed in the bullpen, and he kept warming as Alonso flied out to right for the first out. Fedde was at 96 pitches with Billy McKinney, a left-handed batter, stepping in. Manager Dave Martinez had a good matchup with Clay, a sinkerballer who gets a lot of groundballs. Yet Martinez stuck with Fedde and had his faith rewarded.
McKinney chopped out to second, Smith moved up, and Martinez chose to intentionally walk Guillorme. The next batter, catcher Tomás Nido, had struck out twice on Fedde’s curve. And in their third matchup, he stalked a first-pitch curve, one hanging over the middle of the plate, and smacked a grounder at Jordy Mercer. The third baseman caught it, stepped once and fired a throw across the diamond for the out. Fedde smacked his glove, and the crowd noise grew around him.
But the Nationals still needed a run. They still needed Kyle Finnegan to pitch a clean eighth, and Brad Hand to pitch a clean ninth, to set up that run. And when it came, once Gomes ripped that high-and-tight fastball to grass, it was only because of Soto’s and Zimmerman’s at-bats before him. Soto had thought he walked on Díaz’s fifth pitch, a low-and-away slider, but Kerwin Danley called it for strike two. Soto then fouled away a low-and-in slider, then a 100-mph fastball, then flipped his bat once he walked on a borderline slider, staring at Danley.
Next was Zimmerman, the Nationals’ 36-year-old first baseman, who battled to a full count, fouled away an outside slider — a pitch well off the plate — and punched a single through the right side. Gomes was then asked to play hero and did. He made the final push.
Read more on the Nationals:
‘A bit older and smarter,’ former Nats prospect Wil Crowe gets fresh start with Pirates
As baseball confronts ‘sticky stuff,’ Max Scherzer lobbies for players to have a say
Svrluga: The Nats have pieces to move at the trade deadline. Max Scherzer shouldn’t be one of them.